Playing poker at a higher level

There is an entire sub culture of poker players who are constantly taking shots at higher levels. I think that there are underlying human drives behind this and one of them is in the basic human desire for immediate results. If you want to lose weight you know that it is a long process but you are still disappointed when it takes so long. With poker many people are not prepared to grind up through the levels.

While it is not critical that you do so and it may be possible that you could in theory drop right into a high-limit online poker games and succeed with the proper preparation, you are unlikely to simply because you lack the proper grounding. But this does not stop people from trying but this begs the question of how can you know when a limit is too high for you?

For a start if you want to play at a higher level then you need to prepare and that means watching the level that you are about to play in for quite some time. I have made this mistake in the past and paid dearly for it. You can learn an awful lot by watching the games first. You can learn the moves of the players and what types of players play at those levels.

You can also find out which players are good from the ones who are not so good and attack them. But one thing that you must take on board is that when you move up a level then you are going to be playing against better players. This is basically a given and you do not have to play all that high these days with online poker to find good technical players.

There is a large skill compression in online poker these days and the ability to receive rakeback and multi-table has added to that. So more players are multi-tabling and playing at lower stakes so the technically good players are playing lower down the pecking order! But if you find that you are fearful of players or you are checking because you fear getting raised or you are folding pre-flop instead of raising because you fear the swings then you are playing too high.

If each lost pot and each outdraw is hurting you emotionally and also financially then you certainly shouldn’t be playing at that level. Most players play at levels that they are not ready for at some stage in their careers. Not all poker players practice strict discipline but that carries forward to life itself. Many professional players at the high-stakes games basically know who the value is and where it comes from.

This is basically the key to winning not just at high-stakes poker but at most levels. You need to understand where you are in the pecking order and slot in accordingly. There is little point in playing in any online poker game if you are fearful as this will certainly impact on your play. So drop down a level and then see if you are comfortable at the new level.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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