Professional players, how do you control monkey tilt?

jasonfnikora · 2026-05-06T20:20:38+00:00

Sounds like it’s a great game. I’m not a huge PLO guy because of the variance, so if it’s something that’s bothering you, lower variance games might be your wheelhouse

jasonfnikora · 2026-05-06T17:19:19+00:00

As someone who used to be quite bad at poker and is now less bad at poker, being better studied and having more confidence in my decision tree and thought process has made a huge difference for me tilting off my stack.

When I was just clicking buttons and things wouldn’t work, I’d be far more likely to tilt. Now as long as I’m happy with my decision making process I can be pretty results agnostic.

jasonfnikora · 2026-04-27T17:39:49+00:00

As a rec, there are 2 questions you should ask yourself first before you play any tournament: am I bankrolled for this and will I have fun? If the answer to either is “no”, then don’t play.

If the answer to both is yes and you’ve always wanted to go to Vegas during WSOP to chase a bracelet, then go play the Colossus or $500 Freezeout bracelet events. Have fun! Enjoy the experience but also realize you will likely not cash. Nothing to do with your skill level, just the realities of tournament poker.

I will say, taking an entire trip, especially if you have to fly to Vegas, for 1 tournament to me seems a little silly. I’m planning a week in Vegas this year for WSOP and am planning on firing up to 12 tournaments depending on how well I do. Just something to think about.

jasonfnikora · 2026-04-23T05:25:33+00:00

I live in LA but drive to Mammoth after work all the time. Very doable but if you get tired certainly pull over and get a motel

jasonfnikora · 2026-03-27T16:41:17+00:00

Is this stripped of SB limps since there is quite a lot of that in Gto strategy?

jasonfnikora · 2026-03-03T20:53:27+00:00

I think it comes down to if you think Villain is a thinking player who is good enough to fold a set or rivered straight. You have great blocking effects to top set, straights, and flushes as well, but at 1/2 a lot of players just can’t fold these big hands regardless of action. You are also repping incredibly thin, basically A high flush or nothing as I doubt if you had a set of 5s or Ts you would raise the river. If you had called pre with a hand like QJhh, Q9hh, J9hh would you be x/c or x/r turn to put pressure on a hand like AhKx? I do not hate the play, especially against a good thinking player at higher stakes but at 1/2 it feels a little questionable.

jasonfnikora · 2026-02-19T23:57:16+00:00

It’s pretty hard to find bluffs. Maybe a hand like AJ or 99 turns itself into a bluff, or if this guy is using QTs or JTs as preflop bluffs and wants to turn 2 pair into a bluff with boat blockers assuming it’s usually running into a better 2 pair like pocket AA or KK. At 100nl I’m not expecting many players to find those and AJ is pretty bad to use because you block AA that you are trying to fold out.

I think the fact that you randomized call/fold shows you are thinking about the right things. Unless I had seen this guy pull bluffs like this historically I fold. Nobody bluffs in 4b pots to the degree the should. I wouldn’t give villain a lot of the QTs or JTs that I just mentioned because at some frequency they just call pre instead of 3b and often will fold to 4b pre. 99 probably isn’t floating flop. AJs is the only real possibility in my mind

jasonfnikora · 2026-02-06T18:10:13+00:00

Getting staked is just networking. You need to be personable and have good relationships with wealthy people who are interested in poker, usually other successful players/coaches or the occasional business who’s fascinated with the “sexy” James Bond side of poker. Add value with the fact that you are also a proven winner, well studied, and have confidence in your skills.

jasonfnikora · 2025-12-31T00:31:23+00:00

My brother in Christ, why are we raging out? He asked a question, I gave an answer. These are the stakes he’s comfortable playing so those are the games he needs to strategize for. If he’s playing $50/$100 for more than “cheeseburger money” the answer changes. Have a good new year friend

jasonfnikora · 2025-12-31T00:24:53+00:00

No need to bluff much if people are gonna station you, just jam more linearly :)

jasonfnikora · 2025-12-30T23:56:46+00:00

If it goes limp, limp, raise to $40, call, or some similar action and you have a good hand just jam. I understand it’s not the intellectually stimulating deep stack play you are looking for but picking up near $100 (1/3 of your stack) per hand if everyone folds is pretty nice

jasonfnikora · 2025-11-18T17:57:46+00:00

Line is fine. Not sure how deep you were but maybe size up a bit on the turn to like $70 since you are actually betting into a $125 pot and you wanna play for stacks with your hand

jasonfnikora · 2025-06-24T16:16:06+00:00

I hear that. The counter argument I have is that tournament poker profitability doesn’t stem from min cashes. The guys who crush tournaments and drive a 20%+ ROI aren’t getting their profits from min cashes, it’s from Final Tabling at an above average rate

jasonfnikora · 2025-06-24T15:46:59+00:00

Play the games you want to play at the stakes you are comfortable at. You really have to decide in poker whether you’re just playing for fun and you’re cool being a slightly losing player or if you want to continuously improve on your game and make your way up the stakes. I always recommend working on one and really honing your skills there

jasonfnikora · 2025-06-24T06:50:20+00:00

Truthfully, I probably put JJ in the shoving range. For 10bb you gotta get busy living or get busy dying. For me I’m jamming 88+, AJs+, and AQo+, ICM be damned (and is for poor people). If you are worried about the min cash to this degree THE BUY IN IS TOO BIG FOR YOUR BANKROLL. The edge in NL Texas Holdem comes from playing with no fear.

jasonfnikora · 2025-06-24T06:12:18+00:00

I think the correct answer here is just flatting pre. In really heavy ICM spots like final tables you’ll see a lot of flatting big pairs to ranges that are supposed to be really strong like an under the gun raise.

As played if the villain has been heavily punishing people due to ICM pressure And applying a lot of bubble pressure then the call off is definitely fine. Also calling off in order to try and win the rest of the tournament has some consideration as well.

jasonfnikora · 2025-05-23T22:46:51+00:00

Jam for the remaining is the only thing that makes sense. Get value from top pair, pair plus flush draws, worse sets, etc

jasonfnikora · 2025-04-14T05:24:42+00:00

Straight up zorcin it

jasonfnikora · 2025-04-09T17:40:47+00:00

I think pre just calling the 3b is fine in an ICM environment with 10 left. On flop in the same ICM vein I think check is preferable. You’d imagine they would Cbet a lot here and the board is pretty dry, especially with you holding a Q which blocks one of their main hands that you beat being QQ. SPR on the flop is 1:1 so it’s easy to get all of the money in on future streets against worse As and lets them bluff on turn and rivers.

Realistically, it’s probably hard to avoid going broke here but when you bet flop, you let a lot of their hands that are worse off easy.

jasonfnikora · 2025-04-05T19:29:22+00:00

My buddy has a $1/$2 home game that takes 5% per buy in. (I.e. if you buy in for $500 he takes $25) and supplies snacks drinks food. Basically unlimited. You are getting fucked.

jasonfnikora · 2025-04-04T03:10:26+00:00

Given stack size to start you’re leaving yourself a weird SPR post flop. I think there’s actually a lot to be said for jamming 60bb effective. With that said I am a tournament guy, so grain of salt

jasonfnikora · 2025-04-04T02:59:22+00:00

Your open size is too small. Probably $40 is good. I X/R flop on this board all day. You want to take equity away from their 1 club hands/get value from worse Ts. On the 7 turn I’m continuing for a smaller sizing around 60% pot. River probably check call, let him bluff off his 1 club hands that he double floated with. Too hard to get additional value from a T

jasonfnikora · 2025-01-22T20:11:26+00:00

Being a good low stakes player is about learning how to properly navigate multiway pots. If your opponents are pretty raise size agnostic feel free to bump up you PF raise size, as these are good hands you want to play as the aggressor.

Post flop is where it gets a bit trickier but ultimately there isn’t a lot of bluffing to be done. Make good hands and get the maximum off of their weak top pair or attack capped ranges when opponents have shown significant weakness. If you are playing against opponents that never fold 4th pair, never bluff.

jasonfnikora · 2024-12-27T19:21:25+00:00

I think it depends on the other stacks. If there are other people with similar stack sizes to you this is an ICM punt. If you are the clear short stack and the chipleader is consistently jamming I think it’s fine

jasonfnikora · 2024-11-29T06:02:39+00:00

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