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Pivot to Save Your Poker Career |
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PanoRaMa United States. Sep 08 2010 06:38. Posts 1655 | | |
Phil Galfond winning a PLO Event at WSOP
This will be one of hopefully many business-inspired poker blog articles I'll want to write (especially if I get a good reaction  ). This article specifically was written with an article in mind by entrepreneur turned VC Mark Suster, "What Makes an Entrepreneur (3/11) – Ability to Pivot" http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/20...an-entrepreneur-310-ability-to-pivot/
It's a long read, so the tl;dr version is that in (especially tech) startup, likely your business model will be entirely different just a few years after you've started. In order to keep up with a fast-paced, ever-changing business environment, varying market feedback, you must pivot/change your business plans and strategies to remain competitive. While I think business and poker do not have to correlate and overlap tremendously, there are a lot of concepts that are inherent to both fields, much in the same way that the strategic traits of games like StarCraft correlate to traits almost required for poker success.
As poker players I'm sure we're all used to this concept one way or another. If you even visit this forum you're conscious of your own poker game enough to make micro adjustments every day, month, etc. However I thought this would be a relevant topic as we're almost coming up on the fourth year anniversary of UIGEA, and the effect of time on the games post-leg is obvious. We've seen many big name players fall into retirement or obscurity, and so with each passing day it's important to critically think about your income generation from this game both in the present and future.
I'm not going to write a guide since I can't say I have enough knowledge of the psychology and decision making of other players, and so I can only present what I've observed and what my personal pivots have been. I've made significantly more each year after UIGEA passed and this year I've already made more than I did in 2009 with 4 more months remaining. Besides the basic adjustments of simply trying to get better at poker by watching videos, talking hands, etc. here are the pivots I've made:
- First Pivot (Successful), 2006 - UIGEA passed and I switched from playing small stakes Fixed Limit to micro stakes No Limit. Competitive edges amongst regs seemed too thin in that game (at least that's what I perceived as an 18 year old new to the poker world), and 100bb NL poker was far from being considered solved.
- Second Pivot (Successful), 2008 - Began studying tournaments as a side game to my usual 6-max game. Besides the obvious monetary benefit, there were a lot of implied benefits that included traveling around the world to play events, making the invaluable connections and friendships as a result of those events, and poker-wise, an increased understanding of shallow stacked poker.
- Third Pivot (Unsuccessful), 2009 - Began 12 tabling 2/4 iPoker with rakeback as primary form of income generation. I reasoned that with how volatile poker variance is, the only guaranteed income is rakeback. My 12 table set up netted me $70+/hr in rakeback, but increased my stress and destroyed my winrate. That didn't last long.
- Fourth Pivot (Successful), 2009 - Began playing Heads Up on the side of 6max, made me an overall stronger player in literally every aspect and had huge monetary benefits.
By 2010 I've made other smaller pivots, another important one worth mentioning was studying/discussing Zen with friends and understanding how to minimize subtle tilt as much as possible (which probably saves me tens of thousands of dollars per year). I've began playing even more HU which increases my overall profit, etc.
Your pivots can be for any reason, though I intended this article to primarily have monetary incentive in mind. I know a fairly common pivot some ex-mid/high stakes winners have made is the switch to Supernova Elite chasing, which nets you about 130k/year with a breakeven winrate. Perhaps you're a winner at your current stakes, but maybe playing a different game could acquire you the same winrate but with less stress and/or volatility. A good example of that would be playing PLO, a pivot I'm considering for 2011, where achieving a 2ptbb winrate at mid stakes PLO is (as I'm told) a lot easier than maintaining a 2ptbb winrate at NL.
I talk to a lot of players who are relatively new to the game, and they envision themselves on the same trail that was created by the people that have been playing for much longer - get really good, grind out mid or high stakes, make money. The fact of the matter is that formula has rarely worked out for anyone who has taken up this game seriously within the past 1 or 2 years. As mentioned earlier, the primary focus of this article was making more money. Phil Galfond was famous for his NL dominance a few years ago, but has since became a PLO player primarily and has made more millions (to my/public knowledge) and a bracelet. There are some who play for the pride of being a great or well-known player, and that's great too - but if money is your priority then you must have the ability to be critical of your game and your financial endeavors, and be able to pivot when the time is right.
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Hopefully this is something you guys like. I'm an aspiring entrepreneur and really enjoy talking poker especially with small stakes concepts.
I don't know if I'll be playing much this month, but here's a 1-week September update:
I'll be getting my wisdom teeth out in a week, and then heading up to San Francisco for TechCrunch Disrupt (business conference) at the end of the month. If anyone happens to be going, PM me :D
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| http://panorama.liquidpoker.net | Last edit: 08/09/2010 06:55 |
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Kapol Poland. Sep 08 2010 07:31. Posts 4696 | | | |
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| BIBLE (Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth) | |
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Dogan0s United States. Sep 08 2010 08:47. Posts 902 | | |
best thing i've read in LP for months now ...
thanks and keep it updated with ur next pivots  |
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qwerty67890 New Zealand. Sep 08 2010 09:51. Posts 14026 | | |
I read all the way up to the picture of Galfond |
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Spicy United States. Sep 08 2010 11:01. Posts 1027 | | |
| | On September 08 2010 05:38 PanoRaMa wrote:
I'll be getting my wisdom teeth out in a week |
FFFFFFFFUUUUUUUU
good time to take a break from poker imo |
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Raidern Brasil. Sep 08 2010 11:09. Posts 4243 | | |
| | On September 08 2010 08:51 byrnesam wrote:
I read all the way up to the picture of Galfond |
lol youre terrible =]
great article panorama, looking forward to the next text |
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YoMeR United States. Sep 08 2010 12:53. Posts 12438 | | |
I like it. This article is another clue as to how an overall approach vs just an approach that focuses just on your poker game can be much much more successful in terms of printing monies.
Although the zen discussion and tilt control ideas you briefly mentioned really interest me. I'd love to discuss that with you some time. |
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Highcard Canada. Sep 08 2010 16:34. Posts 5428 | | | |
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| I have learned from poker that being at the table is not a grind, the grind is living and poker is how I pass the time | |
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