How to make money at poker

How Do You Make Money Playing Online Poker

Learn and discover all top strategies, tips, and tricks that will give you the best opportunity in making money playing online poker.

A lot of people start playing online poker as they heard there’s the possibility of making online poker real money profit. Unfortunately for them, poker isn’t as easy as it looks!

We’ll be giving you the best strategies, tips, and tricks to give you the best chance to make money playing online poker.

Types of Online Poker Games

There are two main types of online poker games you can play; tournaments and cash games.

Poker Cash Games

A cash game is a game of poker where each chip is the equivalent of a dollar amount. The poker game is played as per the rules of the particular variant and players are free to come and go from the game as they please. If a player loses all their chips they have the option to buy back into the game. The casino either takes a percentage of each pot called the ‘rake’ to cover the costs of running the table.

Poker Tournaments

An online poker tournament is an event where players compete to win a portion of a collected prize pool. Each player pays an entry fee and is given a set number of chips. The blind levels start low and are increased throughout the tournament and antes are introduced. Players are eliminated from the tournament as it progresses and portions of the prize pool are given out upon elimination once 10-15% of the field remains. The tournament carries on until one player has all the chips and is declared the winner.

Online poker tournaments require a different skillset to cash games but can still be a great way to make money from online poker.

As you can see, both types have their pros and cons so you should decide to play what you enjoy most.

Profitable Online Poker Variants

Whilst cash games and tournaments are different formats of poker, both can be played using any poker variant:

Texas Hold’em Poker

Texas Hold’em is often referred to as the «Cadillac of poker» and is by far the most popular variant of poker being played. There are thousands upon thousands of Texas Hold’em cash games and tournaments being played daily.

Texas Hold’em is the most solved of the popular games and has been heavily studied for the last 20 years so the level at the higher stakes is extremely tough. However, new players are learning all the time and there are still plenty of soft games out there to earn some money in.

Short-deck (6+ Hold’em)

Short-deck is a relatively new game to the poker scene, having gained mainstream popularity around 2016. It is similar to Texas Hold’em except the cards 2, 3, 4, and 5 have been removed (which is why it’s sometimes called 6+), and flushes beat full houses. Most short-deck games play with an ante and double-ante structure, even in cash games, rather than a traditional SB/BB structure.

As it’s the newest game, there is comparatively little known about how best to beat it compared to a game like Texas Hold’em. On top of that, it is known for being an incredibly gamble-y game due to how close equities run between hands. If you can develop a winning strategy there is a lot of money to be made in this game.

Omaha

Omaha, specifically Pot Limit Omaha, is a game that was threatening to overtake Texas Hold’em in terms of popularity back in the early 2010s. It is another flop game similar to Hold’em but players are given 4 cards rather than 2 and players must use 2 cards from their hand and 3 from the board.

With the added cards you’re incentivized to play a lot more hands preflop, making it more of a gamble-y game than Hold’em. This is another game that’s very hard to solve due to the sheer number of preflop hand combinations and there are plenty of soft games to take advantage of if you know how to play.

General Strategies to Increase Online Poker Profits

Here are some strategy tips/advice to help you increase your profits at the table:

Use Medium-Strength Hands to Bluff-catch

Medium-strength hands can be tough to play. Do you value bet them and risk getting called by worse? Or do you check and risk having your opponent make a better hand?

A great way to play a medium-strength hand such as 2nd/3rd pair is to play it as a bluff-catcher. By using these hands as bluff-catchers you allow yourself the opportunity to make money from hands that would have folded to a bet. Make sure that you’re choosing hands that are too weak to value bet as these are the best candidates for bluff-catching.

3-Bet Your Strongest Hands

A lot of players, particularly new players, overvalue the potential of trapping with strong hands preflop. They think that if they slow play their AA and KK they can trick their opponents and win a big pot.

Invest in a Poker HUD

Investing in and using a poker HUD such as Hold’em Manager will help you both on and off the table. On the table, it will track your opponent’s tendencies in real-time and display that information on your table. You can then use this information to adjust to how your opponents are playing. For example, if you find your opponent is folding 85% of the time to 3bets you can start to 3bet them more often and win more pots.

Off the table, a HUD can help you as it tracks all the hands you play so you can find leaks in your own game. You can filter hands by situation and pot size so you can see where you’re making mistakes in specific scenarios as well as look over hundreds of stats that can show you where your leaks are.

Mistakes to Avoid When Playing Online Poker for Money

Here are some things to avoid doing when at the table, both when playing cash games and tournaments. If you find yourself doing any of these you’re costing yourself money!

Playing Too Tight or Too Loose

If you’re playing too tight you’re missing out on opportunities to make money. Players who only wait for the very best hands think that they’re being clever whereas actually, they’re costing themselves a lot of money by refusing to play speculative hands.

On the other hand, if you play too loose, you can lose back all the money you’ve won and more by chasing big hands with weak holdings. You need to strike a balance somewhere in the middle where you’re not exclusively playing the nuts but not going crazy either.

Betting the Same Amount on All Streets

Pot management is an important poker skill to learn and being able to size best across multiple streets appropriately can earn you a lot of money in the long run. If a player bets the same amount on every street they’re losing their chance at building a big pot by the river.

Over-Defending Your Blinds

Instead, you should defend your blinds a lot more aggressively, particularly from the small blind, and 3bet more often. Some players will only 3bet from the small blind as calling is such an unattractive prospect. You should also think about how the position of the raiser affects the hands you should call in the big blind. If the raise comes from UTG at a 9 handed table, their range will be very tight and we should tighten our calling range to adjust.

Ignoring other Player’s Actions

It’s easy to get caught up in your hand, focusing solely on the hand we’ve made/trying to make. However, by doing so we’re missing out on a wealth of information that our opponents are giving us. When we consider what we should do with our hands, we should be doing so in the context of our opponent’s actions.

Things like what position our opponent was in preflop, how long they took to make their decision, what their post-flop actions are (passive/aggressive) can help us decide what we should do with our hands. If we’re playing an opponent who we’ve noticed is very aggressive, we may decide to slow play a hand like a flopped set as we anticipate they’ll bet into us whereas if we made a bet they could just fold.

Make Money Playing Online Poker: FAQ

We’ve collected and answered the most common questions about how to make money from online poker:

What is the difference between cash games and tournaments?

A cash game is a poker game where the chips have a cash value whereas a poker tournament is an event where players compete to win a portion of a collected prize pool. The chips used in a poker tournament do not have a cash value and players need to place in certain positions in the tournament to win money.

Can you win more money in cash games than in poker tournaments?

Tournaments offer the potential for a higher return on investment as winning a tournament can give you well over 100 buy-ins whereas a great day for a cash game player would be winning between 10-20 buy-ins. Whilst tournaments offer this potential the variance is a lot higher than cash games so you can expect to have higher highs and lower lows if you choose tournaments over cash games.

How can you play in position during online poker games?

You can play in position more often when playing online poker by playing more hands from the BTN and CO and playing fewer hands from the blinds and early position. This can be done by either raising a wider range when it folds to you in a late position or calling more hands in these positions when facing a raise.

What is the rake among online poker games?

The ‘rake’ in an online poker game is a percentage of each cash game pot (often only taken once the flop is dealt) that is taken by the poker site. This is how online poker sites make their money.

Can anyone be a professional online poker player?

With the large amounts of resources and training available online, anyone can gain the skills to play poker professionally as long as they are willing to put in hours and hours of hard work to learn the game.

Whether you prefer to play cash games or tournaments, there is still a lot of potentials to make money playing online poker.

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How to make money playing poker in 2022

Novice players often ask the question: «Is it possible to make money playing poker?» Since poker is a game where dynamics and trends are constantly changing, it is more appropriate to ask: “Can I earn money in poker?”. Before you determine the amount of money that you can win in poker, it is important to assess whether you really have the necessary game and psychological skills to make a profit.

How long does it take to make poker your source of earnings?

It’s worth talking about a time frame from a few months to two years (for most players). However, not all players have the ability to consistently earn money playing poker.

Factors that affect the time required to become a profitable poker player:

Within a few months, a player may turn from a newbie into a medium regular, while another one may never be able to make money playing Texas Hold’em (any other form of poker). In modern realities, the desire to earn money playing poker requires serious commitment, passion and strong willingness to win money. Are you ready to devote dozens or even hundreds of hours of your life to grind at the poker tables and to analyze your game?

If your answer is yes, then get acquainted with common tips, which are necessary for all poker players:

Remember that even your hard work outside the tables and the right game may not bring you positive results immediately, but it will always be beneficial for you in a long-distance of played tournaments or hands in a cash game.

Necessary requirements to quickly become a winning poker player:

How much does a medium poker player earn?

This is actually a question that cannot be answered. Poker is not a fixed-salary job; any professional player will face downswing sooner or later. Sometimes poker players may earn their annual profit in just one day of playing, and during the downswing, they can play breakeven poker or go into the red for weeks or months. But it is still possible to answer some points of the question about the average income of a poker player. The first thing to note is that the amount and rate of making money vary greatly depending on the poker discipline you choose: tournaments or cash games.

Is it possible to make money in MTT?

It often seems to newbies that best tournament players earn lots of money. It’s because poker portals display only the amount of prize money and do not take into account the money that players spend on buy-ins.

The net profit of a tournament player is the sum of prize money minus the amount spent on buy-ins; the actual amount of money that a tournament poker player earns is actually much less than many people expect.

Example from Daniel Negreanu

To illustrate this point, let’s take Daniel Negreanu as an example. 2013 became one of the most successful years in his career, and in the second half of the year, he shared his statistics of actual results.

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For years, Daniel Negreanu topped the All Time Money List, a list of the most profitable players in poker history, but that changed in 2018.

Example from Justine Bonomo

On the other hand, playing expensive poker tournaments, you can win millions of dollars at once, and Justin Bonomo has proved it. In 2018, the player overtook Danial Negreanu in the ranking of the most profitable tournament players in the world and input his name in the history of poker.

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«At the end of the day, I feel like for the past year I’ve played absolutely fantastic poker. I’m not going to say I’m the best player in the world but I’m very confident that I’m up there,» Bonomo said.

Here is the current top-15 of the most profitable live tournament poker players:

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Surely, the amount of money on the All Time Money List does not reflect the real players’ earnings since this ranking does not take into account money that players spend for paying buy-ins and selling their shares. However, it is still very indicative in this regard.

Is it possible to make money in a cash game?

Unlike tournament players, cash grinders earn money playing poker more stably, but they aren’t often able to achieve the prize money that is played in large MTT. In accordance with current realities, a skilled cash player can expect to win 5-7 big blinds / 100 hands online at medium limits.

Obviously, the size of the table (6-max or 9-max) and the limits you play at, will affect the amount of money you may earn; however, by way of a general guide, you can classify winrates of 5 big blinds / 100 hands as a good result.

On this occasion, we suggest watching a video on how to make a good poker income per month:

Apply a well-tuned strategy and study the tendencies

The game strategy also plays an important role. Nowadays, there is a lot of information about strategy that can help you to improve your game and earn good money accordingly.

Mainly, TAG strategy is recommended for making a decent income. It means that you should carefully select your hands and play most of them in position on postflop, by using a tight and aggressive strategy (TAG).

Also, don’t forget to use HUD and exploit the weaknesses of your opponents to your advantage.

As for the tendencies, you should follow and study the latest poker tendencies in order to stay ahead of your opponents. This means different limps, bet sizing, continuation bets and others. So, your poker income depends on you.

Fish is a source of income

Be engaged in searching the fish. You shouldn’t measure your ego and show your superiority in poker. Your ability to earn money is the main factor in this game. Finding the weak opponents is a very important skill.

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Fish betrays himself due to the following actions:

How to increase poker earnings?

Poker is a dynamic game, and it is very important for players of all skill levels (both for beginners and professionals) to constantly improve their game. Indeed, in addition to choosing the right game format, you need to make sure that you are familiar with the latest strategy trends of the poker world.

For instance, a couple of years ago, a strong player could simply make preflop 3-bets with a wide range and take money from opponents who gave up too easily. However, since poker has evolved, most players began to adopt this aggressive style, and now 3-bet is not an as powerful weapon as it used to be earlier. The best players now put less at preflop. Moreover, they reduced the size of their preflop raises from 3 big blinds to 2,5 and 2bb.

The only way to stay updated with the latest events is to familiarize yourself with the latest strategies, watch training videos and regularly analyze your own game. In addition, having competent friends in the poker community can help to increase your chances to succeed.

One more important aspect of the game (if you want to earn money playing poker) is your psychological resistance. Tilt may be fatal and turn a winning player into a loser simply because emotions prevent him from making rational decisions. The nature of your results and how much you can win at the poker table depends on a number of factors: from the number of players at the table to play limits and your way of thinking.

It is not as easy to make money in online poker as it sounds. Even the best players do not win every time they join the table. You need to constantly improve your play skills, choose the most profitable games and the most profitable time. Only by following these tips, you can overcome the negative variance and get meaningful poker earnings.

To cheer you up and emphasize once again that you can earn enough money with poker, we suggest you watch another video:

How to make money at PokerStars in 2022: details, strategy descriptions and tips for newbies

To make money at PokerStars is an absolutely attainable task for any player. A lot of players live off the money they win in the largest poker room. Initially, a player should choose a discipline that is most suitable to the traits of his character and, therefore, will become the most profitable for him. Can you make money on PokerStars? Here is the answer: it’s possible to have a steady income at PokerStars only if you constantly improve your game level. After reading this material you will figure out the best way to make money in poker, how to improve your game and increase your winnings. In this article, you will also learn how to quickly earn at PokerStars, how to choose limits and disciplines for the game and build up your bankroll.

You should choose the discipline to play based on your preferences: cash, MTT, Sit & Go. In order to steadily earn money on PokerStars, you must select one of them and purposefully play this discipline only. If you are a newbie in poker, then it will be difficult for you to adjust to the distinctions in strategies of the disciplines. Each of the disciplines has its pros and cons. Let’s talk about some of them and discuss the strategy to make money at PokerStars.

Cash game

Perhaps, the main advantage in choosing a cash game as a discipline to get a stable income on PokerStars is that you can end the game session or take a break whenever you want. If you’ve decided to take a break, it is recommended to leave the table before taking the big blind position in order not to lose money.

Cash game income is the most stable when compared to MTT and Sit & Go tournaments. In this case, you do not need to wait for the moment you get into the prize zone, but you can easily win money in each individual hand with strong hands.

Dispersion in a cash game is less than in tournaments, therefore, you will need only 25 buy-ins ($50) to play at the lowest limit of NL2.

You will have to go to considerable lengths to compete with cash game regulars and to consistently earn money at PokerStars. A large amount of available educational material has led to the fact there have appeared a lot of good players even on micro limits.

Taking into account the paragraph listed above, you need to constantly sharpen your postflop game skills in order to have an advantage over weaker regulars and fish. To start working on this issue, you will need to have a program for collecting statistics and a poker calculator.

You should not expect big earnings playing at micro limits. Your main task is to build up a bankroll and move up the limits. You can receive tangible earnings starting from NL10 limit (0.5 / 0.10¢).

The dream of any newbie in poker is to invest a dollar and earn a million. This scenario is possible only in MTT. It is this aspect of the game that attracts a lot of amateurs to take part in tournaments.

It is possible to earn good money in PokerStars tournaments since at the initial stages of competitions there are a lot of weak players who simply strive to give you their chips.

Players’ stacks are equal to 100 big blinds and higher only at the initial stages of MTT. At the late stage, where main money is played, the players’ stacks (as a rule) are from 25 to 40 big blinds. This entails restricted postflop play and often reduces the game to push-fold.

Even the best poker players can experience long downstreaks in tournament poker, and taking into account a huge number of tournament players at PokerStars, it will be difficult for a newbie to show stable results, and therefore make money playing tournaments.

Previously, training materials said that 100 buy-ins per limit are enough to play MTT. But poker does not stand still, players’ field is constantly improving and, in the current realities, a beginner will need 200-300 buy-ins of the played limit for a comfortable game in order to survive losing streaks without significant financial losses.

Earnings on tournaments are contingent on protracted sessions. The game day of a tournament player may last up to 12 hours, with 5-minute breaks every hour. You can’t just leave the tables if you get bored.

Sit&Go

Micro-limit Sit & Go is a great way to make money. The ABC game will be enough to reach the medium limits in these tournaments and increase the initial bankroll.

In Sit & Go, as well as in the MTT tournaments, the blinds are constantly increasing, and thus, participants’ medium stack is reducing. In the late stages of Sit & Go, especially with a turbo structure, the medium stack can be equal to 10 big blinds, which leads the game to push-fold, without playing postflop.

This problem is especially visible in the single-table tournaments with a fast structure. All regular players of this discipline know poker mathematics perfectly and make no mistakes. Therefore, it will be very difficult for a beginner to have an advantage in this discipline and thus, to have a stable income in poker.

If you’ve decided on what discipline you prefer, you should move to the next question: «Are you ready to make a deposit on PokerStars or do you want to start making money without investing funds?».

How to make money at PokerStars using a deposit

It is recommended to play full tables (9-max) because in this case, you can make fewer post-flop mistakes than at the short (6-max) tables.

How to make money at PokerStars without investing funds

If you chose a no deposit way in order to start building your poker bankroll, then freerolls are a perfect choice. You need to open the “Freerolls” tab in the PokerStars lobby and select the freeroll that is nearest to play. If all goes well, you can earn up to a few dollars a day and thus build up your bankroll slowly. Also, PokerStars offers private freerolls. You can play them only after entering an appropriate password. To do this, you need to monitor specialized poker forums, watch PokerStars live events and search for the passwords on the Internet.

Как я зарабатываю на онлайн-покере

И стараюсь не потерять деньги и здоровье

Я играю в покер почти десять лет, и все мои игры проходили не за зеленым столом, а за компьютерным.

Это и есть онлайн-покер. За десять лет я сменил несколько работ, два института. Многое изменилось, но в покер играть продолжаю.

Я не призываю вас играть в покер

Пожалуйста, воспринимайте эту статью не как призыв к действию, а скорее как предостережение. Я хочу на своем примере показать, что бывает с теми, кто хоть на время, но становится игроманом.

Почему я играю онлайн

Мне нравится онлайн-покер, потому что вокруг нет игрового ажиотажа, перевозбуждения — я могу сосредоточиться на игре. К тому же некоторые люди во время игры ведут себя слишком возбужденно или громко ругаются.

Главный плюс онлайн-покера — доступность. Не нужно ехать в особую игорную зону или другую страну. А еще нет необходимости ждать, когда начнется игра. Иногда можно просидеть в очереди к столу не один час. Еще в офлайн-казино помещение часто не может вместить всех желающих. В онлайн-покере таких проблем нет.

Другой недостаток «живого» покера: если вы любитель редкой разновидности игры, то в обычном казино можете не найти таких же ценителей. Онлайн-сервисы этого недостатка лишены.

А еще в онлайн-покере можно играть сразу за несколькими столами — вероятность выигрыша повышается. Как раз такая игра позволяет зарабатывать: вы создаете оборот и получаете больше прибыли.

В какой покер я играю

Я играю в техасский холдем, поэтому дальше в статье речь пойдет именно о нем.

Техасский холдем — самая популярная разновидность покера, потому что у него простые правила. Сначала всем игрокам раздаются две карты. Это называется префлопом. После этого каждый выбирает, что делать: сбросить карты, поддержать ставку или увеличить ее. Затем начинается второй раунд, раздают три общие карты — это флоп. Потом еще одна общая карта — это терн. Заключительный раунд — ривер, выдается тоже одна общая карта. В каждом раунде игрок может сбросить карты, поддержать чужую ставку или сделать свою — более высокую.

Задача игрока — забрать ставки соперников. Можно сделать это на раздаче или на вскрытии. На раздаче — если все остальные игроки спасуют, решив, что у вас самая сильная комбинация и нет смысла повышать или поддерживать ставку. На вскрытии — если получилось собрать самую сильную комбинацию, используя свои и общие карты. Всего в комбинации могут участвовать до пяти карт. Если никто из игроков не собрал ни одной комбинации, выигрывает тот, у кого старше карта. То же и с комбинациями: если у двух игроков пара, побеждает тот, у кого в этой паре старше карты.

Новичку можно объяснить правила за пять минут — и он может играть. В 2004 году на чемпионате мира по техасскому холдему победил любитель — простой бухгалтер. Он начал с четырех долларов. После этого популярность покера взлетела.

Покер — это математика

Покер — это не киношные фортуна, блеф и харизма. Конечно, вам может повезти и вы сорвете куш, но на большой дистанции побеждает не тот, кому везет, а тот, кто умеет считать.

Весь покер — это расчет вероятности выигрыша. Зарабатывает тот, кто играет с положительным математическим ожиданием. Задача игрока — рассчитать, с какой вероятностью его комбинация карт окажется выигрышной.

Например, как только всем раздали по две стартовые карты и на столе еще нет общих карт, у вас два туза. На данном этапе игры это лучшая комбинация. Розыгрыш идет хорошо, но в результате вашу комбинацию бьет противник, которому повезло: например, на столе лежит пара троек, а у него на руках оказалась еще одна тройка — его комбинация сильнее вашей, хотя изначально он был в менее выгодном положении. В этот раз вы проиграли, но матожидание на вашей стороне: вероятность выиграть, когда на руках два туза, намного выше вероятности проиграть. И если сыграть 100 раздач с двумя тузами на руках, вы, вероятнее всего, окажетесь в плюсе.

Это и отличает опытного игрока от новичка: опытные чаще выигрывают на длинной дистанции. Они не поддаются азарту и продолжают играть, пока матожидание на их стороне.

Что там с законом

Есть два препятствия к тому, чтобы играть в онлайн-покер. Первое — блокировка сайтов, на которых проводятся азартные игры. Официально закон запрещает организацию и проведение азартных игр в интернете, кроме приема ставок букмекерами. В результате Роскомнадзор блокирует некоторые сайты. Но по каким причинам в этот список попадают одни площадки, но не попадают другие, я не знаю.

В реальности игроки легко обходят блокировку с помощью всем известных программ. Но всегда есть риск рано или поздно полностью потерять доступ к сайту с территории России, и тогда вывести деньги со счета будет намного сложнее.

Для игроков никакой ответственности нет: запрещено организовывать игры, но не играть.

Второе препятствие — это запрет для банков одобрять переводы денег между игроками и организаторами игры. Такие переводы запрещает закон № 244-ФЗ: Генпрокуратура блокирует сайты на основании заявления ФНС. В результате банки просто отклоняют платежи игроков.

Чтобы без проблем пополнять игровой счет и выводить деньги, игроки пользуются платежными системами Skrill и Neteller. Я выбрал Skrill, и за шесть лет проблем не возникало. Слышал о сложностях с выводом на банковскую карту, если при пополнении счета указать цель «азартные игры». Банк на свое усмотрение может просто отклонить перевод.

Другой момент — налоги. По закону резиденты РФ должны платить налоги с доходов, но, откровенно говоря, большинство покеристов ничего не платят.

На каких площадках играют

Самая популярная площадка — Pokerstars. Там больше всего игроков, она надежная, с понятным и удобным интерфейсом. Рейтинг площадок для игры в покер можно отслеживать на сайте pokerscout.com — он ежедневно обновляется в зависимости от посещаемости.

Для игры нужен клиент — компьютерная программа, в которой как раз и происходит игра. По моему опыту клиенты разных площадок различаются качеством сервиса. У тех, кто наверху рейтинга, во время игры ничего не тормозит, не вылетает, а интерфейс понятен и удобен. Во всех клиентах из первой десятки есть переключатель на русский язык. Клиент всегда бесплатный — это шаг в сторону привлечения игроков.

Как начать играть

Итак, что понадобится, если вы выбрали площадку и решили сыграть в онлайн-покер.

Выучить правила. Вот правила самого популярного вида — техасского холдема.

Скачать клиент и зарегистрироваться. Для регистрации нужны имя, фамилия и адрес проживания, телефон и электронная почта. Карту сразу привязывать необязательно. Для денежной верификации иногда просят прислать фото паспорта и, например, счет за коммунальные услуги. Это нужно, чтобы подтвердить адрес.

минимальный размер приветственного бонуса на площадках

Есть еще один способ получить бонус — найти аффилейтов. Аффилейтами называют посредников — людей или организации, которые занимаются привлечением игроков на площадки. За это они получают от площадки процент. Сам игрок ничего не платит. Наоборот, посредник привлекает игроков виртуальными бонусами или даже живыми деньгами на игровом счете. Аффилейты дают обычную рекламу в поисковиках.

Потренироваться. Есть игра на фантики. Вы можете играть с такими же игроками, которые не готовы тратить реальные деньги. Сейчас безденежные игры доступны на всех площадках.

Как проходит игра

За столом играют от двух до десяти игроков. Язык общения преимущественно английский. Игроки часто обмениваются сообщениями, но я такой чат отключаю. Нередки случаи, когда игроки пытаются вывести других из равновесия резкими высказываниями, оскорблениями. Это нужно, чтобы соперник потерял концентрацию и допустил ошибку.

Есть два типа игры: кэш и турнир.

Кэш — игра, к которой можно присоединиться в любой момент. Играют на деньги тех, кто непосредственно сейчас за столом. То есть я нахожу стол со свободными местами, сажусь туда и делаю ставки из своих денег. Выиграл раздачу — мой баланс сразу пополнился, проиграл — убавился. Плюс игры в кэш в том, что в любой момент можно выйти из игры — останешься при заработанных.

Турнир — это соревнование со стартовым взносом и игрой до выявления победителя. Тут уже не получится встать и выйти, чтобы остаться при своих: стартовый взнос распределяется между победителями, и единственный способ вернуть внесенное или заработать — занять призовое место.

В свою очередь, турниры делятся на два вида: MTT и SNG.

MTT (multi-table tournament) — это крупный покерный турнир, в который может сыграть почти бесконечное число игроков. Все платят одинаковый взнос и получают одинаковое количество фишек. Система распределяет участников по столам, игра ведется параллельно. Когда кто-то из игроков выбывает, система перераспределяет игроков и сокращает количество столов.

В результате остается один стол. Турнир продолжается до тех пор, пока один игрок не выиграет все фишки. Призовые выплаты производятся в соответствии с занятым местом, а не количеством фишек, набранным в какой-либо момент игры. Этот вид турнира подойдет тем, кто уже понял, как играть на онлайн-площадках.

SNG (sit’n’go) — это турнир на один стол, который начинается, как только наберется нужное количество игроков. Игра идет непрерывно: пока одна партия игроков играет, уже набираются столы для следующего турнира. Такой турнир обычно занимает меньше времени. Это хороший способ понять, что такое турниры, если вы новичок.

В целом формат турниров похож на спорт: здесь есть призовые места, отборочные игры и финал. Турнир среди профессионалов может идти 6, 8 или даже 12 часов.

Дисциплина, в которой играю я, называется Spin & Go. Это быстрый тип турниров, которые идут от 2 до 15 минут. Играют три человека, победитель забирает весь призовой фонд, остальным — ничего. Призовой фонд определяется как в лотерее: он может составлять от 2 до 10 тысяч вступительных взносов. 99% игроков получают два стандартных вступительных взноса. Редко, но все же при частой игре вероятен выигрыш шести взносов. Шанс получить приз в размере 10 тысяч вступительных взносов я оцениваю как один на миллион.

Еще через небольшие турниры можно попасть на крупный онлайн- или офлайн-турнир, как, например, European Poker Tour. Такие отборочные турниры называются сателлитами.

Как выигрывать деньги, но не вкладывать свои

Можно начать играть на деньги, но при этом не вкладывать свои. Для этого есть фрироллы — турниры, где призовой фонд формируется не из взносов игроков, а за счет площадки или сторонних спонсоров. Выигрыш при этом невелик, зато можно быстро набраться опыта.

Еще есть услуга бекинга, когда компания дает вам деньги для участия в игре. Это игра на чужие деньги. Определенный процент придется отдать бекеру — тому, кто дал вам деньги. Например, в дисциплине Spin & Go бекер забирает от 9 до 25% выигрыша — остальное получает игрок.

Это немного похоже на банковский заем, но есть разница. Банк не интересует ваша жизненная ситуация — деньги придется возвращать в любом случае. А если вы проиграли деньги бекера, отдавать ничего не нужно. Но больше денег вы, конечно, не получите.

Чтобы начать работать с бекерами, необходимо хотя бы два месяца играть с положительной динамикой выигрыша и не допускать нарушений. Часто бекеры общаются между собой, и если за вами есть нарушения, скорее всего, бекер об этом узнает. Если у вас нет статистики игры, договориться с бекером будет сложно, ведь он рискует. Бекеров ищут на форумах покеристов.

Самые частые нарушения и ошибки

Правила всех площадок таковы, что в любой момент они могут вас забанить и забрать все деньги. Pokerstars популярна тем, что там не банят за мелкие нарушения — сначала предупреждают. Модератор видит, что игрок — новичок, никого обманывать не собирался, а правила нарушил неумышленно. С поддержкой и модератором на крупных площадках можно общаться на русском. Но та, что на английском, отвечает быстрее.

Заводить больше одного аккаунта на человека — самое популярное нарушение. Даже на крупной площадке безопасники могут навсегда забанить все аккаунты и все деньги оставить площадке. На мелких площадках такие блокировки сплошь и рядом. На Pokerstars просто предупредят и заблокируют один из аккаунтов.

Сговор. Как это работает: два человека договариваются и в чате или стороннем мессенджере рассказывают о комбинациях, которые у них на руках. Это позволяет понять, насколько сильная или слабая комбинация у оставшихся противников. В свою очередь, это дает понимание, продолжать игру или пасовать и сохранить свои деньги. Если вас поймают, то заблокируют деньги на счете и забанят навсегда. Список нарушителей, обманщиков и прочих злодеев можно найти на форуме Gipsyteam, в специальном разделе «Арбитраж».

Запуск запрещенной программы. Есть программы, которые помогают просчитать вероятность того, что комбинация выигрышна. Площадки отслеживают, не запущена ли у игрока такая программа. Если запущена, модератор получает сигнал. На каждой площадке список запрещенных программ разный, поэтому необходимо читать правила либо обратиться в поддержку, чтобы случайно не остаться без денег. На Pokerstars есть специальный раздел о запрещенном софте.

Но чаще игроки теряют деньги по своей вине. Вот самые частые ошибки новичков.

я проиграл однажды в пылу азарта

Слишком много играть. Если вы решили зарабатывать на покере, нужно ответственно подойти к организации процесса. Это значит, что должен быть график работы, отдыха, питания и занятий спортом. Спорт я упомянул потому, что без четкого графика я поправился за год на 30 килограмм. А еще у меня возникли нарушения сна: бывало, что после тридцати часов непрерывных турниров я ложился в постель и просто не мог заснуть. Нервная система была перегружена. Начались проблемы с концентрацией.

Ни в коем случае нельзя играть больным, невыспавшимся и тем более пьяным. Все это ведет к потере концентрации и более вероятному проигрышу. В таком состоянии легко потерять огромные суммы.

Отсутствие живого общения с людьми, напряжение и проигрыши приводили к плохому настроению, раздражительности. Каким бы хорошим игроком ты ни был, ты каждый день проигрываешь деньги. И это не может не влиять на эмоциональное состояние. Даже если ты знаешь, что статистически, скорее всего, в этом месяце заработаешь прилично, каждый отдельный проигрыш портит настроение.

Чтобы такого не было, нужно следить за распорядком дня, менять вид деятельности и делать хотя бы легкую зарядку. Сейчас я играю только по выходным и максимум до 3 ночи.

Риски, опасности и прочие минусы

Боты. Помимо того что сговор могут использовать против вас, вы можете нарваться на бота — программу, которая имитирует человека и играет за столом. Это как играть в шахматы против суперкомпьютера.

На крупных онлайн-площадках система безопасности отслеживает таких ботов и блокирует. На площадках поменьше с защитой довольно плохо.

Недавно на площадке Americas Cardroom такой бот дошел до финала турнира и остался один на один с игроком — живым человеком. Игрок заметил, что противник каждый ход думает одинаковое количество времени. Это не единственный способ отличить бота от человека:

Безопасники не только банят аккаунты ботов, но и находят их разработчиков. Служба безопасности Pokerstars иногда анонсирует информацию о том, что забанили несколько аккаунтов ботоводов. Но безопасники никогда не говорят о том, как они выявили бота, — опять же в целях информационной безопасности площадки.

Общественное осуждение. Ты говоришь «мама, я играю в покер», а тебе в ответ советуют найти себе нормальную работу в офисе. Бабушкам я устал объяснять, чем занимаюсь, и просто говорю, что программист. Сейчас я действительно работаю в офисе и действительно программистом. А играю только по выходным.

Не мог пройти мимо.

Начал поигрывать на ПокерСтарс 8 лет назад, спустя год уже играл серьёзно и много, спустя 2 года окончательно бросил, и вот почему.

Если вкратце, я был лютым задротом и хотел выигрывать всегда, но золотая истина: всегда в покер выигрывает только казино.

Это был первая часть плана. Следующая заключалась в том, чтобы научить программу самостоятельно «читать» информацию со стола, написать бота для игры и заставить его давать команды непосредственно с помощью средств ввода aka «мышь» и «клавиатура». Но до этой части не дошло.

А к чему это я так подробно пишу? К тому, что такого бота заметить программными средствами просто нереально.

Так вот, потестировав прогу где-то год и собрав внушительную статистику, мы пришли к очень интересному и неутешительному выводу: ПС специально делает такие раздачи, в которых у игроков получаются натсовые и околонатсовые комбинации, причём на не самых топовых руках (типа на руках у игроков одномастные 79 и TJ, а на флопе вылезают какие-нибудь 8TJ, да ещё с намёком на флэш-дро).

Наш вывод был основан где-то на 70 000 раздач, которые мы смогли отыграть за это время.

В итоге пришли к тому, что даже если и пилить бота, который будет играть, что твой Негреану, да ещё и иногда совершать микро-ошибки, чтобы его не спалили в исключительно «машинном» принятии решений — всё равно ПС сделает так, что не матожидание тебе, а кикера на воротник.

How to Win and Make Money at Poker – 3 Key Concepts to Master

There is more to winning at poker than just trying to find the best strategy. While learning a solid, fundamental strategy is important, it is not necessarily going to make you an expert player.

In the beginning, we all start out as donkeys and fish and, as we learn, eventually evolve into stronger players. In this article, I am not going to focus too much on a specific strategy, as optimal tactics and strategies vary from table to table and dynamic to dynamic.

My goal, instead, is to change your entire perspective on what poker is really all about and help mold your thought processes into that of a winning player.

If you learn to think the correct way and truly understand the underlying cause and effect of what drives poker profit, specific poker strategy will not only come more naturally to you but developing a plan for every hand you play will become infinitely easier.

So, if you are tired of getting lost during a poker hand, wondering what went wrong, and how you are either losing money or not winning as much as you think you should, then read on, and let’s dig into how to convert theory into actual winning poker strategy.

To consistently win at poker over the long term, there are three key concepts that you must master. You must understand:

You can study strategy until you are blue in the face, but if you fail to understand and master any of these 3 concepts, your potential will be severely limited.

Concept #1: Where The Money Comes From In Poker

This is the most important concept and something very few poker players will ever really grasp. Indeed, the concept is an enigma for the vast majority of players.

After all the hands are played, and all is said and done, once the long-term is reached.. how the heck does anyone show a profit? Well, truth is, very few actually do. Due to rake and a number of other factors, very few people actually win money at poker over a significant sample size of hands. Estimates range from as low as 3%, but in reality, the number is likely in the 8% to 10% range. So yes, at least 90% of people who ever play poker for real money, will be losers.

Even so, you don’t have to become a statistic. I didn’t supply you with this information to discourage you, quite the contrary. In fact, there are things you can learn that most people are not talking about that will give you an edge over everyone who refuses to acknowledge or learn the information. That is what this article is all about. By the end of reading this, I want you to be crystal clear on how professional poker players make money over the long term.

Monster Hands Do Not Make You Money

First of all, let me get something out of the way. You do not profit in poker from making big hands and then getting paid off. Everyone, including unskilled players, win money in these spots. I am not saying that maximizing your profit when you make a big hand is not important. It is. We need to maximize profit is all areas of our game. What I am saying is that winning money and making money are two different things. Just because you got AA all-in preflop versus KK in a specific hand does not mean you won anything.

Just to be clear on this point, since there seems to be a lot of confusion out there as to what I mean by this. Imagine that there are only two hands you can pick up in poker, either AA or KK. And, you play heads-up versus someone for an infinite number of hands. Each of you will pick up AA half the time and KK the other half.

Reciprocality Governs Profit

Don’t fall victim to something almost all people are guilty of; putting way too much emphasis on big hands. If most players get their pair all in vs. over cards and their hand holds up, they pat themselves on the back because they just won a big pot and think they made money. I have news for them; they didn’t.

Since this point is so important, I am going to beat a dead donkey here for a minute. It is key that you make sure you understand this concept before proceeding. To that end, I am putting in a link to an article by Tommy Angelo, who defined this concept, called reciprocality. Read it, absorb it, understand it, before proceeding.
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Now that you understand reciprocality, let’s continue.

Playing Well Doesn’t Necessarily Guarantee Winning

The overriding concept here is that you do not need to play particularly well to win, you just need your opponents to play worse than you do. At the end of the day, where you really make money is by having your opponents play any of the multitudes of decisions less well than you do. In other words, all you have to do to be a good player is play poker with bad players, and the money will come, even if you are just a mediocre player yourself when it comes to technical skill. The problem is, as games get tougher and tougher, finding these super soft games is becoming increasingly difficult.

It’s true that, in the not too distant past, a professional player could simply play a very tight range of hands and wait for the bad players to basically hand their money over either bit-by-bit or in large chunks. Making little mistakes here and there and having a general lack of post-flop skill didn’t really matter. As long as you followed the adage “tight is right,” you were good to go and pretty much guaranteed to succeed. Furthermore, since a lot of players were making money doing this, there was no negative reinforcement to provide the necessary impetus for them to try and improve their games. So life was good.

To Excel, Redirect Your Focus

Big all-in pots, while dramatic and exciting, are only a small piece of where the money comes from in poker. The other 99% of the time we are not getting all-in. We are raising, calling, or folding in small pots that are often meaningless for the vast majority of players out there. They play for the action and excitement of big pots and simply have no clue of where their profit is coming from, or, where their losses are going to. This fact offers a great opportunity to anyone with the knowledge and will to take advantage of it.

I have said many times and been ridiculed for it as well, that cards don’t matter in poker. What I mean is that the cards you are dealt do not make a difference in your long-term win-rate, since as we know, everyone will pick up the same hands with the same frequencies over the long term. What matters is that you maximize and play each spot the best you can, no matter how unexciting it is, and not spend too much time focusing on the big pots or any number of tough spots you might encounter. In my experience, the best way to maximize is to have a routine that you follow on each and every hand you play, that takes into account all pertinent factors based on the information at hand. I wrote an article on my own personal routine for planning hands that you might be interested in checking out.

When it comes to being obsessed with interesting or “big” hands, the vast majority of players fixate on these spots. To get a taste of what I am talking about, I recommend checking out some of the poker forums out there. You will mostly see players either posting the big pot hands or hands where they faced so-called “difficult” decisions. The funny part is, most of the time, the hands they are discussing are spots where the decision is very close in EV between two separate decisions. In other words, it often doesn’t matter what they choose to do, the long-term win-rate would be virtually the same either way. Therefore, in those so-called “tough” spots, you can usually just flip a coin in making your decision rather than sitting around racking your brain about it. Furthermore, many of those difficult situations might have been caused by mistakes earlier in the hand or been a complete game flow fubar.

How Money Is Won

Ultimately, how do professional poker players make money? Where does the money come from? It comes from winning more battles, both big and small than your opponents win at the tables. Every single decision you make is a battle being fought and, if one player does it better than another, money changes hands. Over the long term, the players who maximize the best in the most overall battles will be the ones who profit. What you should strive for is to play poker by looking at expected value instead of for the thrill of making big hands. Once you can do this, you are beginning to think like a professional poker player.

Now that you know how money is made in poker, you may be wondering how to convert that theory into real money. The fastest path to profit is through sound fundamentals and strategic planning which manifests in the form of superior tactics in every single action you make. It comes from beating your opponents in ways they don’t even know exist. It is about being mindful of why you are doing what you are doing at all times. It is about winning the wars no one else is attempting to fight. But mostly, it is about mercilessly forcing your will on your opponents, while avoiding reciprocation.

This style of active, exploitative play, is most often associated with a loose-aggressive style of play that focuses on small ball poker with lots of bets and raises with very few passive plays. That leads me to our next topic because loose aggressive play involves adjusting what you are doing based on the specific table dynamic you are currently in.

Passive Poker Is Losing Poker

Concept #2: Poker Is A People Game

The second overriding poker concept that you need to understand is that poker is a game about people. The table dynamic (or the players who make up your table along with how they view you and each other) are the number one influence on how you plan your hands from pre-flop through the river. And, establishing a set of optimal vacuum lines to use against a variety of player types is the single best thing you can do to improve the quality of your play today. Indeed, game flow adjustments are what separate the men from the boys and is the biggest reason some players get stuck at a certain stake and can never move up to bigger games.

The key skill to develop is recognizing when you should not even be sitting at a table. Often, players will continue in a game with no hope of winning over the long term. In fact, table selection is the most important skill any poker player will possess, bar none. Remember concept number 1 and where profit comes from? It comes from the collective mistakes of your opponents. Therefore, the biggest winners in poker are not necessarily the best players, they are often just the best at playing against the worst players the most often. I wrote an article on the best places to play online poker, which will give you some insight into the softest poker sites to play on.

Table Selection Is Key

Just like any other poker skill, you should actively work on getting better at spotting the best poker tables to sit at. In fact, once you have all developed your arsenal of strategies and tactics, over a variety of table dynamics, the actual execution of hands will become second nature. To illustrate, when I play poker I am not really thinking too deeply about what line to take in this or that situation. If you see me tanking or taking a lot of time to consider a decision, I am probably just thinking about recent or past history and how that affects the dynamic, and which of two lines is likely optimal due to that information.

That being said, taking a lot of time during a hand is very rare for me. I tend to spend a lot more time pre-flop before I make my initial decision to enter a hand. I’ve played so many hands now, that the way the actual hands play after the flop, is relatively automatic. Nearly all of my brain power and focus goes into creating profitable situations for myself. And, the initial way to do this, is to sit down in profitable seats. Once you are actually seated, it’s all about maximizing and taking advantage of that advantageous situation.

Here is a table selection chart that I created a few years ago. Those of you who have read my book will probably recognize it. It is based on 3 opponent types: fish, nits, and lite 3-bettors, and shows a hierarchy of the top 12 possible tables at which you can be seated.

Table Selection Chart: Hero Shown As Black

The chart illustrates the positional relationship between the Hero and the Villains at the poker table. You will notice that it’s always best to have fish at the table. The next best situation is to have nits on your, left and the only time you want aggressive players to your left is if there is a soft spot somewhere else at the table. Take some time and study the chart and use it to your advantage during your next few sessions.

General Pre-Flop Adjustments To Make

Adjusting to your opponents could be the subject of an entire book. However, I will give you 3 tips that cover the vast majority of your decisions on whether to build your opening ranges according to the general makeup of your table. Note that these factors mostly apply to when you are in a stealing position but are still relevant no matter what seat you are in.

General Post-Flop Adjustments To Make

If you have adjusted correctly pre-flop, then hands will generally play much easier post-flop. Let’s go through each player type again and discuss how to approach our play after the flop.

Concept #3: Conquering Tilt

Lastly, the third important concept that all players need to know is on the mental side of poker. More specifically, it’s about avoiding tilt. If you’ve made it this far, you probably already know what tilt is, but, just to make sure we are clear, let’s define it. Tilt is when we alter our play based on short-term results, rather than reads and game flow. In other words, you play worse when either winning or losing.

I am not some kind of mental guru, but I do know that tilt is the thing that holds a lot of talented players back from achieving their full potential in poker. I won’t try and tell you specifically how to fix your tilt, and yes, everyone tilts. You are lying to yourself if you say you don’t.

What I will do, is tell you how I deal with tilt and how changing your overall perspective really can help. In fact, embracing concept #1 in this article is a strong positive step toward helping cure someone’s tilt problems. But just in case, here are a few specific keys that might help you with tilt:

If All Else Fails, Discover Your Crutch

Nearly every player has a way to clear their head and get back on track, they just have to find it. Some people can fix their tilt issues by going running or playing their favorite sport. Others can just watch a movie or hang out with their significant other. You have to find what works for you, whether it be a typical fix or something unorthodox. Here are a few ideas:

Conclusion

In order to play poker like a pro and conquer Texas Hold’em, or any other variant of poker for that matter, you must master the mental aspects of the game, learn to manage your opponents, and understand the most basic fundamental concept of poker: Where the money comes from. This how professional poker players make money and a concept that all big winners players grasp.

This article has covered three things in depth. These are the best things that you can work on today to improve your results immediately.

In fact, the concepts are actually much more important than any specific strategy one can learn but are also the least practiced elements for most players. This creates a great opportunity for you!

If you master these three concepts, you will have a significant edge on anyone who does not, and will almost certainly enjoy a better win-rate as a result. I’m going to end this by giving you three specific things you can do today to take action and become a better player.

For more on improving yourself, check out my article on the 7 Common Traits of Successful Poker Players where you will learn what it takes to be an expert player and play like a pro.

Good luck at the tables!

Update and Clarfication: 7-5-2018

One of my most popular YouTube videos is the companion to this article. It’s called 3 Steps To Winning At Poker. There has been a lot of confusion from viewers on what I mean by this and it is by far the most common thing I have to respond to in the comments. Therefore, I think the subject is worthy of a blog post that sums up and clarifies what I am talking about and how reciprocality works in poker.

A gentleman made the following comment and I responded in detail. Here is the full copy:

(Name Redacted) Highlighted comment
Actually, players get rich by winning a couple of big hands in daily sessions comprising of several hours of grinding. This is how the ‘regs’ make a living. The trick is not to risk the entire bankroll after getting lucky and lose it back

AutomaticPoker (My response)
What about the big hands that they lose during losing sessions? Don’t they balance out the big hands won over the long term? My premise is that the real earnings come from grinding out every poker spot. Sure, the big hands are what dictates a winning session for the most part. But when you strip away each situation and look at them individually, it’s the one who is making more than his average opponent in the most spots that really shows a long-term profit over their career. Let me give you an over-simplified and extreme example of how profit works in poker. Imagine that you are playing a lifetime of poker sessions in one big 10 million hand marathon session. Except that you get the same exact situation, or a similar one, 10,000 straight times. Then another situation 10,000 straight times. But here’s the kicker. During each of those “mini” sessions, your opponents will each exactly have the same situation as you. I know that’s not possible, but pretend that it is. You keep doing this until you have faced basically every possible situation that you could ever face at the poker table. What’s your profit or loss the first 10k? The 2nd 10k? Add up all of the 10 sessions and then you see if you won money over your career or not. Also, I guarantee that you will be surprised at which situations make the most profit. Here’s a hint, it almost certainly won’t be the “big” hands. It’ll be something like open-raising 32o on the button with weak-tight players behind you… assuming you make the adjustment!

Please let me know if this isn’t clear to you because, IMHO, it’s definitely the most important thing a poker player needs to grasp.