How to be a successful poker pro

After two years on the PokerPlayer team I decided to leave in September 2010 to try to make a living as an online cash game pro. Six months later, life is good. I still love poker, I’m earning more than ever before and having great fun doing it.

However, like any new job there was a difficult settling-in period. I lost money in two of my first three months, found it difficult to establish a working routine and wondered when the next winning session would come.

It took a lot of time and hard work before I learned some helpful short-cuts to consistent results. If you are considering turning pro ­ or even just want to amp your current game up a notch ­ here are eight helpful pointers that I wish someone had told me in advance…

Lesson 1: The aim of the game is winning money

In most jobs you clock in at 9am, leave at 5pm and get paid the same amount each month no matter how you perform. Poker isn’t like that. You work the hours that you want and you get paid exactly how much you win (or lose) at the tables. This meritocracy and lack of structure is the main allure of being a poker pro, yet it can also be a pitfall.

Many poker pros stick to a religious schedule of playing for eight hours a day or aim for a certain number of hands per month and don’t factor in any other considerations. Instead, your working patterns should be dictated by how focused you are and the state of the games online.

Sometimes the only six-max tables running at your stakes will be filled with solid regulars who you may only have a small edge against. Sure, you can sit in these games if you want, but this might be an ideal time instead to watch a training video or even pop out for a coffee until the games get better. You are your own boss ­ take advantage of that.

Flexibility is key when you’re looking for value too. More niche games such as heads-up NLHE and PLO are often filled with fish at the mid-stakes, especially on easier European sites. Make sure you are at least competent in these games so that you can take advantage of these opportunities. You don’t have to be a superstar in any game to win a lot of cash, you just have to be better than the person you are playing against.

Lesson 2: Timing issues

As inconvenient as it is, playing poker during regular working hours is not the most profitable option. The games are filled with fellow pros and the lack of traffic online severely restricts your ability to select good games.

Also, on some of the smaller sites only a handful of tables above $0.50/$1 NL will be running before the evening, which is a big problem if you’re used to multi-tabling cash games. To make the most dollars per hour you need to dedicate a lot of your playing time to the post-Eastenders time slot when amateur fish slink online for a few hours before bed.

From 8pm until around 2am are the golden hours, with traffic at its highest and fish everywhere. This pattern is exaggerated ten-fold at the weekend and these should be the most profitable days of the week for a winning player.

If you’re young, single and carefree then it’s going to be very easy for you to frame your working life around the best playing hours of the day. For those lucky enough to have a significant other though (or heaven forbid, kids!), taking this to the extreme can be very antisocial and unfair. It’s important to find a balance between your poker life and real life that keeps everybody happy.

For example, this may mean playing late nights twice a week and on Sundays, while sticking to a more regular schedule the rest of the week. Gaining the most value at the tables will help you earn money, but there’s no point doing that if your life revolves purely around poker.

Lesson 3:Raking it in

Every serious poker player must have a rakeback deal. Due to variance, the fluctuations in a poker player’s monthly earn can vary wildly, but with rakeback you are always going to have a fixed amount of income coming in.

When you play a lot of poker it can quickly add up to a decent sum too. On average, I play about 35,000 hands per month at stakes ranging from $1/$2 to $5/$10. It may sound like a lot, but when you play day in and day out this represents a very manageable grinding schedule. Whether I win or lose at the tables I’ll be paid between $1,200 and $1,500 each month purely from rakeback (and other bonuses such as rake races). Even if you just break even at the tables that is still a wage you could live on!

Knowing that you’ll be paid a certain amount each month no matter how bad your results is a great comfort when times are tough online. Any type of ‘free’ money such as this must be grasped with both hands, because the games themselves are getting harder. It’s also important to keep an eye out for site-specific giveaways such as reload or first deposit bonuses ­ it’s not tight to take advantage of these, it’s intelligent business.

Lesson 4: To infinity and beyond

To give yourself a chance to win the most cash, you should be aggressive with your bankroll and continually look to take shots at higher stakes games ­ assuming you are playing well, feeling confident and the games look soft.

This is fairly common knowledge, but what you rarely hear is that the games often actually get easier the higher stakes you play. Take the jump from $2/$4 to $5/$10 for example. Outside of the very high stakes ($25/$50 and beyond) $2/$4 games are probably the toughest online, filled with hyper-aggressive pros who don’t make fundamental mistakes.

The $5/$10 games, on the other hand, attract a multitude of rich amateurs looking to gamble without a clue how to play, and a ton of players buying in for just 20-30BB in the hopes of a quick spin-up. Both types of player will usually be stacked pretty quickly. It’s important to keep an eye on the lobby for any of these situations developing and don’t be afraid to jump into a game if it looks good. Buy in for just 50BB if that makes you more comfortable and play as though it’s a tournament by being tight and looking to take advantage of preflop edges.

Even if you are playing lower stakes the same principles apply. A universal sign of a poor player (and one you can easily spot from the lobby) is someone who never rebuys when they drop below 100BB or buys in for a weird amount such as $56.72. Only by taking a chance will you find out if you are good enough to beat the next level.

Lesson 5: Tough enough

Okay, so the vast majority of your poker playing should be focused on grabbing easy money from weak players. However, there are also times when you should embrace playing in games where you are an underdog. If you exclusively hunt out weak players your game will never improve. That can be fine for the time being, but eventually you’ll reach a plateau where you’ll struggle to move up in stakes and will only be able to play when the games are full of fish.

To keep your game sharp it’s vital to sit down at tough tables sometimes and tangle with regulars that you respect. Here you’ll really be forced to concentrate on playing your best, most creative poker. Generally, the games will be more aggressive so you will be pushed to three-bet more in position and find good spots to credibly bluff. Metagame factors will start to become increasingly important too once you build up a long history with the same villains. You can quickly start to use this to your advantage if you take good notes and have a keen memory.

For example, let’s say you got caught bluffing all-in preflop once with a marginal hand. It’s highly likely your opponent will always remember that and be prepared to stack off very light preflop against you, with hands as relatively weak as T-T and A-Q. As such, you should play your monster hands very straightforwardly against them, expecting to be given little credit.

The confidence you’ll gain by beating tougher opponents can be far more important in the long run than any cash value you may be giving up with your poor game selection.

Lesson 6: Embrace the statistics

One of the key reasons for online poker getting tougher is the widespread use of tracking software such as Hold’em Manager (HEM). Such programs help reduce the game to simple mathematical problems that make tough decisions a lot easier, and it’s essential kit for anyone playing seriously. Don’t worry, you don’t have to be a maths geek to reap the benefits. Understanding the mere basics of HEM will still improve your game immeasurably.

The three stats that you must familiarise yourself with are VPIP%, PFR% and 3-bet%. Once you’ve logged a few dozen hands on a player these stats alone should give you a good indication as to whether they are solid, fishy, aggressive or passive. If you have an opponent who has a high VPIP% but low PFR% he’s generally going to be a bad player who loves to call and play a ton of hands. Against these types you should be very wary any time you encounter aggression, as they will usually have a big hand.

Once you start getting into games at $0.50/$1 no-limit and above, the 3-bet% stat takes on even more prominence. For good aggressive players this will be in the range of 8-12%, showing they are reraising with a mix of strong and marginal hands. If there’s a player on your left with a high 3-bet% you have to counter his aggression by four-bet bluffing a lot more and should be willing to stack off preflop much lighter than you usually would.

Lesson 7: Payday

Finally, there’s no point working hard on improving your game if you don’t reward yourself at the end of the day. Assuming you are a winning player, you want to strike a balance between paying yourself a good amount of money while growing your bankroll at the same time. Serious players approach this in all manner of different ways. Some withdraw on a sporadic basis when they ‘need money’, whereas others are very methodical and withdraw the same amount each month as a standard wage, allowing their bankrolls to grow and take shots at larger games.

Everybody is different, and personal circumstances will often dictate how much of your profit you wish or need to withdraw. It’s important to remember though that it usually takes around a week for funds to clear from an online site into your bank and also that some sites charge a currency conversion fee that quickly adds up if you are making frequent withdrawals.

For these reasons, I like to be organised and withdraw just once at the end of each month. As my main game is still $1/$2 I always retain $10,000 online and pay myself any excess above that. Having 50 buy-ins means I shouldn’t ever go broke.