Monday, February 1, 2010

BEFORE YOU PLAY ONLINE POKER

In case you’re curious about online poker and want to give it a try, here are my FIVE MUSTS:

I. BANKROLL MANAGEMENT

Discipline is the MOST important thing when it comes to playing poker well. Figure out what your poker bankroll is going to be, and stick to a bankroll management plan. Say your poker bankroll is $1,000. This amount may sound like a lot, but this amount “should” sustain you for the rest of your poker playing days, and is probably not too different from the tons of other entertainment options you spend money on a year (like ball games, pubs, spas, whatever). But you can start with as little as $80.

A Bankroll Management Plan would go something like this:
* Divide your bankroll by 40. That is the highest buy-in you can have. So in our example, a $1000 bankroll would translate into forty $25 buy-ins. This means you can play at the 0.10/0.25 tables. The lowest real money tables are 0.01/0.02.
* when you MAKE 40 buy-ins, you can move up in stakes. In our example, if you make $1000, you can move up to the next level, which is 0.25/0.50
* when you LOSE 20 buy-ins, you MUST MOVE DOWN in stakes. In our example, if you lost $500 (you can even move down earlier if you feel uncomfortable at those stakes or are losing money too quickly), you must move down to 0.05/0.10. There is no shame in moving down. Even the best players have streaks where they lose 20 buy-ins a few times a year.


II. IF YOU’VE PLAYED POKER BEFORE…

Do NOT play online the same stakes you are used to playing live. The highest you should play online is 1/5 of your “normal” live stakes. Online poker players are more fundamentally sound than their live counterparts. So if you play 5/10 at the casino, or your local home game, do not start off playing higher than 1/2 online. Otherwise you will get raped. Trust me. There are tons of “I’m a winning player at 5/10 live, but I can’t beat 1/2 online stories out there.”


III. SIGN UP FOR RAKEBACK

The online casino usually takes 5% of every pot that sees a flop (up to a cap, usually $3) – this fee is called the rake. You can get part of that money back thru a rakeback provider. I use www.raketherake.com and have been very pleased, but there are others out there. In a typical month, I pay $15,000 a month in rake, and get approximately $5,000 back. So it is super-important to get rakeback if you play any kind of volume – there are tons of people who signed up for a poker account thru the poker site directly or thru a bogus affiliate site and get NO rakeback. If you use RakeTheRake, feel free to use me as a referral “DoubleFly” – not a big deal tho if you forget.


IV. GET SOFTWARE

There is a software package called Holdem Manager (or you can use Poker Tracker) that collects all of the hands you’ve played and allows you to analyze your play (as well as your opponents’ play). While this is not “necessary” – there are many high stakes pros who do not use it – I think it’s a great instructional tool for beginners. Check it out after you’ve played a few sessions – there’s a free trial.


V. ENJOY THE GAME

There is no point in playing if you don’t enjoy the game. For this reason, I strongly urge you not to start playing “because you NEED the money.” Because of the nature of poker, you will regularly have people do unbelievably stupid things and win, or have your AA beaten by KK, or other things that could be frustrating. Having good emotional control is one of the keys to playing poker well. Having the added financial pressure of having to do well because you NEED the money is going to exponentially increase the aggravation of downswings.

Poker is a great game and allows you to test your skill against your opponents. There are also tons of variations – different games (holdem, Omaha, stud, etc), different formats (no limit, pot limit, limit, ante no limit, etc) and different structures (multi table tournaments, single table tournaments, full ring cash games, 6 max cash games, and heads-up cash games). There’s something for everyone – so have fun with it.

4 comments:

  1. This is a very good article.
    I wish i'd have read this before i started playing poker.

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  2. Bo knows, i mean Fly knows "Poker" weeeeeee

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