Ask Evan Jarvis Anything About Learning Poker!

[SLazarov]

It varies so much year by year as my volume is all over the place.

When I was playing full time my goal was always to land around $100k from poker

Now that poker is part time and business is part time the goal is still $100k but I'm not too concerned what % comes from playing poker and what % comes from teaching/sales/affiliate marketing/partnerships etc.

The only years I didn't clear that target was 2018 because I devoted the year exclusively to studying other areas of life and putting energy into areas I had neglected (food, fitness, friends, family etc.) but I had a $200k year in 2016 which sort of balanced that out.

I'm confident that if the only thing I did was play poker I could make $250-300k per year from it, but I think I wouldn't be happy if that's all I did. And so I'm happy to make a more modest amount, live a more balanced life, and have lots of energy to invest into relationships, partnerships, and helping students live a higher quality of life as well!

Thanks a lot for a detailed answer!

Have you played cash or mtt or live? What was the most profitable for you when u made the most money that year?

 

[Evan Jarvis]

I played about 80 Hours of Live Cash Last Year.

Invested 200 hours into studying, and another 200 into creating content.

Around 90% of my winnings came from MTTs last year with the majority coming from this score right here.

Enjoy the Show

And in 2016 that cmae from 2 MTTs. One online MTT for $33k, and one Live MTT for $162k (happened within 2 weeks of each other). Here's the higlights

 

[Warrior1961]

Hi. I wanted to ask for advice: next week one of the rooms I play in, Coral, goes from the I Poker network to the Party Poker network. I have been playing sit and go of microlimits there and I have noticed that in Party it sits starts at $ 1 (in Coral game of $ 0.10) and I don't have a bankroll to play them (I guess for the $ 1 sits I would need $ 100 and not I still have). My idea then is to start playing cash NL2, but I am in doubt because I was always quite afraid of the fact that the game is in money and not in chips. Any advice to play cash microlimits? Shortstack? Deepstack? What bankroll would you need for that level? At that level do I need Holdem Manager? Thank you in advance for your help and for answering my newbie questions.

 

[marvbake]

hey Evan, I offered my input to get better feedback. It may seem I'm telling instead of asking, but I thought I offer my two cents on things so you can offer better feedback after knowing my own thought patterns in depth

I thought I bring this back to your attention, because other people are posting recently and I'm afraid my post would be lost if I don't bring it back up now. Lol would hate to think that I took so long writing a message only for it to go by the wayside

Evan Jarvis: You made some really good points in this post, I can tell you think about the game at a high level.

Thanks!!! I realize the beauty of poker involves the fact that there are only three options: bet/raise, fold, or call. But with those three options, you can be so creative with the game.

Evan Jarvis: To your first point, it really depends on your definition of 'feel'. It sounds to me that when you talk about 'feel' you are referring to awareness of ranges (both yours and your opponents) how they are interacting with the board texture and an understanding of your opponent's willingness to gamble / take risk.

I actually meant like the emotions and vibes of a hand (you can be blindfolded and not even see the flop, but LITERALLY feel the emotions and vibes of hand). Sometimes you sense weakness or strength. That's what I meant by feel. I feel this is what most poker pros refer to as natural talent. Some people have greater emotional or empathic feel than others. Doesn't mean they have greater results.

Off topic, but I honestly feel the most self aware player will always win more in the long run. Phil Galfond comes to mind. I feel he gets such great results solely because he's such a great analytical thinker and he knows himself so well.

Evan Jarvis: In poker there is nothing more powerful than being able to understand how your opponent thinks, and using that understanding to bet in a way that communicates the messages you want him to receive.

Yes, I agree with what you're saying. All about telling a great story and communicating it so he would understand. This where the phrase "play to the level of your competition" comes to mind. You're not necessarily doing that, you're stooping to their level of thinking and then go one level higher so they can understand the stories you tell when you want them to understand it. Lol you can tell a great story, but if your opponent can't understand your story at all, then it's not really a great story.

And you have to profile every one of your opponents. His looseness and tightness preflop, his 3 bet calling range, etc. His willingness to gamble if the pot odds aren't in his favor to gamble. If he even understand pot odds. His folding, calling, raising statistics in certain spots and what that usually means. His bet sizing. His tendency to tilt. What's his/her mind state right now in life (could include outside of poker, just in general)...etc...etc.

Poker is all about piecing pieces of the puzzle together for each individual player. And obviously you're not going to finish the puzzle all at once unless you have alot of history. All about gathering information on your opponents as you play and what information they may have on you, and making decisions based off that.

Decisions such as not bluffing a calling station. And bluffing a tight player who plays nothing but the nuts, but knowing you can't get much value from him/her either.

Evan Jarvis: This is why I think that understanding your opponent, who they are, how they think, why they play poker, and their risk profile is the most valuable skill in poker, and that things like perfect range construction are lower on the scale of importance for maximizing profits in the long run.

You seem to emphasize the psychology of it all though as the most important. If you're a self aware fearless player, you can constantly adapt to your image thus making it harder for anyone to profile you. But self-awareness is also a part of psychology tho.

But honestly I feel most players, and even pros, aren't self aware since they can't get past their egos. They also don't push past all their inhibitions. So their willingness to bluff would be lower thus granting you an advantage over them. Maybe that's what you mean by risk profile. And their egos allow you to actually profile them accurately.

Honestly I feel when you play against great players who are extremely self aware while also being extremely self aware yourself, the psychology aspect of it all doesn't grant you or your opponents any type of advantage. It's hard to profile anyone since you can't. This is where range construction and math in general come into play. And also your emotional feel come into play and who has greater "natural talent". They all make for negligible advantages, but advantages nonetheless.

 

[marvbake]

Actually nvm Evan. Not that important. I wouldn't hate it if my message went by the wayside.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

Took me a minute to realize that I shouldn't take poker as seriously as I have. Knowledge and skills are things I take more important than poker as there's no element of variance involved, and they're actually real things to apply to become successful. Having acquired those things poker seems trivial.

I feel alot of people pin their hopes on becoming successful through poker (esp. on this site), but I'm not one of them. And honestly I feel if more people actually acquired skills that shows them they're capable of great things (we're all capable, nothing is as hard as you may think it is), they wouldn't place so much emphasis on poker.

 

[olonare1]

whats your take on snap poker? do you enjoy being able to snap through tables left and right without seeing the flop or do would you rather play a slower pace and watch all the cards flip out and see what you could of had after you fold?

 

[DenPit]

best hand

What's your best hand in playing poker?

 

[VictorOd]

Hi, did you read 'The Mental Game of Poker' by Jared Tendler? What do you think about mental coaches? Can we consider them frauds... at least partly?

 

[Evan Jarvis]

Actually nvm Evan. Not that important. I wouldn't hate it if my message went by the wayside.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

Took me a minute to realize that I shouldn't take poker as seriously as I have. Knowledge and skills are things I take more important than poker as there's no element of variance involved, and they're actually real things to apply to become successful. Having acquired those things poker seems trivial.

I feel alot of people pin their hopes on becoming successful through poker (esp. on this site), but I'm not one of them. And honestly I feel if more people actually acquired skills that shows them they're capable of great things (we're all capable, nothing is as hard as you may think it is), they wouldn't place so much emphasis on poker.

Amen to that brotha!

 

[Evan Jarvis]

What's your best hand in playing poker?

AA :top:

 

[Evan Jarvis]

whats your take on snap poker? do you enjoy being able to snap through tables left and right without seeing the flop or do would you rather play a slower pace and watch all the cards flip out and see what you could of had after you fold?

Personally I don't enjoy this format of poker. I enjoy the people part of poker and figuring out my opponents, using my reads to adjust my strategies. With zoom & snap we can't do this.

Zoom was created so the poker sites can make more rake. It's great for players who want to get in a ton of hands and play a solid GTO style, but it's also really bad for the brain and stress level because the player basically never 'gets a break'

That's why when it was created it was known as 'crack poker' to the industry insiders.

I much prefer a slower pace of play, and if I want more action I add more tables, but for me, having a read on my opponents is the most important thing, and so i like regular tables!

 

[Evan Jarvis]

Hi, did you read 'The Mental Game of Poker' by Jared Tendler? What do you think about mental coaches? Can we consider them frauds... at least partly?

I read this book in 2013 when I was in a spell of depression and it helped me so much. For anyone who doesn't have a deep understanding of human emotions 'the mental game of poker' is a complete game changer. One of the most powerful poker books on the market.

I tried to read the second one but never got thru it. I already know how to put in volume so i didn't need a book to teach me that. Whereas with the first one, I didn't understand my emotions very well (being a typical GAMER) and so it was so helpful for me.

Calling a mental game coach a fraud is like calling a therapist or a psychologist a fraud. If the person has actually studied human emotions and psychology then no, you cannot consider them frauds, not in the least.

If you are already a master of your emotions then you may not need to hire a mental game coach, but that doesn't discredit the value they offer to people who work with them.

Most of the top players in the world work with either a mental game coach or psychiatrist/therapists, anyone who is under a ton of mental & emotional pressure will benefit from this. It's the same in business, we all need people who support us and keep us on top of our game and many CEOs have performance coaches too.

I have worked with life coaches & therapists before, I highly recommend them to people who are able to afford it and looking to improve their lives. Not everyone is though and many people think they've 'got it all figured out' (as I did as well when I was younger)

 

[porkchop1955]

I'm new to both poker, and the forum, so my apologies if this has been asked before. I didn't want to start a new thread on it.

I've been playing for a couple months, and when I first took poker seriously, I started thinking about starting hands and equity, when I should bet or fold. Then I started thinking about position, and what kind of player I should be. I improved quite a bit. I started to win more often.

Then I read about pot odds, and the 2/4 rule, value betting, ranges, check raising, and I tried to incorporate this into my game. I started to lose, and quite often. My game has gotten worse.

So my question is two-fold: 1) Do I have to think about all of this, every single time a round of betting happens? Because it honestly feels overwhelming. 2) What should I do? Do I start in the beginning, and forget all the other stuff I've been reading about?

 

[Evan Jarvis]

I'm new to both poker, and the forum, so my apologies if this has been asked before. I didn't want to start a new thread on it.

I've been playing for a couple months, and when I first took poker seriously, I started thinking about starting hands and equity, when I should bet or fold. Then I started thinking about position, and what kind of player I should be. I improved quite a bit. I started to win more often.

Then I read about pot odds, and the 2/4 rule, value betting, ranges, check raising, and I tried to incorporate this into my game. I started to lose, and quite often. My game has gotten worse.

So my question is two-fold: 1) Do I have to think about all of this, every single time a round of betting happens? Because it honestly feels overwhelming. 2) What should I do? Do I start in the beginning, and forget all the other stuff I've been reading about?

Start with the simple stuff (as you did) and add more complexity when you're comfortable.

It's important when learning to only work on one new concept at a time until you feel like you really 'get it'. When you get it your mind doesn't have to think about it and you can just do it automatically (like when you learn to drive a car, eventually you can listen to music and talk to friends while driving, but only once all the operating has become automatic)

I've got some very to the point, basics teachings, that should help. Watch the videos below and make notes on a piece of paper, then see if you can explain the concept to yourself out loud and then to a friend. Once you've got that down you can move on to the next one.

Be patient with yourself, and know that if you learn one new concept a week that at the end of 6 months you'll be a beast of a player!

*When you've mastered what's in those videos look up 'project get me stackin' and you'll find a 30 day free training program I offer which will build on those videos and steadily (but slowly) teach you what you need to do, step by step, in order to be a great player!

Thanks for posting your question here, you indeed picked the right place! :ciao:

 

[teebahnoo]

Hey Evan, do you know any training material that’s about the real world of online poker and not some fantasy? You know, one in which there’s 8 villains not 1 so the ranges are not completely wrong? So the multi-way pot play is 80% of the book not 5%?
And perhaps one that knows the real big hand vs. big hand frequency in big online tournaments with rebuys and struggling to cover the guarantees - not the theoretical one?

 

[Evan Jarvis]

Hey Evan, do you know any training material that’s about the real world of online poker and not some fantasy? You know, one in which there’s 8 villains not 1 so the ranges are not completely wrong? So the multi-way pot play is 80% of the book not 5%?
And perhaps one that knows the real big hand vs. big hand frequency in big online tournaments with rebuys and struggling to cover the guarantees - not the theoretical one?

Honestly, when it comes to the extreme multiway pots the main thing is to just tighten way up your range for calling down and playing big pots and taking bluffing out of the game completely.

Going with oversized raises preflop too and just getting max value on your big hands is key. Don't be afraid to open raise for 15-20x in these games. Here's a vid on it

And as for your second question, I dont really undestand what your'e asking and so I can't provide an answer. But anytime the site doesn't reach the guarantee that's a great result for you b/c it means you got overlay which is basically free monies! :icon_rr:

Thanks for sharing your question!

 

[teebahnoo]

Going with oversized raises preflop too and just getting max value on your big hands is key. Don't be afraid to open raise for 15-20x in these games.

And as for your second question, I dont really undestand what your'e asking

What I mean is that in certain tournaments there’s an obvious increase in the frequency of the big hands dealt, commonly in the last hour before the registration close. There’s a lot of multi way (often all in) play during that time not because players are loose but they have genuinely good hands for their stack size and position .

All range systems are based on equity and that is based on the expected frequency of the cards combos. What do you do if all that is wrong?

 

[Sokolik]

How strong are poker books released before 2005? Is it worth learning from these books?

 

[Evan Jarvis]

What I mean is that in certain tournaments there’s an obvious increase in the frequency of the big hands dealt, commonly in the last hour before the registration close. There’s a lot of multi way (often all in) play during that time not because players are loose but they have genuinely good hands for their stack size and position .

All range systems are based on equity and that is based on the expected frequency of the cards combos. What do you do if all that is wrong?

Quit playing poker and go play bingo or cee-lo instead.

Fortunately the expected frequencies are not wrong and you are simply experiencing a case of 'selective memory' where the big moments stand out and the more normal 'non event' type moments don't stick to memory :secruity:

 

[Evan Jarvis]

How strong are poker books released before 2005? Is it worth learning from these books?

The foundational ones which break down the math of the game like sklansky and miller's books are still solid.

Harrington's still have a lot of value as well for learning the fundamentals of tournament play, but Jonathan Little's are a nice updated version which introduce how to beat those strategies.

A balance of old school & new school is never a bad idea :icon_flow

 

[teebahnoo]

Quit playing poker and go play bingo

Thank you

 

[eetenor]

Hey Cardschatters!

I have been teaching playing poker for over 15 years and teaching it for 10 on my youtube channel. I absolutely love teaching poker and helping players improve their game.

I know first hand how frustrating it can be to have a question which you can't get the answer to and how much it can drive a mind nuts. So I'm here to offer my experience and services to help put your busy mind at rest and help you build confidence in your self and your poker game.

Over the past 5 years I have made 100 Q+A videos in https://www.youtube.com/user/gripsed/playlists?view=50&sort=dd&shelf_id=18

If you've got a question that hasn't already been made into a video please post it here and I will give you a written response, and if you're lucky I might even make a video on it too!

Looking forward to being of service and helping you reach your goals in poker, be it to be the best player in the room, or simply to have more fun with your friends.

Let's Get Stackin!

Thank you for being here answering our questions.

I am trying to build a bankroll and have from 0 to 150 using freerolls.

I play on ACR, as do you and I min cashed in your last friday home game thanks again for the buy-in.

I am trying to weigh two tournament buy-ins.

The $3 $1000 GTD 9 handed with 450+ runners roi for a win is $80+ per $
5000 chips 12 min levels 15 levels of late reg

The $10 $2000 GTD 8 handed with 200+ runners roi for a win is $45+ per $
3000 chips 15 min levels 12 levels of late reg.


Any thoughts you have would be great.

Thank you

ACR Gwydion

 

[RVTR7777]

Ask Me Anything About Learning Poker!

Hi Evan I would like some tips, what should I do to think like professional players and what should I study to evolve my game?

 

[Sokolik]

A balance of old school & new school is never a bad idea :icon_flow

Thank you for your excellent response. If necessary, I will ask questions.

 

[Evan Jarvis]

Thank you for being here answering our questions.

I am trying to build a bankroll and have from 0 to 150 using freerolls.

I play on ACR, as do you and I min cashed in your last friday home game thanks again for the buy-in.

I am trying to weigh two tournament buy-ins.

The $3 $1000 GTD 9 handed with 450+ runners roi for a win is $80+ per $
5000 chips 12 min levels 15 levels of late reg

The $10 $2000 GTD 8 handed with 200+ runners roi for a win is $45+ per $
3000 chips 15 min levels 12 levels of late reg.


Any thoughts you have would be great.

Thank you

ACR Gwydion

With a small bankroll i would suggest playing games where you have AT LEAST 10 buyins

so if you have $10 play $1 games, if you have $20 play $2 games.

that will help you choose the best spots for your money

cheers