Ask BlackRain79 Anything About Cash Games

[Nathan Williams]

Hi Nathan, me again. How viable is it to move to Thailand in 2020 with my GF with a 6month/1year time frame in mind. Want a career in London, supposed to move there in 6 weeks, looking for stock broking jobs but the virus is super annoying, nowhere is hiring and all the offices are working from home. I'm thinking of getting away for a while.

Any advice? I've read this "https://www.blackrain79.com/2013/08/online-poker-players-living-in-thailand.html"

Anything outside of this article you can suggest? Are people made to wear masks out there? How bad is the coronavirus? Where is the best place to live? Budget is about £8-900 a month including food.

Thanks

PS we have savings so poker won't need to be the main source of income, but would be nice to break even including the income my GF makes. I currently grind 10/16/25nl.

Hey Gen,

Ya unfortunately right now during Corona times, it's pretty difficult to relocate anywhere, let alone even be sure that you can get a flight.

Thailand has done a fantastic job of controlling the virus and yes, there is widespread use of masks there.

I hope they will be open to foreign visitors again by late 2020.

Visas are not the easiest in Thailand as you probably saw in my big moving to Thailand article, but staying there for a couple months is pretty simple on a tourist visa or even a free stamp at the airport (60 days total after extending once at a local immigration office).

From there you can bounce to other countries in the region or try your luck getting a longterm visa in Thailand such as an Education visa, which is one year, studying Thai language.

 

[Nathan Williams]

Ok visas seem ridiculous. So same question, but other countries?

Most other countries within SE Asia are easier to get a visa than Thailand. I am a big fan of several including Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia (Bali), where I am right now.

Your best bet is to try them all out and see which one works for you. But again, very difficult right now. Every single country in this region is still closed.

 

[Nathan Williams]

Don't worry about this, it's clearly not viable and I've got a new house very cheaply in London so won't be moving.

No worries, already replied and hopefully it is useful to others. Nothing wrong with staying right there in London, enjoy the new house!

 

[TheGenera1]

Thank you Nathan, very kind of you to reply. If my situation changes, I can still use the information you have provided.

 

[fundiver199]

Just chiming in on the "moving to South East Asia" subject. I am married to a filipina and have spend a total of several years in the country. And if the idea is to be a professional poker player, then I think, Philippines would be a good choise, mainly because it has a live poker scene in Manila, so you are not completely confined to playing online.

Visa is also extremely easy, since you can just pay to extend a turist visa indefinitely, as long as you take a weekend trip to another country in the region at least once every two years. Finally for a westener it is a big advantage, that english is the second official language, so all official papers are on english.

To many the country and its food is probably not as charming as Thailand, and its certainly not quite as developed either. But as with everything in life you can not have it all. And right now as Nathan say, everything is pretty much shut down due to the corona scare. So right now its not possible to even visit Philippines, unless you have some kind of acknowledged purpose.

 

[TheGenera1]

Thank you for your input, it is very helpful. I will certainly consider the Philippines if I am unable to get a job. That's very interesting. online poker is legal too?

 

[UkoChebuko]

Thank you, Nathan! I am not a "world class pro" . Only 5k roll ass well. I am a 10+ year poker pro.
I am best known for having some of the highest winnings in online poker history at the micro stakes.


+1

 

[emzadii]

Hi Mr Williams,

I'm a big fan, have your book and follow your blog and FB. I play online tournaments (and homegame cash) exclusively, but very much would love to transition to online cash. But there's one factor that stops me: rake.

Are there specific NL2 strategies that need to be adjusted to accommodate for rake (presuming good table selection)? Coz a 0.01 rake for every 0.20 (even with $3 cap) seems high, and tamps down the hourly win rate by quite some percentage.

Would you RFI smaller, or advocate multi-tabling 8+ tables, etc.?

I understand that rakeback helps, but that'd mean putting in volumes per month that recreationals can't even attain.

Thanks!

 

[EvaQueen777]

Hello, I'm new to poker and I have some restraint issues. Please tell me how do you control your emotions? If you lose for example ..

 

[Nathan Williams]

Thank you, Nathan! I am not a "world class pro" . Only 5k roll ass well. I am a 10+ year poker pro.
I am best known for having some of the highest winnings in online poker history at the micro stakes.

+1

Nice work Uko!

 

[Nathan Williams]

Hi Mr Williams,

I'm a big fan, have your book and follow your blog and FB. I play online tournaments (and homegame cash) exclusively, but very much would love to transition to online cash. But there's one factor that stops me: rake.

Are there specific NL2 strategies that need to be adjusted to accommodate for rake (presuming good table selection)? Coz a 0.01 rake for every 0.20 (even with $3 cap) seems high, and tamps down the hourly win rate by quite some percentage.

Would you RFI smaller, or advocate multi-tabling 8+ tables, etc.?

I understand that rakeback helps, but that'd mean putting in volumes per month that recreationals can't even attain.

Thanks!

Hey emz,

Thanks for being a long time follower and supporting my work so much!

I am not really a big expert on rake. As far as I have been able to tell most poker rooms have a pretty similar rake structure.

And there isn't much that you can do about it.

You can shop around and maybe one site is marginally better than another, but at the end of the day, all card rooms charge rake.

So I prefer to focus on the one thing that I do control, maximizing my winrate.

 

[Nathan Williams]

Hello, I'm new to poker and I have some restraint issues. Please tell me how do you control your emotions? If you lose for example ..

Hey Eva,

Tilt control and emotional control is something that everybody deals with to varying extents, even experienced pros.

Unfortunately there are no quick fixes. I think experience does help, but I also try to prepare for bad sessions by setting up stop losses (I must stop playing if I lose X amount).

I also try to maintain my focus on the long term as much as possible by trying to not even pay any attention to my short term results.

I have written many articles on tilt control which might help you more.

For example:

https://www.blackrain79.com/2018/03/How-to-stop-tilting-poker.html

 

[_xgeb_]

Hi Nathan. I have read your book, luckily I found it translated into Spanish. I play 6max tables and the book was focused on 9 player tables. It was a great help to read anyway, as a lot can be applied in 6max. My question is: can you generate profits at 6max tables at the same level as what you have won at 9 tables? I have managed to win more than $ 100 in 6max, but I wanted to know if you recommend me to go to 9 player tables to maximize profits. I await your response and thank you for your time.

 

[MrFladder]

Hi Nathan,

I follow your blogs and fb for a while now and i switched from tournaments to cash games. I made the switch because for me it is easier to take a seat in cash games in between than having to make time for a tournament that often lasts several hours.

Your information helps me a lot to become a better player, but I am definitely still a beginner. I hope to learn a lot more and can build a nice bankroll.

 

[Nathan Williams]

Hi Nathan. I have read your book, luckily I found it translated into Spanish. I play 6max tables and the book was focused on 9 player tables. It was a great help to read anyway, as a lot can be applied in 6max. My question is: can you generate profits at 6max tables at the same level as what you have won at 9 tables? I have managed to win more than $ 100 in 6max, but I wanted to know if you recommend me to go to 9 player tables to maximize profits. I await your response and thank you for your time.

Hey xgeb,

I am glad my book helped you!

You can make good profit in both full ring and 6max games. My winrates in both games over my entire career are pretty similar.

So I always recommend just playing the one that you enjoy more.

I wrote more about the differences between full ring and 6max in this blog article of mine:

https://www.blackrain79.com/2015/08/should-you-play-full-ring-or-6max.html

 

[Nathan Williams]

Hi Nathan,

I follow your blogs and fb for a while now and i switched from tournaments to cash games. I made the switch because for me it is easier to take a seat in cash games in between than having to make time for a tournament that often lasts several hours.

Your information helps me a lot to become a better player, but I am definitely still a beginner. I hope to learn a lot more and can build a nice bankroll.

Hey MrFladder,

I am glad that my poker blogs and videos are helping you!

I agree with you about the cash games and that is the biggest reason I play them as well. I want to be able to come and go as I please.

Hope my strategies help you start beating the small stakes cash games

 

[_xgeb_]

Thank you. Last question and I don't bother anymore. Do you use a filter on micro-limit tables to find the whales? I have experimented with some filters and they have given me very good results since I detect where the fish that give away their entire stack are. For example, the average pot% (in BB) 40. and I have a few others.

 

[Evan Jarvis]

What inspired you to write your poker book?

What were the biggest challenges you faced in the process of writing it?

How did you overcome them?

Asking for a friend... named Evan... who could really benefit from talking to someone who's been thru the process before

Thanks so much for your help brother, and let me know if Thailand is taking in foreigners yet, I think I may like to come visit you this winter... it's been too long since I've visited that magic place... almost 18 years now!

 

[johnnythemoss]

The way to crush 2nl is to value bet when you have a big hand, and fold when you don't. You could easily turn a profit at 2nl with table selection and never ever bluffing. Not even once.

Big hand= big pot
Small hand = small pot.
????
Profit.

Depends on what you define as a bluff, right? A standard cbet on a board you missed is technically a bluff. Do you advocate check folding every time you miss a flop as the preflop raiser?

 

[Nathan Williams]

Thank you. Last question and I don't bother anymore. Do you use a filter on micro-limit tables to find the whales? I have experimented with some filters and they have given me very good results since I detect where the fish that give away their entire stack are. For example, the average pot% (in BB) 40. and I have a few others.

Hey xgeb,

I talk about all my table selection strategies in this article of mine:

https://www.blackrain79.com/2014/08/the-ultimate-guide-to-table-selection.html

 

[Nathan Williams]

What inspired you to write your poker book?

What were the biggest challenges you faced in the process of writing it?

How did you overcome them?

Asking for a friend... named Evan... who could really benefit from talking to someone who's been thru the process before

Thanks so much for your help brother, and let me know if Thailand is taking in foreigners yet, I think I may like to come visit you this winter... it's been too long since I've visited that magic place... almost 18 years now!

Hey Evan,

The biggest reason I decided to write my first poker book is because I had a lot of success at the lowest stakes cash games online, NL2 and NL5 in particular, but I never saw anybody put together a coherent strategy guide to beat these games.

I had read a lot of other poker books but they all seemed to focus on higher limit games where the best strategy to use is often quite a bit different. So I felt that there was a definite lack of quality information out there for people struggling at the lowest stakes.

I will be honest though, I had absolutely no idea if anyone would ever read my book (let alone be willing to pay something for it!).

So there were a lot of doubts but I had already made a bunch of poker training videos that were popular and the articles on my blog were well received as well, so I figured why not. Just go for it!

A few people laughed of course, "who is going to read a book about NL2 and NL5??" etc.

But ultimately, I think you just gotta take the plunge sometimes in life. And since teaching these games was something that I was/am passionate about, it was a piece of cake to write the book anyways.

So, I wish your friend luck with writing his book, and I would just say go for it. Writing a book (I now have 3), is one of the most challenging and rewarding things you can do.

It also raises your status level in many ways to that of an expert on a particular topic. This will help you considerably in many other ways even if you don't knock it out of the park with sales and good reviews on the first book.

Let me know when you make it back out to SE Asia, would love to meet up! I am currently in Bali riding out the Covid crisis but I still spend large chunks of the year in Thailand too

 

[_xgeb_]

Hey xgeb,

I talk about all my table selection strategies in this article of mine:

https://www.blackrain79.com/2014/08/the-ultimate-guide-to-table-selection.html

excelent! i readed it. Thx bro

 

[quant1986]

Hi Nathan,

I have two general preflop questions for you. Assuming 100BB deep, NL5,

1. Would you recommend to have any 3bet cold-call range ?
2. Would you defend squeeze as preflop raise caller e.g. LJ opened, you called with TT from BTN and action back to you when LJ folded after SB/BB squeezed?

Thanks

 

[DRIVEN]

What to do against villain which plays, bets and calls very wide range (even junk)?
He almost always wins (beats my QQ with 23 catching trips)

 

[DoIHaveAFlush]

Hi Nathan,

One challenge I'm confronted with is the following scenario on the flop:

Usually, one villain raises between 2.5BB and 3BB from EP to MP, I'm either on the BU or on SB or BB. I have quite a decent hand, such as AJo or JTs, so I call.

The flop comes - as an example - 5J8 rainbow. I bet 3/4 pot having top pair with strong kicker - villain goes all-in. I have no read on the opponent, since this happens in early rounds of cash game or early stage of an MTT. Villain and myself are both middle stacks. I did call, assuming the opponent has an overcard, such as AKs or AQo and tries to scare me off. What I saw was however an overpair - KK. Obviously, I lost all chips.

Something similar happened with me having flopped top pair on the flop (99), villain shoves all-in and shows TT. (Note, this second example was a totally different game with different players).

So, I'm realizing that I have some gaps in terms of assessing possibilities of overpairs on the flop. I know there's no always and no never in poker, but if you face a shove on a rainbow flop having toppair and strong kicker - would you assume it is always an overpair? For me, this bet size is really polarizing, it means: either this guy got the goods or he got air. What do you think? How should i approach when facing this kind of shoving on the flop on low stakes cash games and freeroll MTTs?

Cheers