When I’m not working on my websites or at the virtual poker tables, I manage a restaurant.  Valentine’s Day weekend was hell.  We did three times our normal volume even though we didn’t have the resources to do it.  There were problems. A lot of them.

My job is to make sure the guests never know anything’s wrong and that takes a lot of split second decisions.  The right decisions result in a smooth night and happy diners.  The wrong decisions result in hour wait times, pissed off people and freaked out servers.  We pulled through the weekend flawlessly.  Unfortunately I won’t be able to play poker for a day or so because of decision fatigue.

Decision Fatigue and Poker

Poker is a decision war.  Players that make good decisions make money.  But making decisions drains your mental resources and you start to get tired.  The more tired you become, the more likely you are to make bad decisions.

Most of you have experienced this phenomenon.  You’re playing like a god and all of the sudden you find yourself making what-the-hell moves.  You raise or call and think to yourself, “What the hell – why not? Let’s just see what happens.”  Once you start making decisions without solid reasons, you have decision fatigue.

Signs of Decision Fatigue

When decision fatigue sets in, your mind feels like a car engine running without oil.  Small things begin to irritate you and you get frustrated easily.

You’ll notice that you’re making decisions faster.  Subconsciously you want the choice/action over with so you make a snap choice without giving it any thought.  At this point you’re not reasoning through hands anymore.

Finally, your attention will begin to drift.  You’ll remember something that you wanted to search and fire up Google.  You’ll turn on the TV or pull up Hulu.  You’ll do anything except focus on the game.  It’s your brain’s way of telling you that it doesn’t want to play poker anymore.

You should stop playing any time you notice decision fatigue starting to set in.

How to Avoid Decision Fatigue

There’s no way to avoid decision fatigue.  It’s going to happen sooner or later, but the more you practice, the longer it’ll take before fatigue sets in.

Certain choices will become automatic in poker.  Today you might think that you have a decision to make with AJo under the gun in a full ring game.  After a while you’ll realize it’s a snap-fold.  One less decision to make.

There are a lot of standard lines in poker.  These lines will become automatic for you in certain hands.  You’ll use them against the fish and save your mental energy for when you need to get tricky against the regulars.

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Becoming aware of your mental state will make you more money.  Start watching out for warning signs of decision fatigue and stop playing when you notice them.

Remember that you don’t have to get creative on every hand.  Use the best line for the best situation.  Don’t waste your mental energy on non-thinking players and you’ll have plenty in reserve when you face the regulars.

 I was sitting in a conference room today learning all about better ways to control costs and predict what effect a new cost would have on a business and I couldn’t help but think how all this information could help me in poker.  I slowly started to realize something.

Poker is a business.

When you become a winning player, you start thinking about your game in term of expected earnings.  You expect to earn x big blinds per 100 if you’re a cash player and you expect to earn x% ROI if you’re a Sit ‘N Go player.  In a sense, you own a small business.

Our poker businesses are remarkably similar to stock traders businesses.  We use a lot of the same formulas like Risk of Ruin and we both depend on probabilities of success to make money.  But it’s deeper than that.

Take, for example, poker software.  Most of us decide whether or not to buy something like Hold’em Manager or SitNgo Wizard based on whether or not we have expendable income at the moment.  We see it as a toy – like a Wii or a new TV.  But it’s really a cost of doing business.  Here’s a scenario that shows how we should look at the investment:

Joe Average is a low stakes grinder.  I recently learned how to beat .50/1 for 3.5bb/100 while four tabling.  He likes Hold’em Manager and wants to buy it, but only if it pays for itself in two months.  How much would the program have to improve Joe’s win rate for Hold’em Manager to pay itself in two months.

Joe Average grinds 300 hands per day every day.  That’s roughly 9000 hands per month.  Since a big blind is $1, Joe would only have to increase his win rate by 0.5bb/100 to pay for the $80 program in two months (actually it’s a bit less).  Joe is losing money by not buying Hold’em Manager.

We can also diversify our poker business.  We can stake other players.  Chipmeup.com is a great place to get your feet wet in staking.  I’d encourage you to start off by staking players who you know and who have a proven track record.  I’m starting off by buying shares in my former prop bet adversary @wizardmickey and another player he recommended to me.  They may not win today or tomorrow, but their long-term stats tell me that I’ll make money over the long haul.

Obviously these examples are basic, but you can apply almost any finance model or business report to poker and improve your income. 

Start thinking about poker as a business.  How much are you making an hour?  What tools could you buy to increase that hourly rate?  How can you diversify your business?

I was surfing around the net and found a great poker comic strip called +EV. If you want to see more of them, go to http://plusev.keenspot.com.

The strip below is one of my favorites. Looks just like my laptop.

Building my bankroll from $100 to a little over $4,000 has been a lot of fun, but there were frustrating moments too.  My aggressive growth goals meant that I had to play a range of different games and play buy-ins that violated traditional bankroll management rules.  Through it all I learned a lot about what games were good for bankroll building and which ones were a little too risky.  Here’s what I’d do if I had to do it all over again.

Start With Low Buy-in SNGs

Playing low buy-in Sit ‘N Goes is like printing money – very, very small amounts of money.  The players in these games have no idea what the Independent Chip Model is or what it means to adjust to rising blind levels.  Come to think of it, I’m not even sure they know they’re playing poker.

All you have to do in low buy-in SNGs is play super tight.  You only play JJ+ and AK in the early stages and when you’re stack is about 10 to 13 blinds deep, you use the ICM to make +EV shoves.  That’s all there is to it.

Move to Low and Mid Buy-in Turbos

These turbos are similar to the regular SNGs except there’s even less post-flop play involved.  In fact, if you’re playing post-flop poker after the early stages of a turbo Sit ‘N Go, you’re probably making a mistake.

Turbos are all about knowing when to shove.

Add Some Multi-Table Tournaments

Once your bankroll can handle the swings, some multi-table tournaments will give your bankroll a serious boost.  Multi-table tournaments offer winning players an excellent return on invest and going deep in a few tournaments will make your bankroll soar.

I prefer tournaments with less than 300 players.  You’ll usually have to go to fringe sites like Bodog or Cake to get decent tournaments without a field of several thousand players, but it’s worth moving your money.  Moreover, the skills you learned while playing SNGs will help you crush final tables.

Bum Hunt in Cash

Start low at first.  Maybe $50 NL or so.  Go to PokerTableRatings.com and find the worst players on your site and set up email alerts (it helps if you have an iPhone or Blackberry so you can be instantly notified).  When your fish are playing, just grab a seat in position.

This method can be a little high variance, but it’s profitable in the long run.

Get Rakeback

I’ve earned hundreds of dollars in rakeback over the course of my bankroll building challenge.  I’d have a lot less money if I didn’t sign up for rakeback right away.  If you’re playing without rakeback, go here.  All you have to do is enter your info in the ‘Existing Account’ field and these guys can get you set up.  It doesn’t work with Full Tilt, but it usually works with everything else.

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I truly believe that anyone can make money playing poker.  There’s too much information out there (and on this site) for lack of knowledge to be an issue.  Good luck and let me know if you have any question.  I’d love to help!

Most poker players don’t know how to c-bet.  For them, c-betting is something you do on every flop regardless of what hits the flop and what opponent they’re facing.  That’s the wrong way to do it.  Poker is a game of timed aggression and a c-bet is no different.  Here’s how you should judge when to c-bet and when to let it go.

Texture of the Flop

The texture of the flop is the most important factor when determining when you should c-bet.  There are three basic flop types you’ll face: Wet boards, Dry boards and Neutral boards.  Here’s how you handle them:

Wet Boards

Let’s say you raise pre-flop and get called.  The board comes As Qh 9h.  Unless you caught a solid piece of the flop, you should usually check/fold or check/bet the turn if your opponent checks twice.  A flop like As Qh 9h is likely to hit a lot of your opponent’s calling range.  Your opponent could have an ace, a decent queen with a gut-shot, a flush draw, a straight draw or a made straight.  You can’t continue unless your opponent shows no strength.

Dry Boards

A board like Js 6h 3d is about as dry as they come.  Go ahead and bet it since it’s unlikely to hit your opponent.

Neutral Boards

A board like 66Q rainbow is pretty neutral.  You probably didn’t hit it and your opponent probably didn’t either.  Go ahead and bet, but realize you may have to double-barrel this one to get your opponent off a small/medium pocket pair.

Your Opponents

Your opponents will also have an impact on whether or not you c-bet.  For example, you should be more inclined to c-bet when you’re up against one opponent than when you’re up against several.  The more opponents you have, the more likely it is that someone hit the flop.

You should also be more likely to c-bet into a tight opponent rather than a loose-passive one.  Loose-passive players tend to call with anything (sometimes nothing).  You should not bluff these guys and just bet them for value when you hit.

Your Position

Position is also a factor in c-betting.  You should be more inclined to make a c-bet when you’re in position than when you’re out of position.

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You have to take the three above factors into account whenever you think about c-betting.  The more favorable the situation, the more likely you should be to c-bet.  Don’t be afraid to check fold occasionally.  Sometimes it’s the right thing to do.  Just make sure you check/raise every when you do hit every once in a while to balance your line .