So, you’ve decided that you want to try to grind out a living playing online poker? Good luck to you in your quest! Be forewarned that it’s a difficult road, and a lot of players can be great at poker but still lack what it takes to be a successful, day-in/day-out grinder.
Video Poker For A Living
To make up for these losses I was grinding eight tables online simultaneously for up to 15 hours a day. When I wasn’t playing, I was drinking to the point of blacking out to cope. It was still a grinding way to make a living, sometimes requiring Wright to stare at a computer for 24 hours straight. But he'd spent his teens pulling World of Warcraft all-nighters. Wow, Glad you love it but I feel like London is terrible. Cost of living is way to high. And If you are earning enough grinding poker to travel anywhere in the world you are better of living elsewhere. Just over a decade ago I quit my job to play poker for a living. At the time of Black Friday I was mostly grinding tournaments, sit-n-goes and cash-game Omaha variants at online American poker sites. Since live poker in Kansas was a little thin on the ground, it was apparent I would have to move. The term is also often used to describe people who play poker to make a living; players who brave “the daily grind”. Grinding is the opposite of the “high risk, high reward” betting mentality. Usually, these cautious players stick to low stakes to ensure a steady intake of profit.
Nonetheless, here are a few tricks that successful grinders learn to accept:
Practice extreme bankroll management
Some poker how-to guides state that it’s acceptable to have as much as 10% of your online roll in play in any given tourney or cash-game table. That is way too high; the variance of the game itself will ensure that a grinder wannabe will go broke sooner rather than later. 2-3% per table is more acceptable, and 1-1.5% may work as well.
Mind your stakes
Don’t move up in stakes until you’re well bankrolled for the attempt, and if the move doesn’t work, then step back down until you’ve rebuilt your roll for another shot. Variance isn’t higher by itself at steeper buy-in levels, but the higher stakes by themselves assure that greater percentages of your roll are in play at any given time.
Know your daily profit
Your average days have to be profitable, not just your best ones. Just because you’ve won $200 on a handful of different days doesn’t mean you can grind out a successful living. In fact, if that’s your ceiling, you almost certainly can’t. It’s far too easy to focus on the good days and forget about the bad ones, but it’s the net daily profit that really counts. Oh, and track your wins and losses, too.
Rethink your ideas of your “best” game, adjust
So your best game is no-limit hold’em? Or pot-limit Omaha? Congrats, that holds for everyone else, too. In reality, your best game is the one in which you hold the greatest net advantage over your typical mix of opponents, whether that’s NLHE, razz, or badugi. If you’re the world’s greatest H.O.R.S.E. player, you might not always find the game you want, but you should be prepared to take advantage of your edge when the right games pop up.
Know the best times to play
Online poker is available 24/7, but within that dependable anytime there are still times when each player should focus his or her efforts. Many grinder pros do much of their playing Friday, Saturday and Sunday, when the casual players – “weekend warriors” are at their peak numbers. Others do better at certain times of day, since European players favor a slightly different mix of games and playing styles than their American or Australasian counterparts. Another tactic is to play when others are most likely on tilt from playing poker too long. Find your comfort zone, set your schedule, and stick with it.
Take breaks
For most players, the longer they play, the more automatic and weaker their game becomes. Recognizing that you’re losing your competitive edge in a long session is just one part of practicing tilt control. If you’re tired, hang it up for the day. Poker requires a clear head and focused thought, and anything less is just giving your money to your opponents.
Author:Joseph Falchetti (twitter)
(C) Copyright PokerWebsites.com, 2018
A Slave to Variance - The Grind Often Sounds Easier Than It Is
Grinding Poker For A Living Organism
By Matthew 'Yorkshire Pudding' Pitt
When poker players begin winning money for the first time they often start to wonder what it would be like to be a professional poker player. The envisage being able to sleep until 11:30 a.m, log onto their favourite online poker site, play a handful of Sit ‘n’ Go (SNG) or Multi-Table Tournaments (MTT), win those and then spend the rest of the day living a rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle.
I may be going out on a limb here but I doubt I would be wrong if I said that there isn’t a single professional poker player whose life is like this. Some of them would like you to believe they are some millionaire playboy, but in reality they spend hour upon hour chained to their machine, grinding dozens of tournaments each day in an attempt to keep the dreaded variance at bay.
When you first start playing poker you want to play as much as possible; it seems like every waking minute is spent playing poker. What started as a hobby, a hobby that saw you play one or two tables at once for an hour or two on an evening has progressed to a mission to play four-to-six tables for three hours every night. Surely playing full time isn’t that hard. Surely I could work my day job and then play seven or eight hours every night. Try it, go on I dare you. You won’t last very long!
Every aspiring poker pro hits, what is best described as, “the wall.” It is similar to “the wall” that long-distance runners hit when they have pushed themselves to the limits of their endurance. Once you start to increase your volume, that is play more games and for longer periods, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep yourself motivated to play, especially if you go on a prolonged losing run.
“The Wall” is a horrible place that has scuppered the career of many poker players. When faced with “the wall,” playing poker is difficult in itself and logging any amount of serious volume is almost impossible. So how do you overcome it? How do you push yourself onwards and upwards and start to realise your dream of becoming a professional poker? Hopefully these few tips will help.
Maintaining Motivation While Grinding Poker Tournaments - Set Yourself Small, Achievable Goals
Your end goal may be to quit your day job and play poker for a living, but that goal could be several years into the future. Such a distant goal is difficult to focus on and that can make playing poker seem pointless. Setting yourself clear, achievable goals helps keep you focussed in the short-to-medium term.
Maintaining Motivation While Grinding Poker Tournaments - Treat Yourself With Your Bankroll
Most poker players follow a bankroll management system that governs what they can play, but how many of them have a withdrawal system? By withdrawing between 3-8% of each buy-in you invest, you will have a regular income from your poker playing.
For example, if you play a $10+$1 SNG, withdraw $0.33 a wage, this way you can plan ahead easier and are rewarded for your hard work even if and when you are losing! Great, huh?
Maintaining Motivation While Grinding Poker Tournaments - Have a Hobby Outside of Poker
Poker is a game that can and will burn you out quickly so it is important to have interests away from poker. Start going to the gym on a regular basis, take up reading again (not poker though), become a movie buff or play video games. Having an outlet from poker that you can turn to when the chips are down – pun intended – can save your sanity and your bankroll.
Along with skill, poker players need mental toughness. Doyle Brunson once famously said about poker that 'it is a hard way to make an easy living,” and he is 100% correct. Poker isn’t a game for everyone, it is a game that can chew you up and spit you out again minus your money. But if you get it right and can find the right balance between poker and having a life then it can be one of the most rewarding games that you will ever have the joy of playing.
Online Poker For A Living
Some More Articles On Grinding Sit n Goes And Tournaments
- 5 Tips For Becoming An Effective Sit N Go Grinder
Grinding Poker For A Living Well
- How To Multi-Table SNGs Part 1 of 2
Grinding Poker For A Living Person
- Best Poker Games To Build Your Bankroll (focuses on SNGs)