If I had to recommend an online poker room, it would be PokerStars. Why? Not because of the software, or because of the player volume, but because of the excellent support. Every time I have had an issue with PokerStars I have received prompt, eloquent and informative responses.
Nothing more to say - just a random PokerStars praise entry. Keep up the good work, guys!
A poker player can be one of two types – a pessimistic player, or an optimistic player – and this will effect his reaction to the games he plays.
The pessimist loses a hand. He may have played the hand poorly, but his ego doesn’t let him reflect on the hand and realize this. His first thought after the cards are mucked and the dealer is shuffling, is something like “Again! AGAIN he caught his flush on the river!” The pessimist may have allowed the villain to draw correctly, he may have polarized his hand, or he may have checked a street when he shouldn’t have. Either way, the pessimist lost the hand. Whether it was his fault or not is something he doesn’t consider – in his mind he simply got unlucky.
The optimist reflects on his hand. It may not be during the session or immediately after, but he is critical of his own play and can take his ego out of the equation. The optimist deals in theoretical money – it doesn’t matter if he finishes a session up or down, provided he has made the best possible decisions throughout his session, he can be pleased with his play.
After my Colouring PokerTracker 3 entry, I spent a lot of time discussing HUD layouts with various people. This resulted in my helping a number of people configure their Heads Up Displays. By doing this, I have found that people are commonly unhappy with the lack of information that is available in the default HUD. To help overcome this I have created the following HUD, which people can modify to suit their needs:
In lue of my ‘Life as a poker professional‘ post I’d like to point everybody to the StoxPoker Blog. A number of Internet pokers best players as well as StoxPoker’s psychology coach post here and provide a rather unique insight into the life of a poker professional.
Disclaimer: Although I am biased by working with StoxPoker I do genuinely feel that the blog is one of the better poker blogs on the internet and strongly recommend spending a few minutes flicking through an entry or two.
Although many people assume it will, playing poker for a living doesn’t mean you aren’t still working full time. To do it, and do it well, you’ll need to be putting in similar hours – you’ll just get to choose when you do them. It’s a typical grandiose notion that professional poker will release you from the shackles of the rat race, but you still put in the hours, you still have to be wise with your money and accounts, and you still have to pay taxes. Essentially, you put on a new set of shackles – provided you see normal life as being chained down.
Before you consider playing poker for a living, make sure you really love the game. You may think your job is repetitive now, but multi-tabling poker all day can be just the same. You should also take into consideration what future opportunities you have in your current position – is it really worth giving up a potentially good long-term career for what could possibly be short-term money and freedom?
However, if you have strong self-discipline, and the ability to critique yourself (this is a particularly handy skill for post-flop match reviews), then poker may just be for you.
So you’ve played a few hundred hours of poker online, have an established win-rate over a large number of hands (250,000+), and want to take a shot at becoming an online poker professional? Where do you go from here?
First of all, think about how much money you would be comfortable with having in reserve. Now double it. Having far more money at your disposal than you need not only decreases your risk of ruin, but will help you cope with those inevitable ‘down days’ that much better. You’re not going to profit every day – and if you don’t know this before you start, you should reconsider your decision – and having a large amount of cash in reserve is nothing but a good idea.
Secondly, what are your expectations? How much money do you want to make, and how many hands do you plan to play each month? When you first go from having a 9-5 job to what may start out feeling like an endless weekend, it’s very easy to start slacking off and not playing as often as you should. Have some goals to help keep you focused.
Third of all, what are your pre-session and post-session routines? When you were working you presumably had a routine. Whether it was the drive to work, or a morning coffee, you would have had something which mentally prepared you to work. As a poker professional, having a pre-session routine will help you to mentally prepare to play your absolute A game. A good example of a pre-session routine would be to wake up, have a shower and breakfast, grab yourself a bottle or glass of water and then start locating good tables. Post-session routines aren’t that different – this could be opening a video site, such as StoxPoker or Deucescracked, and watching some videos, or posting hands from the day on TwoPlusTwo. Either way, your post-session routine should help you to close off your day until you start again tomorrow.
ACK! I’m really, really trying to support PokerTracker 3 amidst everybody looking into alternative options but so far I’ve been having problem after problem. To be fair support usually resolves the issue but HoldemManager has the best support in the business combined with what is very rapidly looking like a more reliable product.
I don’t want to jump the gun on this but I’m incredibly frustrated right now… I’ve put hours into making custom statistics and queries for PokerTracker 3 and not being able to get back at those is definitely a deal breaker for me…
I’m now 25 days into becoming a No Limit Hold’em player after playing Limit Hold’em professionally and semi-professionally for almost three years. When I started out, all I had was No Limit Hold’em Tournament experience, and hours upon hours of StoxPoker videos in my head.
Although I don’t have time to log several thousand hands per month, I’ve done quite well for myself. At the end of the day, if there is nothing outstanding for StoxPoker and I don’t have any other commitments for a few hours, I’m generally opening up Telescope, finding 8-10 good tables between NL100-NL200, and grinding it out. Results shown below:
This hand is made more hilarious by the fact that I flopped Quad Jack’s against this player four hands prior to this one.
See the HandHistory in all its glory: http://www.pokerhand.org/?3074005
Seat 1: He11bound (t6120 in chips)
Seat 2: JackDeuce71 (t2495 in chips)
Seat 3: Zakkant (t2920 in chips)
Seat 4: juudas (t3290 in chips)
Seat 5: rema2504 (t2710 in chips)
Seat 6: skelm (t3620 in chips)
Seat 7: jgfg13 (t2660 in chips)
Seat 8: Break D Doub (t7365 in chips)
Seat 9: jewbag_2 (t8330 in chips)
Zakkant: posts small blind 15
juudas: posts big blind 30
Holecards:
Dealt to skelm 
FOLD rema2504
RAISE skelm , t60 to t90
CALL jgfg13, t90
FOLD Break D Doub
FOLD jewbag_2
FOLD He11bound
FOLD JackDeuce71
FOLD Zakkant
RAISE juudas, t120 to t210
RAISE skelm , t300 to t510
FOLD jgfg13
RAISE juudas, t480 to t990
RAISE skelm , t1000 to t1990
RAISE juudas, t1300 to t3290 and is all-in
CALL skelm , t1300
Flop:
Turn:
River:
Showdown:
juudas: shows 
(a full house Aces full of Kings)
skelm : shows (four of a kind Kings)
skelm collected t6685 from pot
SUMMARY:
Total pot t6685 | Rake 0
Board:
Seat 1: He11bound folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 2: JackDeuce71 (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 3: Zakkant (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: juudas (big blind) showed and lost with a full house Aces full of Kings
Seat 5: rema2504 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 6: skelm showed and won (t6685) with four of a kind Kings
Seat 7: jgfg13 folded before Flop
Seat 8: Break D Doub folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 9: jewbag_2 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
For a very, very long time I’ve completely avoided tournaments - Quite an oddity since my first year Poker was spent playing 3-4 live tournaments a night followed by 7-8 online tournaments once I got home.
However! I’ve started playing them again! I’ve played the daily $80k quite regularly and using my FPP’s to enter the Sunday Million and Sunday Warmup each week (something I hope to continue doing).
Best of all I just made my first big placing in a tournament (11th out of 1935 players). Results shown below!
See the HandHistory in all its glory: http://www.pokerhand.org/?3063864
Seat 1: Jesse116 (t2230 in chips)
Seat 2: larrysr1 (t3315 in chips)
Seat 3: nadoaficio (t2310 in chips)
Seat 4: kannschosei (t4875 in chips)
Seat 5: sydens (t2610 in chips)
Seat 7: legrosjac (t1070 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 8: wsiemens (t7125 in chips)
Seat 9: Hero (t1940 in chips)
Holecards:
Dealt to Hero
FOLD nadoaficio
FOLD kannschosei
FOLD sydens
FOLD legrosjac
FOLD wsiemens
RAISE Hero , t375 to t575
FOLD Jesse116
RAISE larrysr1, t2715 to t3290 and is all-in
CALL Hero , t1340 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (t1375) returned to larrysr1
Flop:
Turn:
River:
Showdown:
larrysr1: shows 
(a full house Kings full of Nines)
Hero : shows (four of a kind Kings)
Hero collected t4130 from pot
SUMMARY:
Total pot t4130 | Rake 0
Board:
Seat 1: Jesse116 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: larrysr1 (big blind) showed and lost with a full house Kings full of Nines
Seat 3: nadoaficio folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 4: kannschosei folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 5: sydens folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 7: legrosjac folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 8: wsiemens folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 9: Hero (button) showed and won (t4130) with four of a kind Kings