View: You can just invite people to play poker with you
A lot of people diss or sneak diss Phil Hellmuth by saying like he can't beat $3 NL online or whatever which is totally true but then the same ppl bitch because they're frozen out of anything that is bigger than $2K NL live or online. Watch Phil Hellmuth's vlogs and it's like he just constantly has home games going where it's him plus billionaires in his local area of Palo Alto. This is the part that makes Hellmuth a way better poker player than any miserable casino reg is that he just goes into a community of rich people people with cash, connects with the hobbyist poker players in it, and then applies the 1 most easily developable skill of being a pro player (being willing to play all the time, any time, and traveling to get there if you have to) to get a game going regularly. A game that's probably one of the top 5 games to be playing in on the planet at minimum.
The role of a pro player in a casino is basically this you're the reason a recreational player can show up at a casino at 2AM on a Tuesday and there is a game running. So working to improve this initial balance of you plus recreational players around you has way better returns than any work on strategy if you're a cash game player. Like if you're already a good player doing more strategy work might add 1bb/hour to your winrate at most but if you're getting into lineups that are like 5 fish or 6 fish that can add like 10-20bb+ to your hourly easily the difference is massive.
There's a lot of kind of already cohesive, already used to each other groups of people out there where you'll find groups of poker players. A lot of times all that is needed to get a game going is someone that's going to do the work of texting everyone in the group chat hey game tonight?? and getting the game going. One of the best poker games I played in for a long time was dealt by a VC associate and it was mostly tech founders and investors and they just liked to play huge amounts of poker. Some of the best games you'll ever see are going to be dealt with bicycle cards and the 4 color set of walmart chips.
You can even just do this at a casino. You can ask the room manager like hey I want to host this game and invite all the best action players in the room into it. They'll give you a table, a dealer and cards.
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I'm still starting out, but home games is where all my profit has been made. There's games I've been in of 500nl where the whole table is playing worse than 2nl online players, been trying to learn online but feels pointless given the difference tbh.
Yeah that's a fact right there. Social skills will make you way more money than anything else... A department that many pros lack in.. Your job is to entertain the recs and make them feel good.
Yeah that's a fact right there. Social skills will make you way more money than anything else... A department that many pros lack in.. Your job is to entertain the recs and make them feel good.
How do you make the recs feel good? Do you stroke them, compliment them, and buy them massages while you take their money?
Yeah that's a fact right there. Social skills will make you way more money than anything else... A department that many pros lack in.. Your job is to entertain the recs and make them feel good.
How do you make the recs feel good? Do you stroke them, compliment them, and buy them massages while you take their money?
Observe DNegs for a lesson on how to do this. Chat with them playfully, compliment their play, engage in conversation with a seemingly genuine interest with what they have to say.
And yes, that’s while you take their money at the table.
How do you make the recs feel good? Do you stroke them, compliment them, and buy them massages while you take their money?
Well it's somewhere between that and hiding behind sunglasses, headphones and a hoodie tanking for ages while you try to work out whether a $40 or $50 bet into a $200 pot is more GTO
How do you make the recs feel good? Do you stroke them, compliment them, and buy them massages while you take their money?
Help to make the game fun and sociable, obviously. Too many online regs can't help but be salty when their bluff gets caught, or they get coolered on the river by a hand that should never have made it that far.
I was in and around a live nosebleed cash game table once, many years ago (I wasn't playing, but allowed to hang around the VIP area). The way Trickett was handling the rich recs on and off the table was impressive, which is probably how he got a seat in this particular game. He was really kind and friendly to me as well. I've no idea if he still plays, but he knew how to keep his customers happy.
Some people are good at networking and good at poker. Some are good at networking and bad at poker. Some are bad at networking and good at poker.
How do you make the recs feel good? Do you stroke them, compliment them, and buy them massages while you take their money?
Give them what they want.
Most fish/recs play poker for other reasons than making money. For some it is social reasons, for others it is to get their gamble on. There are many reasons people play other than money. Figure out why and give it to them.
When playing with someone who wants to get their gamble on, be willing to gamble with them. That doesn't mean being willing to get it in bad, it just means being willing to accept the variance that comes up. If a fish likes blind raises, do what it takes to keep him in the game.
I once played with a player who played for dominance reasons. He wanted to feel dominant. He could be down $5000 at a $2/$5 game but if he won a contentious pot or bluffed someone he would puff up and feel good about himself and brag.
So I made sure to make him feel good about himself. If he bluffed me I verbally bowed down to his skill. Maybe he wasn't even bluffing (we both missed flush draws, but his was better), didn't matter, I made him feel dominant. Or if he did lose to me, I would make him feel good ("I almost folded. I was scared. You had me sweating.")
For me, dominant or passive did not matter. It was meaningless. He felt good and continued to lose.
I played in a great game the other day:
1. Good reg
2. Two drunks
3. One crazy Asian lady
4. One youngster shower stacking
5. One rock
We had a bad reg situation down, played one hand and bitched about a bad beat and left. Thank God, because he would have completely ruined the vibe of the table.
The drunk quaded up and bought everyone drinks and wouldn't leave with her husband because the table was too much fun. I gave the Asian lady some of my high hand because I hit it on the river after she called on turn and we oh and awed all the bad beats, good bluffs, etc. we asked the short stacked if he wanted action when all in and folded when he said no.
Good call, nice hand, good bluff..... It's pretty easy.
Good reg and I ended up with all the money.
