10 Years as a Poker Pro: My Biggest Lessons Learned

On a cold morning in April of 2007 I walked into an office building in Vancouver, Canada and told my boss that I was done. I was tired of being overworked and underpaid.

Even though I was a recent college graduate I was working long hours in a small company for a laughably low salary.

But more importantly I was spending all of my energy in life to help build somebody else's dream. To build their company, their business.

I promised myself never again.

I knew that the only way I was ever going to become successful, free and ultimately happy in life is if I found a way to work for myself.

Fortunately I had been playing online poker for awhile by that point. In fact, in the previous year I had rapidly climbed up the lower limits and built a low 5 figure bankroll.

On most days I would come home after working all day, play poker for a few hours online, and make twice what I made all day at my soul sucking job.

I also had about 6 months living expenses saved up in the bank. So the decision to quit my job and become a full time poker pro was actually a pretty simple one in my mind.

My friends (college educated and open minded) were mostly encouraging but I don't think they really understood it still. Game of luck right?

On the other hand, some members of my conservative Christian family actually told me that I was throwing my life away and that I should "go get help" instead.

Yikes. Talk about harsh!

Even though I knew it was just ignorance, these words lit a fire under me to succeed in this game more than anything else on earth.

As I type this in Feb of 2022 I have spent over 10 years in this game, much of it as a full time professional poker player.

 
I am best known for having some of the highest winnings in the history of online poker at the lower limits. I have also had considerable success in mid stakes games as well.

In recent years I have also developed a large side business teaching the game as a multiple time best selling poker author, blogger, poker YouTuber, coach and freelance writer for some of the biggest poker sites in the world.

And lastly, it was exactly 10 years ago that I made perhaps the craziest decision of them all to sell everything that I own and hop on a 17 hour one way flight from Vancouver, Canada to Bangkok, Thailand.

In this article I am going to discuss 12 of the biggest poker, business and life lessons that I have learned during the past decade as an online poker pro and citizen of the world.

1. Treat Poker Like a Business

One of the first things I had to learn was that if I was ever going to really make it in this game, then I had to stop screwing around.

This meant that I had to stop playing whenever "I feel like it," playing while drinking, tilted, tired and so on.

In short, I had to learn how to approach this game like a professional would. Which really means to treat this game as if I am running a business.

Because as a professional poker player you are essentially the CEO of a small business. You alone are responsible for all decisions. And you alone are also responsible for all of your profits and all of your losses as well.

So I had to develop a "sink or swim" mentality because I knew that nobody was going to be there to hold my hand when things go horribly wrong at the poker tables for weeks or even months on end.

And my bills won't get paid just because I show up like at a regular job either. I simply had to win. I had to succeed.

Losing was not an option.

On the technical side of things, I had to create a blueprint for exactly what hands to play in all situations in order to maximize my profits. 

I share this for the first time in my new video below: 9 PREFLOP Poker Tips For Beginners (Just Do This!)

Never miss my new poker videos, join 100,000+ who are already subscribed.

This is the kind of pressure that comes when you turn this game from a hobby into a job. And you can't truly know what it is like until you take the plunge for yourself.

You can either thrive under this kind of pressure or let it bury you. I knew which path I was going to take.

So I got a consistent playing schedule which basically meant every waking moment of my life for the first several years. And I made time for regular study as well.

As they might say, I was completely "all-in" with poker. My entire life revolved around it for years.

I also made sure that I was always ready to play my A-game every time I sat down. This meant regular exercise as well as eating and sleeping right.

But perhaps most important of all, this is also when I learned how to finally deal with some of my tilt problems. Specifically, I learned how to quit when I knew that it just wasn't my day.

Because after all, as a pro I didn't have the luxury to get all frustrated and throw away a bunch of money like most people do.

I had bills to pay.

2. Don't Get Too High And Don't Get Too Low

Being Canadian I am naturally a huge ice hockey fan and I have played the game for most of my life as well.

In order to win the sport's ultimate prize, the Stanley Cup, you have to endure a two month long mentally and physically exhausting playoff grind.

A common cliche that you often hear players say is:

"Don't get too high when you win and don't get too low when you lose."

I think this is an incredibly important lesson to learn for poker as well. This is because the nature of the game is that you are on a never-ending rollercoaster.

It doesn't matter if your name is Phil Ivey or Daniel Negreanu, you are going to have losing days, weeks and sometimes even losing months in this crazy game.

Ivey actually discusses this in a lot more detail in his advanced poker training program.

In fact, the ability to remain mentally strong during the tough times is one of the very biggest things that separates that small group of elite winners in this game from everybody else.

But you will also win huge sometimes as well for extended periods. I will never forget when I won my first tournament or hit my first massive heater at the cash game tables for instance.

 
It is very important that you learn to take it all in stride though. Because neither the huge heaters nor the massive downswings are real.

These are the outliers. They are not normal. You aren't that good and you aren't that bad. This is just variance running it's course.

Don't get too high when the money is falling out of the sky and don't get too low when you can't win a hand to save your life.

My Free Poker Cheat Sheet Teaches You How to Make $1000+ Per Month From Poker

Are you struggling to beat the low stakes poker games? Do you want a simple step by step guide to show you exactly how to start winning consistently right now?

That is why I recently wrote this free little 50 page no BS guide to teach you exactly how to start crushing these games right now.

Enter your details below and I will send my free poker cheat sheet to your email right now.

Name

Email

3. Always Be Evolving

The game of poker (both online and live) is always changing. When I first started playing 10+ years ago a 3Bet literally meant AA or KK only. Crazy right?

After that came the 3Bet light era. Then came the 4Bet light era.

You were called a "donkey" 10 years ago if you called too much. These days most good players know that calling down wide is actually the correct play versus many highly aggressive regs.

You have to constantly evolve in this game and stay on top of the way that it is currently being played in order to succeed.


Here is an example:

Many, many years ago I started experimenting with 8x and 10x preflop raise amounts with my premium hands at the lower limits online.

I noticed that the traditional advice to make it 3x was getting way too many callers. So I went against the advice of everybody at the time and started doing it my way instead.

Nobody seemed to have any clue what I was doing for years. And this strategy helped me create some of the highest winrates ever recorded in these games.

But then very slowly people started figuring it out. Then I also wrote a book which details exactly how and when to do these over-raises.

Suffice it to say, before too long every NL2 and NL5 reg was using my strategy and it therefore became ineffective.

So now I basically never do these over-raises anymore and I also made edits in the book several years ago as well. The times have changed and different preflop raising strategies are now more effective at the micros.

This is a perfect example of why you need to always be evolving.

I spend more time than anybody studying not only my own hands, but also studying my opponents in order to keep creating new strategies to beat them. I attribute this is a massive part of my success.



And this is because the great thing about poker is that there is always a counter to every strategy. If you are constantly on top of the latest trends, or better yet inventing them, then the money will always keep flowing in.

This is why I also recommend investing in poker training courses and poker books in order to constantly be improving your game.

For instance my brand new Elite Poker University is a comprehensive video based course with 17+ hours of advanced training, hundreds of step by step example hands and downloadable "cheat sheets"

If you are serious about taking your poker game to the next level, enroll today.

Enroll in BlackRain79 Elite Poker University

Get $100 OFF Use Code: ELITE100 

And if you are brand new to poker or struggling at the lowest stakes (NL2, NL5 online or $1/$2 live), then my first poker strategy book Crushing the Microstakes is a complete no-brainer.

This book has helped thousands of people now start winning at these stakes. Use the simple step by step strategies to beat these games consistently.

You can go pick up a copy of Crushing the Microstakes right here.

4. Information is Key

I was that guy who refused to use a HUD (heads up display) for the longest time. In fact, I played the first 4 million hands of my poker career without using one!

If you play at the micros where there are thousands and thousands of different players and you multi-table at all, it is simply -EV to not have data on them available.

The benefits of using a HUD at the lower stakes online are too numerous to name here. You are simply using the data that you already have to help you make better decisions in real time and therefore increase your win-rate.

It is also super easy to setup a HUD. In fact, I created this video tutorial to show you how to do it in less than 5 minutes.

By using a HUD you also won't have to try and mentally keep track of hundreds or thousands of different players spread across multiple tables and sites anymore.

This is not even to mention the ability to study my own game (and that of my opponents as well) that these programs provide as well. And also to run filters and check the profitability of the plays I am making.

This is really what I mean when I talk about "studying poker." This is how I have come up with most of the strategies that I have used over the years to crush my opposition at the micros.

I have literally spent thousands of hours over the years going over the data and analyzing hands in PokerTracker.

This is one of the absolute biggest keys to my success in poker.

If you need help setting up your HUD, the most popular article in the history of my website covers it all in massive detail. You can even download my custom HUD for free and use it yourself.

You can find it all right here.

Bottom line: If you take online poker seriously, information is your friend. Use a HUD. And study your game (and your opponents) in the program that comes with the HUD.

5. Time Management is Essential

When you first start to truly work for yourself it is an incredible feeling. The world is yours. The freedom seems endless!

But this can be a dangerous thing as well.

When there is suddenly no boss hanging over you telling you what to do, it can become very easy to get lazy, procrastinate and put off getting work done.

If you ever plan to set up your own business (poker or otherwise), then you need to develop a work ethic that comes from within. You need to learn how to act like a professional even when there is nobody there to tell you to.

Most poker players who I know play every single day. You heard that right: they don't take days off.

After all the games run 24/7, 365. You don't need to stop for some artificial "weekend" like in a regular job. In fact often the best poker games to play in are on the weekends!

By the way, in case you are curious, yes I do use a lot of poker software and tools to help me play such long hours, multi-table and still keep good reads on all my opponents.

For the complete list of all poker tools and poker software I use, click here.

Now, I don't exactly play every minute of every day like I used to. Between this website, other projects and traveling my time is much more limited.

But in my first several years cutting my teeth as a pro in this game, I basically did very little else besides play poker. And the biggest key to my work ethic was time management.

The internet is the largest marketplace in human history with opportunities to succeed everywhere online (poker is just one way). Yet most people spend all their time watching cat videos on Youtube or arguing about politics on Facebook!

I learned very early on that I had to manage my time better if I was going to succeed in poker.

Things like social media, forums, reddit, youtube and so on are simply not helping me achieve my goals online. 

Therefore, I place a very low priority on them. I will spend 5 or 10 minutes at the very end of the day on them if I have time.

It is very important that if you are chasing any kind of dream or goal that you learn how to prioritize your time. 

Focus on taking massive action on the things that actually move the needle towards achieving your goals.

By the way, I discuss this in much more detail in my new Elite Poker University training. 

Learn EXACTLY how to start crushing small and mid stakes poker games, play semi-pro or even full time pro. Use my proven elite poker strategies to start winning fast.

Enroll in BlackRain79 Elite Poker University

Get $100 OFF Use Code: Elite100 

6. No Such Thing as a "Standard Play"

Show me somebody who makes the "standard play" all the time and I will show you a breakeven poker player or a small winner at best.

Elite winners, the people who truly crush the games, don't blindly follow the advice to make X, Y or Z play because...everybody else does it.

Trying to copy the strategy that every other mediocre poker player out there uses is the surest way to get the exact same results as them.

On the contrary, every big winner that I know challenges the conventional wisdom at every opportunity. They are always considering if there is a better way to play each hand.



This doesn't mean that they don't ultimately decide that the conventional wisdom was in fact the right play all along. A lot of the time it actually is!

But they test the validity of each play first in order to know for sure almost like a scientist would.

I have done this for years with in depth database reviews and split testing in Pokertracker. I put every assertion to the test. The raw data over a large sample never lies.

A perfect example of this many years ago that I will never forget was from a well known mid-stakes cash game player on Stars who went by the name "Kelisitaan."

He challenged the common wisdom of the time that your opening raise had to be around 3x (just like I did at the lower stakes).

He played an incredibly LAG style and decided that a mini-raise open (from any position) would actually suit his play style better. I remember him being ridiculed for it and called a fish non-stop.

But once these games were tracked people started to realize that he was actually one of the biggest winners of all-time in them. Clearly his "fishy" strategy was working out pretty well!

Just like in my case, they all started copying his strategy eventually and now the mini-raise open is the new "standard play" in most mid and high stakes cash games.

7. Change Everything

This might sound crazy but one of the best things that I ever did for my poker career was to change everything and move halfway around the world.

The reason why is that nothing forces you to act like a professional faster than being completely on your own in a totally foreign environment.

When success is your only option, you are much more likely to stop making excuses and simply go make it happen. After all it is very, very simple: win or go home.

And when you get used to living in paradise, the latter doesn't seem like such a great idea.

Me recently in Koh Samui, Thailand

Another thing is that there are thousands of other poker and non-poker online professionals out here in a place like Southeast Asia who are in the exact same position.

This makes it much easier to make friends with other highly driven and successful people. When you surround yourself with the right people, this tends to have a positive impact on your results as well.

In fact last year I actually interviewed two friends of mine who I met here in Thailand. Both are highly successful online poker pros. 

You can find those interviews here and here.

Lastly, playing poker professionally (or doing business online) removes the need to be in one physical location. All you really need is a laptop and an internet connection.

So assuming you come from a Western country, this means that you can set up shop in any number of countries around the world that have a much lower cost of living and often better weather as well.

When you suddenly only need a fraction of the income to live the exact same quality of life, this makes it a lot easier to make it as a poker player or build your business online.

Example: Renting an apartment in London, England versus Saigon, Vietnam (source)

8. Invest in Yourself: Travel

There really is so much more to it than just physically changing your surroundings and living cheaper though.

While it might sound cliche to say, one of the best things that I ever did in my life was to leave my tiny little bubble in Vancouver and go see the world.

And yes, the only regret I have is that I did not do it earlier!

Travel is essential in my opinion. It opens up your mind. It is exhilarating. It is scary. It forces you to grow as a person. And it gives you a much broader and deeper perspective on this world that we live in.

If you can fund it through poker or some other online business, awesome. But had I known the benefits of travel at an earlier age, I would have gladly gone into debt to finance it.

"The world is a book, and those who do not travel only read one page"

       -- St. Augustine

Working from the highest point in Seoul, South Korea

Boracay, The Philippines aka absolute paradise

The ancient ruins of Sukhothai, Thailand

At the end of your life experiences such as travel are what you are truly going to remember. In fact it has been proven again and again that people who spend money on experiences instead of things are a lot happier overall.

I don't travel non-stop like some people do. I need somewhere to call home sometimes. This is why I usually spend at least 6 months a year in Thailand where I have a long term condo, gym membership etc. I also try to make it back "home" to Canada once in awhile to reconnect with family and friends.

But I also make sure to take off and explore some new destinations for at least a few months every year as well. It is always awesome and I never regret it. Already got plans for Australia and New Zealand later this year!

Check out my massive article on poker and travel to find out how I utilize the power of technology, Airbnb and cheap airlines in order to see the world and keep my costs down.

People often ask me how I travel, where I stay etc. Yes, I do use Airbnb for almost every place I stay at. I think it is way better than hotels or hostels.

Not only is it much cheaper but you get a nice condo (or villa if you are at the beach) that already has your own personal high speed internet connection and everything else setup. No hassles, I love it.

You can get $34 off your first booking by using my Airbnb link.

Want to know where in the world I am right now? I am posting all the time, especially in my stories, of my day to day life traveling the world.

Make sure to follow my Instagram to see everywhere I go!

9. Don't Be a Hero: Get the Easy Money

One of the very biggest reasons why I have been able to make it 10 years as a poker pro is this:

I only play in good games.

As a professional poker player my goal at the tables is very clear and unambiguous: make money and pay the bills.

The easiest way to do this (by far) is to consistently play against bad poker players.

These are the players who make huge fundamental mistakes and ultimately give away their money in the long run. They are where the "easy money" is at in this game.

This is also how I was able to become a poker pro starting with absolutely nothing ($0) as I discussed in a recent video.

So for this reason I am a huge advocate of game selection.

For starters, I only play at soft poker sites. But furthermore, I also make sure that there is always at least one fish (VPIP = 40%+) in any game that I choose to play in. And once they manage to bust, I am out of there.

Many people choose to ignore this critical skill in today's games and battle it out in tough lineups instead. There is simply no strategy on earth that can allow you to "crush" these games. Your opponents just aren't making enough mistakes for this to ever happen.

To be fair, some people don't want to put in the effort of having money on a bunch of different sites, constantly scouting and moving to different tables, chasing fish around and so on.

They just want to sit down and play. I get that and I totally understand it as well.

As a professional though, I know that I have to be better than that. This approach simply does not cut it if you want to win big in today's games.

Game selection is simply part of the job.

10. Poker's End Boss: Variance

The biggest obstacle that I had to overcome in order to make it as a poker pro was variance. This essentially refers to the endless ups and downs that happen all of the time as long as you choose to play this game.

In fact, as I discuss in my free poker cheat sheet, this was really the "aha moment" for me, when I had what it takes to go pro in this game.

Getting past basic variance (i.e. getting your "true" results) in poker typically requires months of play or hundreds of thousands of hands.

I have even seen a few cases where somebody ran significantly below or above EV over a million hand sample. Who knows how far the rabbit hole can really go!

Here's the thing:

Playing insane amounts of poker for over a decade now has taught me that completely unbelievably shit will happen in this game and it can continue for days, weeks or even months on end.



In fact, there have been many times in my poker career where I literally just had to suspend all logic and simply trust in the fact that I apparently used to be a winning poker player.

Sometimes I would actually just pin my graphs on the wall or use them as my desktop wallpaper just to remind myself of a previous reality when I used to win at poker.

This game simply won't even seem real at times and you have to be willing to keep getting up again and again and making the same good decisions even when the results continue to be terrible.

Downswings in today's games at the lower limits of 50k, 100k or even 200k hands are not only possible but they are also now completely normal as well.

When 5bb/100 or 10bb/100 is often what is considered the absolute best win-rate possible in many small stakes games these days, this is just the simple math.

There have been countless poker players, even potentially great ones, who have cracked under the mighty pressure of variance. I would be lying if I said that I haven't been close to throwing in the towel completely several times over the years myself.

Overcoming variance (downswings specifically) is without a doubt the hardest psychological hurdle to get past in this game. Variance is truly poker's end boss.

In no other job that I know of can you show up each day, work hard, do all the right things, and go home with a negative paycheck for sometimes weeks or even months on end.

Sorry to tell you but even after 10 years in this game, I definitely don't have all the answers. I haven't figured it all out.

But I do think that massive amounts of experience playing this game has allowed me to find a bit more perspective in the constant ups and downs.

I am less likely to lose my mind over a few bad beats like some newer players will for instance. Also, I feel like I am much better now at recognizing the signs of tilt and simply quitting before any real damage can be done.

You overcome variance in this game by continuing to make the right decisions again and again and again over a very long period of time.

This is how winning is done. There is no magical way around it.

11. Monetize Your Knowledge - The "Business" of BlackRain79

Now there is another huge part of my success which has enabled me to make a career out of this silly little card game for over 10 years now.

And you are looking right at it.

Blackrain79.com (that's my online poker screen name by the way) is now one of the most highly visited small stakes poker strategy websites in the world today. There are roughly 1,000 unique visitors who come to my website every single day.

And none of this happened by accident.

I have built up an audience of this size by consistently publishing high quality small stakes poker strategy articles/videos every single week for over 10 years now.

I should mention that I also have a Poker YouTube channel which just hit 40,000 subscribers. I post two new videos a week on there.

There are over 100k people on my free poker newsletter as well. You get my 60 page free poker "cheat sheet" just for signing up as well.

Some people have even told me that my free poker cheat sheet is actually better than many paid books out there 😂 

In short, by giving away massive amounts of totally free information and helping people improve their poker results, I have been able to create a business.

Now you are probably asking yourself how I have built a business though if everything is free? Good question!

This is because I have written 3 popular poker strategy ebooks (and a video series as well) which are also available through this website. And those of course, are not free.

My first book in particular is the highest selling book 
ever written on NL2 and NL5 cash games.

I also finally have a major comprehensive poker training course available now as well. It's called BlackRain79 Elite Poker University.

I promised this thing literally for 5 years, and it is finally available and open for enrollment.

Get $100 OFF when you use code: ELITE100

You see here's the thing.

When you consistently provide people with such an overwhelming amount of totally free and helpful information, a certain percentage of them are going to be interested in purchasing your paid premium content as well.

Heck, some of them will even buy your stuff simply as a way of saying thanks to you! This has happened to me many, many times.

In fact, to this day I have still never even spent a dime on marketing any of my products. I don't have to. They literally sell themselves.

And since all of my books and video courses are digital, and the sales process is 100% automated, people are buying them while I travel, or play poker, or even while I sleep.

In other words, pure passive income.

You Can Promote Other People's Stuff Too!

Writing a book (or creating a huge course) is really damn hard though, believe me. So guess what, there is an even easier way to make money online. 

Just promote other people's stuff!

I frequently recommend other people's products in my blog posts if I have used them and benefited from them. In fact, you may have noticed that I already did that above when I talked about PokerTracker.

I have personally used this product for nearly a decade now at the poker tables and it has helped save me tens of thousands of dollars. 

Therefore, why would I not want to recommend it to others and get paid to do so at the same time?

So I used what is called an "affiliate link" when I talked about PokerTracker earlier in this article. And if somebody clicks on that link and buys that product, then PokerTracker gives me a percentage of that sale.

The customer is happy because they get an amazing poker software tool. The merchant is happy because they made a sale. And I earn a commission for bringing them together.

That's a win, win, win.

And since I have built a large audience over the years on this website, as you can imagine, it doesn't take much to start making significant amounts of money by promoting other people's products like this.

By the way, if you want to see all of the poker products I recommend (both paid and free), check out my list of the best poker software.

Anyways, these are just two of the ways in which I have monetized my poker knowledge over the years in order to create substantial and largely passive income streams away from the tables.

And believe me, all top level pros understand this. 

It is never a good idea to have all your eggs in one basket. Burnout from playing the game too much is a very real thing as well.

You must learn to create revenue streams away from the tables as well.

Here's How You Can Start Making Money Online Today

I absolutely guarantee that you have some knowledge about something that people are eager to learn and ultimately pay you for right now.

It doesn't even need to be about poker.

Your knowledge might be about classic auto repair, the best league of legends strategies, cryptocurrency, baby toys, politics, fitness, photography or how to play bass guitar.

I have a friend who makes 50k a month teaching people how to play Justin Bieber and Rhianna songs on piano on Youtube!

Yes, people will buy absolutely anything these days.

You can start building a highly profitable online business like this today by consistently giving people tons of totally free and helpful advice.

And that really is the key. For the first 6 months or a year just truly seek to help people unconditionally and without asking for anything in return.

This is how you build an audience of raving fans and ultimately customers.

Because later down the line you can offer some sort of paid premium content or service like an ebook, course or coaching program and they will literally be lining up to buy from you.

And yes, even while you sleep. And even while you travel the world or live in exotic locations like I do in Thailand or the Philippines.

The best part is that it costs almost nothing to get started. You can create a blog in 5 minutes with a free domain and hosting for as little as $3 a month.

Or if writing isn't your thing, then you can start a Youtube channel and build an audience with just a smart phone and an internet connection.

I will probably create a course or write another book one day explaining the entire process of making money online in more detail. And it won't be free. See how this thing works yet?

Believe me, you have the knowledge right now about something that other people want to know about. Start taking action today, right now.

Build a raving fanbase. And then build a business around it.

If you don't know where to start and you are a poker player, just start streaming your sessions on Twitch or making some replayer videos on YouTube.

This is the easiest way to start quickly building up an audience by doing something you already love to do!

12. Fitness First

The final thing that I have learned over these last 10 years as a poker pro is that no matter how strong you are mentally, you are going to need a stress reliever, an outlet, at times.

For me this is fitness. Specifically strength training and quite a bit of cardio as well.



I have personally never found a better stress reliever. 

And when you make this a part of your life I believe it will have positive impacts for you in every category including mental clarity, sleep, positive outlook and so on.

The key is to make fitness a lifestyle. But you don't need to be one of those people who live in the gym. 

I often only go 3 or 4 times a week for an hour at a time, especially if I have been traveling a lot.

Everybody has time for that.

The biggest reason why most people fail to ever get in really good shape is because they leave it up to choice. 

If they don't feel good on a certain day, then they decide to skip going to the gym. And it just snowballs from there.

But when you make this a part of who you are, it's not a choice anymore. It's just something that you do. I don't care if your dog died and you got 2 hours sleep. You just go.

In fact some of my very best workouts come when I feel like complete crap. And I never regret pushing myself to go.

I have worked out in a barn in Laos (chickens included). I have worked out in countless Muay Thai gyms all over Thailand.

Heck I even worked out on the beach one time in Vietnam using the pullup bar because everything was closed during their New Year.

The bottom line is that I can't emphasize the importance of physical fitness enough especially if you are in a stressful line of business like poker.

The gym is my therapy after a bad day. It is where I leave all my frustrations behind. 

And you also get to walk around with the confidence every day that you have the body that everybody else wishes they could have.

What Stakes Do You Play These Day? Would You Do It All Over Again?

Now I get asked all the time these days what stakes I play now and if I would go down this path as a poker pro all over again today.

The answer to what stakes I play is micro/small stakes and mid stakes from time to time, if I see a good spot.

Why the small stakes mostly still though? 

Because these are the games that I have built a career out of and that I now teach today.

One of the biggest reasons why my poker books and this website are so popular is because people know that they are learning how to crush the micro stakes from somebody who has some of the best results ever, and still actively plays these limits as well.

By comparison, most other poker coaches these days play much higher stakes and so they are often completely out of touch with how to beat these low stakes games.

And would I become a poker pro again today and do this all over again? Absolutely.

This game has allowed me to create what I consider to be the "dream life." That is, a life of total freedom, traveling the world and working when I want from anywhere on earth.

As I have mentioned before, I never got into this game to be famous or to win a WSOP title. I have no interest in either.

I totally respect those that do have those dreams, but they just aren't mine. 

I prefer instead to grind online poker and most days you will find me multi-tabling on the deck near the beach.



After all, this is my version of what "success" looks like in poker. I work when I want, I am my own boss and I get to travel all over the world.

So ya, I wouldn't change a thing. I would do this all over again in a heartbeat. This game has been really good to me.

The biggest thing that I hope I got across to you in this article is that if you follow your dreams, then anything can happen. I know it sounds cliche, but it is true.

I made it happen my way in life against all odds. 

People laughed at me right from the start and they still do to this day. They told me it couldn't be done, that I was stupid to still be playing the micros and on and on.

Here's the thing though. I never listened to any of them. It literally went in one ear and right out the other one.

Because I knew that if you want anything bad enough in life, then you can achieve it.

Other people's "opinions" are just simply irrelevant. While they are talking crap about me on the internet, I am taking action and achieving my dreams, every single day.

Because winners focus on winning. Losers focus on winners.

Start creating tunnel vision and absolute focus in your life today. And start actively building your best life every single day.

As Joe Rogan so perfectly puts it, start "being the hero of your own movie."

Final Thoughts

It is difficult to sum up 10 years in this crazy game in a short article. I really could have written another entire book about it.

Poker has taught me so much about life and about people. It has taught me how to grow up and be a man, persevere no matter what and learn how to take criticism in stride.

I never planned to go down this path and I could still easily be somewhere completely different in 5 or 10 years from now. 

But ultimately the decision to pursue this game professionally was a very good one for me overall.

Most importantly it has allowed me to work for myself and create both time and location freedom, two things which I think are more important than anything else on earth.

I actually get comments nearly every single day on Instagram from people telling me that I am "living the dream."

With all of that said, I do want to make it very clear that this article was only about my personal experience in this game.

Poker is a lot tougher these days than when I first started. And even under the best of conditions most people do not win in this game over the short term, let alone for 10 years.

After all, if being a professional poker player were so easy, everybody would be doing it. The truth is that it is one of the most stressful and demanding jobs that you can possibly do at times.

But I am not here to crush anyone's dreams either. If you have a deep passion for this game, and you are ready to put in the work, then there is no reason why you can't achieve your version of success with it.

Whatever your goals are in poker, or online business in general, I wish you all the best. Don't leave your success to chance. Go out there and start making it happen today.

And if you made it this far I just want to say thanks for reading my story. 

Above all, thank you so much for all of the incredible support and encouragement from my longtime readers on here. I could have never achieved this milestone without you.

Lastly, if you want to know how to start consistently making $1000+ per month from low stakes poker games, make sure you grab a copy of my free poker cheat sheet.


Thanks for reading my poker story. What's yours? Comment below.