How to Make the Most Money with your
Style of Play
written by BeatTheFish.com
...Fishy says, "I'm a real cash game
shark myself. No, seriously."
I'd like to share with you a recent
e-mail I received from a regular visitor who is fairly new to No
Limit Hold’em and was wondering about how to choose the most
profitable games. Here’s a snippet:
“Are ring games more profitable than SnG's? Or are tourneys the
way to go? What I'm specifically asking for is what do you do
personally do to make a consistent profit?”
This is a simple, fair, and essential question. Where is the most
money at in online poker? As an amateur poker philosopher and
semi-cryptic writer, I’m afraid that I must avert a simple answer
and respond by saying “Well, it depends,” and launch into a
full-blown article on the subject…
Before the recent boom in poker’s popularity, the choices of poker
games were relatively limited in spectrum. If you were lucky, your
local casino might have a poker room spreading small fixed-limit
games of Hold’em, Stud, and Omaha. Tournaments were unpopular, few,
and far between. You played limit cash games if you wanted to play
regularly and that was about it.
These days, with the explosion of online poker we have the choice of
sitting down at a cash game, multi-table tournament, or Sit ‘n Go at
a whim. Of course, we all wonder where we can make the most money.
You definitely should experiment with all 3 main forms of online
poker, but I think that certain personalities and styles of play
lend themselves to profit in different forms. Someone might be
excellent at No Limit cash games but struggle in multi-table
tournaments yet someone else might consistently make money at
high-stakes Sit ‘n Gos only. One can never make a broad statement
that any game is more profitable than another, but they certainly
will be for each individual player. Let’s take a look at each game:
Cash Games: This is the basic form of poker. You sit down at
the table with cash, exchange them for chips, and play for real
money. You can leave the table any time you like. In terms of
Hold’em, it is played most commonly as Fixed Limit or No Limit. In
my opinion, selectively aggressive players can make the most money
over the long run in No Limit cash games, especially when we’re
talking about online poker. Online players make so many mistakes
that you can make a consistent profit just by playing a solid,
no-nonsense game, waiting for strong starting cards, and punishing
the live ones at the table.
The most successful professional players in terms of profit (think
Barry Greenstein, Doyle Brunson, Chip Reese, Phil Ivey, etc.) mostly
play cash games. While the top professionals might be playing for
stakes that make our noses bleed the same principles apply to our
games. There is a greater long-term skill factor in cash games than
tournaments. Anyone can have a lucky tournament, but no one can
survive for long in cash games without a skill advantage. There is
no pressure to battle the blinds in cash games or situations where
you have to gamble on a coin-flip just to stay alive. You can always
reach into your pocket for more money if you get broke or you can
simply wait for a good starting hand to come along before you risk
your money.
Since you asked me personally, my preferred moneymaker is the No
Limit Hold’em cash game. This is certainly how I make most of my
profit, but that may be different for you or any other player. I
like No Limit cash games because I can be patient, play my own game,
and often win a lot of money off of reckless players in a short
amount of time. In a typical evening, I’ll feel satisfied if I leave
a game with a profit of 50-100+ Big Blinds. Sometimes that happens
in 45 minutes, sometimes in 6 hours, or sometimes not at all. It’s
my game of choice because I can buy in as much as I like, leave
anytime I like, buy in again if I run into a bad beat, and wait for
the right situation as long as I need to. You can’t really do that
in tournaments.
Sit ‘n Gos: These are one-table tournaments with typically 9
or 10 players. Usually, the top 3 pay out with the winner receiving
half of the prize pool. Again, selectively aggressive players can do
well in Sit ‘n Gos by changing gears and avoiding trap hands early
in the event. While Sit ‘n Go strategy is the topic for another
article, again once you really understand the structure of these
events and adapt your play accordingly, you should be able to finish
in the money at least 6 or 7 times out of 10. That is definitely a
consistent profit and there are plenty of folks earning a living on
middle-stakes Sit ‘n Gos. Super-aggressive players may not fare well
in these events over the long run as most online opponents are
either unbluffable or not intimidated by reckless play.
Multi-table tournaments: This has been the fuel to the poker
fire as of late. Whether you watch the WPT, WSOP, or every other
poker television show besides GSN’s High-Stakes Poker it’s a
multi-table tournament. Anyone can enter, receive their starting
chips, and play until just one collects them all. The most money
might be in the largest side games, but the glory is in tournament
play. Personally, I find it most difficult to win consistently in
these events. There is a much higher luck factor involved in
multi-table tourneys than the other two main forms of games.
Tight players don’t usually fare much
better than near the bubble and, unfortunately for them, the real
money in tournaments is in the top 3. Aggressive players are
generally better suited for tournaments. Hyper-aggressive players
who go out in last place 9 out of 10 times but finishing 1st once in
every 10 tries are usually doing quite well for themselves.
Tournaments are fun and you can certainly become great at them, but
be prepared to lose a lot more times than you win. Hopefully, you
occasionally make that huge score.
So, what is the most profitable way to play poker? Unfortunately,
there is no simple answer for that question. It’s going to depend on
what type of game you’re most suited for and everyone may have a
different answer. The biggest name-players excel at all games but
mostly earn their profits through mixed cash games and no-limit cash
games. However, there are plenty of tournament specialists and, with
the advent of online poker, plenty of Sit ‘n Go specialists. As most
good players do, you should keep a poker journal that you update
after every session. Include where you played, what game(s) you
played, how long you played for, at what stakes, and finally how
much money you made or lost. After you have enough data recorded,
you can total up your hours playing each game and compare that to
your total profit/loss for tournaments, cash games, and one-table
tourneys. Then, put your efforts into where your hourly win rate is
the highest.
Back to
Poker Strategy
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