For A Better Tomorrow

I was talking to my bro about making money in poker earlier tonight and I thought this would be an interesting topic to discuss in the blog. I think one of the biggest mistakes players make is trying to be “the best”. Sometimes… The reason I say sometimes is because obviously, wanting to be the best is the first step to become “the best”. I think it’s important to first make your life comfortable. For example: if I’m starting out in the film industry, I’m not going to try to be “the best” film director immediately. I’m going to write some scripts, and make some shitty movies to try to make money. I’m going to figure out a way to establish myself before I go on and try to be “the best”. Being the best poker player in the end is all about passion - not about money. Why does Daniel Negreanu continue to play tournaments? Or how about Doyle Brunson? They’re already rich, so why play? It’s to be the best.

However, when you’re playing to make money, you have to do things differently. Making money in poker is pretty much like establishing yourself. I think one of the best examples about this is table selections. If you sit down at a table and find out that everybody is tight-aggressive, do you want to continue playing? Well, if you’re just there to “make money”, then you should leave. But if you’re there to try to be the best, then you would stay and figure out how to out maneuver these players. This same concept comes into play when you find yourself in a situation where you have to avoid certain players at the table. Here’s another example:

1) There’s a guy stealing the blinds constantly, are you going to fight back? or are you going to move to another table?

2) You’re stealing the blinds constantly and it’s worked many times, but now you run into a guy who constantly 3 bets you from the blinds. Do you move to a table where that guy does not have position on you? or do you find a spot to 4 bet him light?

A player just trying to make money and a player trying to be the best will have a different answers to these questions. I think that’s one of the reasons why I am in love with this game. It has many deep philosophical situations. This is something I am always thinking about. My brother was asking about about 3-betting with JJ in position against an early position raiser in a full ring game, I told him that that would not be profitable. I understand what he’s going through though as I have gone through the same situation. We make these kinds of plays in tournaments, but sadly in FR cash games, you have to consider your original goal: Making Money. So if you’re currently playing poker, always keep in mind why you’re doing it. Is it for the money? or is it to be the best? Or both? Obviously, how much money you have in your bank account is dependent on that. For now, I’m in it for the money, but there’s a side of me of wanting to be the best as well. One thing is for certain, I want to establish myself first, and then I’ll think about whether or not I want to be “one of the best”.

“Create something that you are interested in, no matter how seemingly petty, for it cannot be unimportant if it interests your heart.” - Jet Li

Okay, some great news here. There has been an enormous amount of fish on Full Tilt lately. I’m certain that it’s due to the new payment methods on FTP and Pokerstars. In fact, since the legislation and Neteller, there have been some slow down time in the poker world. And because of that, I feel like there are more fishes than ever! I totally doubt that is true but it’s just how it feels lately. I hope that it’ll stay this way for awhile because the past couple of months has been pretty tough. I knew that I was playing against more of the regulars in the game so my winrate was slightly going down. This month, I can feel that there is more money flowing on these softwares. There definitely has to be more dead money. Just a few nights ago, I was doing my usual 8 tabling and found 2-3 players at each of my table with a +30 vpip. And there were some that had vpips of 55 and and 65! Maybe it was just a gold week but we’ll see. I know one thing is for certain, the regulars should probably see an increase in their winrate this month if the games continue to be this way.
I have not been playing tournaments lately and I am really disappointed by that. I’m going to get back into the groove starting this week and hope to knock down some donkaments. I am looking forward to this month as I hope I can come out pretty strong. Wish me luck!