This week’s podcast has a set of tips that might transform your poker game overnight. That’s because we’ve compiled the best advice a bunch of our coaches have ever received. Any one of these ideas alone can invigorate your bankroll. Listen now to hear how our coaches answered:
“What is the best piece of poker advice you have received?”
Doug Hull
Hull’s best advice comes from fellow RCP coach Ed Miller, who coached Doug way back when and immediately got him double-barreling more than he ever had before. He learned to exploit $1/$2 players by overcoming the idea that every bluff needed to tell a story.
“They’re not necessarily going to realize that you don’t have anything in particular that you’re repping, because they’re not thinking at that level.”
Christian Soto
For Christian, “stop playing like a nit” was the mantra of success as his game came into its own. Famous for an unpredictable, often LAGgy style, Soto has good reason to follow the advice, it’s been quite profitable.
“If you can win a hand in a situation where most players can’t, that’s what’s going to set you apart.”
Listen to Podcast #2 to hear more from Soto on how to play a looser style.
Mike Gano
“Get a coach” are the three words that transformed Gano’s game at warp speed. He said: “The coaching more than anything else in my poker career has had the single biggest improvements.”
“We can’t know what we don’t know.”
Dr. Tricia Cardner
Our resident mental game specialist plays a lot of MTTs. She related some advice from fellow RCP coach Jonathan Little about being aware of how other players look at you.
“Use your image to your advantage.”
Jonathan Little
Little’s words of wisdom relate to running bad. How bad is a bad run for a tournament player? A few months? Try a few years. You will run worse than you can imagine.
“If you are playing in tough games and your edge is not huge, you’re going to have a lot of downswings… Especially if you are playing tournaments with a lot of players.”
Gareth “Gazellig” James
“If in doubt, fold.” It’s a simple but powerful proclamation, especially for tournament play. It will literally save your poker life more times that you may think.
“Check your ego at the door.”
James “SplitSuit” Sweeney
You are in control of what you do, the decisions you make, and your reactions. There is much you can’t control, and you can’t get caught up in worrying about it.
“There’s no point in getting mad about something you can’t control.”
The best piece of advice I have had, is to defend my BB more often, and learn to play better post flop. I got this from watching Jason Somerville. This has made me much more unpredictable and has gotten me to play more post flop poker better than I could have imagined.
That Jason Somerville is always doling out great advice! (BTW, congrats on improving your postflop game…that’s a HUGE skillset to have!)
I’m a student of the game and have played online for years, but was intrigued by live poker. OK, I feared it as I thought I was easily readable and was way off. I learned I was actually a story teller and I got to chose the story through my play and not though my face. I’m still getting used to it and have chosen to play small tournaments until I plug my many holes live play brings.
So after I started winning, and losing, I chose to make these holes disappear. I picked up an app called InstaPoker, a Jonathan Little product. It showed me where aggression falls into the overall strategy and how to be more in control of the play vs react to what is played, and won the very next tournament easily.
I will say, Jonathan may have taught me the skills, SplitSuit gave me the courage to DO it. I am totally a fan of always writing the story.
Congrats on the success Dan! Glad I could help you in any capacity =)
I’m extremely new the poker world (just had my first play a week ago) and the advice given in this episode will be of use along my path to learning the game. Want to learn poker as one of my list of “Things I Want To Do in 2019”. Picked up Ed Miller book “Getting Started in Hold’em” as my introduction to this new world. I found this site through a YouTube interview he did. Looking forward to scavenging through this site.