High Stakes Tournaments Dave Roemer 5 months ago in MTT Many players reading this article will have ample experience in micro and low stakes tournaments online, but little (or no) experience in more high stakes tournaments. Are the bigger games that are consistently running in vegas like $10/20 and above much harder than say $5/10? I know at lower stakes win rates of 10+ bb an hour are possible, but what win rate would be realistic for these higher stakes games? The Venetian poker room proves you can have the glitz and the low stakes poker all in one place. At the Venetian, you have two options: Texas hold ‘em or Omaha poker. Hold ‘em has $1/$3 stakes for the low stakes player and much higher stakes for those looking to play for more. What are the advantages and disadvantages of multitabling lower stakes and single or double tabling higher stake rooms? Personally, I feel i would find more enjoyment out of playing fewer tables at higher stakes and thinking more deeply about the hands rather than auto-piloting 16 tables of 50nl, but is one inherently easier or more profitable? On the other side of the spectrum, players who enjoy low stakes games are called low rollers. Let’s take a look at a simple example. All top-rated online casinos offer a range blackjack games with both high and low stake options. In low stakes blackjack, you might find that at minimum bet is around 1 to 5 coins.

One of the keys to becoming a winning player for all your poker games is mastering your given stakes. You need to know the common tendencies of opponents at your limits in order to win consistently.

Assuming you can master the stakes you’re playing, then you may feel confident in moving up. But the learning process will likely begin all over again once you move up to tougher competition.

That said, you could feel like you’re worlds apart from high stakes players. You might also ignore their strategies under the belief that they don’t apply to you.

The truth, though, is that anybody can learn from elite pros that play through online poker sites and offline games, too. This is especially true regarding the general ways that high stakes grinders approach the game, which is covered below.

Higher Level of Thinking

High stakes poker players don’t get where they are by thinking like everybody else. Instead, they take their critical thinking skills to a new level.

The most basic level of poker thinking is purely gambling. At this point, you have very little concept of what cards to play in each situation or what your opponent may hold. You’ll likely cling to movie clichés that bluffing and staring down your opponent are keys to winning.

The next level is considering your cards and how to properly play them. For example, you may hold pocket jacks and understand that this is a good hand that should be played in most situations.

From here, you should advance to the point where you’re considering what your opponents have. It’s not just enough to have good cards. You need better hands than the other players at the table, too.

These skills don’t apply to all levels of poker. For example, most players at $0.01/$0.02 don’t really think much beyond their cards.

They don’t even worry about what the opponent thinks they have. Instead, the best micro stakes players see pocket sevens and are willing to bet anything to see the flop.

Nevertheless, you can still take a cue from the multi-level thinking that high stakes players employ. Advanced thinking will especially do you good when moving up the stakes.

The key is to really define how your opponents think at certain limits. You’ll need to adjust your profile of opponents as you increase limits and run into better players.

Fewer Mistakes

Another thing that players who reach the top of poker do is eliminate their leaks. Like anybody else, they can still make mistakes. But most high stakes grinders have really minimized how often their C-game surfaces.

These players realize that mistakes go deeper than just making a bad river call. They’re excellent at minimizing the amount of money they lose in a tough situation.

Here’s a comparison between how a non-skilled amateur and high stakes player might handle the same situation:

• Blinds are $50/$100.
• The amateur opens the pot to $350, and they attract one caller.
• The pot is now at $850.
• A dry flop comes out: 3c-4d-9s.
• The amateur makes a $500 c-bet, while their opponent check-raises.
• The amateur has lost $850 overall.
• Meanwhile, the pro opens the pot at $200, and they get one caller.
• The pot is now at $550.
• The pro makes a $325 c-bet on the same flop, and their opponent check-raises.
• They fold and have lost $525 overall.
• By controlling the pot size, the pro has lost $325 less than the amateur.

Many low-stakes players would become frustrated over how much money they’d lose in this scenario. However, they wouldn’t spend much time thinking about how to play the situation better and minimize their losses.

Top-tier players, on the other hand, spend lots of time on post-session analysis and considering how they can do well in tough spots. Eventually, they find ways to fix their leaks and lose less money when they’re beat.

Stellar Bankroll Management

Some of the stakes that poker pros play are absolutely dizzying. For example, the Aria nosebleeds can feature blinds as high as $3,000/$6,000.

Those who play at these stakes, or even “just” $50/$100, are usually where they’re at because of great bankroll management. They know how to avoid taking too much risk in a single cash game.

A good guideline for online poker bankroll management involves having 25 to 30 buy-ins for a given level. Meanwhile, tournament players should have anywhere from 75 to 150 buy-ins for their given limits.

The reason for the wider disparity among tournament players is that the variance can be bigger from one event to another. A regular format with 5,000 players will feature far more variance than a double-or-nothing tourney.

Of course, you may have heard of pros who are absolutely terrible at managing their bankrolls. These players are backed by somebody, because they’ve lost the ability to play their usual stakes due to poor money decisions.

Online Poker Low Stakes Vs High Stakes Games

However, these grinders need good bankroll management at some point to reach a higher level. Long story short, money management is one of the greatest skills you can have in poker.

The Mindset to Move Up

One of the most overlooked aspects of reaching the nosebleeds is having the mindset to increase stakes. Many players dream of making big poker profits, but they don’t have the courage to take the next step.

I’m not saying this to bash anybody who enjoys playing $0.25/$0.50 NL holdem day in and day out. But those who want to make serious money from poker need to advance.

The problem, though, is that you may try to move up in limits and fail. For example, you might find that $1/$2 stakes are too tough compared to $0.50/$1 games.

You may ultimately become convinced that you’re not capable of beating anything higher than your current limits. But the truth is, you can eventually move up if you keep trying.

One thing to consider here is that players at the limits immediately above you aren’t that much better. Therefore, you don’t need to over-adjust your game just to fit in at the next level.

You may also simply need to tweak your approach. For example, Dan “Jungleman” Cates continued failing to move beyond $0.25/$0.50 NLHE early in his career.

He eventually got a job at McDonald’s just to keep rebuilding his bankroll, only to fail again and again. It wasn’t until Cates began using reverse game selection, where one seeks tougher competition at their given levels to improve, that he mastered these limits and moved up.

Low Stakes Online Poker

Cates is now a multimillionaire and one of the world’s best poker players. He’s an excellent example of how you can eventually move past your giving limits and even much higher with enough perseverance.

This idea contradicts everything I discussed before on bankroll management. But many professional players get to where they are by taking at least one shot at some point.

Of course, you should look for a good situation before immediately jumping into a table at higher stakes. You may, for instance, use poker software to help identify a fish in the lobby and try to take advantage of them.

You’ll still be relying on luck to some degree, because you can easily run bad and lose lots of money. But think about taking a shot if you’re feeling confident and really want to move up.

Conclusion

You might not benefit greatly by studying how gamblers playing high stakes poker handle individual hands. After all, they use complex thinking that may not apply to your current stakes.

But you can still learn a lot from the way elite grinders approach the game. More than anything, their philosophy can help you become a better player.

Most of these pros are really good at managing their bankrolls. They’re able to increase their limits and stay at the top by making smart money decisions.

The game’s best got to where they are by wanting more. Most tried and failed numerous times along the way. The key, though, is that they kept trying, because they wanted to reach the highest limits.

High stakes pros are also really good at thinking through hands. Their advanced knowledge has served them well at the bigger stakes.

Again, this complex thought process may not apply directly to your stakes. But you should definitely keep this mindset as you begin moving to bigger limits.

If there’s one thing that you can take from a high stakes pro, it’s ambition. The more ambitious you are, the higher your chances are of one day making serious money through poker.

Small stakes cash games — whether live or online — can be profitable, but only if you're able to avoid the following much too commonly made mistakes.

Mistake #1: Fancy Play Syndrome

Fancy play syndrome is trying to pull too many moves on a simple-minded opponent. Let's be honest, when you are playing $1/$2 at the local casino or $0.05/$0.10 blinds online, your competition is not always world class. In fact, a lot of the time, they are either total beginners or just one step removed from that.

When you make that four-bet bluff preflop with ace-rag in order to 'merge your range,' this is going to go completely over their head most of the time. They will just call you down with their pair of tens and you will often lose to a superior hand. The same thing goes for trying to run big, creative bluffs after the flop against low limit players.

Often you have very little history with these players and your 10th-level thinking is just going to be completely lost on them. There are opportunities to make plays here and there in small stakes cash games, but by and large success comes from just playing by the book.

Mistake #2: Short-Term Thinking

One of the classic mistakes that players at the micros make is thinking too much about the short term, and forgetting the long term. Your aces got cracked three times in a row? Aces must be a terrible hand. We better just limp and play a small pot next time! Ran into a higher flush a few times lately? Small flushes must be a terrible hand. We better play it more cautiously next time!

I hope you can see the egregious mistakes in thinking here. Aces are obviously a great hand and will be a massive long term winner for you — your biggest winning hand, in fact — which is why you should always play them strongly. Flushes also make us a lot of money and should also be played strongly.

The mistake here is getting too wrapped up in the short term. Crazy stuff is going to happen in this game over small sample sizes. Don't let it cloud your thinking and alter your better judgment.

Mistake #3: Slow Playing and Under-Betting

Most players in small stakes cash games are passive. This means that a lot of the time — unless you happen to cooler them massively — the only way that you are going to win a big pot against them is if you build it.

Checking your two pair on the flop and turn to get 'tricky,' or betting 30% of the pot in such spots to keep from 'scaring them off,' are not effective ways to build a pot. Another key hallmark of small stakes players is that they like to call a lot if they have something that they consider good, giving you all the more reason not to check or bet small with your two-pair hands.

Just because you bet big with your big hand and they folded a couple times in a row, that doesn't mean that slow playing and/or under-betting the pot are superior plays. (Once again, this would be an example of letting short-term thinking overwhelm your thought process.)

The key thing that you need to realize is that while small stakes players are passive and they love to call, they still have to have something to do so. Most of the time in this game nobody has anything at all. Don't make the mistake of blaming your aggressive actions on players folding to your bets.

If you bet big with your good hands, you will simply win bigger pots at these stakes. If they fold, it was because they didn't have anything. Getting trappy or under-betting the pot is not going to solve that for them. Make sure that you are always making effective value bets at the lower stakes and you will profit the most.

Micro Stakes Poker

Mistake #4: Overvaluing Top-Pair Hands

A big mistake a lot of people make at the lower stakes is overvaluing their top-pair hands. Top pair is a fantastic hand in limit hold'em, but in NLHE when the pot gets significantly big, it is often the case that somebody has two pair or better.

Since we know small stakes players are typically passive, you want to look out when they start raising you in a big way, especially on the 'big money' streets (the turn and the river). This means that they want to play a big pot.

Small Stakes Poker

Trust me, the large majority of the time, they aren't bluffing. They are trying to take you to value town instead. Versus the tight regulars at these stakes in particular, it is important to respect their aggression in spots like this. If you can learn to throw away top pair in these situations from time to time, it will save you a lot of money in the long run.

Mistake #5: Getting Tilted by the Weaker Players

Bad players are going to give you more bad beats than anyone else. This is because they like to chase every draw, stick around with every bottom pair, and sometimes even stay in hands with nothing at all. At the small stakes there are more bad players than at any other limits. So it is very important that you learn how to deal with bad beats.

Simply accept that bad beats are a part of the game. If the weaker players could not get lucky once in a while, then they would not keep coming back again and again. Then the game would cease to be as profitable.

Note also that qualifier, though — they get lucky 'once in a while.' We tend to have mass amnesia about all of the times that they miss their ridiculous draw and we win a nice-sized pot off of them. And we make a huge deal out of the couple of times when they hit something silly and scoop the pot.

Once again this is another form of short-term thinking. The bottom line is that the weaker players are often fighting a huge uphill battle versus the fundamental mathematics of the game. They cannot win in the long run when playing the way they do.

Final Thoughts

It doesn't take some kind of super genius to beat small stakes cash games. These games are still by and large relatively easy and chock full of bad players and weaker regs even in 2016. The biggest reasons why most people do not achieve success in these games are they shoot themselves in the foot with fancy plays, they focus too much on the short run, and they are too easily tilted by the weaker players.

High Stakes Poker 2017

One of the biggest keys to success at the lower stakes is really just to stick to the basics and not overthink things so much. Hopefully a few of the tips in this article will help keep you on that path.

Nathan 'BlackRain79' Williams is the author of the popular micro stakes strategy books Crushing the Microstakes and Modern Small Stakes. He also blogs regularly about all things related to the micros over at www.blackrain79.com.

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