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If you want to make money at no-limit hold’em, 90% of your job is table selection.
I have known extremely talented players who have never made a cent at this game. I have also known wildly boring players who have purchased million-dollar homes off of poker.
Of course, all of us want to become the best player we can be. However, if we want to make the most money we can, we need to put ourselves in games with bad players. We might not improve much while we’re playing against these players, but our bank accounts and families will sure appreciate the effort.
Table selection doesn’t just require selecting games with bad players. A key feature of table selection is managing yourself at the table.
If you slept nine hours and got a workout in, you can play at a variety of poker tables and succeed. Table selection in that moment becomes much easier. If you’ve been awake for two days straight then table selection is more difficult. It doesn’t matter how weak your opponents are. They’re still likely playing better than you at this moment.
Once you have identified a table with a good rake structure and poor competition, you also have to ask yourself what your edge is. You should be able to list several situations where you’re able to take money off the game. No professional ever walks into a game without knowing what their specific edge is.
Table selection doesn’t stop once the game starts, either. Table dynamics change constantly. A loose recreational player who was hemorrhaging money can quit the game. A talented professional can sit down and take their place to our left.
Again, good table selection also incorporates our own mental state. If we’ve been playing 14 hours, then it is likely our own play is now closer to our mediocre opponents. If we’ve just lost a huge pot or if we are on winner’s tilt, we can also be in a bad place in regards to future profitability.
When we’re playing poker, we need to know dynamics will change constantly. In my experience, there are specific danger zones that occur in any cash session which can change a good table into a losing experience. If we can monitor these dangerous periods and be vigilant about them developing, then we’re far more likely to not develop large losses.
The first dangerous period of any cash session is the first 15 minutes. Have you ever lost a huge pot at the beginning of your session? It makes the rest of the session much more difficult. We’re automatically in a terrible mood. We feel like we’re trying to get out of a hole for the rest of the night.
The reason so many pots can be lost in the first 15 minutes is because we’re not warmed up. We’re hyped up to play cards, sure. We’ve been thinking about it all day. However, these are the first few pots we’re playing, and we’re just waking up our poker mind. We can be more flippant about calling big bets out of position. We feel loose and excited to play, so it’s no big deal. Then out of nowhere we have a mediocre hand on the river in a huge pot and we have no idea how we got there.
The way to avoid this first danger zone is to warm up before you get to the table. Do a couple of poker quizzes on your favorite poker training site. Read a poker book for a few minutes. Get into poker mode before you start slinging chips.
The second common danger zone that comes up in cash sessions has to do with losses. How do you play after losing a buy-in or huge pot? Do you tilt? Do you play tighter? Do you play looser? You want to know the answers to all of these questions. You don’t want to be in a situation where your opponents know the answers to these questions but you don’t.
Some professionals get meaner after they lose a pot. They get tighter and more aggressive. This isn’t optimal, but if you’re going to tilt this is the way to do it.
Some people don’t feel much of anything after losing a big pot. They don’t play differently. This is optimal but rare. This kind of disciplined play arises from good record keeping and solid bankroll management. Using both of those tools in conjunction allows you to see poker as one long session. No single data point is that important.
Some people get pissed after losing a pot and start playing weak hands out of position. This is an excellent way to lose a ton of buy-ins.
After you lose a huge pot, check in with yourself. Are you dying to play hands you would have folded earlier? Are you calling post-flop without thinking? If you are tilting get off the table. Go for a walk. Get out of there now. Losing one buy-in is much better than losing three or four.
Another odd dangerous period in cash game poker is when you win a huge pot. Many players go on winner’s tilt. They feel invincible. They feel nothing can touch them. They start making the same mistakes that the angry, tilting player is making. They call huge bets out of position. They play weak hands preflop. They stop thinking post-flop. They call down believing nothing can stop them. And by then they’ve lost their huge stack.
The final 15 minutes of a session is massively dangerous as well. Many poker players will have a specific time when they’re going to leave the game. In the 15 minutes leading up to this cutoff time, they are likely to force a big pot. It feels like a waste of time to sit there for countless hours and have no result. Poker players want to go big or go home in this pot. They’ll attempt a huge bluff or call down that they wouldn’t have tried earlier in the session.
Debuting an ill-advised new play when already tired is unsurprisingly a recipe for losses. This is how many players detonate what otherwise would have been an unremarkable session. Having 20+ sessions like this a year can have a huge impact on the bottom line.
Finally, another dangerous time in a poker player’s session is when they win a large number of buy-ins or lose several buy-ins. Many people can handle losing or winning one buy-in. They were expecting that when they showed up to play. However, losing or winning a massive amount of buy-ins is a different beast. That doesn’t happen as often. Some people who can handle small swings begin massively tilting when the wins or losses start racking up. It’s insidious. It creeps in slowly through all the accumulated emotion.
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Pay attention to these crucial periods in your next session. They will help you avoid common pitfalls. Pay attention to when you want to start playing weaker preflop hands from early position. Pay attention to when you’re calling down without specific reasoning. These are the first hints that you’re off your game. Wait for a better table and moment by getting away from the felt. â™
Learn how to play A-K when it misses the flop!
Alexander Fitzgerald is a professional poker player and bestselling author who currently lives in Denver, Colorado. He is a WPT and EPT final tablist, and has WCOOP and SCOOP wins online. His most recent win was the $250,000 Guaranteed on America’s Cardroom. He currently enjoys blasting bums away in Ignition tournaments while he listens to death metal. Free training packages of his are provided to new newsletter subscribers who sign up at PokerHeadRush.com
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