May 13, 2014 - Do you play the smallest stakes poker online - aka the 'microstakes?' Read our multi-part strategy series to make more money and crush the.
By Alton Hardin I spent a lot of time learning, tweaking and adjusting my 6-max opening raising, calling and 3-betting ranges over the past year trying to identify good, conservative, but strong and aggressive ranges for mainly beginning and struggling 6-max micro stakes poker players. So after lots of work putting these together, trying to make them as simple as possible to follow, I am here to share them with you. The goal with these ranges is to be playing close to a 20/18/10 VP/PFR/3B game where (1) we are raising in a TAG range pre-flop, (2) we are not over calling too much, and (3) we are 3-betting aggressively for value with our value hands, especially when defending our blinds. Lastly, while we are 3-bet bluffing from time-to-time, it is not a big part of our game.
Open Raising Ranges You’ll notice that our opening ranges are conservative, so if you want to open up your game, please feel free to play a wider range, especially in late position. Open Calling Ranges Our goal with our calling ranges is to minimize our over-calling where beginning and struggling micro stakes players end of check/folding a lot post flop. With these ranges, we follow the Gap Theory with our Broadway cards and we also throw in some small pocket pairs and suited connectors / one-gappers for implied odds.
Note: When I say “UTG” Open Calling Range, I am providing a starting point range of hands you can call an open raise from UTG. The same goes for MP, CO, BTN, and SB. So MP Open Calling Range is not the hands you should call from MP, but the hands you can call from an open raise from MP.
This is the same for my 3-betting ranges. So please don’t get this mixed up because it can be a bit confusing if you mis-read the diagrams. 3-Betting Ranges Our 3-betting range is a strong value-oriented game. You will notice that as our opponents open in later positions, we can 3-bet wider ranges for value, especially against BTN and SB opens. We do have a 3-bet bluffing range composed of small suited aces, 22-44 and a few combos of suited connectors. I do not recommend you 3-bet bluff that often unless someone is a habitual blind stealer that folds to a lot of 3-bets over a large sample size.
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Do you play 1/2 no limit at the casino? Or maybe you make frequent trips to Las Vegas to play live poker cash games? If so then you have probably thought at one time or another if you can make a living playing 1/2 no limit. Because after all, these poker games are often pretty easy to beat even for a beginner.
Well, here is the short answer: Playing $1/$2 poker for a living is hard. And it is pretty difficult to make more than about $20 an hour. However, for a small amount of people with the right discipline and work ethic, it would be possible to make a living playing 1/2 no limit at the casino. Most people though should keep their day job and just play poker on the side. Now of course there are many other factors at play here as well such as where you live, your expenses, your bankroll and more.
You need not worry though because I am going to cover it all in this article! Playing 1/2 For a Living at the Local Casino The first thing that is important if you want to consider playing live poker for a living is plenty of action and good games with lots of recreational players in them. While there are casinos all over the world and many of them spread low stakes poker games like $1/$2, there isn't always enough consistent action in order to depend on them to make a living. I would say that this probably won't be too much of a problem if you live near any major city in America, Canada or Europe.
However, if you are extremely serious about playing 1/2 no limit for a living, you might want to consider moving to a place like Las Vegas where you can find a good low stakes poker game at any hour of the day. However, most major western cities will have enough action.
I am from Vancouver, Canada for instance and you can find a decent 1/2 no limit game to play in almost all the time since there are several local casinos. And if you live in Asia like I do now, the two best places for live poker are without a doubt Macau and Manila. However, you can also find plenty of live poker games in places like Seoul, Phnom Penh, Auckland and Melbourne. Basically as long as you aren't living in Africa or the Middle East, it shouldn't be too hard to find a good $1/$2 poker game!
How Much Money Can You Make Per Hour Playing 1/2 No Limit? The next thing you need to consider is your hourly playing $1/$2 no limit. Let me warn you right off the bat, it isn't glamourous. The best live 1/2 players typically only make around $20 an hour. It might be possible to make a bit more than this in some super deep stacked games full of drunk fish, but I think you get my point.
Now this might actually sound like a lot of money depending on where you are from. However $20 an hour is just above the poverty line in most major Western cities. Now of course your goal really should be to move up to higher stakes games like 2/5, 5/10 and 10/25. In these games you can make a lot more, $50 an hour, $100 an hour or higher.
So this is why I typically suggest that most people who are still battling it out at the 1/2 tables should just keep their day job for now. It just isn't worth giving up that steady paycheck for such a low wage. Who Should Play $1/$2 No Limit For a Living? Another key factor to consider is your lifestyle or living situation. Do you have a wife? How about kids? Do you have a well established career with a solid income already?
If you answered yes to any of these questions then I would strongly recommend against you becoming a professional poker player especially at stakes this low. It is just going to be too difficult in most cases to provide the steady income as well as the stability that your family deserves. Also, if you already have a solid career (doctor, lawyer, engineer etc.) with a good salary it will be difficult to replace that money with poker. There is absolutely nothing wrong with keeping your day job and making a significant amount of money The only people who I typically suggest consider taking a shot at playing poker professionally at stakes like $1/$2 are younger guys (20's or 30's) who are single, or have a girlfriend at most, and don't have anything big going on career-wise.
Again, I am not trying to age bash here or shoot down anyone's dreams. I am no spring chicken myself.
I am just trying to be realistic. I am not saying you cannot be a poker pro if you are 40 with kids, but I think that for most people in this situation, their opportunity cost is just going to be way too high. Also, it almost certainly won't be possible to do it at stakes as low as $1/$2 no limit because your expenses are simply going to be way higher than a single 25 year old living in a small apartment.
Lastly, you should of course also have a lengthy winning history before you ever consider taking a shot at being a 1/2 no limit poker pro. And I am going to discuss this next. You Have to Be a Winning Poker Player I know this is going to sound a bit crazy but many people still make the leap of trying to or a live poker pro at the casino when they aren't even proven winners yet! Crazy I know, but I see it all the time. As I often say it really takes around 100k hands before you can come to any real conclusions about your results in poker.
Now if you play poker online you can play this amount of hands in one month if you multi-table a lot. Heck, I used to play 3 times this amount in one month during my craziest days of online grinding.
But with live poker it is a much different story. The best you are going to hope for in live poker is about 30 hands per hour on average.
This means that it would take you over a year to hit 100k hands even if you play 8 hours every single day! Now obviously that is a bit extreme and thankfully live poker win rates are a lot higher than online poker win rates. This means you don't need as big of a sample size. But I hope you get my point here. You really need to make sure you are a long term winner before you ever consider playing poker professionally. Because unlike most other jobs out there you do not get paid in poker just for showing up. Poker is 100% performance based.
In other words you only get paid if you win. You also aren't getting any benefits like dental, medical, retirement and so on which you will typically get in a regular job. So my suggestion would be to at least have one full year of regular play at 1/2 no limit with consistent success before you even thinking about playing it for a living. And even better, move up to $2/$5 or $5/$10, prove to yourself that you can crush those games too over a decent period of time, and then consider going pro. How Do You Crush $1/$2 No Limit Games? Alright, let's talk strategy next.
What kind of poker strategy crushes 1/2 no limit games these days? Well, luckily this is actually the easy part.
A highly exploitative TAG strategy is still absolutely the best way to smash low limit live games like 1/2. This is essentially the exact strategy that I outline in You play tight and aggressive before the flop paying close attention to your position at the table. In a typical 9 or 10 handed $1/$2 game you should be playing roughly 20% of your hands. Or Something Like:. All pocket pairs. All big aces.
All broadways. Most suited aces. Most suited connectors. A few suited one gappers And again, the majority of these should be played while you are in position (i.e.
On the button, cutoff or hijack). You should also be identifying the weaker players right away and Furthermore, you should be looking to make big hands after the flop and then bet them big, even overbet sometimes. You should almost never slowplay. You shouldn't do too much bluffing beyond your flop CBet and sometimes a double barrel versus weak players on turn scare cards. The reason why is because you will encounter tons of calling stations in these games. A tight and disciplined approach is the only way to beat these players.
You simply can't bluff them. And that's basically it. This is a very simple strategy designed to absolutely crush the loose passive games that you will typically find at 1/2 no limit. It isn't glamorous and it will most definitely be a grind. But this is the nature of being a professional poker player.
It isn't anything like the bright lights and million dollar final tables that you see on TV. If you want a more detailed breakdown by the way I have already written my Playing Poker For a Living - Work Schedule Honestly though, one of the biggest issues that most people will face if they try to play 1/2 no limit for a living is maintaining a consistent work schedule. As a long time professional poker player myself let me tell you that when there is suddenly no boss to answer to or anyone to hold you accountable, it can be very easy to just slack off. I would much rather be at the beach than playing poker most days! On Sep 3, 2018 at 9:17pm PDT But before you know it these days can turn into weeks or months. And since you don't make any money with poker when you aren't playing, this is a big, big problem! So if you want to make a living playing 1/2 no limit then you are going to need to have a consistent work schedule.
I would suggest getting to the casino at roughly the same time every day. And you need to get used to playing for a set amount of time as well. Whatever amount of time that is will be up to you. But you can't sit down in a good poker game and just decide to leave after an hour because you caught a heater and won a bunch of quick stacks. No, you need to remain in that game and play for the 2, 4, 6 or 8 hours you had planned originally and win as many more stacks as you possibly can. Because some days are going to be a real struggle at the poker tables. In fact many of them will.
You will sit there all day getting no cards and getting countless This is why you need to understand that poker is a long term game. You need to approach it just like a regular job and put in the hours consistently if you want to be successful. Playing $1/$2 No Limit For a Living - Emotional Control The last thing you are going to need if you are considering playing 1/2 no limit for a living is emotional control, and lots of it. As I just mentioned, some days are going to really suck. Sometimes entire weeks or even months will be awful too with countless suckouts and bad beats.
This is simply the nature of the game. And this is when you will be really tested as a poker player and find out how good you really are. Because anybody can look like a genius at the poker tables when the cards are all falling their way, when you hit all your draws and cooler them with your AA versus their KK. But for every ying there is a yang in poker.
And it will eventually swing heavily on you in the other direction to the point where it seems like you will never win another hand of poker again. And the problem with professional poker is that you have to deal with this largely on your own. You can talk to other poker players about it.
And some of them will give you token support. But believe me, nobody really wants to hear your bad beat stories! Every poker player alive already thinks they run worse than everybody else. And so they will take very little real interest in your run of bad cards. So this is why I highly suggest living a balanced healthy lifestyle and using mental strategies like meditation and visualization before and after sessions to keep your emotions in check and keep yourself off tilt.
Final Thoughts So can you make a living playing 1/2 no limit? Yes, you can. But that's kind of like asking if you can be an astronaut.
Yes of course you can do that too, but most people should not attempt it! Playing poker for a living is hard no matter what stakes you play. And it doesn't matter if you play online or live either. You need to have the right strategy, bankroll, work ethic, emotional control and a proven history of winning. Also, I would really only suggest playing 1/2 no limit for a living if you are relatively young, without a family and you don't have a solid career already. I think there will be very few cases of people with established careers and a family where it will make sense to play stakes as low as $1/$2 for a living. Let me tell you from experience, it can be easy to dream about quitting your day job to play poker for a living, but the reality often isn't nearly as glamorous as people expect.
It's a job like any other. You need to have a strong work ethic and be disciplined in order to win.
You also need to learn how to manage yourself when there is suddenly no boss (this is much harder than most people think). And ideally I would suggest moving up to $2/$5 or $5/$10 for most people before you even think about going pro. This is because you can make a much better hourly income in these games if you are able to consistently beat them. However, with all that said, it certainly isn't impossible to play 1/2 no limit for a living.
Many people do it. And I am not trying to crush anyone's dreams here, I am just trying to be realistic. So if you do decide to play 1/2 limit for a living I hope this article gave you a bit better insight on what it takes to beat these games as a pro.
Lastly, if you want to know how I quit my job over 10 years ago to become and online poker pro and travel the world, make sure to pick up a copy of my Let me know in the comments below if you have ever thought about playing $1/$2 no limit for a living. Do you think it is possible? On Dec 17, 2018 at 8:48pm PST They understand that there is a direct connection between the physical and the mental. When you get your body right, the mind tends to follow. You feel better, you sleep better and you are ultimately more calm, confident and relaxed at the poker table.
This is why I workout (cardio or weights) pretty much every single day. I know this gives me the mental advantage over my opponents at the poker tables when the pressure is on. Principle #18: Winning Poker Also Starts in the Kitchen and With Proper Sleep Again, some people will just laugh at this but I know for a fact that a big part of my mental edge at the poker tables comes from eating right and being focused on getting the right amount of sleep each night. With my diet, it isn't always perfect but I think once you get into the habit of making healthy choices consistently and you have an active lifestyle you aren't even going to want that pizza or ice cream as much anymore. Because all it does is give you 5 minutes of oral pleasure and then you pay for it mentally and physically throughout the rest of your day and week. I consider my mind and body like a Ferrari. I am not going to put shit quality fuel or oil in it.
No, if I want the best performance, then it needs the right fuel! Same thing with sleep. I consider it to be extremely important to my poker success. So much so that I actually set an alarm that goes off every night so that I know exactly when I need to go to sleep. I do not set an alarm clock in the morning by the way. This is the complete opposite of what most people do. Principle #19: Always Play Over-Rolled Something else that helps me keep my mental sanity at the poker tables is to use way more conservative bankroll management than most people.
While I these days in reality I personally use more like 100 buyins. I have always done this because it gives me the mental confidence to overcome any downswing. I just laugh at routine 20 buyin downswings because I have 80 more bullets behind.
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But somebody who is only on a 40 buyin roll is going to be sweating hard when the big downswing comes. Principle #20: Control the Inputs As I talked about recently, at all. I stopped reading them many years ago in fact.
And the main reason why is because most people lose at poker in the long run and therefore most of the advice you are getting in these places is from losing poker players. So I prefer to narrow my poker input to only a handful of solid winning pros who I know personally. I also read many books and study poker courses from well known pros. I think it is very important that you restrict the poker advice you are taking in these days if you truly want to succeed. It's nothing personal. Everybody always has an opinion in poker and that's great.
But not all opinions are created equal. I only listen to opinions from those who are proven winners. Principle #21: The Right Poker Setup Matters I am a huge proponent of quality over quantity when it comes to poker. So this is why when I am playing online poker I make sure I have the right setup. On Dec 27, 2018 at 2:27am PST First things first I put my phone on airplane mode and there are absolutely no other distractions in the room. My airpods go in my ears, the poker site gets opened and I start playing. There is absolutely no Facebook, Instagram or any other BS.
Me, music and poker. This is how I stay dialed in and focused 100% on every hand. Principle #22: I Believe in Me A huge key to my poker success is the confidence that I have in my own abilities. And a big part of this comes from endlessly applying my skills for years and years and playing millions and millions and millions of hands.
I don't take days off. This game isn't a 'hobby' for me. This is my job, this is my life. I eat, breathe and sleep this game.
So this inner confidence comes from a deep knowledge and belief that I have done more than them. I know I am more prepared. I have spent more hours away from the tables as well studying my hands, studying my opponents and updating my poker knowledge. In short, when I sit down at the poker tables I already know that I am the best player at the table. There is absolutely no question about it in my mind.
And this isn't some sort of arrogance. This is the deep seated confidence that comes from superior preparation and experience. Principle #23: Get Out of Your Comfort Zone It might sound crazy but one of the best things I ever did for my poker game was to the wacky land of Asia. Not only did landing in a strange faraway land provide incredible new life experiences and force me to open up and meet a lot of cool new people, but it gave me that push to finally take this thing to the next level. On Oct 11, 2016 at 7:36am PDT That is, to put even more effort into achieving success in this game. And to build this large business that I now have teaching the game as well.
This has also spilled over into better social connections, healthier living and just a generally increased feeling of happiness. And yes of course I do miss my family and friends back home and that is why I try to travel back often. But I won't lie, I don't miss the Canadian winters! Look, moving halfway around the world definitely isn't for everybody.
But for some of you who are feeling a bit stuck in life and nothing much is working, sometimes drastically changing your environment (even just for a little while) can give you that little nudge you need to finally start living with more purpose and chasing your dreams. Principle #24: Don't Be So Serious Seriously though, even with everything I have said so far my #1 poker principle that I live by is simply to always have fun! I started playing this silly little card game 15 years ago and I fell in love with it right away because of the excitement of the all-in, the big bluff and outsmarting my opponents. It is important that you never lose this feeling of a kid in a candy shop.
Yes, there will be many terrible soul crushing downswings throughout your poker career. But that's just the way the game works. The very best poker players learn how to disassociate themselves from both big wins and big losses. Whereas you will often find that amateurs get highly emotional about their short term results. Just have fun and enjoy the ride. Some days you will win. Some days you will lose.
Just play your best and always keep a smile on your face. Poker is a beautiful game!
Final Thoughts So there are the 24 poker principles that I live. I have definitely added to this list over the years and taken some out as well because the game is always evolving. However, I hope that at least a few of the principles on this list resonated with you in some way.
No matter where you are in your poker career right now, I wish you all the best at the tables. Lastly, if you want to know more about how I became a poker pro and the strategy I use, make sure to grab a copy of my free poker cheat sheet Let me know in the comments below what poker principles you follow. What is the best piece of poker wisdom you have ever heard?