Modern Day Poker Player Adjustments

It's often said that poker is getting tougher. The older generation like to share stories about how soft the games were back in 2006 and how you were pretty much guaranteed to win a buyin every time you flopped TPGK. 

Exaggerated stories? Probably. But it's certainly true that poker is getting tougher and we need to make adjustments in our approach if we want to survive in the modern game.

Some have the viewpoint that if poker is not dead already it's getting that way. They will tell us that we have a window of maybe a year or two at most before the games become completely unbeatable and we will have to look for new careers. Is it true?

Certainly in the recent media there have been (unverified) claims that HU limit holdem is now solved. These claims could easily be true - So in that example of a HU limit game, you could say poker is dead. However, this 'achievement' is the product of a huge amount of work using powerful computers. If such a solved strategy was used at the tables we would not make any money. Even if we played a perfect strategy ourselves we would end up losing to the rake.

But what about other variants? Even something such as 6max limit-holdem is hugely more complex than HU limit holdem and is long way from being solved. If we start thinking about more complex variants such as 6max NLHE or PLO, even the most advanced players are barely scratching the surface of theoretically optimal play. It could easily be another 20 years before we get close to knowing what a solved version of 6max NLHE looks like.

So in 20 years the game will be dead? Even then, it's unlikely. Let's just suppose that model for optimal 6max NLHE play is actually discovered. What percentage of the player pool will have access to such information? If you had a model for perfect 6max NLHE poker that crushed everyone and printed money, how many people would you share it with? Probably no-one right?

Only the elite would have access to such a model. So perhaps we'd have a tough time beating some of the tougher opponents at nosebleed stakes. But what else is new? Most of us would have a tough time facing elite opponents anyway – we don't need to regularly compete at nosebleed stakes to turn poker into a profitable living.

Then of course, we've only touched on the most popular variants. Even if 6max NLHE dies a horrible death there are still countless other variants to be exploited. Even new variants can be created which are not solved. In the last few years we see new variants such as 5-card-Omaha being offered. Just a small change in the structure of any game and it's like we are back in 2006 playing vs opponents who don't really understand what they are doing.

The only way poker will ever die is if there is a world-wide ban on online gaming. Even then it will likely continue in underground clubs or home games. However, we must adjust in modern day poker in order to succeed.

Even though there is no reason why poker can't have a long and profitable future, we need to still be realists and accept the fact that the modern day poker game is tougher.

Simply for us this means that if we want to stay ahead of the curve we need to study harder to make poker a profitable living compared to 10 years ago where even a basic knowledge might be enough to turn us into a profitable player.

One of the first steps is understanding why the average player is tougher. Understanding which resources they are using and making use of them is vital. Never before has there been so much in the way of poker training resources and poker analysis software.

There was even a time in the past where many players felt that using a HUD is cheating. But if our opponents are using advanced poker software and we are not, it's like bringing a knife to a gun fight. We need to at the very least have the same tools as our opponents in order to neutralise their advantage. From there we can proceed to study harder and advance beyond them.

 In recent years many players have dedicated some of their training time to understanding how a branch of mathematics known as game theory can be applied to poker. While the game is not solved as mentioned, we don't want to be in the dark regarding a modern understanding of how maths should influence our decisions.

Players have also begun to place more emphasis on the importance of mindset in being successful. This could easily still be one of the most under-rated things in poker. Better to be an average player with a strong mindset than a strong player with a weak mindset. Our opponents are less prone to tilt than they were 5 years ago, and again we need to neutralise that edge by making sure our own mindset is in good shape.

Then again, we don't want to be banging our head against a brick wall, trading stacks with players that we have no edge against (at least not yet).

So far the emphasis of this article has been that we need to work harder than our opponents in order to get the best of them, and this still remains true. However we should definitely think about making application to the adage “Work smarter not harder”.

It's so standard for players these days to immediately jump straight into the 6max zoom games on Pokerstars, sometimes without thinking, simply because it is popular. Here we will be competing against hard working individuals who have exactly the same goal as us. Not everyone can succeed, poker is a zero-sum game (excluding rake).

6max NLHE is not the only way (or even the most profitable) way to make money in today's games. If we take other niche poker formats such as PLO8 or Badugi we will find that the standard is probably closer to how NLHE was in 2006. Even for NLHE 6max games, we will find there are certain networks where the standard of play is a long way behind the average. Would we rather be an average no-name reg at Pokerstars or the best player on a softer network?

Even if we eventually plan to jump into tougher games once we have increased our skill level, why not make profit in the process by making careful use of table selection or network selection? Now the point here is not to say “don't play 6max zoom”, or “don't play tough opponents”. The point is to think about the most +EV decision for us personally.

Even in business it's easy to see that it's the newer more original ideas that rake in the profit. If we create a business model where we simply copy what thousands before us have done, we can't expect it to be a hugely profitable enterprise unless we can do it better than everyone else. Some of us are capable of doing this. Most of us need to look for a poker niche.