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Avoid rising to your failure point in poker
This is a problem that plagues every profession: A person comes in at an entry level position, works extremely hard, has a natural affinity for the job, and quickly climbs the corporate ladder. Promotions and raises are the good part of success, but with success comes added responsibility. And this is where many people inevitably rise to their failure point.
Your failure point is where you no longer have the skill-set necessary to do your job. The skills that allowed you to climb the corporate ladder are either insufficient or simply don’t apply to your new position. For instance, being a hard worker –a workaholic—is great when you are responsible for what you produce, but when you are in charge of numerous people, delegation and oversight becomes just as important.
This phenomenon is quite common in poker, where players feel success at one level insures success at the next. However, as you continually move up to higher and higher stakes games you must continually be adding to your set of skills or you will unavoidably rise to your failure point.
Most poker players break down games into roughly four or five categories --micro-limits, low-limits, mid-limits, high-limits, and ultra-high-limits—that differentiates not only the amount of money that is wagered, but also the overall skill level of the players.
Micro-Limits skills
You will only find micro-limit games in online poker, and the term is used to describe any poker game with a buy-in under $10.
The micro-limits are the domain of new poker players, bankroll builders, and recreational poker players. Often times there will be less than two players in the game who have any amount of poker knowledge. To beat the micro-limits a player needs to know the basics of the game, stay disciplined, and have a modicum of mental toughness. One other essential (though essential for players of all levels) is rakeback.
Low-Limit skills
The term low-limit is used to describe both live and online poker games with a buy-in of less than $200 – up to $4/$8 limit games, and up to $1/$2 No Limit.
As you progress up to low-limit games you will notice there are a few more knowledgeable players in each game, with most of them being low-limit grinders multi-tabling online, or sitting in a casino chair for hours on end. It’s at this point you will need to start exercising game selection, isolation and avoidance, and start to utilize bonuses, rakeback, and poker tools like Holdem Manager. It’s no longer enough to simply play an ABC game.
Mid-Limit skills
The term mid-limit is used to describe poker games with buy-ins under $1,000 –up to $20/$40 Limit games, and $5/$10 No Limit games.
When you reach the mid-limits you will find the level of play has drastically increased; and if your skills have not grown accordingly you will be in for some tough times. The mid-limits are where players first start to rise to their failure point. People who were able to crush the micro and low-limit games aren’t ready for the challenges of playing in a poker game with seven or eight competent poker players. Now skills like meta-game, hand-reading, and tells become vitally important, and if your game is still ABC you will struggle.
High and Ultra-High-Limit skills
When a buy-in is between $5,000 and $250,000 you are unlikely to find many donkeys –except at the lower end from time to time: In fact a donkey in a high-stakes game would likely crush a mid-stakes game. The high-stakes games are where professional poker players hang out waiting for people to take a shot. So, when mid-limit players have a nice run, and think they can beat the world, they typically jump into a high-stakes game and find they are outclassed. The world of high-stakes poker is where fearlessness and short-handed play rein supreme, and if you are not ready for the changes you’ll find yourself swimming with the sharks instead of being one.
To avoid rising to your failure point in poker you must never become complacent, or think your current skill-set will win the day. Always remember, if you are not evolving in poker you’re devolving. Make sure to check out our selection of rakeback deals to boost your poker returns!
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