PokerGuru
Royal PCer
Joined: 16 Nov 2005
Posts: 2913
Location: Florida USA
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 Posted:
12.08.2007, 17:39 |
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LESSON: CAN YOU BE AN ONLINE PRO?
In one word....yes. In a few words....You have to follow a proven plan.
Hello, PCers! If you recall, I mentioned a few weeks back that I had completed a three-month experiment to see if it was possible to make a a decent income by playing poker online.
To be honest, I was surprised at the outcome of the experiment. My hypothesis had been "no, not quite". So I was delighted to find that my hypothesis was wrong. IT CAN BE DONE!
In this first lesson to teach you how I did it successfully for a three-month period, I am not going to waste words by offering you a lot of encouragements and relating various personal experiences I had along the way. I am going to stick to nothing but the rules you must follow. Furthermore, the closer you follow these rules, without exception, the more income you will make. I say "without exception" because you simply CANNOT give in to some gut feeling or instinct you might have that would cause you to veer from a rule. The price is not worth giving in to a "feeling" when you have a tried and true fact.
So to start out, I am going to list some of the most important of those rules. You must study them until they become a part of your "second nature" knowledge. And I guess you could count that as rule #1: you must be willing to study and constantly review the lessons and you must be willing to work hard at it.
If you can do that and also put in enough hours playing every night without having to play close to being on tilt, you CAN make a good income. Remember: I did not say it would be easy. However, I did say YOU CAN DO IT!
I am not going to number the rules for 2 reasons: They may not come to my mind in order of importance AND some of them will require more explanation (instruction) than others.
I also conducted this long experiment for 2 reasons: To satisfy my own curiosity AND to just maybe come up with something of great value to offer my poker scholars at PC, who have vowed to keep my personal best secrets among ourselves. It would make no sense at all to tell outsiders exactly how you are going to play to beat them! That is the best way to have the tables turned on you. That is also why the authors of the "How to Win at Poker" books never give away THEIR personal best secrets. They are writing for as large an audience as possible to make money from their book. I am writing for a special group of players with whom I have developed close feelings and would be tickled to death if I should meet them at a table and be beaten by them. That would mean I had done my job well! Believe it or not, I would be more proud than if I had beaten one of my own scholars! If you beat me, my value as a Guru has been established beyond the shadow of a doubt. And after all the challenges you have witnessed me experience, that would be the greatest reward of all for me!
So, my loyal ones, Here we go with the rules. Roll up your sleeves, get out your note-keeping papers, and LEARN, practicing what you learn as you go. (This will take many more than just one lesson, but you can win more from just the very first of them!)
First of all, put all doubts out of your mind about online poker sites cheating or being "fixed". That is no more than a cop-out excuse for losing. These sites simply have NO REASON to cheat! They are going to make the same amount of money from their rakes, no matter who at the table wins! I have tested enough sites to say this with assurance.
That does not mean that all sites give you equal chances of winning. It depends entirely on who the other players are....or more precisely, how good they are. So you have to choose your sites carefully. And once a few have been chosen, (always more than one), then you have to choose your tables and tournaments carefully. If you choose unwisely, you will soon know it because you will find yourself losing. THAT IS THE TIME TO FORGET YOUR EGO or getting back at those who beat you; IT IS THE TIME TO GET UP and move on....the ONLY wise thing to do. If your opponents know more than you, they have you outclassed and you will only lose more by being stubborn and continueing to play against them! They will have respect for your poker knowledge if they see you know enough to get up and search for the right table for YOU!
You MUST play at least half of your time at the tables....you cannot make enough for a liveable income by playing tournies only. In fact, one of the greatest factors in how much you can make depends on how well you learn to play at the tables, called the ring games, or the ring tables.
I recommend the sites who have the most players at any time of the night! Why? Because the biggest percentage of the players will not know as much about the game as you! That translates to playing against more losers!
I also recommend the tables who have the most players, for that reason and many others that we will be getting into. Ten-player tables are best, then 9-player tables, then 6 players. Do not play at any table with fewer than 6 players. Two or three players can always be found sitting at a table. They are sharks....waiting for fish to come along to be eaten for their dinner! Avoid them like the plague!
Play more at night than during the day --- except for weekends when either is okay. On weekdays, you will find players filling the tables who are totally unpredictable....and therefore cannot be beaten consistently. You can contemplate your own theories as to why this is so. Just don't forget that it IS so!
Every night, before you sit down to play, decide how much you can afford to lose that night and still be able to play the next night, when you might be better in general. If you should happen to lose that amount, QUIT IMMEDIATELY and play no more until the next night.
Every night, before you sit down to play, decide how much you would be happy and pleased with yourself to win. When you reach that amount of winnings, QUIT IMMEDIATELY and play no more until the next night. Do NOT get greedy and risk any of it.
To start your new career, begin with No Limit or Pot Limit (Pot Limit is MUCH, MUCH better but harder to find ---- if you find one, grab it, if all other requirements for table can be met! Of course we are talking about Texas Holdem only! Limit games don't allow you to win enough nightly if you are doing it for a living, but is great if you are playing for a hobby.
Also to start your new career, choose a table that will allow you to begin with more than a short stack stake. Start with low limit tables. As you become more familiar with "going to work" at your computer, you can gradually....and I do mean GRADUALLY, move up to higher limit tables. Look at the blinds to choose your table. Pick one where you can feel comfortable starting with a stake that is 100 times the amount of the Blind, but may do so from any position.)">Big Blind. For example, if the Blind, but may do so from any position.)">Big Blind is .50 (fifty cents)....and that is a little high to begin career playing....don't sit down unless you are comfortable risking .50 times 100 or $50. For those who are not so good in math, just move the decimal point two places to the right to determine your perfect stake. Your perfect stake will allow you to win enough and will not allow you to lose too much. Actually, I recommend that unless you have a lot of table experience, start with no more than half that much. Less is fine as well at first.
Choose a chair that is as far as possible to the left of the dealer. You will then have the best chair at the table. It's called "late position" and gives you a chance to see what every other player does before you have to decide what to do. In late position, your hole cards are always worth a little more than the same cards in early position or middle position, and you can bet accordingly. You can tell who the dealer is by where the button is. Or where the letter D is. (The button is a round disk). This is true even if the site shows a "house dealer". The REAL dealer is the one with the button or the D.
I have already given you a guide in an earlier lesson on which cards are good hole cards. But if you are going to do this for a living, or even if you are still a hobby player, you are farther along in your education now....so in one of the closely following lessons, I will give you a more advanced guide of starting hole cards, based on your position at the table. Can't learn all you need to know in just one lesson! But I will do my best to keep them coming at a much faster rate than ever before.
That reminds me......If you have friends who you think would be loyal PC members, this is the perfect time for them to join.....just as I am starting this series of lessons. Also, we are on our way to achieving 1000 members soon if our growth continues! More members means more money coming in from poker sites for prizes for contests! Thus more contests! In fact, I will promise you right now on the spot:
If you bring in another member and let me know by posting, (not just anybody but someone you think WOULD be a good or at least fair member), (deserving to be let in on our secret knowledge that I gained the HARD way), I will award you 1500 PC points for each new member and give each new member 2000 PC points to get them started. I will also do something else, because I think achieving 1000 members together would be a fantastic task! I will make a formal request to Geno that on the day we reach 1000 members, that he increase our monthly budget on the spot! Let me know what you think of those ideas I just had, Pcers. Post your thoughts right here in this thread, along with any comments or questions you have about the lesson.
Now back to this first lesson........
You must fold more than half the hands you are dealt before calling a single bet.....or you will surely lose more than half the hands you play! THIS IS A PROVEN CERTAINTY! So only play your monster hands! After all, you lose NOTHING by folding a hand pre-flop! As I have told you before...... any hand not played is a hand not lost!
But even if you play only your monster hands, you must stick to this rule: If you lose three hands in a row....that's right ---- 3 hands in a row that you play ---- SIT OUT for a few hands. Get up and stretch; wash your face with cold or cool water, after washing your hands and wrists; put eyedrops in your eyes or hold a cold wet cloth to them for a minute or two; comb or brush your hair with cold water; take a new cold non-alcoholic drink back to the table with you, after drinking a glass of cold ice water now! Then go back to the table and odds are you will win the next hand you play!
I think I will stop the lesson at this point because I also want to get a contest posted, read your posts, and answer any questions tonight. I WILL be back tomorrow because I have put a sign on my door that says: My Poker Crushers come first until further notice. SO PLEASE DO NOT DISTURB!
Please study this lesson and be ready for the next.....AND remember.....let's start a drive to reach 1000 members! Rewards for EVERYBODY when we do!!!!!!!
This POKER LESSON has been brought to you with that lovin' feelin' from:
Your PokerGuru |
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