Being an poker agent is not a one-sided profession, contrary to what you may thing. You have to be a jack of all trades. There are so many things, which it combines that we will need to write a separate article on the subject.
One of the things, which poker agents have to be good at, is listening to poker players, pretty much 24/7. As you would image, one of the hot topics discussed between gamblers is the luck factor. More specifically – the variance in poker.
Whether someone thinks he is losing only because of bad luck, or some pro runs under EV , pretty much everyone is interested to….
…Reduce Variance in Poker ( The Luck Factor )
While this sounds like a wish, which you can only ask by catching the goldfish – it is pretty achievable task, especially when combined with playing in soft poker rooms.
See our top 5 suggestion to reduce variance in poker, can be found below. You can easily implement them in your strategy . We call them “hacks”, because just like everything we recommend, it is easy to do and it is 100% working, without being needlessly complex.
5. See as much rivers as possible.
We will not rank our tips, in a progressive manner, meaning that each tip, is just as valuable, as the rest.
Seeing as much rivers as possible, is among our most used techniques to reduce variance in poker games, both live and online.
Yes, some poker coaches, who base their strategy on having 2-3% edge over the opposition, may be having a heart attack hearing this advice, but it is working smoothly flawlessly.
When you play against weak recreational players, as the rooms we propose, it is extremely important to have as much game time against them, as possible.
Even if you lose few hands by letting them reach few risky rivers, you learn valuable information about your opponent, as well as having the whole information about the hand yourself.
It is pretty simple – you reach the river, you see all the cards, you are the better player – you make the better decision. After all, in poker, the players who make the better decisions, win more money. Or lose less, when they are on downswing.
By prolonging many hands to the river, you build a bigger understanding for the hand, as well as eliminating the luck factor from being All In. If you play with terribly weak players, why would you push your A4, if you put the opponent on KT ? You are slightly ahead, but it is basically a coin flip.
While on the other hand, if you play with this rookie player, he is guaranteed to make plenty of mistakes.
It is counter productive to push the action and get all the chips into the pot early, while there are still cards to be revealed. This is a good strategy against decent opponents, who do not have holes in this game, like a Swiss cheese.
The more rivers you see, the least you have to worry about unlucky card ruining the party. Find soft games, build a big pot slowly and collect it in the end after you see the river. This strategy works even on decent players, let alone the recreational amateurs, who play in the rooms we suggest.
One of the best ways to reduce variance in poker.
4. Play Cash Games and not on 10+ Tables
MTT, Spins, Sit and Go and the rest of the bunch are fun, but the least amount of variance in poker format, is found on cash games.
Not only that, make yourself a favor and stop playing dozens of tables at the same time. Of course, all of us went through this period of multi tabling as much tables as possible, even competing who can put the biggest volume.
It is much better to open 1-5 tables and follow the action closely. This way you will spot many weaknesses in your opponents, which you can exploit. You can even tag those players, for the future reference, if you meet them again on the tables.
In contrast, when you play dozens of tables, you are like a poker bot. Even if you make mathematically sound decisions and play pretty close to GTO poker, the idea of exploiting weaknesses is gone. It is impossible to pay attention to 20 tables . You have barely the time to click the correct thing, let alone analyze others.
Play cash games on few tables only, to reduce variance in poker online.
3. Play Hands Which Can Make the Nuts.
This is extremely important, especially on Omaha. Chase draws, which can actually make the nuts. Many rookie players, chase some average hand, then hit it on the river and face big bet or all in from villain. Then they start thinking what to do. So, why did you chase the draw in the first place ?
Eliminate these spots and possible unfortunate coolers, by playing most of the time suited aces and connectors. Making ace high flush is vastly different from making Jack high flush. Wondering whether your hand is the winning one, is not fun at all.
Flush over flush is one of the main ways, you collect big pots in Omaha. On NLH, you can also lose whole stacks in such hands. Just reduce these spots to the minimum, by playing hands which can make the nuts more often.
2. Do not Overestimate Combo Draws
” But i had open ended + flush draw on the flop ! ” . Cool, and the villain had middle pair – pretty much a coin flip if you go all in on the flop.
It looks cool on camera, it is dramatic for poker highlights, but its not making you any serious money. Pushing all in on spots, where it is coin flip, is not how you beat bad players.
You win by winning hands, where you are sure or almost sure, you are winning. Amateur players will pay you off, because this is what they do. This is how you reduce the variance in poker.
There is absolutely no reason to chase draws, against players, who you know will eventually make terrible mistakes. This is like being given two choices. Receiving a lot of money next week with 100% certainty or 50/50 chance receiving them in 5 minutes. A smart man will have the patience to wait and not risk needlessly.
Of course we do not advise you to fold those, they are monster hands. Just make sure you hit your draw and then extract value. Solid player will see you doing this from mile away, but amateur players, will never pay attention to these things. They are only looking at the strength of their own hand.
In short, reduce the variance in poker, by chasing your combo draws against weak players.
1. Avoid Putting yourself in Difficult Spots
Putting yourself in difficult spots, just because its theoretically correct, its not how you make money playing poker. Wondering what to do in 55/45 spot, is the best way to increase variance in poker sessions.
Variance in poker is increasing proportionally to the information you lack. When you have small amount of info – the variance increases. So why would you make a complicated and extravagant moves, where you can just chase the nuts and get paid off.
Why would you go All In preflop with AQ or TT, just because you will be small favorite most of the time. Its fine if you are short stack in some Tournament, but for grinding cash games, is the dumbest thing to do.
Be patient, do some serious pot control and extract as much information for the hand and your opponents as possible. After that reducing variance in poker games, becomes inevitable byproduct of your good decision making.
Final Words
Variance in poker , contrary to popular believe, is not the number 1 enemy. First, try to improve as poker player, find soft games with weak players and they play in a way, which eliminates the luck factor to the maximum extend.
If you nail all these down, a smart player would rarely put himself in a difficult spots, where he will be faced with tough decision. Leave these luxurious displays for when you enter some high roller tournaments or if you face some mid-high stakes sharks. 80% of the poker players online and 99% of the players on apps and clubs, are not those tough regs, who can provoke this from you.
Reducing variance in poker is very achievable task, just trust our controversial methods, which may sound like exactly the opposite to what coaches and solvers tell you, but we are experts in creating opportunities, not dry theories.
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