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Table of Contents

Foreword …............................... -3

1. Bankroll Management …............................... -4-

1.1 Conservative vs Aggressive BRM …............................... -5-

1.2 Switching between BRMs …............................... -6-

2. PokerStars Client Settings …............................... -7-

2.1 Color Coding …............................... -7-

2.2 Player Notes …............................... -10-
2.3 Preferred Seating …............................... -12-
2.4 Run It Twice …............................... -13-
2.5 Betslider Settings …............................... -15-
2.6 Auto Rebuy …............................... -16-

3. Tracking Tool HUDs …............................... -17-

3.1 Context of Stats …............................... -17-

3.2 Interpretation of Stats …............................... -19-
3.3 HUD Warning …............................... -21-

4. Session Planning …............................... -22-

4.1 Session Length …............................... -23-

4.2 Isolation …............................... -24-
4.3 Supplements …............................... -24-

5. Number of Tables …............................... -25-

5.1 Test Your Mindset …............................... -26-

5.2 Finding Your Optimum …............................... -27-

6. Game Selection …............................... -27-

6.1 Zoom Pool Selection …............................... -27-

6.2 Regular Game Selection …............................... -28-
6.3 Starting Tables …............................... -29-
6.4 Seat Selection …............................... -29-
6.5 Stay or Walk Away? …............................... -30-

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Foreword

Since starting my project „Grinding it UP!“ on July 22nd, 2013 I have constantly been
receiving messages, postings, tweets and questions about my approaches or opinion
on certain approaches to playing 6-max no limit cashgames at various stakes.

Many of them have been covered at least to some extent in some of my videos, live
trainings or streams. Quite frankly, I wasn't nor will be able to cover certain aspects
or details of my approaches or opinion on others in depth. So I had the idea of
creating a guide that would help poker players and followers of different experience
levels in different areas in and around the game of Poker they keep having questions
on or issues with.

My goal is to make sure that this guide is something both a beginning microstakes
and a more experienced small stakes grinder can refer back to when they need
input. It will be about what I think is important when you start a bankroll building
project like „Grinding it UP!“ and play 6-max no limit cashgames.

The yellow guide will not deal with actual strategies or concepts of playing 6-max no
limit cashgame poker, but instead cover how I advise to get set up for building a
bankroll with 6-max no limit cashgames. In the future I am looking to continually add
new parts that will deal with strategic guidelines, recent adjustments or new
approaches concerning preflop and postflop play as well as other topics revolving
around psychology or mindset issues.

A lot of the content my guides provide will be heavily coined by my personal

experience of playing and teaching poker since 2007 so be aware that while I am
taking a certain approach or have a strong opinion on others there will be tons of
poker players, instructors or coaches out there who approach things in a completely
different way and it works best for them.

After all Poker is a highly complex and constantly evolving game. Winning at it does
not require you to follow the guidelines that somebody else set out for themselves
because they optimize their performance.

Keep in mind that developing your own game and your own approaches is key to
become successful in the longrun – as is the willingness and motivation to constantly
work, improve and adjust them!

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1. Bankroll Management

Starting out with a bankroll of $80 at a microstakes level like 2NL might seem
overcautious or protective to you. In fact it actually is, as you could definitely start at
the lowest available level with less and don't run into too big of a risk to lose it all
unless you make large or constant mistakes. Whether at Zoom or regular tables your
average opponent will be fairly easy to handread and beat with basic strategies
which in turn can decrease variance. However, this will certainly be the quest you
are looking to solve - especially if you are just starting out for the first time. So don't
let yourself be fooled into thinking you can get away with less by impatience or lack
of appreciation for small money. Your money is your working material, nothing more
and nothing less for now.

To me starting with 40 stacks of 100 big blinds each is more of a symbol for my work
ethic in Grinding it UP! A stable bankroll is the key component to becoming and
staying a successful poker player, hence it is important to treat it with respect and
manage it responsibly. If we constantly exploit or abuse our own working material
we are risking the foundation of our job. Another very important aspect to consider
in that regard is the potential harmful psychological effects a bad bankroll
management can have on us, putting you under:

a) the stress of a fearful „make it or break it“ mentality the closer your bankroll
approaches 0 („If I lose these stacks I will have to [move down in stakes/be done
with poker]!“)

b) the chains of limiting yourself to certain plays or refraining from profitable ones
(„I think this [call/bluff] here should be correct 60% of the time, but if I'm wrong I'm
losing too big of a bankroll chunk!“)

Good money management leaves your mindset less vulnerable to pressure, tilt or
rough variance and allows you to constantly put the necessary focus on good
decision making.

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1.1 Conservative vs. Aggressive BRM

The process of switching stakes is always going to pose a number of problems. First
of all, your average villain may improve or play worse in relation to what you were
used to before. Adjusting to the play of what I call a „population“ [an entire player
pool of average villains] can be tricky regarding strategies and gameplanning, but
most importantly things happen in your head.

But let's first look at numbers and see how you can find good routines to climb up
the ranks while minimizing your „risk of ruin“ [the probability of your bankroll hitting
0 despite sticking to proper bankroll management].

I define two different methods of managing my bankroll:

a) conservative BRM [40 stack rule]

b) aggressive BRM [40 + 4 stack rule]

-5-
1.2. Switching Between BRMs

The conservative method is my standard approach and when looking to move up in

stakes I switch to the aggressive method. This process may be tricky in some regards,
especially for your mind. In general there is nothing wrong to always stick to plan a),
but there are a lot of upsides to employing plan b) too which I will list soon below.

In order for my mindset to know when it is correct to switch between the two plans I
am looking for the following circumstances to be met:

1. I have 40 stacks for my current stakes

2. I feel highly confident about beating my current stakes
3. I am highly motivated to take a shot at the next level

It may be very frustrating to move up in stakes, lose the money set aside for the shot
and having to move back down again. Mentally it may feel like taking one step
forward and two steps back, but it actually never isn't. Think of taking a shot as
playing a freeroll with only positive consequences:

If all the above conditions are met you will have no problem making money at your
current level and the shot can not only grow your bankroll or progress, but also the
wealth of your experience, your poker horizon and eventually your longterm EV.
Needless to say that we as humans need to sometimes put ourselves up with a new
challenge of striving higher.

„If you don't move forward, you will be left behind some day.“

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2. PokerStars Client Settings

Before you play your first session make sure your client settings are optimized such
that you can follow a good routine and not stumble over technicalities that may slow
you down or distract you from making good decisions.

2.1 Color Coding

Putting color labels on villains is a nice feature that allows me to categorize and
remember a certain opponent. At regular tables it helps me selecting the best or
softest available tables, in Zoom it helps me remember specific villains from a large
population pool and many of their tendencies. I have come to find that „less is
more“ in this case.

I use color labels to characterize very basic character models like:

To illustrate these categories in an optimal way for my mind to quickly absorb I use
intuitive colors that symbolize my approach to play against these players. As I expect
recreational players to play unconventional hands, use nonstandard betting lines or
betsizings I want a color to reflect my need to exploit this. A regular on the other
hand will be more likely to stick to a certain gameplan or strategy and I will need to
go into stats or notes more to exploit his specific mistakes. In this context green
suggests „go!“ while red tells me to „stop and think!“ like traffic lights would do.
Everyone has their own preferences here so you need to figure out what works best
for your mind.

-7-
Here's a sample table to show you what indicators I tend to use making first
assumptions and categoizing players as soon as I sit down:

Stacksize

The players with full stacks who are auto topping up whenever they blind down are
more likely to be regular players who are familiar with useful features of the client
software and interested in maximizing profit in each single hand they play. Players
who only bring short stacks to the tables or don't reload are more likely to be
recreational players who have set amounts of money they want to play or gamble
with.

Gameplay

Note in this example how the fullstacked regular only minopens on the button while
the recreational player calls from the SB which are both reflective plays of these
players' basic tendencies. Check for people limping a lot, calling raises instead of
opening or 3-betting themselves and using unusual betsizes. Those typically
loose/passive tendencies are indicators for soft action.

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Status

The Button seems to have grinded quite a fair bit as suggested by his Platinum Star
and is thus more likely to be a regular, while the Bronze Star seems to be playing
only a couple of hands from time to time suggesting he may be a recreational player.

Smartphones/Tablets

Players on these are more likely to play recreationally as they won't be able to use
software like Holdem Manager or Pokertracker. This may suggest they are actually
not mainly interested in turning a profit but rather enjoying a recreational game of
poker somewhere.

Of course these assumptions need to be handled with extreme caution and

sometimes don't hold up once you have played a couple of orbits with people, so
revising your labels every other orbit is crucial!

Playing Styles

If you would like to be a little bit more specific with labels you could also try another
fairly basic system like:

• Loose/passive (green)
• Loose/aggressive (orange)
• Tight/aggressive (red)
• Tight/passive (brown)

I don't use colors to illustrate specific tendencies like „likes to slowplay“ or

„check/raise bluffs river“. These things belong into the notebox and should be
reviewed seperately from the basic playing style of an opponent. Even a
loose/passive player may sometimes decide to bluff!

-9-
2.2 Player Notes

Writing notes is a whole different topic and can be an art all by itself. You need to
figure out what information can be valuable for adjusting your play against a specific
opponent and note that down instead of noting down tons of confusing or even
misleading info. Try to avoid writing down stuff like:

a) „c-bets scarecards“

b) „slowplays sets“

c) „chases draws“

Try to always put info into their relevant context. So for „c-bets scarecards“ only note
it if he does it without any equity as pure bluffs often, for „slowplays sets“ add
drawy or dry board as the defender and for „chases draws“ add „plays his draws
passively and rarely bluffs if they bust“.

I usually only note down anything that I myself would view as a nonstandard play for
the average villain in my player population. Examples for nonstandard plays at lower
levels would be villain...

a) „...overbets river as a bluff“

b) „...valuebets superthin on scary rivers with overpairs“

c) „...is capable of bluffcatching river with A high when draws miss“

These things help me most when trying to make a close decision as they will guide
me towards action that I otherwise would not expect from the average opponent.
When taking notes I also try to get a rough idea of the fashion in wich villain
constructs his ranges or why he takes certain actions and chooses his betsizings.

-10-
Example:

I start out by differentiating between pre- and postflop notes, then go into specific
betting lines that deviate from standard play and add the appropriate ranges or
hands in connection to their boards in brackets right behind the note.

Find you own optimal way of note taking by experimenting with what type of writing
helps you in your decision making process while confusing you the least. Remember
you have to look at notes while playing and you will be pressured by the timebank to
make a decision quickly, so you should design notes to serve in the appropriate
context that you play in. Let's say for instance the average villain of the population
you play against doesn't bluff much with busted draws on the river, then a note that
helps you most will be the one that identifies the potential bluffers from the others –
not the one that reads „check/calls draws“ as most of your average villains will do
this anyway.

If you would like to take notes in the PS client, always make sure to copy/paste them
into the Holdem Manager or Pokertracker Notebox. You will need them for your
session reviews later too!

-11-
2.3 Preferred Seating

To me personally sitting at different positions on each table is highly distracting and

counterintuitive. My brain somehow isn't able to fully focus when my eyes have to
move a lot and „change perspective“ on my opponents. The PokerStars Software
allows you to pick your preferred seat:

I advise you to pick the spot at the table that appeals to your brain as the most
„intuitively correct“ position as it will tend to automatically focus on that position all
the time. Remember to also adjust your preferred seating settings in HM or
Pokertracker!

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2.4 Run It Twice

The RIT [Run It Twice] option allows you and your opponents to deal a board a
second time from the point in a given hand where either one of you was all-in. Each
run is played for half the pot.

This process does not affect the direct EV [Expected Value] of your play in the hand
in any way, it just multiplies the given decision which in turn is a possible means of
variance reduction – especially if it is a frequent spot like a coinflip. The more often
you run it the more likely it becomes to converge towards the expected longterm
result.

Of course it may seem unreasonable to give a weak player a second chance at

spiking his cards when you got him to put all his money in on a gutshot or with his
kings against your aces. You may look at it that way, but it can also be a very helpful
thing depending on:

Mindset

If you know yourself to get easily tilted when losing big pots to coinflips or suckouts
RIT is a possible means of reducing that chance – although I need to warn you that it
can never provide a cure to a damaged mindset, it only helps fighting the symptoms
of it occasionally. Also remember it can go both directions and be just as frustrating
when you lose multiple pots in both runs or chop pots that you would have won if it
weren't for the second board.

Bankroll

If you have a shallow bankroll (e.g. when taking a shot at higher stakes) RIT can help
smoothening the waves of variance and prevent you from having to end a shot
prematurely due to lost coinflips or bad beats.

Player Population Skill

If the average opponent in your player population is quite tough and aggressive -
especially preflop in your typical 3-bet, 4-bet, 5-bet game – then RIT may be a good
way to reduce variance as your estimated edge gets smaller.

-13-
Personally I like to have RIT ticked all the time and only make an exception for three
reasons:

a) I feel confident in my mindset and immunity to mental effects of taking bad beats
or coinflips

b) I am playing my stakes with a solid or even overcautiously large bankroll (e.g. 60-
100 stacks)

c) I feel like I have a great edge over my player population and will get my money in
much more frequently as the favorite

Regarding c) this may also apply to a certain regular table that I am playing where I
feel like I have a great edge over my specific opponents. In that case I can tick the RIT
option „By Table“ In the end RIT is an option that may be much more of a personal
preference thing to you. If something about it doesn't feel right to you, untick it and
take variance for what it is.

-14-
2.5 Betslider Settings

PokerStars offers you the option to use fixed betsizings for both pre- and postflop
decisions. Personally I tend to use them only for all the recurring standard spots like
open raising, 3-betting or c-betting.

These buttons are less helpful in spots that require deeper thought processes about
both your and villain's ranges, so be careful not to turn into an autopilot mode
where you stop thinking about the optimal betsizing for individual spots. After all we
are playing No Limit Hold'Em – the art of betsizing is what makes this game so
complex and beautiful at the same time.

Think about what betsizes you are using in your most frequent standard spots, try
them out at a sample table to doublecheck, note them down and put the result on
your betslider buttons.

Example:

Preflop hero is doing a standard 2.5bb open from the BU while raising 3bb from all
other positions. He usually makes it 5bb when trying to isolate a limper and mostly
3-bets the average opponent's 3bb open to 9bb.

Postflop hero bets the pot against recreational players with strong hands, 75% of the
pot on drawy boards, uses 50% for dry boards and 25% for the times when he wants
to induce bluffy action.

-15-
2.6 Auto Rebuy Options

For the regular stakes you play with a proper bankroll of at least 40 stacks I advise
using Auto Rebuy to top up to 100 big blinds after each hand. The reason for this is
that you are striving to maximize your EV at the start of every hand without suffering
from lost big blinds in previous spots. If you are facing a weaker player who has you
covered and you are not fully stacked when you get your spot against him you will
miss out on potential value.

If you are taking shots at higher stakes and plan on investing only a set amount of
shot money I advise to turn auto rebuy off. Instead just rebuy manually after a hand
as long as your shot money allows it. This will give you a much better and clearer
idea of where you are at with your bankroll on the shot. At the same time it's not
that big of a deal if a certain spot does not yield maximum value while
overextending after a lost hand through auto rebuy would cause unnecessary or
even serious damage to your bankroll.

If you are comfortable playing through shorter stacksizes due – specifically with CAP,
SNG or MTT experience – you may also choose to blind down on your stack without
rebuying.

Caution: This is definitely NOT an advisable strategy for beginners and less
experienced players as play with different stack depth requires a very firm grasp on
theoretical concepts like pot management, equities versus ranges and many more. I
will delve deeper into the intricacies of a blinding down strategy in a future
advanced chapter of the guide.

„Think again for 3 seconds, then click your button!“

-16-
3 Tracking Tool HUDs

There is a lot of different opinions out there on the use of a HUD (Heads-Up Display).
Some people would feel lost or „naked“ when playing without one, others don't
bother about buying a tracking tool and rely on their own reads or notes and yet
others even think it it can give an unfair advantage. I will be bold here and simply
deny all of these attitudes.

I think of a HUD as a tool that can be a helpful guide in making decisions but it won't
make decisions easier or even take them for you unless you make the correct
deductions from the info it presents. On the contrary it can even mislead you to
wrong assumptions.

3.1. Context of Stats

You always have to put stats into the context of the number of spots counted for a
certain action and especially for smaller samplesizes refer to those that converge
rather quickly. Here's a typical example that illustrate these aspects and show how
easily stats can give you a wrong idea:

You open from UTG and get 3-bet by a villain with a 16% total 3-bet on 250 hands. It
would be a serious mistake to assume this villain is very likely to 3-bet light for the
following reasons...

1. The samplesize of 250 hands is too small. Villain could just be running hot with
cards over this short period of time.
2. The total 3-bet % does not equal the villain's positional 3-bet stat from the BU
vs an UTG open. He could have been 3-betting from a lot of other positions
like the blinds or not even 3-bet any UTG opens so far at all!
3. Any 3-bet % - especially positional ones - need to be put into the context of
the number of spots that actually occurred. 16% on 6 spots equals exactly one
3-bet!
4. Villain might have 3-bet vs specific loose villains while he doesn't perceive you
as such or doesn't even have any info on you. Always be aware of the fact that
poker is a highly dynamic and reactive game where players will play hands
differently against certain opponents!

-17-
It is very important to focus on two aspects when looking for the help of stats:

a) Fast convergence or divergence: Some stats will give you a clearer picture of
certain tendecies much quicker than others. If you see a villain with a VPIP of 80%
over a small sample of only 50 hands the chances are very high of him being a
recreational player. Likewise, the faster VPIP and PFR grow apart (increasing VPIP
and decreasing PFR) the more likely it becomes for your opponent to be a
loose/passive player.

b) Positional distributions: Make use of and carefully construct popups that display
the positional stats to get a better understanding for what the core stat you are
looking at is composed of. To pick up on the 3-bet stat dilemma again: you will
encounter players who tend to defend their blinds passively much more often while
3-betting a lot when in position or vice versa. Before making any assumptions when
facing a 3-bet take a look into the popup to see in which positions and against what
other positions players will be likely to 3-bet lighter than usual.

3.2 Interpretation of Stats

Here is an overview of the stats I frequently use in my HUDs to categorize villains:

VP$IP (Voluntarily Put Money Into Pot)

This is the stat that will converge quickly. Numbers above 30 will mean that a player
is playing a lot of or even too many hands such that he might not be able to turn a
profit with a % of them.

PFR (Preflop Raise)

The further VPIP and PFR are apart the more likely it is for villain to be playing hands
in a passive preflop manner like limping, calling an open or a 3-bet cold.
-18-
AF (Postflop Aggression Factor)

It's very important to take a close look at the different streets. Some players can be
highly aggressive on the flop or turn and get very tight or passive on the river which
in turn forms a high AF.

In fact it gets even trickier here with stats like C-Bet (and consequently Fold to C-Bet)
as C-Betting frequencies can vary a lot on different boardtextures and with different
ranges (e.g. an UTG opener might be less likely to hit and c-bet a 678 2-suited board
although he has a high c-bet %). That is also the reason why I am not a fan of
including stats like „C-Bet“ or „Fold to C-Bet“ as they may just mess with your
understanding of how boardtexure and ranges – both yours and your opponent's –
work or don't work together.

W$WSF (Won When Saw Flop)

This stat is an indicator for how often a player wins the pot after seeing a flop and
thus usually reflects how hard he fights for pots postflop. It needs to be seen very
strongly in relation to VPIP which is best illustrated by an example. For someone
with a high VPIP and W$SF it becomes more likely that he is buying pots by
semibluffing or bluffing as he can't have or make a hand that often. For someone
with a low VPIP it's quite understandable that he wins the fair share of the pots he
plays as he selects stronger starting hands. So under the right circumstances this stat
CAN be hinting towards villains bluffing or giving up on pots too early – but be
especially cautious about drawing premature conclusions over small samples here.

3-Bet

It is very important to include both the positional 3-bet % and the 3-bet % vs a
certain position here as described in our 3-bet dilemma above.

Fold to 3-Bet

In order to start making money by 3-betting players who may fold too often you
have to use the standard open raise being used and the average 3-bet sizing you are
using at your stakes. Let's use 3 times the standard 3bb open raise and a 9bb 3-bet
as an example. Risking ~9bb to win ~4.5bb (including blinds) on average needs your
3-bet to work at least 66% of the time to breakeven. Don't worry about the math
behind this, I will go into calculations like that and the topic of autoprofit spots in a
future part of my guide. Right now just remember a reasonable border between
tight and loose is at around 70 to make sure you are in the profit zone when looking
for spots and villains to 3-bet light.

-19-
4-Bet Preflop

Apply the same positional distributions as in the 3-bet preflop stat. People will most
likely 4-bet – especially as a bluff – less in early position and more towards the
button or in the small blind versus the big blind.

Fold to 4-Bet

Similar to the fold to 3-bet %, but as your average 4-bet sizings tend to be smaller
investments than 3x the 3-bet (mostly somewhere between 2x to 2.5x) you need a
little lower success rate.

Fold SB/BB to Steal

These stats will mostly converge fairly quickly. After a couple of orbits you will
already have a decent idea of who is giving up their blinds too frequently. It is quite
natural for the big blind to have a higher defense % than the small blind as he gets a
discount and closes the action. This is also very important from the perspective of
game theory, but still far too many people will be giving up on their blinds too often
as they are afraid of playing marginal hands from out of position. In turn your opens
from late position become a lot more effective if you look at both high SB and BB
fold to steal numbers. Depending on the size of your standard open raise size on the
button you can calculate the breakeven point of your steal by multiplying the two
values. You can do this as an exercise here by yourself, but as already stated I will go
into the math behind things like that in a later part of my guide.

-20-
3.3 HUD Warning

For now just use these numbers as guidelines to where your potential profit
(exploitability) zone MAY start if your sample is large enough. And even if it is don't
forget that villains may:

a) change their play over a couple thousand hands (e.g. trying out new stuff, getting
coached etc.)

b) play differently versus you specifically (HM2 provides „versus Hero“ stats which
might be useful to include in your HUDs too!)

c) deviate from expected behaviour according to the stats you have on them due to
lack of correct context (e.g. an opponent with a Fold to C-Bet stat of 80% might
actually only fold 20% of his range on a certain board texture and with a certain
preflop range)

In large player pools I advise using HUDs mainly to help you categorizing villains and
their basic tendencies, but not make any premature assumptions about specific
tendencies. Instead keep looking out for how your opponents play their hands,
watch their betting lines, sizings and showdowns closely. Take notes and rely on
those more than you rely on your HUD.

„Always try to make use of a HUD, but don't let a HUD use you!“

-21-
4 Session Planning

Poker sessions are a somewhat special activity as the work that needs to be done at
the tables is so different from any other type of work you may be used to. It requires
you as a person in whole to be „stable“ (both physically and mentally) and „present“
(right there in the moment of a hand).

In some phases of my life I tried to really „work“ poker, follow fixed days and times
for sessions, play the same number of tables for the same number of hours and
calculate expected winnings by using my current win- and VPP rate. Needless to say
this approach quickly started to spell disaster for me: I started to feel pressured to
play, dragged down by having to grind through rough patches and even burned out
quickly.

Before starting a poker session you want to make sure that you will be able to bring
your A-game to the tables as instantly and for as long as possible. This means that
your brain needs to access both the most profitable gameplan you currently have at
hand as well as a positive mindset. Obviously since we are humans after all it will not
be possible on every day to get into this „A-game zone“, but we can try to increase
the likelihood of us entering it.

Personally I feel like a very good and strict routine can help this cause best. In order
to plan out and start a grinding session I try to follow a couple of easy guidelines that
I will elaborate on in this chapter.

-22-
4.1 Session Length

Set a timespan for a grinding session that is at least 1-2 hours longer than my
average session time. That way I never feel pressured during a session, risk going on
a rush or even start to panic with another appointment coming up soon („Oh, only 1
hour left and I'm down 4 stacks already...need to grind it all back up now fast!“). I
also know that I will need to take breaks and use time both during and after a
session to rekax mentally from the stress of constant decision making, review certain
hands or look up some strategy. Sometimes my session may run so well that I want
to exploit my A-game phase to a maximum in which case the extra hours come in
handy too.

Naturally, it is always best to play the most when you are not only playing well but
also running well. This will have a big impact on your confidence and game level as
things that you do just „work out“. When you have a session like this try to force
yourself to not become too content with quitting at a certain peak saying „Oh well,
just won enough for the day...let's book the win!“. Instead keep pounding as long as
you are enjoying to play. One reason for me saying that is: you will frown upon that
exact sentence next time you have to play through a rough patch. You will be
bringing significantly less A-game, mostly B-game and if things really go bad you
might end up dropping down to a tilted C-game.

At the very beginning of my poker career I used to be constantly making that exact
mistake over and over again. I would play my longest poker sessions while running
and playing bad, feeling all miserable, frustrated and fed up while constantly
eyeballing my cashier in hopes of getting closer back to even or up for the day. It
took me a long time and constant repitition of mental training to finally be able to
„just let a session go“, quit and come back another time. Just consider that the EV of
playing in such a state might be lower than 0 profitwise – and most certainly
mindsetwise – which oftentimes makes „not playing“ a better option than „playing“.

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4.2 Isolation

There is nothing more distracting than constant noise, Skype or chat messages, a
phone call, doorbell ringing or someone directly talking to you when you are
involved in a hand. If I had to sum up all the missed blinds, incorrect steals, 3-bets, c-
bets, folds or calls I have made in my life that happened under construction noise,
when I was answering a call, about to rush to the door, talking or chatting to
somebody I would probably be amazed by looking at an extra year's wage. In order
to avoid the influences these outside factors could have on both my decision making
or my mindset I try to find a secluded place to grind – or in case it can't be phyiscally
secluding use (noise cancelling) headphones.

4.3 Supplements

I don't advise to eat directly before or during a session, especially no bigger meals.
Your body needs all your energy to digest and won't be able to put it to good brain
use – just like it's the case with an athlete. Set aside a couple of small little energy
suppliers like nuts or energy bars instead and save the big meal for the time when
you have wrapped up your poker session.

Water has always been and will always be my best company during a poker session. I
highly advise you to begin a session already hydrated and aim at keeping your level
of hydration constant during sessions. There are many scientific studies, articles or
papers that state your brain operates much better when hydrated sufficiently and
that you will feel much less tired. Even if it weren't for those claims – try it out
yourself and play a session without drinking any water at all. I am pretty sure you
will notice a major difference in regards to your level of focus and altertness. Even if
drinking lots of water during sessions may mean you will need to go to the toilet
frequently – you're a cashgame player after all and thus have the privilege to take
breaks whenever you want to take them.

I advise highly against anything else but water. Other drinks, especially those with
sugar and caffeine in them (coffee, tea, energy drinks) will cause your blood sugar
level to rise and drop heavily after only a short period of time. I am definitely not an
expert on these topics and I don't want to go into it too much with superficial
knowledge, but this is what I found out to be working best for me personally when
looking to bring my A-game to the poker tables as often and for as long as possible.

„Be like water!“

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5 Number of Tables

During my entire career I have had stretches during which I would play a large or
even massive number of tables and there were times when I only sat at a couple or
just one single table. I have coached so many different poker players at different
stakes and got to see how different everybody is at handling different numbers of
tables at different times in their day, week, month, year or life.

That may not sound surprising at all, but I have drawn a very important lesson from
that which I will present to you at the end of this chapter.

5.1 Testing Your Mindset

Before I start playing I always try to check up on my brain capability the moment I
want to begin the session. Usually just listening to my inner voice or feel may be
enough to do so when I sit down at my computer. On other days I check my mental
fitness through certain exercises like solving some online puzzle or balancing on a
tightrope at the outdoor place where I work out.

You certainly know yourself best in all the different stages you may undergo during a
single day, so you can be the only person to know how many numbers of tasks (i.e.
tables) your brain is capable of taking on with maximum focus.

If you feel distracted, emotionally stirred up or exhausted it may be a good idea to

reduce the number of tables to the absolute minimum of your best possible
performance – even if that means just playing one table. On the other hand, you
should also consider not playing at all that day as it might turn out to be the decision
with the highest expected value after all.

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5.2 Finding Your Optimum

I have done a lot of experimenting with different sets, numbers and layouts of tables
– 2, 3 or 4 Zoom tables, even 8 with mixed stakes, 4, 6, 8, 12 or even 16 regular
tables.

Mixing stakes is something that I don't like to do much anyways because I feel that
general or specific tendencies and strategies may differ greatly between different
levels. Also the different betsizes can cause confusion and get you into a lot of
trouble during your decision making.

Zoom Poker

Personally I have found that in Zoom my brain can easily tackle 4 tables if I am on
maximum focus and motivation level. Being able to view those tables on just one
monitor is really helpful as I can channel all my focus on each single one easily. I
usually drop 1 or 2 of those tables as soon as I notice fatigue, confusion or the
pressure of acting in time. Timebanks run down the more you have to tank on
certain tables so closing and re-opening them is always a good plan when you play
up to four.

Regular Tables

My personal optimum at regular tables is 6 on average. The reason for this is that
spreading out tables on different monitors or sizing them so small that they all fit on
one cuts out a huge part of my possible attention focus. I might miss out on
important action, spots, reads or tells and end up playing those tables in more of an
autopilot mode. This reduces the potential edge to be had at regular tables greatly
as your strategies and adjustments should greatly depend on your opponents there.
Any infos you miss out on or don't adjust to might cost you potential profit.

Everybody has a different potential and capability of handling the stress of

multitabling at different times so it is important that you learn about yours by means
of experimenting and learning. Cut down on the number of tables in either format as
soon as you feel your level of focus, mindset positivity or A-game decrease. The rule
I set for myself here always is:

„Never play more tables than you feel 100% confident about bringing your A-game
to!“

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6 Game Selection

Your selection of when to play poker and what games to play will certainly have a
direct influence on your winrate. Playing tough player pools, sitting at competitive
tables and in suboptimal seats can decrease your potential margin while soft games
and good position on your opponents may increase it.

6.1 Zoom Pool Selection

Paying close attention to choosing optimal times for your sessions is always
desireable both for Zoom and regular table players. Player pools may be larger or
smaller, more passive or aggressive at different times.

There may or may not be proportionality between the size or the activity level of a
pool and its profitability for players with different playing styles. I suggest trying to
play at all possible times and getting a feel for how soft or tough the competition
plays in relation to your own playing style. It's also a matter of your potential
performance: Naturally your poker mind may function a whole lot different late at
night after a full day of work or activity than you do early in the morning after a
fresh start to the day.

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6.2 Regular Game Selection

If you play regular tables observing, picking and switching between the right tables is
crucial for your winrate. Of course if you just sit down at some randomly selected
tables or even choose to play tougher ones you may learn a lot, improve your poker
game and thereby increasing the longterm expected value for your overall game –
but it certainly won't be the decision with the expected higher shortterm value and
it may be connected with some heavy swings that you need to be prepared for
mentally. If you are looking to grind out a better hourly winrate there are some
basic guidelines that I suggest.

Players per flop or average VPIP

You can look at these in the lobby and sort tables by their ascending or descending
numbers. This will usually help you identify tables with the highest average action
and number of people seeing flops. Be careful, some tables just have high average
numbers here as they just started.

Don't bother using them as they usually will be a waste of your time and will not
help you in your goal to select a good table. By the time you get through the people
on that list chances are very high that the player(s) who were giving all the action
are already gone either busted or pocketing their profit so you will be left with all
the people with the same intention like you. Also, most recreational players hate
waiting for a poker game to start and they will not bother using them.

Observing average action

In order to find out if a table actually fits the kind of action you are looking for just
open it up and watch for one or two orbits. If you see people limping, calling raises
frequently, use unconventional betsizes or betting lines (e.g. underbets, overbets,
pointless bluffs) that's games you want to join. If the table's average action is a raise
plus folds or an occasional reraise plus folds – that's probably not going to be a
particularly soft game.

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6.3 Starting Tables

As already pointed out under 1. recreational players hate to wait (don't we all?) and
would like to jump right into the action. Help out by starting a new table, even get a
couple of hands going with another regular to get the game going for recreational
players to join. For a professional player I even feel like this is one of his duties as it
would be the case in livegames: be the host and entertainer for the people who are
looking for action.

Sidenote: It is considered bad etiquette to sit down directly to the left of another
player who started the table. Give them the courtesy of sitting across if you can, this
also allows recreational players to pick their spots between the two of you.

6.4 Seat Selection

We all know that position is key in poker and that playing out of position will always
be an uphill battle. Being able to pick your seat is a privilege that regular table online
poker players have, more than often even over live poker players who will be happy
about getting a seat in their favorite game at all.

When you have the chance pick a seat that allows you to have position over the
players you perceive to be the weakest at that table. That way you will be a fully
profit from opening your ranges preflop to get involved with the players who you
expect to be making the most or biggest mistakes after the flop. For that exact
reason your preflop hand selection will not matter all that much unless you start
making too many postflop mistakes with loose holdings yourself.

Avoiding to have both loose/passive and loose/aggressive players sitting to your

immediate left will save you headaches and also increase the potential margin of
playing loose yourself by opening or joining a lot of pots. Having players to your left
that are overly aggressive preflop will force you to either fight an increasing amount
of uphill battles or tighten up your ranges.

Even if you can't have direct position on the weakest link at a table try to pick spots
that are not too far away from that player. A good example for a beneficial setup that
will still favor you playing as many hands as possible will be sitting to the left of a
regular or loose/aggressive player who himself has position on the weaker player.
That way you will be able to join all the pots that they play and have position on
both of them.

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6.5 Stay or Walk Away?

There are two points during a single table game that „may“ cause me to leave that
table:

a) effective stack depth is 5% or more of my entire bankroll

b) action and dynamics get significantly tougher

In case a) you run into the danger of exposing your bankroll to a higher risk of ruin
by losing 5% or more of your bankroll in a single hand of poker. Losing a pot twice as
big as the regular pots you are used to may also have devastating consequences for
your mindset and ability to deliver A-game. Keep an eye on stacksizes at all times!

Case b) may sometimes not be as big of an issue as you may still be able to be
profitable at a given table, but you have be aware of the fact that you are now no
longer playing for maximum profits. Instead you are focusing to maximize your
learning experience within a tougher dynamic.

If you are looking to build your bankroll fast, keep swings low and move up quickly
through smaller levels you should make sure to always keep an eye on the
profitability of each table or the Zoom player pool you initially selected when
starting the session.

Playing aggressive regulars and finding ways to combat or exploit them can be more
stressful for your mindset than playing in a soft field of recreational players and tight
regulars. As long as you have a positive awareness of this and accept potentially
larger swings due to increased variance while battling it out with the regulars there
is nothing to worry about. You should also keep in mind that such a learning
experience can have positive longterm effects on your game.

Investing into higher variance spots as you explore smaller edges against tougher
opponents can help you become a stronger and tougher player regarding your game
and mindset. In case both are healthy don't pass up on an opportunity like that from
time to time. All the games are always evolving and you don't want to feel left
behind at some point moving up in stakes.

„Looking for soft competition in poker is always good for your winrate, but if at some
point you become the soft competition your poker will be good for somebody else's
winrate!“

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