QA-Jason

Hey Annie,

I just wanted some advice. Needless to say I love poker, a LOT.  It’s all I watch on TV; read about; think about; and even dream about. I feel I am an above average player and I need to start building my bankroll, the problem is that the low limit tables like 1-3 3-6 and 4-8 seem unbeatable because players will call all the way to the river with just about anything and its very frustrating to me because I know I am playing good poker, and they are not. What do you suggest????

Jason

Hi Jason,

Yours is a common lament. Good players who play low limit poker always think they get sucked out on way more than they should. And you know what? In a sense they’re right. Here’s why: If you’re a smart, thoughtful player, you don’t get your money in with the worst of it, so you’re rarely the one doing the sucking out. But low limit games are filled with players who aren’t that smart and thoughtful, so… in goes their money, and here comes the suckout. That’s really not the bad news you think it is, though, because if they have to suck out to win, eventually they must lose. I’ll bet if you used Poker Tracker or some other “sniffer” software (that’s what my pal John Vorhaus calls it) to evaluate your results, you’d see about what you’d expect to see: that your good cards are big winners and your bad cards are big losers. The evidence might comfort you, even if the results do not. In the meantime, keep doing what you’re doing. You can beat those low limit games, but you have to keep your head and hold onto your discipline and not sink to the level of the suckout artists who seem to be beating the game but, truthfully, are not.
 
Good luck,
 
Annie xo