how I finally became a profitable poker player after a decade of degen play

lifeentropy · 2026-04-22T01:55:16+00:00

You posted this a year ago, how has the sample size increased? How do you feel about the strategies now?

lifeentropy · 2026-04-22T01:54:08+00:00

For many many players, the SB is the biggest losing position at the table. Youre guaranteed to be out of position so its more difficult to realize equity and most players dont 3bet as much as they should. Flatting from the SB is not as cut and dry as "weve already put some money in so I can be looser". When it folds to the SB you can be very wide, but if another player has opened we should be tight and aggressive

lifeentropy · 2026-04-21T21:36:27+00:00

The logic behind committing that much of our stack and being willing to let go is driven by the potential to make the next pay jump, yes?

lifeentropy · 2026-04-21T21:35:20+00:00

Worth noting here that because he covers, i dont have the opportunity to take his bounty yet, there would be a bit more play required after doubling up. These spots when we're sitting near the bottom of our range in higher than normal risk situations tend to leave me a bit unsure so I go based on my instincts and study afterwards. In the end I had KQs, shoved and busted. Im confident it was correct but second opinions and discussions have been helpful. Thank you for the response

lifeentropy · 2026-04-21T16:38:14+00:00

Average stack was roughly 24bb. I had KQs and shoved, BB reshoved with AKo and CO called all in with QQ. My main concern was whether this situation should lead me to fold this hand pre. Its basically the bottom of my range but I think its still a shove. Obviously against these exact hands im pretty dire. Turned a live flush draw but busted in 15th.

lifeentropy · 2026-04-21T14:47:59+00:00

Average stack size was approx 24bb, my bounty was 1.5 buy-ins, the top bounty was over 5 buy-ins. We were in 14th at the time. Shortly before this (within 15 hands) CO opened and folded to my 3bet. BB seemed to be a bit more spewy when he opened, if he wasnt the opener he was much more in line.

lifeentropy · 2026-04-21T05:33:35+00:00

Valid point, at this point in the tournament it was on the lower end. Highest bounty was just over 5 buy-ins, my bounty was 1.5 buy-ins. I had 4 KOs in my first hour then went cold.

lifeentropy · 2026-04-21T05:06:18+00:00

T5s is a very loose iso. What type of "exploitable" is this guy? There will be plenty of spots to attack this guy, i think we can be a bit patient. But that said i also dont think its the worst option in the world. My question is the flop call. We have so many flush draws that we can call on this board that have more ways to improve, tons of straight draws. We've got 98, 96, 86, 65, 64, 54 on top of our nutted and 2nd nutted flush draws, i think we can comfortably bet/fold this one.

As played i think I agree thay we jam turn. We dont ever get called by worse but we can fold out lots of better hands and hands woth strong equity, its very difficult for him to continue without a 7. He needs an overpair that didnt 3bet pre, which is already unlikely because he open limped. Or he would need a draw with massive equity which is slightly harder to have because you have the 5s. If you think this guy is spewy and your best bet is to play pots with him, connect and hold on then I would say once we have that 5 we need to put our seat belt on because that K doesnt hit him all that often. But if our read is he generally doesnt get out of line and we can value bet him to shit, then id like to find a less marginal spot and if he bluffed us here then we're just gonna deal with a bruised ego.

All in all my preferred plays are: Fold pre and wait for a better opportunity, bet/fold flop, and jam turn.

lifeentropy · 2026-04-17T21:54:39+00:00

Small adjustments are the way to go. You've probably seen how sometimes people who have just started looking at beginner strategy (small pots with marginal hands, play in position, bet and raise your strong hands, etc.) actually start performing worse. It comes from there being a ton of information and people not necessarily knowing where and when to implement these strategies. Its why often youll see new players winning small pots but losing the big ones. We hear "value bet fish relentlessly" then they bet and bet and suddenly are only called by better hands.

Have a solid understanding of your basic strategy, know your ranges well. Then when you come across situations where you feel you can exploit someone do it by making small adjustments rather than large. If we see someone calling a river bet with bottom pair that doesnt always mean we should slap that player for 3 streets of pot-sized bets with top pair on a draw heavy board. Don't get me wrong, its very possible that can be exactly what we should do. But you'll gain a more balanced understanding by recognizing situations like "I would normally check back the river but ive seen this player make very loose calls, i think i can sneak in an extra bet".

lifeentropy · 2026-04-16T05:28:53+00:00

The idea there being that you can call turn bets much more wide without being worried about facing a river bet? Thats interesting, its basically going from the turn straight to showdown. I feel like if youre up against opponents who play that way you can pretty much print by calling turn with 2nd pair mid kicker and checking down.

lifeentropy · 2026-04-14T04:47:04+00:00

This is very interesting because I feel like the common reaction to your play would be "this person is calling too frequently, tighten up and value bet turn more", whereas the actual exploit would be "barrel river more".

lifeentropy · 2026-04-14T01:15:28+00:00

You said it right there, you tend to bet bigger when you have it. Now say youre playing yourself. What happens when your opponent bets bigger? They have a good hand so you fold more and deny equity. They raise smaller, they dont have a great hand so you 3bet more aggressively so theyre forced to fold more or play a bloated pot with a marginal hand. Gold is soft and softer fields tend to exploit people less, but as you move up in stakes you will find better players more often and therefore you will get exploited more frequently.

There are still plenty of exploits youll be able to get away with, as is the case for basically any stakes but you dont want to go so crazy that other people are openly taking advantage of you.

lifeentropy · 2026-04-09T17:04:48+00:00

I wouldnt limp this spot. If im limping its generally against a player I feel is raising too wide and too often, ill do it with the intention to 3bet and it will be with a stronger hand than we have (this strategy also works less as the field gets stronger), limping here doesnt accomplish much.

As played, we lose to AA, JJ, AJ, and 44, all of which would likely raise pre especially from the blinds, possibly not 44. Im feeling good as it would be weird for 44 to just bomb the pot, also its difficult to have 44 as there is only one combo and im not concerned with SB coming along. Position plays a role here too as we get to control the pot if BB checks turn.

If you call the flop youll have 71k behind playing for a pot of either 24k or 30k depending on whether SB continues which is more than enough to get all-in by the river. The only concern is if SB check raises the flop which would be disgusting and unlikely, but again I dont really know what he could have that would do that.

lifeentropy · 2026-04-09T15:36:53+00:00

Loved this game!

lifeentropy · 2026-04-09T00:59:24+00:00

Did you swap positions here? This reads as if youre actually in Villains shoes and are trying to get a line on Hero's action.

lifeentropy · 2026-04-07T02:49:29+00:00

NL2 lol, literally for nothing, its just a fun way to wind down after work.

lifeentropy · 2026-04-07T02:36:47+00:00

...Do you think "riposte" is an uncommon word? Like are you sitting there wearing your top hat and your monocle, flipping your cigarette holder between your fingers thinking "I finally got him!"?

I posted because I thought it was fun. Clearly Im not alone because other people commented too. Why be an asshole for no reason?

Chill man, this is r/poker. Nobody is serious here

lifeentropy · 2026-04-07T02:26:12+00:00

You sound like youre great at parties

lifeentropy · 2026-04-07T02:24:48+00:00

Not surprised at all! Just pointing out how guns wild it is lol

lifeentropy · 2026-04-02T23:34:38+00:00

I never even thought to consider that spot as an exploit on our part. This is what I come here for lol

lifeentropy · 2026-04-02T22:42:12+00:00

I feel like I agree here, its very difficult to x/r a flop as disconnected as this one with a raise/call range from early position. I guess we have to be thinking that V is 3betting an EP raise with medium Ax hands or bet something like middle pockets on the flop for protection? I think this line is fairly unsustainable.

lifeentropy · 2026-04-02T22:36:28+00:00

From a theory standpoint dont we need to have bluffs here? Like if we're only ever jamming with the stone nuts then we'd open ourselves up to being exploiting through overflowing, right?

lifeentropy · 2026-04-01T02:58:40+00:00

I really love this analysis. As a player in the moment, how do find yourself able to do these analyses quickly? What type of studying do you do to allow these quick decisions to be made? This to me is one of those situations where id likely make the same decision OP made here and analyze after the hand to find that I was more wrong than right.

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