HSBC Exiting Clients With No Explanation

We know that HSBC is taking the following steps when they close poker players accounts.

1. They are providing no explanation for the rationale
2. HSBC is providing a limited amount of time to leave.
3. HSBC is forcing full repayment of any and all debts outstanding at the time of exit.

You can see proof of the ^ in the following document ThePokerCapitalist was able to obtain.

Why Is HSBC Closing Poker Players Accounts?

Generally, HSBC does not provide clarity as to why they are closing accounts / “exiting” clients. However, in this case after extensive discussions between the two parties some additional clarity was provided. See the below email.

“Thank you for your patience while I submitted all of the information you provided previously. Given your current connections to the online gambling industry as well as your previous history of being a professional poker player, HSBC Canada has made a decision to end our banking relationship with you. At this moment, the high risk nature of these industries is outside of our target market and risk appetite. I want to thank you for giving HSBC Canada another chance and for being our customer over the last 8 years. 

We have extended the account closure date to March 27^th, 2017. Please take the necessary steps to re-route your automatic transactions to another Financial Institution by that date. This applies to all of HSBC Canada affiliates including HSBC InvestDirect and our MasterCard products. 

Best Regards, 

Ivan Plotnikov

Premier Relationship Manager |  HSBC Bank Canada

Mutual Fund Advisor, HSBC Investment Funds (Canada) Inc.”

Is HSBC Allowed To “Exit” You As A Client? 

Generally, the answer to this question is yes. Case law in Canada has made it clear that banks have an inalienable right to a bank account and banks can insists clients leave. The banks account agreement will determine the rights of each party when there is a closure. HSBC’s Terms & Conditions clearly state that they retain the right to withhold service from parties they don’t want to be involved with. If you are interested in the case law I suggest taking a look at the following.

² RCG Forex Service Corp v HSBC Bank Canada, 2011 BCSC 315 [“RCG Forex“]; B-Filer Inc v Bank of Nova Scotia, 2005 ABQB 704; B-Filer Inc v TD Canada Trust, 2008 ABQB 749.

³ Lovric v Toronto Dominion Bank, 2008 BCSC 478 [“Lovric”]; Mechar v Bank of Nova Scotia, 2011 BCSC 500

Why Is HSBC Exiting Poker Clients? 

This decision has not been made lightly. There is a tremendous cost to the business and the reputation of the bank who they exit clients. In some cases the customer lifetime value of these clients is extremely high. However, regulatory risk is also extremely high and there have been some major fines levied on the banks by government. So, the simple answer is senior risk managers at HSBC have decided the risk from government fines and penalties is too great to allow any kind of “high risk” activity within the bank. Poker/ online gaming transactions fall into the “high risk” bucket as do some other activities. In the ^ case with this particular person he appealed the decision internally and took it to the most senior people in the bank. However, the final decision came from “the highest levels” of the bank and there was no overturning it. Below is a link to Canada’s anti-money laundering rules which I believe to be at least partially responsible for the ^ – an unfortunate unintended consequence…..

http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/P-24.501/

What Happens Client Debt When HSBC Exits You?

HSBC demands repayment in full. I’ve written extensively about mortgages for poker players in the past, but I haven’t been able to confirm what HSBC does for clients who have mortgages with the bank (which would be awful and potentially devastating) but its possible they close them. Obviously, being force to repay a large loan or find another lender in a short period of time is not a good situations to be placed in. Note: In the article that was mailed out HSBC insisted on immediate and full repayment of their credit lines/HSBC MasterCard.

In order to avoid getting into a squeeze it is advisable to have a minimum of two bank accounts. This will also help in situations where you are not provided enough time to open additional credit lines. Keeping debt levels low and liquidity high is probably a reasonable course of action to take as well.

Should I Close My HSBC Accounts?

IMO yes, nothing good can come of a bank closing your accounts. It would seem very prudent to move away from HSBC if you have any online gaming transactions occurring in your accounts and/or other “high risk” activities. Other potential high risk areas include but are not limited to pay day loans, marijuana stores, real estate, import/export businesses, etc. Given the aggressive stance that HSBC is taking with respect to “high risk” activities it would be best to look elsewhere for your banking needs.

Is HSBC Discriminating Against Clients? 

IMO the answer to that is yes. Ultimately, when these actions are taken against an entire group of people its not business it is discrimination. HSBC is discriminating against poker players and other “high risk” activities. I find this news to be disturbing and I hope that you will share this article with others.

ThePokerCapitalist

P.S. Be sure to check out my book Exploitive No Limit Holdem and get your copy if you haven’t already!

The post HSBC Closing Poker Players Accounts appeared first on The Poker Capitalist.

There aren’t that many online poker players with over a million dollars in earnings but I have spoken with a few over the years and here are the insights gained.

Four Ways To Make A Million Playing Poker

1. Online Cash Games – I’ve met a few players over the years who have made this kind of money playing online cash games. Its a grind folks! Most of these players play low to mid-stakes and it takes many years to approach the million dollar mark.
2. Online Tournaments – This is also a grind but some players have achieved much faster success in tournaments versus cash games. If you get lucky at some critical moments in tournaments you can do some big things. For example in the 2012 WSOP I lost a significant pot to lose out in 14th place. However, had I won this same tournament the cash would have been around $780,000 – that is a significant difference folks!
   

   30-Jun-2012

   United States

   $ 1,500 No Limit Hold’em (Event #53) 43rd World Series of Poker (WSOP) 2012, Las Vegas

   14th

   $ 33,381

3. Live Cash Games – this is an interesting path to take and somewhat fraught with risk. The tricky thing about live poker is that its difficult to get in the volume you need at the highest games to balance out the variance. A lot of high stakes players make BIG money playing in live cash games in Vegas, Macau, etc but they do so with quite irresponsible bankroll management in many cases. This can be somewhat mitigated through staking arrangements.
4. Live tournaments – like the 2012 WSOP event I played in. These are perhaps the quickest way to make a big strike. WSOP events are loaded with high quality online players from around the world as well as the entire world of live tournament grinders who migrate to Vegas for this annual event.

Why Volume Matters In Poker?

It all depends on the stake levels you are playing at and your winrate at those stake levels. If you assume a 40 hour work week I have calculated how to make a million dollars playing poker at different stake levels with three different winrates 1BB, 3BB, & 5BB/100 hands.

How To Make A Million Dollars Playing Poker – High Stakes 

Assume $10/$20 NLHE

Scenario 1. Playing one table if your winrate is 5 BB/100 you will make 1 million dollars in 4.8 years. 5BB/100*$20*10,000= $1,000,000. That works out to be 250 weeks or 4.8 Years if you work 52 weeks a year. Of course you can half the time required ^ if you play two tables at the same winrate :).

Scenario 2.

If your winrate is 3 BB/100 you will make 1 million dollars in 3

3BB/100 * $20 * 16,666hrs = $1,000,000

The above equals about 416 weeks or Eight years!

Scenario 3. Making A Million At High Stakes.

1BB/100 * $20 * 50,000 = $1,000,000

That equals 1250 weeks or about twenty four years!

How To Make A Million Dollars Playing Poker – Mid Stakes

Scenario 1. 5BB/100 * $6 * 33331 = $1,000,000

So that is about 833 weeks or 16 years it will take.

Scenario 2. 1 BB/100 * $6 * 166,666 = $1,000,000

That is only 4166 weeks or 80 years and you’ll have a million. Of course you’ll probably be dead by then ;).

How To Make A Million Dollars Playing Poker – Low Stakes 

I am not even going to calculate it our for you :). You can do the math, but the key to remember is if you are playing low stakes volume is the only way to make real money. Volume is essential at low stakes and you probably want a good rakeback deal too :).

Refining Your Poker Skills

Its very clear that learning how to make a million dollars playing poker is no easy accomplishment. Time, volume, winrate, and stake level are all important components that will determine how quickly you achieve your goals. Complicating matters is that every stake level you go up the competition becomes harder and your edges will become smaller ceteris peribus.

Starting small and building a solid foundation is the key to success in poker. It could take years to build a strong enough foundation to play high enough as a significant winner. I’ve written extensive poker strategy articles on everything from preflop tactics such as how to 3bet, 4bet, 5bet, 6bet to advanced postflop tactics like bluffing style, metagame, etc . I encourage you to check those posts out.

Scaling Your Poker Game To Make A Million

Building Strong Poker Fundamentals

This is vitally important to your journey. Only with an incredibly strong foundation can you hope to scale your operation. In order to play three tables simultaeneously as well as you play one table you’ll need to understand the game at a deeper level. At some point it simply won’t be possible to process the information effectively even if you do have a good foundation. In my opinion having a human playing quality poker is only scalable up to round 4-8 tables. After 4-8 tables the quality of your decision making will begin to suffer. It might still make sense to play more tables assuming your winrate doesn’t drop too much and depending on your overall strategy but its good to be cognizant of the above.

Maintaining Your Winrate Multitabling

Focus and fundamentals are the key here. You will need to automate as many decisions as possible and save your mental energy for tricky hands and players. Its good to have all your technology setup well so you can be in the zone as well :). Some players love to use games controllers and hot keys so they can maximize their efficiency.

Tracking Your Poker Results

The moment you try to scale your game its even more important that you keep a close eye on your play. Its easy to start losing quickly and barely notice when you are playing a large number of tables. Scaling up on a weak foundation can lead to enormous losses so be careful :). I suggest just adding in one or two tables at a time.

Studying Your Poker Game

Once you scale your game you’ll want to put some time aside to make sure that you are frequently studying your poker game and working to improve it. This is a critically important part of how to make a million dollars playing poker. The best in the business have worked hard to get their game to where it is today. Frequently reviewing hands will also help to avoid any exploitive plays your opponents may be doing against you, which are going to happen more often if you are multi-tabling and less aware of potential leaks.

Playing Exploitively While Multitabling

Many multi tabling players miss critical opportunities to play exploitively. In my experience the poker players who do best when scaling / multitabling are the ones who are able to still keep exploitive tactics in their game. Remember, some players at the table will be very weak and this presents an enormous opportunity to improve our win rate.

Good luck making that million folks! Let me know if/when you do :). In the meantime be sure to check out my book Exploitive No Limit Holdem.

-ThePokerCapitalist

The post How To Make A Million Dollars Playing Poker appeared first on The Poker Capitalist.

Why Playing Poker Full Time Is Fun!

1. Poker Is A Competitive Game: In fact, because of the money directly involved in hands it may be the most competitive game there is.
2. Poker is Fun: Yep, its a bit of a rush to be involved in a big hand…. Anyone who has played the game knows that your heart may skip a beat when you involved in a big pot!
3. Poker is a Complicated/Challenging Game. If it wasn’t hard it wouldn’t be that fun… Poker is an incredibly challenging game made all the more complicated and at times frustrating by human nature.

5 Reasons For Serious Players To Quit Playing Poker

1. You are losing too much. Gambling within your limits is important for winning players and losing players.
2. Downswings are driving you crazy! This can happen to even the best of players. Sometimes its helpful to just take a short sabbatical from the game and recalibrate.
3. Its not fun anymore! If you aren’t having a good time at it then perhaps you should stop, seems like common sense to me….
4. Opportunity cost is too high. If you could be doing something better with your time it might be best to lay off the tables.
5. Family – many people just don’t have the time with all the other commitments that come with having a family.

Why Its Hard To Quit Playing Poker

1. Giving up the dream is hard. Many players dream of someday making it big like Chris Moneymaker or Greg Raymer but very few ever will. Increasingly, in today’s poker environment there are fewer and fewer rags to riches stories. The only players who make it big have to grind and grind and grind to get there.
2. Not Having A Job Can Be Fun. Yep, if you are able to play poker and not work a 9-5 for some period of time in your life that is a pretty cool experience. It can be tough to walk away from that level of freedom with your time.
3. Taxes – many jurisdictions around the world do not tax gambling winnings creating an additional incentive to try to win at the game.
4. Addiction – some players get hooked to the game. I believe this is far less frequently encountered in poker compared with other gambling games but it is still present. If you have a particularly addictive personality poker is probably not the game for you.

Tricks On How To Quit Playing Poker

Learning how to quit playing poker is difficult at the best of times. However, there are a few tricks that can prove helpful if you decide you’ve had enough of the game.

1. Find something else in your life to take up your time. The busier you are with other activities the less time you will have to play!
2. Delete any and all poker clients from your computer – not seeing them will help to keep it off your mind.
3. Unsubscribe from emails from poker companies – not having it top of mind can make a difference for some people.
4. Travel – there is nothing like new experience in life to keep your mind active and distracted
5. Sports – not only do they help to keep you in shape and unwind they can also be a great way to keep your mind away from the felt!

Hope you enjoyed the post!

-ThePokerCapitalist

The post How To Quit Playing Poker appeared first on The Poker Capitalist.

TAG Bluffing Style

Bluffing as a TAG in poker is a lot different than bluffing as a LAG. TAG’s get a lot more respect for the quality of hand they have when they bluff. Many TAG’s mistakenly believes this means they can or “should” be able to bluff their opponent off a hand. However, its important to remember that when you employ a TAG style of play your opponents range of hands by the river will be tighter than the range of hands a LAG faces on the river. Ironically, in many ways it is easier for LAG’s to bluff river because of this dynamic ^. Against a solid opponent I would say that TAG’s have an easier time bluffing flops and turns but it is more difficult for them on the river than a LAG. Here are three good lessons for TAG’s. TAG’s are generally in the 20-24% range of hands pre-flop at 6-max at least.

1. Be careful firing river bullets against players who are only going to the river against you with a a super high quality range of hands.
2. Bluff weak opponents who go to the river with wide ranges and have you pegged as a nit. Many recreational players mistake TAG’s for nits.
3. Double barrelling the turn can be an effective bluffing strategy for TAG’s against players who assume if you fire the turn “you’ve got the goods”.

LAG Bluffing Style

The beauty of being a LAG is that nobody knows what you have :). LAG’s have the most flexibility with respect to bluffing style, but they also face challenges and occasionally receive a frustrating lack of respect for their bets. Here are some good rules to keep in mind. Generally, I define a LAG player as someone who plays over 24% of hands pre-flop (at 6-max) with a high pre flop raise number as well.

1. Be cautious aggressively bluffing when you are on a hot streak as you’ll naturally be playing a wider range of hands than usual and may come across as a maniac
2. Just because you are a LAG doesn’t mean your opponents know you are a LAG. If you are new to a table and have a nitty image take advantage of this to steal some pots.
3. Customize your bluffing style to the specific style of opponent you are playing. Identify players who don’t like to make big river calls and put them to the test – its in your nature anyhow :).

How To Bluff As A Nit

Bluffing as a nit can be a huge mistake if you don’t do it properly. In some ways bluffing as a nit can be the easiest thing ever. However, you have to be careful that your opponent is only playing the nuts against you :). Generally I define a nit as somebody who plays a range of hands less than 20% (at 6-max)

1. Watch out for the nuts! This is pretty much rule #1 since Villain’s range will be awful tight against you to begin with.
2. Bluffing pre flop is often better than post-flop. Nits will receive a tremendous amount of respect for pre-flop 3bets, 4betting light, and even flop bets.
3. Don’t do an outrageous and perhaps desperate looking bluff. One of the mistakes that nits often make is they bluff in a really stupid manner and expect their image to do all the work for them. A well made bluff is like telling a good story you have to lay the foundation for it.

Having The Guts To Bluff

Not many players are able to put their stack on the line in a big moment without the nuts – this is simply the fact. Have you ever bluffed away a full stack with absolutely nothing? Try it sometime… It sucks when you get called but its pretty darn cool if you can pull it off. Young players tend to be more fearless and willing to pull the trigger on dramatic bluffs, which is part of what makes them incredibly dangerous at the felt. In order to get paid off when you have major hands it helps a great deal if people know you are capable of pulling off a massive bluff!

Till next time folks, best of luck at the tables!

-ThePokerCapitalist

The post Bluffing Style – Developing Your Unique Approach appeared first on The Poker Capitalist.

Libratus Poker Bots Versus Humans

Libratus poker bot is just the latest in a long line of efforts to make humans obsolete on the felt. I’ve played against Neo Poker Bot in the past, which was a pretty solid heads up poker player. There are undoubtedly many others that are also functioning, which are less publicly known. Increasingly, when you play poker online it is possible you are playing against a bot. As most of you know I encourage my readers to play exploitively whenever possible. As long as you are doing that and table selecting well, poker bots aren’t too much of a concern. Even if Libratus poker bot is at the table you can win by beating the other players sufficiently :).

Will Poker Bots Destroy Online Poker?

Yes, I think its very likely that online poker as we know it will cease to exist in the coming decades. However, change is incredibly slow and by the time that happens you probably won’t be playing poker anyhow :). Libratus poker bot is just the first of many poker bots that will emerge with each one getting progressively better. As these bots become increasingly prevalent online poker volumes will also decrease. Recreational players do not want to play against online poker bots.

Over the coming years poker bots will increasingly undermine faith in online poker. As this happens recreational players will play more live or seek similar experiences.

Online Poker Virtual Reality Future?

Its likely that virtual reality will becoming increasingly important in the world of online poker. Recreational players will naturally migrate toward this as they feel the increasing presences of poker bots. Virtual reality can allow people to play conveniently from their homes in a live like environment. Additionally, you can benefit from the liquidity that online poker offers without the negatives of playing bots. Unfortunately, the ^ will spell the end to the era of the multi-tabling online poker regular. Few will want to play in virtual reality with someone who is playing 20 tables and looks like a robot :).

As always the online poker environment will continue to be dynamic and rapidly changing. Libratus poker bot should serve as a wakeup call for online poker players that their window of time in history is likely closing. In the coming years or perhaps decades online poker bots will increasingly dominate online poker. In the meantime before the bots takeover you may want to check out my book Exploitive No Limit Holdem :).

I don’t mean to be overly pessimistic ^. If you make your living playing poker you should be good for 5-10 years, but keep in mind the window is closing. I have some good posts lined up for 2017 so be sure to stay tuned. Also, some exciting news as the company I co-founded GoFetch.ca just launched!

-ThePokerCapitalist

The post Libratus Poker Bot AI – Slaughtering Humans appeared first on The Poker Capitalist.

What Is The Jesus Seat

The Jesus Seat is the seat directly to the left of a weak opponent (“fish”) at a poker table. Where did the name “Jesus Seat” come from? It became known as this because “miracles” tend to happen when you are in the Jesus Seat. In this case miracles means your win-rate skyrockets, which is what most players want to see happen. Have you ever seen a player run it up from $100 to $1400 at a $.5/$1 table? Generally, that only occurs when a good player has the seat to the left of a weak player. Some people say that being classified as the Jesus Seat means you have to have nits on your left as well. I disagree, simply being to the left of a maniac is enough :).

5 Reasons Why The Jesus Seat Matters

Position, position, position. We all know the importance of position in poker, and when you have the Jesus Seat you will far more frequently find yourself in a positional advantage versus a weak opponent.

1. 3-betting and isolating opportunities arise more frequently when you have this seat. Its easy to say position matters, but what does that really mean? In this case a good tangible example is that it gives you the opportunity to isolate 3-bet before anybody else can at the table. Opponents may start 4betting light, but that isn’t frequently seen except at the highest stake levels.
2. Post-flop you are able to see the actions of the weak player before you need to act. This can help you to avoid some sticky situations that arise when maniacs are at the table and pushing pots.
3. You won’t get 3-bet every time that you raise. Maniacs often have very high 3-bet percentages, which makes it difficult to play hands cheaply pre flop. Seeing them act before you decide whether to open or not is a major advantage.
4. Your Winrate will rise the more frequently you have the Jesus Seat. If winning I the ultimate goal then the jesus seat is a real thing….

Is Sniping The Jesus Seat Ethical?

Why not? Assuming that you are adhering to the terms & conditions of the website it seems just fine. If you are always jumping to the left of a weak player and they are annoyed by it then you should probably stop. However, table & seat selection are both a big part of online poker and if you want to win then you need to accept the reality that is. Poker is a brutally difficult game to win at and if you are going to stand a chance you’ll need to take advantage of almost every edge that is within the rules.

How To Get The Jesus Seat

Seating scripts are programmable to identify and snag the jesus seat. Seating scripts are becoming increasingly popular, and I recently did a pretty good product review on one, Need-4-Seat. This is the only product review I have on my website at the moment and I did so reluctantly because of the importance of this software for serious poker players.

1. Table Camping & hopping. Opening a large number of tables and then hopping to the Jesus Seat when given a chance can be a highly effective strategy. However, with seating scripts in today’s games you may be too slow as tables fill up in seconds now.
2. Watching open tables and immediately snagging the seat to the left manually. Before seating scripts existed, watching open tables was high effective. In todays poker games this is less frequently seen.
3. Click, click, click when a player is sitting out and appears to be leaving in the Jesus Seat. This is a real thing and can be a highly effective strategy. If you have a seating script you won’t need to do this.

Grab my book Exploitive No Limit Holdem where I discuss exploitive strategies to help you boost your winrate.

-ThePokerCapitalist

The post Jesus Seat In Poker – Snipe It! appeared first on The Poker Capitalist.

What Is Table Camping

The most common form of table camping occurs when poker players abuse the “sit out” option when playing in cash games. However, I would define table camping in a much broader way than ^. Table camping is more a matter of intent than anything. If you are sitting at a table but not intending to play unless a specific event occurs (which presumably is what you are waiting for), I would classify that as table camping.

Table Camping At Heads Up Games

One of the misnomers about this term is that you have to be “sitting out” to qualify as table camping. In fact, if you are sitting at 100 tables and you only intend to play if one particular fish shows up then you are effectively table camping. Many of the pioneering table campers were high stakes players looking for fish or waiting hours or even days to get a big fish over at PokerStars high stakes games. Over time the strategy spread to lower and lower games and is now prevalent all over heads up games on every poker network.

Table Camping At PokerStars

PokerStars has more table camping than any other network in my experience. In fact, I would say that players at PokerStars were the original creators of table camping en masse. Interestingly, many of the most edge seeking behaviours originated out of PokerStars which is one of the most dog eat dog websites in the poker world. I have written extensively in the past about why I don’t play on that network, and why if you do quitting PokerStars makes sense. Table selecting bots also initially made their appearance over on PokerStars and in many cases were proprietary before spreading to other networks.

Why Do Players Table Camp

There are a few reasons why players engage in table camping.

1. It can be an effective table selection tool. If you open a lot of tables but only want to play with fish this give you an opportunity to cast a very wide net.
2. They are trying to datamine hands. In some cases you can not collect hand histories at a website unless you are sitting at the table. You will at times see players who camp out at a table just so they can collectt data.
3. Tables are filling up to quickly due to seating scripts for somebody not operating a script to get a table, in many cases players who don’t have seating scripts will say screw it and be the worst offenders at table camping. Is this even wrong? In fact, you can add this to the list of problems that seating scripts have brought to the game.

How To Stop Table Camping

1. One option is to limit the number of tables that players are allowed to have open. Of course, this can also have an unintended affect on mass multitasking players who you may or may not want to limit.
2. Time limit for sitting out. The problem with this is that it opens up tables for “stalking” where one player can chase you round a network and if you don’t want to play him you will lose all your tables. Table stalking has increasingly become an issue. In some cases I have even seen table stalkers who were stalking players so their seating scripts would function better, lol.

Table Camping & Poker Scripts

If you are trying to table select but you find yourself consistently losing out to seating scripts table camping can be an effective way to counteract them. Most seating scripts require you to “capture” the tables that you want to be seated at if a weak player shows up. One way to combat this is to constantly open new tables and close old ones, which can make things very annoying for someone trying to run a script. Additionally, if you open enough tables some seating scripts limit the number of tables that they allow you to capture.

If we could rewind ten years or so none of the ^ was really a problem. As players have become increasingly desperate to maintain their edge and their winnings this kind of behaviour increased in frequency. Grimming, stalking, table camping, they all kind of go hand in hand and are a product of the tough poker environment that we face in 2017.

Hope you liked the article, I always welcome feedback. Don’t forget to pickup my book Exploitive No Limit Holdem if you haven’t already!

-Paul (ThePokerCapitalist)

The post Table Camping In Poker appeared first on The Poker Capitalist.

PokerStars Is The Hardest Website To Win On

This has been the case for at least a decade. The caliber of play on PokerStars is higher than on any other website that I have every played on. I say this having played well over 1 million hands of online poker in my life on a wide variety of different websites. Given the importance of table selecting in poker, quitting PokerStars makes sense.  

Five Reasons PokerStars is The Worst Poker Website

1. PokerStars is not connected with a major sportsbook. People go to PokerStars purely for poker and are less inclined to treat the game like a casino game.
2. Marketing Focused on building “champions”. For years PokerStars has focused its marketing on the possibility that if you play enough and try hard you can be the next Chris Moneymaker or Greg Raymer. The question to ask yourself when you’re trying to make some money online is do you want to play against aspiring “champions” or somebody having a fun time on a Friday or Sat night gambling it up?
3. Supernova Program. Supernova Elite players are good, in fact, they are damn good. They all make various amounts of money but all of them share two things in common. First, they are all solid players, and second they all play an incredible amount of tables. Unfortunately, this means tables at PokerStars are saturated with super solid SNE’s.
4. Rakeback Incentives. Even for players not earning SNE status, PokerStars gives back a large % of what they take from their high volume players. Theoretically, this makes the website attractive to play at and has helped them maintain a strong core group of supporters. However, this has also led a lot of players to essentially become “rakeback” winners dependent on PokerStars maintaining the level of their incentives for their income. This is a dangerous thing IMO and we recently saw with SNE cutbacks that players shouldn’t trust PokerStars to always be so generous. The bottom line is heavy rakeback incentives have contributed to the best players adopting a mass multi tabling strategy which further dilutes what little action there is on the website
5. Poker Software – Because PokerStars has the most volume online it has been at the cutting edge of technological shifts in the industry. Unfortunately, most of these shifts have been negatives for players. Increasingly, players rely on software programs to table select, analyze hands, and even to tell them how to play poker. These programs are able to analyze quantities of data that no human can process and are rapidly changing the nature of the game.

With the ^ in mind quitting PokerStars makes a great deal of sense.

Five Ways PokerStars Conquered The Poker World

1) PokerStars Technology Advantage 

Frankly, they do a great job with their software. There are major advantages to having deep pockets and a strong technology team. PokerStars has both and they have done a great job with this. PokerStars understand the key needs of its users and they do a great job of ensuring that the software is simple, smooth, and fun to interact with. Many website have tried to “gamify” poker, but PokerStars sticks to the key points that have helped to make it successful which are smooth, reliable, and fun tech for users. Unfortunately, cool tech doesn’t equal profits for a poker player…

2) PokerStars User Interface (UI) 

Everything is intuitive and makes sense with PokerStars. They put the buttons in the right places, they know how to execute a good user onboarding flow, they choose appropriate colors, and they build in amazing features by listening to users. What other website on the internet can you, “run it twice” on? That’s pretty darn cool if you are sick of experiencing horrible bad beats and want a little bit more balance in your results.

3) PokerStars User Experience (UX)

Again, I would day the overall user experience at PokerStars is second to none. This is part of how PokerStars has seduced the poker community into backing it and loving it. There are many evangelical PokerStars supporters out there and I would say a lot of that stems from the high quality overall user experience. However, if you include ability to win in the “user experience” and weight it appropriately (since winning is the primary goal) then their ranking plummets to the bottom.

4) Payments 

Second to none. PokerStars has been reliable for over a decade even through the dark years following the UIGEA. Its hard to find more trusted poker operators. Having said that, I haven’t heard of any issues with payouts from major poker operators (top 5) in years now so this isn’t a major benefit.

5) Liquidity

Generally speaking poker player players want action, and they want action 24/7 at numerous games and numerous stake levels. PokerStars provides that and may other websites do not. This makes it difficult for other networks to compete. PokerStars still has a liquidity advantage in some games which is a big part of the reason for their ongoing success. In standard poker games like mid-stakes NLHE playing on stars doesn’t make a lot of sense unless you want to play more than 20 tables concurrently.

How To Choose Your Poker Website? 

Here are five key factors to consider when choosing your poker website.

1) Be honest with yourself. Are you playing to win or are you playing to play? If you are playing to play then PokerStars it the right place for you. If you are “playing to win” I think you can do better than PokerStars.

2) “Action” needs to be the number one factor determining how you choose a website if you are serious about playing and winning online. Some players will have no choice but to turn to a high volume website like PS, but players who play lower stakes or less specialized games shouldn’t just play on Stars because everyone thats good plays on Stars.

3) Exchange rate considerations. Many European websites offer an exchange advantage if you are used to dealing with USD.

4) Check google trends, as you can see PokerStars has been in the dumps for a while.

5) Choose a network that isn’t on the downswing. It takes time getting used to a network so you might as well choose one that isn’t dying :). In my years of playing poker I witnessed the death of several poker networks and it always took a few weeks to settle in to a new network

Conclusion from the ^, quitting PokerStars makes sense.

Should Everyone Quit PokerStars?

Quitting PokerStars won’t be the right decision for everyone, but it should be for most micro stakes players right through mid-high stakes. If you are playing ultra high stakes or non Hold’em games you are probably stuck with PokerStars. However, lower to mid and mid-high stakes Holdem players should have no issue finding better action on other websites.

We know the overall poker industry is in decline these days, but there are still some websites that are doing an exceptional job of making their platform attractive to poker players.

One example of this is Bovada, which has seemingly effectively marketed anonymous poker tables to its user base. For those of you who have followed my blog for some time you will know that I am not the biggest fan of anonymous poker tables, but its hard to deny their effectiveness with respect to volumes on the Bovada networks.

Choose a network that isn’t on the downswing. It takes a bit of time to adjust and get used to a network so choose one that isn’t dying :). In my years of playing poker I witnessed the death of several poker networks and it always took a few weeks to settle in to a new network.

Quitting PokerStars Is A Personal Choice

Nobody has more information to make the decision about what the right network is than yourself. You should always takes articles like the ^ one with a bit of a grain of salt :). If switching networks puts you on terrible tilt the negatives may outweigh the upsides. If you are crushing it on Stars and don’t want to quit, then by all means continue. However, IMO the majority of poker players who are on PokerStars would see much better results if they played elsewhere. The action is very poor relative to the overall poker landscape and even the benefits are starting to decline. I wrote about this recently as well in my article on PokerStars VIP Changes.

As always, I hope the tables are treating you well out there :)! Quitting pokerstars may turn out to be the best decision you make as a poker player. Meanwhile, be sure to take a look at my book Exploitive No Limit Holdem where I discuss money winning strategies for todays online poker games.

-ThePokerCapitalist

The post Quitting PokerStars – Is It The Right Decision For You?! appeared first on The Poker Capitalist.

What is a Preflop 6bet?

After a 2bet and 3bet comes a 4bet, and after a 4bet comes a 5bet, and after a 5bet comes a 6bet. It is the 5th time that a person has raised the pot preflop, and the 4th time a player has re-raised the pot preflop. Years ago the 6bet wasn’t even a thing. Today, you see it more and more frequently at deep stacked games in both cash and tournament environments.

Should you 6bet In Poker

Well, in today’s hyper aggressive poker games where 3bets are often light and so are 4bets the 5bet has become a fairly standard move. With that being the case it becomes increasingly important to have the ability to pull the 6bet out where appropriate against hyper aggressive 5bettors. We previously wrote about the “5bet Shove – The last bet“, but that was so 2014, haha.

Actually, the key isn’t really what year it was the key is what stack size you are playing. 100BB poker doesn’t really allow for 6bets to take place unless they are shoves. However, deep stacked tournament poker and deep stacked cash game poker certainly does.

Why Should you be 6betting?

If you are an aggressive 4bettor who is frequently 5bet, you will need the 6bet. Most of the time when a 6bet is appropriate is when the 4bet and 5bet have both been small. Increasingly, you will see small 3bets, 4bets, and ultimately 5bets. In tournament poker at the WSOP it is common to see min or close to min reraise bet sizing. As a result this leaves room for outsmarting your opponent a bit and playing Exploitive NLHE, which as you all know from my book is the strategy I find works extremely well. I shared a little graph here just to brag for a minute, which I rarely do :).

WSOP 6bet Politano & Stephenson

The 2014 World Series of Poker was an incredible example of a leveling war that occurred between two highly aggressive players. The beauty of Politano’s play is that he forced Stephenson to put his tournament life at risk with an A5s shove, which is tough to do under pressure. You can check out the play on Youtube if you want. I love seeing what some of the best players in the world are doing under pressure. Frankly, it makes crushing low stakes games seem pretty easy.

How do you 6bet?

Here are some points to consider before going ahead with this risky maneuver.

1. In the WSOP example above Politano had a clearly defined purpose. Politano was convinced Stephenson was weak and by putting in a 6bet he could force his opponent to fold or be a super sicko and shove.
2. Bet sizing is very important. Sizing of a 6bet bluff should not be significantly over a min 6bet sizing unless you are 6bet bluff shoving. The reason for this is an oversized 6bet can leave you pot committed based on the equity you have and the amount remaining to cal if your opponent 7bet shoves.
3. Having a deep understanding of your opponents playing habits is massively beneficial. Most of the time when you see this kind of situation arise it is from a history of frustration where a player is expecting the Villian to 5bet even before he does.
4. Generally, you need to be a highly aggressive player to ever consider doing this. If you aren’t the ranges will not be side enough to make it profitable.

Levelling Poker Wars Are Fun 

That is effectively what we are talking about in this post. When aggression is extreme and nobody is willing to back down the 6bet can become an essential tool. 6bets are effective in tournament poker and in deep stacked cash games. I was at a 10/25 NLHE game three or four years back that only runs during the BC Poker Championships and a highly skilled regular at the table pulled off a solid 6bet and showed the bluff. Needless to say the guy who did the 5bet became very visibly frustrated. He said, “what the heck am I supposed to do” and then went back to being a nit, haha.

Exercising Caution 6Betting Light At Low Stakes Games

Whatever you do after reading this article please don’t run around 6betting like a maniac and then complain that it doesn’t work. Generally, at lower stakes games, ranges are not be wide enough and players are not be good enough to justify this kind of super sicko play. However, this is a fun article to write and I thought it might interest some of you anyhow. When it comes to playing winning solid poker online at low to even mid-stakes games the 6bet should be largely unnecessary.

Anyhow, hope you enjoyed this post and good luck out there at the tables. Online cash games are difficult, and its important to be creative and aggressive when playing. Grab my book Exploitive No Limit Holdem too if you haven’t already!

-Paul

The post The 6bet In Poker – Gotta Love It! appeared first on The Poker Capitalist.

For those of you who follow my blog on a frequent basis you will notice that I have not been posting on a frequent basis lately. This is because earlier this year I founded a company called GoFetch, which is a rapidly growing pet services marketplace company. I sit with our team of developers everyday and I have no doubt in a matter of a few weeks to months we could have a profitable poker bot running. This is not something that interests me but it is a reality.

The Danger of Poker Bots

1) Poker bots are winning at an increasing rate.

I recently received the following notice from a major online poker network. I edited out the networks name and the amount being refunded but this is a major network an the sums were not insignificant.

“Dear Paul,

We’ve recently completed an investigation into some accounts on the ———– network which were identified by ———– security measures as players using  “poker bots” to play on the network. 

The use of this 3rd party software is strictly prohibited, ———— have managed to seize funds and have redistributed them to players affected.

As part of the investigation we found some play where you were directly affected. As a result we will be crediting €—- into your poker account today. This will get credited in the US dollar equivalent.

We are happy to say that none of the bot players held accounts here at ————-. And remain committed to supplying the safest environment possible to place bets and play poker. We’ll continue to vet new account registrations using various security measures to ensure we maintain the integrity of our games. 

Good luck at the tables and best regards,

Kind regards,

Louise”

I strongly believe based on what I have been hearing that bots are rapidly becoming much better and more difficult to detect. Its highly likely I should have been refunded more than I was.

2) Poker bots are difficult to detect 

Developers are working to make them increasingly difficult to detect. This is like an arms race and the security departments of major poker networks are consistently one step behind the developers who are innovating and finding ever more creative ways to get around bans.

3) Poker Bots Harm The Ecosystem 

Unfortunately, when people read an article like mine it makes them less likely to want to play online, and rightfully so. It bugs me that poker scripts and bots are increasingly taking over online poker. Recreational poker players will have little or no interest in playing online poker if this situation continues to worsen.

4) Bots Are Unfair

There is a human element to poker that is both fun and frustrating at times. For example, getting 2 outed three times on the river in large pots is frustrating and can negatively impact your play. Poker bots are not in the least bit thrown off by standard human emotion. This is what makes them difficult to compete against and it is also a big part of the reason it is unfair to have them online.

Poker bots mixed with real people makes their unfair advantage even greater. It is normal to assume some human emotion on the other side of the poker screen, but that is not a fair assumption anymore with all the poker bots out there. This is something to keep in mind the next time you think a reg out there is “steaming”. It might just be a bot :(.

5) Poker Scripts Are Close To Bots

Call me old school since I first started playing poker over 10 years ago now, but I find these poker scripts like the one ^ basically just one step before a full bot. Table selection is an important part of the game, and this places it entirely in the hands of a computer script. If all that poker is about is who has the fastest script and who has programmed the best bot that is a pretty sad state of affairs for online poker. .

6) Are Poker Bots Theft? 

This is a tough question to answer. When the terms and conditions clearly ban the use of bots it is highly questionable behavior to be using one, I look forward to hearing your comments.

How To Combat Poker Bots

1) Watch For Unusual Non-Human Behavioral Patterns

This is the easiest way to detect a bot rapidly. In the past I found bots were a bit easier to detect than lately. In some cases you could find bots that insta folded when you 3bet back on the flop even if it was just a min 3b. Why? In some cases, poker bots were programmed to bluff or semi-bluff raise and fold regardless of the 3bet back size on the flop.

2) Quality Table Selection

I always emphasize this and have written extensively about poker table selecting in the past. If you aren’t playing at a table with a weaker player these days watch out. Competition is strong and increasingly you are competing against poker bots.

3) Don’t be Arrogant

Poker bots are highly sophisticated and they benefit from the ability to process large volumes of information. Incredibly intelligent people are actively working on iterating and improving poker bots. They benefit from of hundreds of thousands of hands (even millions of hands) of data to analyze and iterate to make the poker bots better. It is natural to assume that bots will eventually become superior players to humans. I would argue that we have now arrived at that point in many games across the internet.

Anyhow, sorry to be the bearer of bad news but it is what it is. For players, it’s good to know what is going on in the industry and keep your head up. This is a depressing post to write, but it speaks to the state of online poker today. I can also tell you the email I received is not the first one of its kind. In the past 6 months I have received a few refunds despite not playing frequently. This speaks to the prevalence of poker bots in todays games. I hope you enjoyed my blog.

All the best out there! Don’t forget to get my book too :), Exploitive No Limit Hold’em.

-ThePokerCapitalist

The post Poker Bots In Online Poker appeared first on The Poker Capitalist.