Giving up isn’t a phrase that is often associated with
poker, but winning players realize that sometimes a pot reaches
a point at which it is no longer worth fighting for. As much as
aggressive play is taught, especially today, there’s a lot to
be said about the ability to slow down. If you are facing a
player who you have pinned as tight and/or
passive, but cannot seem to get them to fold in a particular
hand, it will only make sense to give up and save yourself some
money.

The problem that many players have is that they just
don’t want to come to the realization that they are not going to
win a hand. You won’t win every hand, so you need to make the
most out of the ones that you can and lose the least when you
can’t.

In this video I'm talking about my Online Poker Setup and give you some online poker advice. At first, you want to have great monitors, but make sure you're. All the information you need about high stakes online cash games and online poker tournaments. 2020 WSOP Main Event. Polk Up Almost $1 Million on Negreanu. 153k members in the poker community. Shuffle up and deal! Official subreddit for all things poker. Press J to jump to the feed. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. User account menu. This is why I am giving up online poker.

The crucial thing to remember in all of this is that you
shouldn’t be giving up before you even get started. For
instance, a simple raise ahead of you doesn’t mean that you
should be running away in fear. It’s those spots where only
further aggression can win a pot, but is unlikely to actually
work, that need to be avoided at all costs. In other words,
proper aggression is a matter of picking your spots as
effectively as possible. For example, giving up calls for moving on
when the situation just isn’t right.

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Giving Up Pre-Flop

Pre-flop is the easiest time to give up when you look at it
from a practicality standpoint. You’ll have the least money
invested, you won’t be forced to continue on, and you won’t be very attached to your hand. The problem that comes
along with pre-flop play is that there’s always the opportunity
of the unknown. One of the most interesting and intriguing
elements of poker is that even the worst starting hand can turn
into the absolute nuts by the time that the river is dealt.
These types of possibilities are what allows for weak players to
become way too involved with hands that really aren’t that
valuable.

There are many different spots where you should be looking to
dump your hand pre-flop, but they aren’t as clear cut as you
might hope. The ultimate goal of any move with any hand should
be to determine the actual risk and reward that’s involved. If
you are facing a 3-bet with AK and are out of position against a
tight player, you may be in a rare spot where AK should be folded.

Is it smart to fold AK to any 3-bet? No, of course not. Is it even
smart to fold AK against a tight player? Not really. The
difference lies in the fact that there’s both a raise, a
re-raise, you are out of position, and the tightest player at
the table is showing resistance. A weak player would look at
this and say that they need to call and see a flop, but a smart
player will have the discipline to simply give it up and move on
instead.

Post-Flop Turning Points

Post-flop is where you’ll find yourself in a lot more
trickier situations where you are more attached to your hand.
Once you have approached the post-flop stages of the game, you’ll have now invested a significant amount of time, money, and
effort into the hand-three things that most players aren’t
going to be all too keen on sacrificing. This is both where you’ll have a chance to make money and lose money. Weak players
call off a check raise on the river when they know they are
beat, but strong players have the discipline to throw their hand
away, even if it’s just $50 more into a $250 pot.

Many poker players are suckered in to what I like to call the
“bluff vortex.” The bluff vortex is created when a player
initially raises and plans on making a continuation bet and then
giving up, but instead ends up firing out again on the turn and
the river as well. Every player will find themselves in these
types of situations, and it’s more than understandable. At
first you feel like you won’t want to continue with the pot
if you face strong resistance and don’t have a strong hand, but
then you’ll start to realize how much money is at stake and
that you have a chance at taking down the pot. It’s the
temptation of the money in the middle that is enough to throw
just about anyone off of their game.

Continuing with the bluff vortex, it’s usually the turn or
increased flop action that lands the bulk of players in hot
water. Though it’s hardly always the case, big bets will most
often start to develop on the turn. Where the flop is largely a
ground used to figure out where opponents stand, it’s the turn
that is used as a mechanism to get all of the money in the
middle or to scare off the other player, depending on whether
you are strong or weak. Because of this, the turn needs to be
where you really place the most emphasis in just about every
hand. Regardless of whether you are looking to extract value or
contemplating if it makes sense to fold, the turn will often
times be the turning point.

Also keep in mind that just
about any decision made on the turn is going to have a direct
effect on what happens when the river is dealt. If you have a
huge hand and want to stack your opponent, you should be looking
to get as much money as possible in the middle while also
leaving room for a reasonable river bet. Likewise, a weak hand
should be looking to see the river as cheaply as possible. The
important thing to remember is that the turn is the point in
time where you need to make your decision. Instead of putting
yourself in a very difficult spot on the river, sometimes it
will be best to simply get out of the way while you still can.

I recently read something remarkable on the twoplustwo.com forums (thanks Petey5thStreet - what a great find!). It was a post made by Doug 'WCGRider' Polk on May 5th, 2007 and the title of the thread is 'Reaching the end of my rope.' He was down to his last $30, again, had just about lost hope that he could ever be a winning poker player, and was contemplating giving up. This post was his desperate plea to the 2+2 community. He abandoned his pride and earnestly pleaded for someone, anyone, to help him out and tell him what on earth he was getting so wrong.

Of course, if you follow the high stakes games you will know how this story ends. Today, WCGRider is counted among the most successful and highly regarded online cash players in the world. Personally, I consider him one of my toughest opponents and I have tremendous respect for his game.

Move on up (just not too quickly)
There is a second 2+2 thread that WCGRider started on June 19, 2007, just over a month after the first one. This one is titled 'Moving up, Moving on, and Moving out; Adios Beginners Forum!' and it tells a proud tale of triumph so heartwarming and inspirational it deserves its own timpani-heavy orchestral soundtrack. Humility, discipline, patience and a lot of advice from the 2+2 community were all the ingredients needed to get him started on his journey from $30 to millions.

Well... humility, discipline, patience, advice and responsible bankroll management. I cannot state emphatically enough the importance of responsible bankroll management. Moving up in stakes too quickly has to be one of the biggest and most common mistakes made by beginning poker players. Indeed, as it turns out, poor bankroll management was probably one of WCGRider's biggest issues in 2007. It was certainly one of mine when I first started playing poker.

Giving Up Online Poker Real Money

The first $50 I ever deposited online I lost immediately in a manic 16-hour session of 25/50 cent Limit Hold'em. After that minor fiasco I stuck with live poker for a little while. I made a couple hundred bucks playing $5 sit-'n'-go's with the other kids in my college dorm and then I spent every day of winter break my freshman year playing live cash at Turning Stone Casino, which is 40 minutes from my parents' house in Syracuse, NY. I started playing $1/$3 spread limit hold'em and, frankly, I ran like god. I rapidly moved up in stakes and by the end of the month I was a regular at the $5/$10 limit tables.

The very first 2+2 post I ever made was on January 20, 2004 and it was about a hand in one of those $5/$10 games. I was in middle position with ATo. There was a raise and a 3-bet in front of me and I wanted to know if I should raise or call. The answer, of course, is fold. By a lot.

Poker parables
I tell this story to illustrate the fact that absolutely nobody is a winning player when they first start out. But it's easy to run good at first and think you're beating the games and then it can be incredibly hard to resist the temptation to move up to higher and more exciting stakes before you or your bankroll are ready for it.

I was incredibly lucky, much luckier than WCGRider. When I went back to college that winter I deposited another $50 online and continued running ridiculously hot and moving up in stakes far too quickly and I managed to run that $50 up to... well, my career as a professional poker player. By summertime I was playing $30/60 and before school started again in the fall I made my first withdrawal for $45,000. It bears repeating: I was incredibly lucky.

There is no doubt in my mind that had the poker gods not bestowed upon me that bounty of endless luck when I first started playing, I would have been riding the very same rollercoaster that WCGRider became so well acquainted with in 2007. And if I had been in his position, I honestly don't know if I would have shown the same resolve. I don't think it would have taken too many more busted $50 deposits for me to have decided that maybe poker just wasn't my thing.

So listen up, all you beginners out there. Take it slow. Really slow. Don't be easily discouraged and don't be too proud to ask for help. Have faith in yourself, be patient, and keep the stakes nice and low so you have plenty of time to improve. If you're lucky like I was, that's fantastic, but in all likelihood you'll come to a point pretty early in your poker career where you can't remember your last winning session and are seriously considering giving up. When that moment hits, take heart in knowing that every single one of your poker role models was once in your shoes. You never know. If you've got the passion and the determination and, most of all, the patience it takes to learn to win at poker, a few years from now you might just find yourself beating those nosebleed games online or traveling the world on the live tournament circuit.

Giving Up Online Poker Tournaments

Grinders, too
To all the more experienced players, I hope you find this obscure little slice of poker forum nostalgia as inspiring and motivating as I have. It is so important to remember from time to time that no matter where we are in the game, no matter what stakes we play or how much we've won, as long as we stay humble and work diligently, we can always improve and there are always new heights to be reached.

And Doug, if you're reading this, thank you for writing that post all those years ago. It is such a vivid, poignant reminder of where we all started from and I believe it will encourage and inspire a new generation of players as they learn the game. See you at the tables, my friend.

Giving Up Online Poker Deuces Wild

Ike Haxton is a member of Team PokerStars Online.