Ashley Sleeth (Vegas MTT pro)- Ask Me Anything About Playing Poker
Ashley Sleeth
Professional Poker Player
Silver Level
$85k for 3rd in an ACR $109 mtt
I also find it easier to play well online. My best advice is to start with a low stakes event that you feel comfortable playing. If you've already been to that venue, it will help you feel even more comfortable. If you have a chip set at home, you can practice stacking them into different amounts and trying to quickly figure out how much is in each. Most of your brain power on your first try will be about the chips, so the more familiar you get with counting them, the better off you'll be.
Overall, there's no quick tip that will help you more than just trying it and gaining experience. The anticipation is usually worse than actually showing up and trying to play live. Good luck!
I haven't been to the Commerce in LA in a long time, but I really didn't enjoy it. The rake is high, attitudes are rude and unfriendly and it felt dirty. I wouldn't go back, so I'd say that was the worst in my opinion.
I play 25-35 hours a week and study a minimum of 4 hours a week when I'm not travelling.
It always depends on how your opponents are playing. If everyone is wild and crazy, you will make more chips by waiting for good hands and getting them to pay you off with worse. If everyone is playing carefully, you'll make more money by aggressively putting on the pressure preflop and postflop.
Finding the balance is all about figuring out which opponents are playing which style at your table. Example: If the guy in the big blind has been really tight, you can open wider. If he's been wild, maybe tighten up a bit and be prepared to battle postflop.
I had quit a remote job that seemed to be going nowhere. I had enough saved up to not jump into a new job right away. I had been playing poker recreationally for about 5 years at that point (mostly cash games), but decided that I really loved tournaments. I wasn't sure if I could make money just playing tournaments though. I found out the hard way that it takes mostly playing online at high volumes to make money in tournaments.
Once you have enough stats on yourself (helps to play online), you can just plug in some numbers to see if you'll be making enough to go full time. Here's a CardsChat article I wrote that outlines all of those numbers to see if you're ready to go pro. Hope that helps
so many joyful moments!! I loved going to RunItUp Reno events! We would play mixed games that nobody knew how to play for $125 or something and everyone had a blast. I also had a great time playing the tag team cash game at the Lodge. You have a teammate and share a seat at the table. You can tag your partner onto the table at any time! So much fun. Thanks for reminding me how fun this game can be
Ashley Sleeth
Professional Poker Player
Silver Level
Hey patrice- I lost $3,500 at the wsop this year. I don't mind sharing since it's on my youtube.
how do you play now? I can't help you without knowing a little more info about your current style. Thanks.
I play on WSOP and Global poker. For international sites, I think ACR and GG are the ones with the biggest prizepools.
All of them! haha. In seriousness, it's obviously best to have a big stack relative to the average stack. But if you don't, studying how to make the most of your shorter stack is a huge part of winning poker tournaments. Survive long enough to run good and win the whole thing
When you're deeper stacked, premium preflop holdings will have higher chances of not winning by the river. It obviously depends on the board texture and positions of players in the hand, but with more money to play for, you should employ some pot control or you will likely run into stronger hands at showdown. Practice assigning your opponents a range of hands. Saying things like "it's rare when someone dares to 3bet a marginal hand" is a good start, but try to be more precise in your thought process. Does that mean your opponents is only 3betting KK and AA or do you think they could 3bet JJ+ and AK? This will help you throughout the postflop portion of the hand. I would be careful about assuming too much about your opponents' 3betting ranges at micro or low stakes until you see showdown. You could be folding to them too much or giving them too much credit for having super strong hands just because they 3bet.
Either way, try to think in terms of ranges and how your hand fares against their entire range. Good luck!
Hey Denis- this is a common thing for people who want the experience of playing live. I'm not going to mince words here: If the stakes are high enough that they are causing you to make consistently poor decisions at the table, the stakes are too high for you. You will lose money overall if you can't take risks at the table. Poker is a volatile game where even the best play can lead to losing the pot when you're opponent gets lucky. If I were in your shoes, I'd stick to freerolls or micro stakes until I built a roll big enough to handle the variance of the game. Otherwise, you won't enjoy it and will be losing money in the long run due to suboptimal play. Good luck!
Ashley Sleeth
Professional Poker Player
Silver Level
Haven't heard of it so I don't have any thoughts about it
It all depends on how your opponent's play, the board texture and what positions you're in. Example of when to be aggressive: Your opponent raises button and you peel the big blind. This opponent raises a lot preflop and cbets 100% of the time PLUS the board is very dry like Q73r. This would be a good spot to check-raise bluff, because they will have a lot of trouble continuing against you since their range is so wide. If they always bet again, you can just call your very best hands like 33 or 77 since you're not worried about any turns or rivers being bad for you.
In every situation, just think about how likely you're opponent is to continue betting once you've called your strongest hands. If they don't bet a lot on the turn once you've called OR the flop is draw-heavy, start by raising the flop.
I think poker will be a lifelong hobby for me, even if I don't play full time
Thanks for the question!I was dating a guy who was a poker player and I got interested in the game. He taught me everything online and encouraged me to try and play live as well. Now he's my fiance and still my coach, except now the poker lessons are much more advanced
I enjoy both the endless challenges AND the possibility of big money. I like the freedom to be your own boss and to travel around whenever you feel like it. I enjoy all of the people from different walks of life that you meet along the way. It's not always easy, but I'm very grateful that I got into it That depends on your deal with your backer. Ideally, those details would be worked out BEFORE you play the original satellite event.
To become a pro, you just need to consistently make enough money to satisfy your individual needs. If you have a high ROI across many hands/MTTs, then you just need to play high enough buy ins each day to make the income you want. I wrote an entire article about this here. Hope that helps!Hi, Ashley, i would like to ask if becoming a pro poker player requires proving skills and such (as some pro's say) for a year or does it depend on other… what does your experience show...
There are lots of different kinds of tilt.. My biggest one was getting upset when I made mistakes at the table. It got to the point where I would not play for long periods of time because I was afraid I would mess up again. I learned that this was a form of tilt that I could master by understanding that mistakes are part of the learning process. I expected perfection when that is impossible. I realized that executing at the table is an entirely different skill, which helped me not beat myself up so much.
If you want to figure out your own form of tilt and work to fix it, I recommend reading The Mental Game of Poker by Jared Tendler. He covers all forms of mental game issues that really helped my game a ton! Good luck.
If you are playing tournaments with an ante in play, you can defend VERY wide to a minraise (every suited hand, every Ace, K7o+, Q8o+, J9o+, all paris etc). If your opponents are opening to bigger raise sizes like 2.5-4x, then you can't defend nearly as wide. If you're playing cash games without an ante, you must defend MUCH LESS. You want to defend mostly suited hands or the best offsuit broadways, all pairs, etc.
Ashley Sleeth
Professional Poker Player
Silver Level
Hello! That one's easy: being on the rail as my fiance took 2nd in the WSOP Main Event in 2012! So much excitement and lots of high stakes decisions.
I define myself as an aspiring pro. I make a small side income from poker and would like to move up in stakes enough to make a decent living full time.
I Identify as a Shark
Rock Star
Silver Level
You got it! Keep up the good work. Subbed to your YouTube channel.I define myself as an aspiring pro. I make a small side income from poker and would like to move up in stakes enough to make a decent living full time.
antonis32123
Legend
Loyaler
Do you have the feeling that in online poker there are far too many bots ?? . I mean everywhere .....
I see too many crazy players , crazy ATC calls .
Just now , 22$ sat on Bwin , 2 players HU , one would get the ticket , he bet 3 blinds J10s , I shoved 88 my 90 blinds Vs his 100 blinds . I did this because I had the strong feeling he was a bot , he was winning all the time , I was card dead , he was always folding on my good hands , I had no patience to keep on playing like this for 1 more hour like an idiot wtf . I am sure he was a bot .
I see too many crazy players , crazy ATC calls .
Just now , 22$ sat on Bwin , 2 players HU , one would get the ticket , he bet 3 blinds J10s , I shoved 88 my 90 blinds Vs his 100 blinds . I did this because I had the strong feeling he was a bot , he was winning all the time , I was card dead , he was always folding on my good hands , I had no patience to keep on playing like this for 1 more hour like an idiot wtf . I am sure he was a bot .
U
Ultra21
Rising Star
Silver Level
Hello Ashley,
Would you consider GTO trainers to be beneficial for players who are currently in micro-stakes cash games/tournaments, and perhaps even in live games and tournaments? While I recognize that live games tend to feature play that goes far from what GTO suggests, wouldn't a foundation in GTO help us provided we know how to deviate from GTO to more exploitative play?
Would you consider GTO trainers to be beneficial for players who are currently in micro-stakes cash games/tournaments, and perhaps even in live games and tournaments? While I recognize that live games tend to feature play that goes far from what GTO suggests, wouldn't a foundation in GTO help us provided we know how to deviate from GTO to more exploitative play?
nighton
Rock Star
Bronze Level
Hello ashley!
Do you use huds in online poker sites?
And if u do, you consider fair to use it because people like me that plays for fun probably don't use it.
Hope you have a good day!
Do you use huds in online poker sites?
And if u do, you consider fair to use it because people like me that plays for fun probably don't use it.
Hope you have a good day!
Antonioadv
Rock Star
Bronze Level
Answer me one question please, how do I master luck in a poker game?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
ELPRIIINCIPE
Visionary
Bronze Level
I don't know if you already answered this but I would like to know: How to cope with bad streaks?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
