Ashley Sleeth (Vegas MTT pro)- Ask Me Anything About Playing Poker

[chainis420]

I won this freeroll on pokerstars(first screenshot), 30 minutes after i started the second round, which i also won, (second screenshoot), on the 3rd round, the $22 satellite i got kicked out, but i made them play hardball in order to get rid of me(3rd screenshot) and the last round if i would of won 3rd round was a high roller ko tournament which pays $250 per ko(4th screenshot), should i pursue my career at poker?

 

[lilu80]

Hi Ashley. It sometimes happens that people who also play professionally and professionally, although they can respect money, quite often they cannot respect time. Money obscures their lives. It happens that poker is their whole life and they see nothing but poker and money. Is this person a gambler? By definition, it is known that the gambler refers to when someone loses and squanders wealth and thereby destroys himself and his family. I think if a player is a professional poker player and makes money from it and has no time control, he is also a gambler?

 

[CNXRegie]

Hi CardsChat members!

My name is Ashley and I'm so excited to join this community. I've been living in Las Vegas for 10 years now playing cash games and more recently, tournaments. I currently play $5/$10 on the Strip and higher stakes on live streams such as Live at the Bike. I'll buy in to tournaments as low as $300 and as high as $5k (with an exception for the WSOP Main Event, which everyone should try to play at least once!).

I have also traveled for poker events in many other parts of the world, including Europe, the UK, Australia, Canada, Africa and the Caribbean. I can answer a broad range of questions about playing live, traveling for poker events/series, playing on live streams or the general poker lifestyle.

My goal for joining CardsChat is to inspire new people to play poker and to encourage those of you who have a poker bucket list item to go out and do it!

Ask me anything

Hi, Ashley! What advice do you have for someone who's just starting out in poker and wants to improve their skills and understanding of the game?

 

[RhinoRyan89]

Hi Ashley

Quick question today

What is your average VPIP

Thanks

 

[nighton]

Hello glad to meet you . What is your favourite live event ? how much was the best win u had in a live event?

 

[Ashley Sleeth]

Do you think the trend is for poker to attract more players, or have we reached a point where we will see fewer and fewer players in the field?

All of the recent tournament stops have seen large increases in turn out... so I'd say that poker is attracting new players all the time and won't slow down any time soon.

Hi
Let me know what i should have done here please.
Hero raises 3bb in UTG with KhKc, MP calls, and tight passive player (AF1) in SB squeezes to 13bb, this player has a 3% 3bet percentage.
I call, BTN folds, flop is 3d8h9c, , SB bets 1/3 pot I call, turn is Js, SB bets 1/2 pot, I fold.

Could only think that against this type of player I was maybe beating QQ, which still had outs to a straight?

Yea I think it's pretty close if you assume opponent is very tight. You're getting a really good price on the turn, but if you really don't think they ever have TT or double barrel AK/AQ, then you're only beating QQ and I guess you can fold. This is very player-dependent. Against anyone decent I'd never fold turn for 1/2 pot. Either way, not a fun spot.

Hi Ashley,

When you are in a tournament, and you have about 40BB, you have a only mini raise before you, so you have AKo, and all the opponents have abount 40BB too.
If you don´t know abou the history of opponents. So you put a re-raise.
Then the BB bet 3x up your re-raise ante that fist opponent only pay.

dou you like continuation this hand, what to be your decision?!

Could comment about?

Tough spot and very player-dependent. Against the majority of players, AK is a nice jam for 40bb. You'll only need to call ~30 blinds into a pot of ~100bb so AK is performing well enough to call. I can't tell by your wording whether or not the original raiser called in between. If they called BB's 4bet, than I think we just fold, because now our equity in the hand goes down significantly against 2 player's hands.

Good afternoon. Ashley, how often did you get a royal flush combination?

I've only gotten a royal once!

 

[Ashley Sleeth]

Hi Ashley

Quick question today

What is your average VPIP

Thanks

It depends on what position you're referring to. In tournaments: On the button, I'll raise ~40% of hands. When I'm under the gun, I'll raise ~17%.

Hello glad to meet you . What is your favourite live event ? how much was the best win u had in a live event?

My favorite live event is now the Wynn $10k WPT in December in Las Vegas. My biggest live win is ~30k.

I won this freeroll on pokerstars(first screenshot), 30 minutes after i started the second round, which i also won, (second screenshoot), on the 3rd round, the $22 satellite i got kicked out, but i made them play hardball in order to get rid of me(3rd screenshot) and the last round if i would of won 3rd round was a high roller ko tournament which pays $250 per ko(4th screenshot), should i pursue my career at poker?

congrats on the wins! As a general rule, I'd only pursue poker as a career after you've consistently won across 6 months or longer and have ~6 months to 1 year of living expenses saved. It's fun when you're winning, but can be brutal if you go on a downswing and have no other income. GL!

 

[Ashley Sleeth]

I’m new to tournaments. Yesterday I was in 520 field tourney. 66 left and 63 get paid. I’m UTG with 5BB, I look down at AQo, best hand I’d seen in a while hence only 5BB. I push get called by AKo (obviously). Question would it have been better to fold maybe into the money or push as I did. Just asking. Thx

It depends on what stack sizes the other short stacks had. If you're one of the shortest stacks left in the tournament, I would go all in as it's unlikely you will survive long enough on 5bb to make the money. If there are 3 players with 1-2bb, I could see folding into the money because you're much more likely to outlast them. Seems like you made the correct play and just got unlucky to run into a better hand. better luck in the future

 

[teepack]

I love your vlog. It's very entertaining and educational. I've thought about trying to vlog my next session, but the only poker room near me doesn't allow cameras. How do you manage to remember all the details of a hand (i.e. what your opponents had, what was the betting action, etc.?) Do you record the entire session, or just hands that you put money into? Do you take notes? Does all the work that you do to create the vlog ever impact your play by distracting you? Seems like a lot to keep up with while also trying to maintain your focus on your game. Not sure I'm a good enough multi-tasker to do that!

 

[nameless]

Hello what is your favourite modality of this game? U play 6 max frequently?

 

[Ashley Sleeth]

I love your vlog. It's very entertaining and educational. I've thought about trying to vlog my next session, but the only poker room near me doesn't allow cameras. How do you manage to remember all the details of a hand (i.e. what your opponents had, what was the betting action, etc.?) Do you record the entire session, or just hands that you put money into? Do you take notes? Does all the work that you do to create the vlog ever impact your play by distracting you? Seems like a lot to keep up with while also trying to maintain your focus on your game. Not sure I'm a good enough multi-tasker to do that!

Hey teepack-
Thanks for your questions. Yes- vlogging can be a pretty distracting, but I've found that it gets easier over time. At some point, it becomes muscle memory to check the angle of your camera, press record, film the board before the dealer scoops it up and to take notes on anything you might have missed

I start the recording when I look at hole cards that I will most likely play. I don't have enough storage to record a whole session + it would take way too long afterwards to find hands for the vlog. Then, I'll take notes on my phone after the hand is over if I don't think I caught everything on camera. You can miss things like bet size or the opponent's hand from the camera's POV (but i try to only do this when the dealer is shuffling/dealing or I'm out of the hand). Otherwise, I can usually just replay the video to see what the action was.

Thanks for watching them

Hello what is your favourite modality of this game? U play 6 max frequently?

I love 6-max tournaments! It's one of my favorite wsop events of the summer. You are involved in hands more often and get to play aggressively.

I also really love turbos. They tend to reward people who are well-studied in short stack play. Plus, it's fun to just go all in a lot in one tournament

 

[Atararo14]

Hello Ashley, I hope you are doing well.

I continued this month to analyze the sharkscope of different player profiles (with a large tournament sample) and I noticed that there are losing players with a good ITM rate (between 30 and 35%) , and that there are winning players with an ITM rate of 20-22%

How can you explain that ?

 

[Goggelheimer]

Hello Ashley, I hope you are doing well.

I continued this month to analyze the sharkscope of different player profiles (with a large tournament sample) and I noticed that there are losing players with a good ITM rate (between 30 and 35%) , and that there are winning players with an ITM rate of 20-22%

How can you explain that ?

Hi it's her part,
but that is easy to explain.
the losing players with higher ITM have more payouts in they early money prize phase ( with rebuys perhaps they are not able to get their buy ins back).
The winning players with less ITM finishes are able to reach higher placements in their tournaments, where they can make some money to have a decent win amount over their whole buy ins.
Lets say they manage to be more often in the upper10% part of the prize money or much better they manage to be if they are in the money( 20% - 22%) at the FT that is where the winnings are made.

 

[Atararo14]

Hi it's her part,
but that is easy to explain.
the losing players with higher ITM have more payouts in they early money prize phase ( with rebuys perhaps they are not able to get their buy ins back).
The winning players with less ITM finishes are able to reach higher placements in their tournaments, where they can make some money to have a decent win amount over their whole buy ins.
Lets say they manage to be more often in the upper10% part of the prize money or much better they manage to be if they are in the money( 20% - 22%) at the FT that is where the winnings are made.

Thank you for your answer, it makes sense.

So I think it's more profitable to play the bubble profitably to hope to increase our stack than to play tight to ensure a paid place.

 

[Goggelheimer]

Thank you for your answer, it makes sense.

So I think it's more profitable to play the bubble profitably to hope to increase our stack than to play tight to ensure a paid place.

Good timed blind stealing and not to passive play may be the way to keep the stack healthy (at least better than 25 bb, good bubble stacks are 50+ bb, imo).
But it depends if have a long run with ultra bad hands there is no way to keep this goal, then you have to find your way through good push and fold strategies.

 

[Ashley Sleeth]

Hello Ashley, I hope you are doing well.

I continued this month to analyze the sharkscope of different player profiles (with a large tournament sample) and I noticed that there are losing players with a good ITM rate (between 30 and 35%) , and that there are winning players with an ITM rate of 20-22%

How can you explain that ?

Hi it's her part,
but that is easy to explain.
the losing players with higher ITM have more payouts in they early money prize phase ( with rebuys perhaps they are not able to get their buy ins back).
The winning players with less ITM finishes are able to reach higher placements in their tournaments, where they can make some money to have a decent win amount over their whole buy ins.
Lets say they manage to be more often in the upper10% part of the prize money or much better they manage to be if they are in the money( 20% - 22%) at the FT that is where the winnings are made.

Thanks for your question Atararo and Goggel for your answer. Goggel said it correctly. Basically, if you have a really high ITM %, you might be min-cashing the event too often (meaning that you play too tight before the bubble burst and then bust right after making the money). You can improve this by not playing too passively too soon before the bubble. Overall, I wouldn't worry about the ITM stat too much and would instead focus on your overall ROI.

 

[RhinoRyan89]

Hi Ashley

What is your Favorite room to play in Vegas these days and why if you could elaborate.

Thanks in advance

 

[Dmitriy_rus7]

Hi Ashley. How much time per week do you spend at the poker tables?

 

[kley126]

How was your process to become a professional player ?

 

[pentazepam]

Hi.

In what ways do you believe that gender dynamics impact table dynamics in MTTs, and how do you use this understanding to make informed decisions?

 

[Quikcue]

The regs in the games I play are the ones who use solvers when trying to improve. It's certainly not something everyone at these stakes is doing though. There is still plenty of money to be made playing a straightforward game that emphasizes getting value from opponents playing weak preflop ranges and folding to people who underbluff postflop.
In my opinion, studying a GTO approach is just a way to have more tools in your poker tool kit. It will certainly sharpen things like: your ability to choose correct bet sizes; which combos of hands are your best bluffs; which board runouts are better for you or better for your opponent, etc. But understanding why solvers play the way they do is more important than memorizing the outputs of one spot. For example: understanding why it chooses certain hands to check/raise bluff on a flop gives you the confidence to pick decent combos when you're actually playing at the table.
All of that being said, since we are human and playing against humans, the 'old-school' strategy (that I think you're referring to) of deciding whether your opponent has it or not will always benefit your game. (ie: If you reeeeeally don't think they EVER bluff certain spots, you can fold your marginal holdings.)
I think GTO is here to stay, but will mostly remain a strategy used at higher stakes.

I also think GTO is a useful tool . But not overall go to. To me getting a read on opponents range and seeing your own cards value will prevail. Every are in your hand has a value . If you value your cards correctly then chances are you will bet check call or fold correctly.

 

[Quikcue]

Hi CardsChat members!

My name is Ashley and I'm so excited to join this community. I've been living in Las Vegas for 10 years now playing cash games and more recently, tournaments. I currently play $5/$10 on the Strip and higher stakes on live streams such as Live at the Bike. I'll buy in to tournaments as low as $300 and as high as $5k (with an exception for the WSOP Main Event, which everyone should try to play at least once!).

I have also traveled for poker events in many other parts of the world, including Europe, the UK, Australia, Canada, Africa and the Caribbean. I can answer a broad range of questions about playing live, traveling for poker events/series, playing on live streams or the general poker lifestyle.

My goal for joining CardsChat is to inspire new people to play poker and to encourage those of you who have a poker bucket list item to go out and do it!

Ask me anything

I recently got back to playing poker regularly. The basis of the game is the same . But the tactics used to win the pot have changed drastically. The showdowns are less frequent and the betting seems to be extreme focused on opponents folding. What we would call buying the pot or bullying in the 70 s . Is now a common strategy to alot of players at every table or stakes. How have you overcome or gotten used 5o this style of play?

 

[Balou1982]

Hi Ashley,

i want to know which tournament was your first success?
buy in level, how many players - no facts just round about ;-)?

greets

 

[jose_saleh]

Hello Ashley, how should I play on a heads up on spin&go against a guy who calls little on preflop bets, and calls nearly anything on post flop bets, I cant figure it out. Thanks.

 

[zorro222_zorro222]

Hello Ashley, since the cash games are so "juicy" during the WSOP, did you spend more time playing WSOP events or cash games this year during the WSOP?

Thanks