Speedyfold Poker Blog

Some of the tournament field sizes on Pokerstars can be huge. Several thousand players or more can be very common. But how do you navigate such a large field, and more importantly make some profit in doing so?

The first task is to come to the realisation that all of the money worth making is at the final table. So placings such as 14/3500, 22/2340, 11/3165 whilst they might look very good at face value, are basically not a hell of a lot better than a min-cash.

The second task is to make sure you dont get knocked out needlessly early. You cant win a poker tournament if you are not in it. Gambling it up too much when say 40+ BBs deep too early is not really going to dramatically improve your tournament chances, but it will certainly increase the chances of you busting out.

So now try to combine the two. Play pretty tight early on, but as you get a few hours deep into the tourney start to crank it up a bit and take a lot more risks. If the poker gods are with you (which they occasionally will be) and you get to the last ballpark 100 players, now is the time to really start pressuring your opponents. Be prepared to risk your tourney life now in the quest for a big stack here. For every 5 or 6 times you may fail, it will be more than made up for by making a final table and achieving a good score.

If you can get through to the top 100 (of a tourney with 2000+ entrants) about 5-7% of the time, and then convert that to a final table about 15-20% of the time, then you will make profit. Conversely you could finish in-the-money 30% of the time in a tourney and still be making a loss.

In summary, lack of final tables will be the death of your bankroll, so be prepared to risk a lot whilst deep, and occasional bomb out more than you feel would happen in your natural game. The times you get to the final table with a good stack will be the paydays which keep you afloat and in profit.

How much can you make in poker cash games? Over the years I have heard this question many times from many different people, thinking of seriously giving it a go. So I thought I would post a little inspiriation for any potential cash game converts out there. Some people scoff at the fact that you can be a pro at $1/$2 or $2/$4 etc but as you can see it is pretty realistic for players willing to put in the time.

The figures are profit, followed by hands played, followed by Big Bets won per 100 hands. A Big Bet in NL Holdem is twice the Big Blind. So 5.41 BB/100 at $0.10/$0.25 is 5.41×0.5 won per 100 hands. ie $2.70

Winnings in a month at $0.10/$0.25 NLHE

1. rshofbldtothehd Full Tilt $1,738 64,233 5.41
2. HippieAlbino PokerStars $1,615 156,315 2.07
3. ur_suspect PokerStars $1,607 53,130 6.05
4. l LadyLuck l PokerStars $1,578 36,121 8.74
5. yogayoga2008 PokerStars $1,409 110,972 2.54
6. L3NGTHY PokerStars $1,360 26,413 10.3
7. JoseFranco08 PokerStars $1,339 48,182 5.56
8. FRIENDO Absolute Poker $1,289 11,085 23.26
9. mehike PokerStars $1,212 23,517 10.31
10. KillingAce PokerStars $1,183 60,017 3.94

Winnings in a month at $0.25/$0.50 NLHE

1. PushItDown PokerStars $4,611 27,029 17.06
2. Big Greeno Full Tilt $4,404 30,234 14.56
3. asseskiller PokerStars $4,143 51,180 8.09
4. malishka1985 Full Tilt $3,148 47,246 6.66
5. chomberz PokerStars $3,091 54,593 5.66
6. AdonisZeus iPoker $2,866 80,829 3.55
7. arienop Full Tilt $2,817 10,956 25.71
8. UrNailed Full Tilt $2,707 7,716 35.08
9. tayfos3333 PokerStars $2,693 33,781 7.97
10. knuffi1986 PokerStars $2,656 24,448 10.86

Winnings in a month at $0.50/$1 NLHE

1. QQ-Q u a d s-QQ Full Tilt $11,885 110,744 5.37
2. Marshall000 PokerStars $10,460 187,483 2.79
3. PAKETA7 Full Tilt Poker $8,463 126,872 3.34
4. helen_gamble PokerStars $8,414 111,080 3.79
5. Ljuti_Gusar PokerStars $8,164 133,143 3.07
6. Highpothead PokerStars $7,088 263,316 1.35
7. EyeballsMary Full Tilt $6,907 100,803 3.43
8. 4timmy PokerStars $6,616 89,053 3.71
9. MagicNinja Full Tilt $6,613 3,304 100.08
10. gutter23 PokerStars $6,473 138,218 2.34

Inspired yet? If you are then dont forget to sign-up for a rakeback deal to improve your winnings even more.

Winnings in a month at $1/$2 NLHE

1. Gooserer PokerStars $14,344 85,045 4.22
2. U2KILLERS Full Tilt $13,368 64,093 5.21
3. WolleMalone PokerStars $11,536 130,370 2.21
4. RaulFu PokerStars $10,958 99,104 2.76
5. Peedy69 PokerStars $10,350 74,268 3.48
6. rbrizzy Full Tilt $10,253 60,234 4.26
7. obtrice11 PokerStars $10,084 12,629 19.96
8. GayGambla Full Tilt $9,974 63,926 3.9
9. kin575 Full Tilt $9,684 80,677 3
10. hope floatz PokerStars $9,545 37,474 6.37

Winnings in a month at $2/$4 NLHE

1. Dave4112 Full Tilt $23,207 53,034 5.47
2. GUIGUI_88 Absolute Poker $18,665 41,948 5.56
3. Victoria92 iPoker $15,792 6,991 28.24
4. DUSHELOV Absolute Poker $15,724 17,171 11.45
5. ezyeeyore_ Full Tilt $15,263 64,807 2.94
6. CATWOTISADOG Absolute Poker $15,239 25,821 7.38
7. Ghoulio1 ongame $14,933 7,118 26.22
8. Magic_Water99 Full Tilt $14,645 27,887 6.56
9. RobSainter Full Tilt $14,539 48,387 3.76
10. d123kid PartyPoker $14,463 20,697 8.73

Winnings in a month at $3/$6 NLHE

1. waitamin08 Full Tilt $28,630 57,897 4.12
2. GRASS 318 PokerStars $24,906 87,034 2.38
3. Alpha 5.20 PokerStars $24,464 80,476 2.53
4. markwin11 PokerStars $22,444 29,302 6.38
5. RobSainter Full Tilt $22,323 20,521 9.07
6. inwooke PokerStars $20,295 65,305 2.59
7. Sharknebulah PokerStars $20,276 25,294 6.68
8. jj_raise PokerStars $19,238 43,217 3.71
9. JC-TheGuide PokerStars $18,702 23,795 6.55
10. mrienader PokerStars $17,680 27,589 5.34

Winnings in a month at $5/$10 NLHE

1. Tim0thee Full Tilt $114,403 71,990 7.95
2. LAICHZEIT10 PartyPoker $85,820 29,124 14.73
3. ADUBERT1 Absolute Poker $49,144 14,701 16.71
4. fengikareh PokerStars $48,230 8,259 29.2
5. TeRRoRBRaTzE PartyPoker $45,639 14,891 15.32
6. MoNteiRoZoR Full Tilt $44,083 39,273 5.61
7. thebud9999 PokerStars $37,896 22,648 8.37
8. DRAGONALLIN PokerStars.fr $37,862 30,664 6.17
9. x_QUIXTAR_x PokerStars $37,839 45,111 4.19
10. digital_love Cake Poker $37,061 9,750 19.01

Winnings in a month at $10/$20 NLHE

1. ZicoTumba PartyPoker $86,432 13,280 16.27
2. runawayT PokerStars $54,626 12,075 11.31
3. moi_rhums33 Full Tilt $49,268 20,219 6.09
4. UMD Tennis Full Tilt $49,205 7,497 16.41
5. DerjatUroven PartyPoker $43,977 7,501 14.66
6. timmo1122 Bodog Poker $41,731 23,036 4.53
7. fengikareh PokerStars $41,684 4,493 23.19
8. deamoneye PokerStars $34,065 2,847 29.91
9. The_Eend Full Tilt $32,132 3,886 20.67
10. 26071985 PokerStars $31,760 2,798 28.38

Winnings in a month at $25/$50 NLHE

1. AGGRESSIVE22 PartyPoker $198,243 9,876 20.07
2. MikiOpasniy PokerStars $150,633 14,247 10.57
3. tuff_shark PokerStars $108,665 15,384 7.06
4. carreira PokerStars $106,049 10,644 9.96
5. matate PokerStars $103,813 30,188 3.44
6. Al K. Holick PokerStars $96,886 10,741 9.02
7. refracmalo iPoker $88,839 7,765 11.44
8. FLIPokeHer Full Tilt $83,912 7,047 11.91
9. FreeLancerZZ PokerStars $80,121 15,431 5.19
10. phounder Full Tilt $79,951 8,101 9.87

So as you can see the cash game earnings potential is very high in poker even at the relatively low levels. Be prepared to put in a few thousand hands a day 5 days a week, and before you know it you are hitting 60,000 hands a month.

This was a pretty interesting hand from the Party Poker Premier League. Luke “FullFlush” Schwartz vs Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko. FullFlush a minor legend from the cash game tables, and Jovial Gent a legend from tournament play. Although it’s clearly a ballsy play, I do have a small problem with it. The speed of the shove makes the hand look really weak in my opinion. Add that with how he looks afterwards and maybe a call is findable. But how can you possibly call with KJ for so much? Almost impossible in reality.

The Learn-Forget-Relearn Tournament Necessity

For many ambitious lower limit players in online poker there is a big problem with the learning curve of advancement. Part way through the curve, you really need to forget a lot of what you have learnt and start over. This can be very confusing for many, especially if you need to level down again after leveling up. But why is this?

The essential reason is that at lower limits bluffing is rarely needed due to a predominate style of play by many opponents of little fear, high risk, and bad draw evaluation. Many bluffs will get caught out, and many high-side value bets with made hands will get paid.

However once you cross a certain threshold in terms of buy-in this all changes. If you play in the same manner you will go no-where fast. You need to forget your previous style of play, and start a new style. The main source of chip gains is no longer the excess looseness and poor hand evaluation of your opponents. The main source is now from the tightness of your opponents. There is more fear and tightness in the average opponent. Many are under-rolled emphasising this tightness. Forcing players to fold suddenly becomes much easier and more fruitful.

Of course at times you may find yourself at an unusually loose table of maniacs in high limit, or conversely unusually tight at lower limits, but these are exceptions not the rule.

So, are you capable of the evolvement of play from low to high limits? Ditching your successful style of play and switching to a new style? Many cant grasp the need to change and will become frustrated with lack of success. Others will grasp some change is needed, but wont adjust quick enough, and others will grasp it, but overdo it by ditching some fundamentals. Many others will also encounter a related problem, and will float in the grey area between the buy-in levels and be lost in a mixmatch of a constant wide opponent-diversity way way in excess of what you would ever see elsewhere. Getting a long-term successful style in those levels is probably the most difficult task of all.

Good Luck. If you can at least grasp the need for the different styles, you are part way there.

Getting your raise size correct at various stages in a tournament is an important aspect to successful play.  Basically the later on the tournament you get, the shallower your standard raise should become (obv as a general rule, not in all instances).

As you start to get deep 2.5 times the big blind or less is perfectly fine.   Many players will not call to even a small raise, at this point, unless they have a half-decent hand.  So it enables you to pick up pots very cheaply.  With the antes on offer as well, this makes each hand a very desirable pot.

The shallow pre-flop raise like this also gives you more room to either fold cheaply, or to evaluate any raise/push to see if there is value there for you.

We can illustrate with an example.  Here, poker pro Jon Turner (PearlJammed) is deep in a tournament, and raises to his standard for the blind level, 4875.  This is 2.4375 times the big blind.    With the antes, there is a 5000 chip gain here on offer if the opponents fold, which they do in this example.   Very much low risk for high gain, compared to a std 3xBB raise before the antes.

Full Tilt Poker Game #6468631057: FTOPS Event #21 (47445419), Table 15 - 1000/2000 Ante 250 - No Limit Hold’em - 16:33:39 ET - 2008/05/18
Seat 1: binrich (25,064)
Seat 3: ckingusc (49,646)
Seat 4: 747wd (72,740)
Seat 5: PearlJammed (109,613)
Seat 6: lilfishy897 (196,251)
Seat 7: rrrobins (199,538)
Seat 8: Erich Kollmann (93,315)
Seat 9: I_Do_Goats (172,888)
binrich antes 250
ckingusc antes 250
747wd antes 250
PearlJammed antes 250
lilfishy897 antes 250
rrrobins antes 250
Erich Kollmann antes 250
I_Do_Goats antes 250
I_Do_Goats posts the small blind of 1,000
binrich posts the big blind of 2,000
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
ckingusc folds
747wd folds
PearlJammed raises to 4,875
lilfishy897 folds
rrrobins folds
Erich Kollmann folds
I_Do_Goats folds
binrich folds
Uncalled bet of 2,875 returned to PearlJammed
PearlJammed mucks
PearlJammed wins the pot (7,000)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 7,000 | Rake 0
Seat 1: binrich (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: ckingusc folded before the Flop
Seat 4: 747wd folded before the Flop
Seat 5: PearlJammed collected (7,000), mucked
Seat 6: lilfishy897 folded before the Flop
Seat 7: rrrobins folded before the Flop
Seat 8: Erich Kollmann (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 9: I_Do_Goats (small blind) folded before the Flop

I have been lucky enough to make a few final tables recently, which got me thinking more and more about final table bubble play. 

Way too often you will see players shying away of everyone at the table except the shortstack.  The shortstack by his very nature is forced into getting his chips in to stand much chance of getting to the final table.  Often they’ll end up doubling up by those too liberally playing at the shortstack, thinking shortstack = fold; and all too often coming unstuck with calls by the broadest range of hands.

Really the players you want to pick on around the final table bubble are the middle/bigger stacks.  If there are one or more really shortstacks at the table, very few middle/big stacks are reluctant to take any chances at all when they are in that nice and cosy/safe mid-stack position.  As a consequence they are much more likely to fold than the shortstacks.   Not enough players capitilise on this.   Huge chip advantages can be accumulated around the final table bubble, so dont be afraid to play tough with the non-shortstacks

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen someone cursing their luck at the poker tables and attempting to prove how unlucky they are.  Often the general thing which they try to prove is that they get way more bad beats inflicted upon them than the other way around.  Poor sods?  Do you have any sympathy with them yet? 

Well, lets analyse that a little, and show that you should always in fact suffer more bad beats than you dish out.   Seems illogical sometimes at first, but that is the way it should be, rather than having anything to do with being cursed at the tables.

Suffering a bad beat is a direct reflection of getting the chips in with the best hand.  By it’s very nature it cant be a bad beat unless you do this.

Inflicted bad beats upon others is a direct reflection of getting the chips in with the worst hand.

Therefore if you are 50:50 in terms of beats suffered and beats inflicted on others, it doesnt mean you have average luck, it just means you are an average player.

If the ratio is 90:10 that doesnt mean your the unluckiest guy on PKR Poker or wherever you are playing, it just means that in 9 out of 10 occassions you are getting your chips in with the best hand.  You are not unlucky as such, you are just a good player!

So in summary, the bad beat equation should be unbalanced, and that imbalance that seems like awful luck compared to others is actually a direct reflection that you are doing the right thing.  So chin up, and try to just shrug off those beats once and for all.

Strange flat raise by chef on the river here.  I’ll attempt to explain why. If he is beaten (eg by me holding a 10, or an 8 or something) he has either just lost himself an extra 400 for nothing, or he has opened himself up to a reraise, where he could lose even more than the extra 400 if he feels obliged to call at value.

You are unable to justify this risked loss with any potential gain, as no legitmate scenario exists where he could actually gain 400 from the bet.  Every hand worse than his bare ace kicker is going to fold to the raise.

Basically, calling on the river is the one and only option for villain.  I didnt have the heart to box-his-ears and point this out to him though

Seat 1: ghost (8176 in chips)
Seat 2: tron (6536 in chips)
Seat 3: Flouder (8540 in chips)
Seat 4: BlueS (6165 in chips)
Seat 5: OTIS (1625 in chips)
Seat 6: ONLYINA (5450 in chips)
Seat 7: “Speedyfold” (10909 in chips)
Seat 8: chef  (14915 in chips)
Seat 9: asif (8304 in chips)
50 ante each
“Speedyfold” : posts small blind 200
chef : posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to “Speedyfold” [4c Ah]
Folded around
Speedy: calls 200
chef: checks
*** FLOP *** [Jd Tc 8h]
Speedy: checks
chef: checks
*** TURN *** [Jd Tc 8h] [Jh]
Speedy: checks
chef: checks
*** RIVER *** [Jd Tc 8h Jh] [Ts]
Speedy: bets 400
chef: raises 400 to 800
Speedy: calls 400
*** SHOW DOWN ***
chef: shows [As 4s] (two pair, Jacks and Tens)
Speedy: shows [4c Ah] (two pair, Jacks and Tens)