I play high stakes poker AMA (1 Viewer)

[Bmeister51]

I also play in a pretty small network of people both in home games and the casino (PLO player pool of regulars is not huge), do you feel that because you all know each other pretty well and have so much history that when a new player joins the game they are at a big disadvantage?

Conversely, when you play in other games, other casinos do you play at lower stakes to avoid playing with a bunch of players that all know each other very well? Do you feel you are at a disadvantage if you sit in a game with a bunch of players that have a ton of history with each other?

When a new player comes to play in our game that we don’t recognize there’s definitely a disadvantage for that player. Not because we are playing cooperatively or anything like that but they just don’t have the same understanding of the game and history that we all do and usually that player gets beat. Also usually the player that’s new is taking a shot at a higher level and generally is an of the same skill set as most of us.

I probably have the same disadvantage when playing higher stakes at different casinos but the difference is that I know how to handle myself at that level so I’m at less of disadvantage because I have experience playing at those stakes.

And I don’t shy away from playing higher stakes elsewhere actually rather enjoy it. I haven’t played 1020 anywhere other than Vegas but in some 510 games that I’ve been able to get into any other casinos I’ve done extremely well because players that are regulars and those games will come after me and not know that I have a high skill level.

In some instances I’ll even play the sucker to get better action from those kinds of players.

 

[Bmeister51]

Do you have kids? 20 hours of poker weekly on top of owning a business is a lot.

Never married no kids not yet anyways…

I make my hours work for me and I’m always playing during the weekends mostly. Very rarely will I get a weekday session in but there’s some seasonality to my business so I never not able to work as long as I have my cell phone on me.

 

[Bmeister51]

I watch LATB a lot what's his name?

I can’t give out his name for privacy reasons but as I mentioned before I will try and post a link if it airs. I think that’ll happen in January.

He’s not a regular on the show and this will be the first time he’s ever played there.

 

[Chipandchair]

Please elaborate on how you play the sucker.

 

[zo121179]

This has been a good read, thanks.

 

[toynoob]

I hope it's Nordy hahaha but that's unlikely

What about Destin?

 

[toynoob]

I can’t give out his name for privacy reasons but as I mentioned before I will try and post a link if it airs. I think that’ll happen in January.

He’s not a regular on the show and this will be the first time he’s ever played there.

Sorry when I asked this I hadn't read as far as I needed to read your response.

 

[Bmeister51]

This has been a good read, thanks.

My pleasure if you have any questions ask away!

 

[Bmeister51]

Please elaborate on how you play the sucker.

I’ll sit down and pretend to be nervous or I’ll try and look tight… Maybe play very sparingly in the first couple of Orbitz. There’s a bunch of different ways to do it but it depends on the table and my read of the vibe.

Sometimes I’ll sit down and if everybody there is yukking it up and having some cocktails I’ll order a water. Little things like that just to kind of throw them off the scent. I won’t do any fancy chip tricks or shuffling. Won’t lead on that I know what I’m doing or maybe I’ll accidentally flip over my hand when I fold and act embarrassed. Lol it’s funny when I smash one of the regs in a big pot. It’s not cheating or anything like that but it’s just a way to work an edge.

 

[StewbieDoo]

Are there any long term poker goals you are working toward?

 

[Bmeister51]

Perfect example here:

I was in West Palm Beach for work and got done with what I needed to do early. I went over to the West Palm Beach kennel club which is an absolutely awful room but I saw that they were running at 5:10… I came in and sat down with $1000 (half the maximum buy in) and there was one player there who was very brash and plain table captain. All in good fun of course. I sat down with $1000 and he looked at me and he said “finally we get some new blood in the game. How are you doing sir have you ever played this level before?” my response was “no and that it seemed like fun and I was on a work trip with a few hours to kill. “

About an hour later I stacked him with a nut flush and the. Ran a big bluff on him for about 2k. Walked away with roughly 7k in a few hours.

 

[Bmeister51]

Are there any long term poker goals you are working toward?

It would be fun doing a circuit ring or bracelet one day… I’m not gonna stop going to the World Series so who knows? I need to do a lot more studying on my tournament game if I’m going to do that though…

Ultimately I think it’s just fun playing at higher stakes with people you like in a challenging competitive environment it satisfies my competitive urge.

 

[Chipandchair]

I’ll sit down and pretend to be nervous or I’ll try and look tight… Maybe play very sparingly in the first couple of Orbitz. There’s a bunch of different ways to do it but it depends on the table and my read of the vibe.

Sometimes I’ll sit down and if everybody there is yukking it up and having some cocktails I’ll order a water. Little things like that just to kind of throw them off the scent. I won’t do any fancy chip tricks or shuffling. Won’t lead on that I know what I’m doing or maybe I’ll accidentally flip over my hand when I fold and act embarrassed. Lol it’s funny when I smash one of the regs in a big pot. It’s not cheating or anything like that but it’s just a way to work an edge.

Thanks. I may think a guy ordering a water at a boozy table may be good player initially, but I am reading it like you are drinking water because your projected image is too nervous to have a drink? Overall generally projecting nervous energy?

 

[Bmeister51]

Thanks. I may think a guy ordering a water at a boozy table may be good player initially, but I am reading it like you are drinking water because your projected image is too nervous to have a drink? Overall generally projecting nervous energy?

Exactly or that I’m uptight etc. I can see how it can be viewed the other way but it’s just one small example of trying to hide your initial skill level. It only works for a little while because once you start running over the game people get wise quick. But It can help jumpstart a winning session for sure.

 

[Solid Snake]

My biggest problem is not being able to leave the poker game, whether I’m winning or losing. What criteria do you use to gauge you in this process?

 

[Bmeister51]

Exactly or that I’m uptight etc. I can see how it can be viewed the other way but it’s just one small example of trying to hide your initial skill level. It only works for a little while because once you start running over the game people get wise quick. But It can help jumpstart a winning session for sure.

Especially if I’m going down in Stakes I don’t let other people know that I know what I’m doing. If you come sit down at the table with Amex Brian and start doing all these fancy Chip tricks and project an image of confidence lessons your action initially. I’m sure everybody who’s played live Poker sat down at a table with a guy who’s got a big stack or had somebody sit down at the table where you just know right out of the gate that they have some skills.

 

[Bmeister51]

My biggest problem is not being able to leave the poker game, whether I’m winning or losing. What criteria do you use to gauge you in this process?

I have a couple of rules:

If I’m starting to feel tired I get up... tired poker players make big mistakes if your mind isnt Sharp then you shouldn’t be playing.

I only ever drink sparingly at the table but depending on the stakes sometimes I’ll have a couple of drinks and ham it up.

I touched on this a little earlier but winning players sometimes get up too quick and losing players play way too long. It’s a very difficult thing to learn but striking a balance between knowing when to quit when you’re ahead and when you’re behind is able Difficult skill to master.

Rule of thumb if the game is good and you’re winning stick around especially if you feel like you can press in advantage, have a really good live read, or there’s a player who’s dumping money into a game.

In terms of losing, sometimes it’s just not your day. If you’re in for multiple buy ins then have a set limit that you’re ready to go home once you reach it. If you’re grinding a low stack for a long time playing till you lose it or you get back to even and then walk. Setting limits is extremely important to becoming a successful poker player.

 

[Bmeister51]

I have a couple of rules:

If I’m starting to feel tired I get up... tired poker players make big mistakes if your mind isnt Sharp then you shouldn’t be playing.

I only ever drink sparingly at the table but depending on the stakes sometimes I’ll have a couple of drinks and ham it up.

I touched on this a little earlier but winning players sometimes get up too quick and losing players play way too long. It’s a very difficult thing to learn but striking a balance between knowing when to quit when you’re ahead and when you’re behind is able Difficult skill to master.

Rule of thumb if the game is good and you’re winning stick around especially if you feel like you can press in advantage, have a really good live read, or there’s a player who’s dumping money into a game.

In terms of losing, sometimes it’s just not your day. If you’re in for multiple buy ins then have a set limit that you’re ready to go home once you reach it. If you’re grinding a low stack for a long time playing till you lose it or you get back to even and then walk. Setting limits is extremely important to becoming a successful poker player.

Well sometimes you’re gonna miss out on value if you have an upper limit when you’re winning where you are just going to walk away or a range once you reach it you know you’re comfortable with booking that win it’s not the worst thing in the world to get up when you’re ahead.

You may win less than you otherwise could’ve that night but a win is a win

 

[Bmeister51]

Well sometimes you’re gonna miss out on value if you have an upper limit when you’re winning where you are just going to walk away or a range once you reach it you know you’re comfortable with booking that win it’s not the worst thing in the world to get up when you’re ahead.

You may win less than you otherwise could’ve that night but a win is a win

That’s a really important thing to do especially when you’re on a downswing. It can help turn around a streak of losing sessions and get you back to playing winning poker and be a real confidence booster.

 

[Mongoose]

Can’t remember the last time I read a 4 page thread beginning to end. Great questions and insights.
Thanks

 

[Bmeister51]

Can’t remember the last time I read a 4 page thread beginning to end. Great questions and insights.
Thanks

Anytime! I’m enjoying it too if you have any questions let’s hear em!

 

[Frogzilla]

How much of being able to crush live is based on picking up strong tells, vs just playing solid fundamentals

 

[MegaTon44]

Love this thread @Bmeister51. Thanks for the great read.

Reminds me of the subforum I created in the old CD days.

Spoiler: Nostalgia

 

[Bmeister51]

Love this thread @Bmeister51. Thanks for the great read.

Reminds me of the thread I created in the old CD days.

Spoiler: Nostalgia

View attachment 375035

My pleasure! Happy to answer these questions. It’s been a lively and interesting discussion!

 

[SixSpeedFury]

Do you play late into the evening/early morning where it's presumably the softest?

 

[Bmeister51]

How much of being able to crush live is based on picking up strong tells, vs just playing solid fundamentals

It’s a healthy mix of both. Picking up tells us probably different than you think first and foremost. When I say picking up tells it’s not like a recurring facial expression or eye movement etc. although there are some very easy fundamental things to look for that I can share in more detail. It’s more picking up patterns or recognizing betting sequences from precious hands I’ve seen players play. Most of the players at this stake level are pretty buttoned up on physical tells and in a lot of patterns they don’t even recognize they’re doing it because they’ve gotten so good at extracting value using these betting methods. So picking up on those things while also trying to make sure you don’t fall into the same trap is important.

From the fundamentals side of it I touched on it a bit earlier but they are so important to making sure your game is buttoned up. If you are able to understand your position, pot equity, perceived opponents range and how it relates to your hand and the pot you are better able to make moves that can extract value or get them off a good hand. It helps in picking off bluffs too.

 

[Flat12]

Enjoy reading your posts and love all your chip pictures. Do you have any equivalent photos of your winnings denominated in bricks of 'greenbacks' similar to this screen grab of Kyle Carlston from 'Inside The Edge' :-

 

[WedgeRock]

I'm just here for the chip porn.

 

[MrCatPants]

How frequent are pre-flop 3-bets and beyond at this level? Much more frequent? And what size pre-flop opens do you generally see?

 

[Bmeister51]

Enjoy reading your posts and love all your chip pictures. Do you have any equivalent photos of your winnings denominated in bricks of 'greenbacks' similar to this screen grab of Kyle Carlston from 'Inside The Edge' :- View attachment 375058

Lol I can’t say that I have any pictures like that! I very rarely keep cash on me. I don’t like carrying a lot of cash makes me nervous and it’s just not smart in the long run. Especially would never advertise that is how you get robbed