Right after adding Pokertableratings as a partners, it’s probably the right time to go into more depth why game selection and data mining is so important these days.

How to game select like a professional

I´ve already written a bit about this in my posts “How do you make money at poker” and “How big is your edge?”. It is fairly self evident WHY game selecting is crucial to your bottom line. Nevertheless it amazes me again and again how unprofessional many players are when it comes to game selection.

Debate about the ethics of data mining

I have literally no clue why there are ethical debates about data mining or using tracking software at all. Some people say you gain an unfair advantage over the competition. To be more precise, over the amateur, since every pro uses tracking software these days.

In this article I will talk about the topic of staking & selling action from both perspectives.

Staker perspective:

Usually staking is a very good business for the person who is investing. You can have a very high return on investment, often with extremely little risk. Let’s say you can trust player xy and you simply know he won´t scam you and steal your money.  Since we only stake winning players, we can basically sit back and watch the money come in. We don´t care about shortterm losses. The stakee is a winning player and in the long run is going to show a profit. It’s as simple as that.

—–> Staking in theory is a darn good business

In my article “the magic pill” I have warned to watch out for exactly what I am now going to do myself. Since people have such a big desire for the magic pill, I don´t want to be mean. So here we´ll go. Gonna lift the well hidden secret ;).  On a serious note, I have thought about some quick fixes that I think everybody can apply.  I wrote detailed explanations so those quick fixes don´t look like empty catch phrases that you´ve heard a thousand times before.

1) Reraising T3o preflop (1ooBB poker)

If you EVER and I mean EVER reraise T3o or any other hand that has completely 0,0 value, you are either a genius who doesn´t have to care or you DO NOT understand a fundamental concept about poker. And don´t start with some bullshit like “deception value” or whatever smart word you wanna call this. No matter what your image is. I´m going to explain why.

If you´re a loose player, you will have a huge variety of hands anyways and complete crap hands like T3o aren´t going to add any additional value to your range. You might as well play with napkins as they say.

Long time no see! Travelling a lot and in addition to that I haven´t been on my computer at all lately. But a very interesting topic in exchange for the long waiting time.

The magic pill:

Most people are looking for it, hoping it would exist. For that reason various scams will always work. ALWAYS. No matter how much people get educated, it’s always the same method. The super diet… cmon, how often have we seen diets being advertised on TV? Over time people should know better than to spend “only 5 payments of $55.55″ for the latest strawberry diet that even Shakira has supposedly tested!!! I´m sure those diets work in the beginning. Not because of strawberries or Shakira. Not because of the great scientific research and latest technology. They work for the same reason every 30 day challenge seems to become a winner by judging the first 10 days. Motivation. Motivation. Motivation. And a big overweight portion of belief.

(This article is not only about the poker part, but also about some attitudes in life that mirror bumhunting)

The term “bumhunter”

For those of you who haven´t heard of it, a bumhunter is a player that only plays against the weakest competition and avoids playing at all against competition that knows basic poker strategy.

History of “bumhunting”

I remember 3 years ago when I learnt the rules, this is what I was taught. GAME SELECTION, GAME SELECTION and GAME SELECTION. Now in the last few years, due to increased competition, lower winrates and a tougher environment, players started to be more and more aware of where their edges come from (or maybe they HAD TO). This lead to some folks having a zero tolerance strategy about which games they are playing and which not. There were players who didn’t like this and they started calling players who were very professional, disciplined and not ego-motivated, Bumhunters.

In this article I´d like to talk about some aspects where many poker players can save a significant amount of money without great effort. The “without great effort” part is very important and also the “significant”. I´m not going to give you tips on how to save $0.75 when shopping or how to use the latest offer at Walmart to get a 1% discount. I respect your time (and my own 8) ) too much to throw out coupon tips.

Setting up a system that is flexible

By not having an organized and easy financial system, many people lose a lot of money. They don’t recognize it. They lose it in many ways. I assume the “outside of the table stuff” can up the poker winrate of the average midstakes grinder around 1BB. This is a random estimate, but I´ll hopefully be able to show you soon, how much time and money you can save by having some things planned, instead of thinking only short term. Oh, and needless to say, I am not even talking about changing things in your life or anything in that direction. This article is basically about doing things in a smart(er) and more efficient way for doing things that you have to do ANYWAYS. And in …

Religions, concepts, thoughts, ideas, poems, art, fiction, theories in general – I like to think of them as models to describe reality. An even better word in my opinion would be to use the word “approach”.

In this article I will write about different types of poker players, their strengths and weaknesses and how they try to approach the reality of poker.

Approaching a reality

You can approach the reality of music in many different ways. Different researchers in the field of listening typology have described a multitude of different “listening experiences” to music. All of these experiences are one way to explore what the reality “music” is.

Theodor Adorno, a famous German philosopher and music theorist categorized listeners into those categories:

In the beginning of this article I’d like to point out a few aspects in the thinking of many people that I have found to be flawed. In the end I will come up with some practical advice with a few cliché cases. Like most of the time, the article is not only about the headline. So even if you are already a professional poker player, odds are that this article will provide you with some insight.

Introduction:

You can also add this topic to “questions that have been asked a million times in forums, always creating the same discussion with 43252 cliché answers”.

Like in my post about bankroll managment I’d like to introduce an idea that is often overlooked. Overlooked because at first glance it might resemble the attitude of a gambler. The gambler who has no discipline and blindly follows his urge to play as fast and as high as possible.

In a previous article I have stated my opinion on why I think playing MTTs for a living basically sucks. However, this doesn´t mean that playing MTTs has to all be negative. There are several situations where it can be hugely profitable.

1) Adding variety to your game

Learning to see things from a different perspective increases your overall understanding of the game. Learning PLO also increased my understanding of holdem. If not done out of genuine interest, one of course has to ask if it’s worth the extra time to learn a new game. That’s up to you, but learning new things never hurts in my opinion. Learning new, easy AND profitable things is what you should be aiming for. Tournies are one of them. You don´t have to study them like a madman, just put some time in here and there. Learn about restealing, openshoving ranges, nash equilibrium. One book that an SNG pro recommended is this one:

Why playing tournaments professionally is such a terrible choice:

This article is especially about tournaments that take 4+ hours. I´m not talking about 3 table turbos. I´m also not talking about STTs (single table tournies) or smaller SNGs (sit and goes). They have their flaws in my opinion and I will address them in another post. If you happen to play MTTs for a living and if you like your life, keep on doing what you like. I´m the last one who wants to stop people from doing what they love. Don´t be offended. If you do feel offended, think about why.

1) Limited Income

At tournaments you can only improve so much. There is a limit (besides the natural limit/limit of talent). You can only play so many tables and you can only have a certain winrate. 75% ROI for big MTTs long term is around as good as you can get. Of course there might be higher numbers out there, but the 75% ROI is a product of playing the highest stakes in MTTs and playing multi tables.