Anyone here play poker?

[Gerbs]

I know a friend who flies to L.A to full time 10/20, told me game was great there. I tend to play at Hardrock, I find riverrock the player is ether solid or super nit. Still working my way up hopefully play 2/5 in a year or so.

Any books suggestions or good reads?

[nma]

Originally Posted by Gerbs

I know a friend who flies to L.A to full time 10/20, told me game was great there. I tend to play at Hardrock, I find riverrock the player is ether solid or super nit. Still working my way up hopefully play 2/5 in a year or so.

Any books suggestions or good reads?

haven't read a single book in my career. I've surrounded my self with good players and we exchange ideas. Other than that it just takes practice. I had several subscriptions to various sites.. I still have one for runitonce.com but it costs 100usd a month, and it's only valuable if you're on that level.

LA is great.. I just hate living out of a suitcase for extended periods on time.. It gets old really fast. That's why I decided that this isn't something I would like to do as a career in the future.
Playing in Macau / LA / and generally following the events around is really fun and exciting at first, but for me it got boring and I missed home. It's also really tough if you're in a relationship, which I am.
Playing live games in Vancouver can still generate you a decent income, but I like to do things to the best of my ability, and knowing I can profit more somewhere else kind of bothers me. As for online games,
I think those are going to keep getting worse, and I don't want to invest a bunch of time in to becoming good enough to beat the higher stakes, only to not be able to play a few years down the road.

[XplicitLuder]

i play a bit on pokerstars through my phone or comp but for some reason i could never buy real $$ to play lol it kept saying my gender was female...when clearly... nvm.. lol so bought like 10$ fake chips and just play that once in a while but nothing crazy like you guys. Used to love playing with friends but mine rarely do and theres not many out there. poker night at flips

[Gerbs]

Yeah I just started playing when i turned 19 since a couple of my older friends play for a living.. Do you know the average $/hr at 2/5 and 5/10 for a winning player? Running real hot atm at 1/2 since I had help table selecting hard. Waiting for the downswing.

[nma]

Originally Posted by Gerbs

Yeah I just started playing when i turned 19 since a couple of my older friends play for a living.. Do you know the average $/hr at 2/5 and 5/10 for a winning player? Running real hot atm at 1/2 since I had help table selecting hard. Waiting for the downswing.

it really depends on your skill level, how good the games are, how deep the games are, etc...

RR 2/5 is pretty deep and these days a lot of people buy in for 1k+ and really don't know how to play deep.. This skyrockets your win rate if you know how to properly exploit your opponents.. I think the cap at 2/5 is like $70-100/hr, and when 5/10 runs it's much higher since it's 1k-5k.. Those are rare now though, and only run if there's a reason.

RR 2/5 is like LA 5/10, in terms of buyin similarities... 5/10 at RR is slightly smaller than 10/20 elsewhere. Just camp and wait for the rich Asians to come in! Hahaha.. but if you're good you can abuse all the regs and make money off them too.. Honestly you can probably teach a monkey to beat 2/5, it's pretty simple.

To be successful in poker you need to have strong logic, unbiased decision making / perspectives, patience (especially for live poker), and discipline (bank roll management, work hours, etc..) Master all those and you can crush like 95% of live games

[chipmunk604]

I used to be a weekend warrior at boulevard playing 1/2 since i lived 5 mins away. I am not that good, but good enough to beat mediocre players to be a winning player. I am still learning and improving as i play through experience. i play because i love the game and see it as a hobby.

Boulevard used to be my winning casino and now that it has changed to hard rock, it feels different. Every time i walk in there, all i see is all regs. (the poker room moved and they reduced 2 tables to 10 total now) Recently, i've been making the drive to river rock as i find their games more juicy and more action.

anyone hit any bad beat jackpot? table share or winner or loser?

[Verdasco]

Originally Posted by nma

I've played poker for a living for 2 years.. Travelled quite a bit, played private games, etc...

It's a complicated game and I've spent quite a bit of time studying it. Live games are still easy to beat, online is drying up.

I'm still pretty young so I just did it for a cool experience. I still play quite a bit but I'm in the midst of starting my career (I graduated school just under a year ago).

I play the RR 2/5 pretty often, and bigger if it runs.. kinda rare nowadays.

Private games are kinda tough to get in to, they are also pretty big. I've ran pretty bad in them in the last bit, so I'm currently just sticking to the casino.. Nice and easy! Variance is a bitch, no matter how good you are, playing high stakes and shot taking is pretty much like a lottery. I played some dude heads up, who was clicking buttons at 50/100 NL, and I couldn't win a dime. The way you beat this game and make actual money is through consistency and discipline.

damn, 50/100 NL, u headsup boss online or what?


if you guys want free content, go to twitch and watch pro player stream

[Gerbs]

I normally just browse 2p2 and look up old content.
What mtt do you play to run up 40k/yr on pokerstars?
@chipmunk I always find hardrock the softest especially with all the regs at 1/2 only like 3 or 4 of them are solid. rest are pretty much abc poker

@nma holy crap 2/5 makes that much I was only thinking about 35 to 70 tops

[Verdasco]

i personally play mid stakes deep stack tournies but I find myself better in turbos compared to an ABC player. Live tournies are easy too, no one is good in those $60 early birds. no one.

[Gerbs]

Originally Posted by Verdasco

i personally play mid stakes deep stack tournies but I find myself better in turbos compared to an ABC player. Live tournies are easy too, no one is good in those $60 early birds. no one.

brother told me those tourneys that are 40 - 60 bucks are super high variance cause blinds increase every 15 minutes. Ill probably try it out though since its super soft.

Do you only play online tourneys? Do you play live cash games.

[Verdasco]

Originally Posted by Gerbs

brother told me those tourneys that are 40 - 60 bucks are super high variance cause blinds increase every 15 minutes. Ill probably try it out though since its super soft.

Do you only play online tourneys? Do you play live cash games.

i said the same on the first page, very high variance but super easy. not worth the time but those are the only ones we get daily compared to LA / Florida

I don't play cash games, find it very boring. Especially live. To each their own I guess.

[nma]

Originally Posted by Verdasco

damn, 50/100 NL, u headsup boss online or what?


if you guys want free content, go to twitch and watch pro player stream

No. Was playing at Riverrock during a wsopc event. Our 10/25 game broke and some guy wanted to play heads up so we played till the AM lol..

Yeah the win rate is only higher because of the deepstack play..

[Vale46Rossi]

I cant play poker online, I get distracted and start doing stupid shit.


From what my friends have told me, if you can beat 1/2 in Vancouver you can beat 5/10 in most places, Vancouver is very tough for poker.

I crushed Macau's game for 2 weeks straight last year and I was playing $50/100HKD

A lot of it had to do with, dont think about it being big big money and being scared to call someone down as it costs $200-400 canadian, once you get past that step and you know how to play you should be in a really good position.

[nma]

Originally Posted by Vale46Rossi

I cant play poker online, I get distracted and start doing stupid shit.


From what my friends have told me, if you can beat 1/2 in Vancouver you can beat 5/10 in most places, Vancouver is very tough for poker.

I crushed Macau's game for 2 weeks straight last year and I was playing $50/100HKD

A lot of it had to do with, dont think about it being big big money and being scared to call someone down as it costs $200-400 canadian, once you get past that step and you know how to play you should be in a really good position.

none of what you said is true.. you probably ran well in macau lol and your last suggestion is super general and doesn't make much sense. I would never use beating 1/2 as a basis for playing 5/10 elsewhere... There is much more that goes in to playing poker, especially moving up stakes. You don't seem properly rolled if you're thinking about "calling down just because it's $200-300". When I play I don't even care what the amount is, if I'm playing the game, I'm properly rolled and my goal is just to win. You can't have things like that make your decisions biased, as it's going to punish your winrate in the long/short run

Vancouver games are really soft. Whoever thinks they are hard are either used to just playing a bunch of whales, or are unable to find player's weaknesses and properly exploit them.
In Vancouver you can literally play any 2 cards and not get punished. People play their hands really face up a good portion of the time, and literally almost never 3bet / 4bet bluff.
Put deep stacks in to play at 2/5 and you can just run anyone over.

[Gerbs]

[QUOTE=Vale46Rossi;8594264]I cant play poker online, I get distracted and start doing stupid shit.


From what my friends have told me, if you can beat 1/2 in Vancouver you can beat 5/10 in most places, Vancouver is very tough for poker.
/QUOTE]

Yeah I heard Montreal and Vancouver have the most solid players for live poker. There's a reg at hardrock who won the sunday million and sunday warmup in the same month

[Verdasco]

montreal for sure have better players....

[Vale46Rossi]

Originally Posted by nma

none of what you said is true.. you probably ran well in macau lol and your last suggestion is super general and doesn't make much sense. I would never use beating 1/2 as a basis for playing 5/10 elsewhere... There is much more that goes in to playing poker, especially moving up stakes. You don't seem properly rolled if you're thinking about "calling down just because it's $200-300". When I play I don't even care what the amount is, if I'm playing the game, I'm properly rolled and my goal is just to win. You can't have things like that make your decisions biased, as it's going to punish your winrate in the long/short run

Vancouver games are really soft. Whoever thinks they are hard are either used to just playing a bunch of whales, or are unable to find player's weaknesses and properly exploit them.
In Vancouver you can literally play any 2 cards and not get punished. People play their hands really face up a good portion of the time, and literally almost never 3bet / 4bet bluff.
Put deep stacks in to play at 2/5 and you can just run anyone over.

Actually no, it had a lot to do with how I am used to playing 1/2 and 2/5 here, its a lot different atmosphere in Macau as starting there is minimum 25/50 which is $3.5/7 and those games dont usually run and their common game is 50/100 which is a lot bigger than I am used to, I have the bankroll no problem as I have saved up from poker for many years and I am a winning player but I am just so used to 1/2 raise with premium is around $15-20 UTG or something like that, so it's very hard to wrap my head around it.

But once I get used to it its a lot easier to swallow.


Vancouver and Montreal is extremely tough, and if you think Vancouver is a soft game you need to go out there and play more.

[Gerbs]

Originally Posted by Vale46Rossi

Vancouver and Montreal is extremely tough, and if you think Vancouver is a soft game you need to go out there and play more.

I find 1/2 pretty soft in Vancouver compared to online. I do a lot of studying on poker though. Can't wait to hit 21 and play in states more tables so you can table select harder.

[Vale46Rossi]

Originally Posted by Gerbs

I find 1/2 pretty soft in Vancouver compared to online. I do a lot of studying on poker though. Can't wait to hit 21 and play in states more tables so you can table select harder.

If you compare it to online for sure, as online is a completely different animal.

I dont know many that can beat online.

[nma]

Originally Posted by Vale46Rossi

Actually no, it had a lot to do with how I am used to playing 1/2 and 2/5 here, its a lot different atmosphere in Macau as starting there is minimum 25/50 which is $3.5/7 and those games dont usually run and their common game is 50/100 which is a lot bigger than I am used to, I have the bankroll no problem as I have saved up from poker for many years and I am a winning player but I am just so used to 1/2 raise with premium is around $15-20 UTG or something like that, so it's very hard to wrap my head around it.

But once I get used to it its a lot easier to swallow.


Vancouver and Montreal is extremely tough, and if you think Vancouver is a soft game you need to go out there and play more.

I've played poker in quite a few diff places. I was in Macau in October grinding 100/200 for a month. Anything higher wasnt really worth the variance with all the geniuses. Trust me. Vancouver poker is pretty soft.

Its likely we have different definitions of tough poker. This has been my career for over two years so I may have a different perspective.

I'm not gonna discuss strategy or anything here though. For me soft games = super weak passive players. That's what vancouver is. There's no head ache and every decision is relatively easy to make. I haven't played at hardrock or anything.. My opinion comes mainly from grinding at RR and edge

[Gerbs]

What bankroll do you suggest before moving up to stakes? 30 Buyins?

[nma]

Depends how deep you want to buy in... I think 2/5 here is pretty low variance like 70% of the time. The variance goes higher the more "crazy action players" sit down, as you're forced to make tougher decisions a lot more often. If you buy in for $500 I think 5-10k is plenty enough.. If you're buying in for 1k+ I would suggest 10k+

I don't know how you play or your skill level though, so take my suggestion with a grain of salt. If you need some help with hand histories we can maybe start discussions here. That's what helped me the most. You pretty much want as many opinions as possible, but obviously from people who have somewhat of a clue as to what they are doing.

[Gerbs]

What kind of player are you? When I move up to 2/5 I probably want to buy in for a low amount then move up slowly as I get comfortable.

[nma]

If you have any specific questions I can try to help answer them. I generally play exploitatively. As in I just target players weaknesses.. Not sure how much poker theory you know but playing game theory in live poker isn't that profitable in soft games. Most of the profit comes from exploiting the shit out of weak opponents. Whether that means folding super good hands that you should call in game theory sense or vice versa. However its good to have a solid handle on both concepts because you're going up against a variety of opponents and will need to adjust accordingly each time

[Verdasco]

First time playing bovada. Someone open shoves 23bb with 85o beats my KK. Bovada confirmed rigged