Top 5 Poker Skills Low-Stakes Players STRUGGLE With

[@PhilGalfond]

Free 44-page Mindset Strategy Playbook -> philgalfond.com/mindset

[@coldcuts3248]

Phil this is extremely clear, concise, and helpful to the common poker player. Love your content!

[@PhilGalfond]

Thank you so much! I'm glad this resonated with you.

[@jlieberman22]

These videos and free content is PRICELESS! I wish I had these videos 15 years ago when I was just starting out

[@TomVaid]

Oh yeah, it's definitely extremely.

[@alvaroramiro8364]

You will still be a fish

[@Mdevlin0]

As an intermediate player, these were some good reminders as to why I might be on a downswing outside of pure variance. It’s easy to get comfortable and enter autopilot after a long winning streak, and I’ve definitely let up on the focus and attention required to sustain a positive win rate. Thanks again!

[@NClottery]

Phil I just want to say “thank you” your video alway find me in the right moment in my life just when I need it

[@PhilGalfond]

So happy to hear that, and you're very welcome!

[@NClottery]

@@PhilGalfond whether it twitter/ KZbin you alway give the best advice and honest if there a god / Angela you are definitely for me me p.s . Icing on the cake is this the real Phil response 😆

[@NClottery]

@@PhilGalfond also Phil can you do a video on hand range in multi way live games? 🙏

[@danield8094]

Hey Phil. Would you ever consider doing a vlog or even just a HH review/recap after playing 1/3 or 2/5? I enjoy all your content about adjusting and exploiting opponents. I'd love to see how you'd do it in today's game. I'm sure it's been a while since you sat at low stakes. Just an idea. I know you're a busy man.

[@PhilGalfond]

Not a bad idea. I don’t love filming in public, but maybe I can figure out a way to make it make sense.

[@danield8094]

@@PhilGalfond You don't need to film the hands if you don't want. Even just HH reviews would be awesome.

[@3Questionmark4Profit]

Great video. Just wanted to say you have been one of the most inspiring players since the online poker boom. Hope it’s all going well. One comment on bankroll management. At v low stakes presumably players will have other sources of income / funds and you don’t necessarily need to apply the same rules of bankroll management (proportionately) as you do at higher stakes or if poker is your main source of income. When you were playing those $10 tournaments that you refer to I imagine you had other ways to pay for them than just poker. If you start with $1 tournaments because that is all your ‘poker’ bankroll will support at the time then you might never get anywhere.

[@thekushzilla]

one of the genuine good guys in poker someone ppl can trust

[@phillipdonnatien6481]

Thanks Phil. There’s always something to learn, very thorough and thoughtful content as always ✌🏽🙏🏽💸

[@losyart]

I already knew all of it but its good to keep refreshing your fundamentals along path especially on downswing. Tx Phil

[@PhilGalfond]

Good luck turning it around!

[@mattl2k6]

Phil I've been a fan for years I remember your debut on High Stakes Poker and it opened the door for me to see poker in a different light. Awesome to see you doing well on YT. Are there any good books on poker strategy you'd recommend to brush up on the mathematical fundamentals? Also, do you have a NL training course?

[@PhilGalfond]

Thank you! I don't personally have an NL training course, but my site, Run It Once, has a great one at an excellent price: www.runitonce.com/courses/from-the-ground-up/ As for books, Mathematics of Poker is the best for the mathematical fundamentals, but it is pretty dense, FYI.

[@letsinvestigateit]

He is nobody to be a fan of. What he shows on tv and his nice personality is fake. I thought jungleman was joking around but I understand now. He also has players teaching on his site that are losing players in cash games. I had re teach a friend of mine how to play after paying over 10k for one of his rio coaches who was teaching him complete nonsense. There is good coaches on there but some bad ones too fyi. If you want a good book to actually be successful in poker with the right mind set its called heads up baseball. I don't remember the author but its on amazon. Every top baseball player in mlb swears by this book. And it works for poker too. If you read that you will be better poker player 100%. If you have good mindset even being an average player you have an edge over even against more skilled players. Cause they will tilt over time and play poorly.

[@brianpotter2812]

Thanks! I do struggle with the 3 bets prelflop and position acknowledgement.

[@affiliatestud]

i was a calling station when I 1st started...had so little knowledge I remember a hand where I just called and turned my cards over and said "I think I have a straight" (7 card stud at the time) I had a straight flush and never raised, I literally didn't know any better :)

[@KevinRedGorman]

Great advice here as always Phil. Very clear and concise.

[@PhilGalfond]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@OGRE_HATES_NERDS]

I would love to see you do a video or a short about the differences between bluffing strategies in NLHE vs PLO

[@jamesm9999]

I recently had my biggest downswing back in February, which lasted for 2 months (-$2,600), and then catapulted me into my biggest upswing(+$6500). In the past I would have never even had a bankroll to do this (was more of a casual player). Having a good bankroll was a must for this to happen. Not looking forward to the next downswing lol, but I'm more prepared for it. Thanks again for another great video Phil. You're the man

[@rickseeman5679]

I already know all of these things. But that doesn’t matter. I need you telling me this over and over. Pounding it into my head. I need to watch this video before leaving the house every night. Every night. Thanks for the refresher. Great video.

[@subtletactics]

Thanks for these videos Phil! Been a fan since watching you at poker after dark.

[@Egoinpokeregobroke]

I always get excited when a new phil galfond video drops. Always helpful!

[@PhilGalfond]

Awesome. Glad you enjoy them!

[@OMCPoker]

Need to talk about position. But, thanks for the content. Very useful.

[@davidhackenberger1728]

Hey Phil. Love your expertise and calm manner. Just have a chat to the camera man about constantly moving the focus. Stay still please

[@PhilGPoker]

Always providing solid advice Phil 👍🏻

[@robertwilkinson8421]

Appreciated the Bank roll management advice.

[@blaken3824]

My hardest thing to do and still struggle at is figuring out when to stay in, on draws such as flushes or straights.

[@jaybingham3711]

And the bankroll number needs to be backed into in such a way as to give yourself the edge of not playing with scared money. Or probably better said: to afford max comfortability with respect to losses...which you wil have. Many others won't do that...or won't remain disciplined as to the restriction (going full degen with shot-taking). You want to position yourself with having the upper hand against such players. That is an edge that definitely will offer dividends. It's what will allow you to get plenty of quality play under your belt which will also facilitate building good habits. With few exceptions, no one should be putting half (or more) of their net worth at risk. Instead, it really should be in single digits. The lower the better. Whatever figure you settle on, that's your total poker bankroll. Now take that and divide it by 20 or 25 (buy-ins or "bullets"). You carve up your bankroll in order to parcel it out and afford yourself a chance to bailout and shut down play when things go wrong. Which they will. Many limit any one session of play to no more than 3 buy-ins. As you see, a mere 6 straight sessions of max losses will wreck a bankroll. Don't think that's possible? This is the time you want to head over to Primedope and get your head on straight about variance. Even then, you'll likely need the visceral experience of actually suffering multiple losses (due not necessarily to bad play as much to just play ol' "run-bad") to truly appreciate the reality of the game. It's only then you will know you have what it takes to withstand protracted periods as a 'loser.' So your bullet amount is what dictates the maximum table stakes you can play. If that works out to be very small stakes, tough shit. Build up your net worth until it gets large enough to justify the risk. Resist the urge to 'hack' the math by making up excuses as to why you're totes justified putting large percentages of net worth on the line. That's an -EV move. And if you can't even get out of the gate without already making a bad move, you sure as hell shouldn't be testing your luck on the tables. At least not seriously. Just play for fun instead.

[@scottzimmermann5146]

Thanks for these enlightening videos, Phil. How about doing one on HU sit n goes? Thank you kindly.

[@endersgame7277]

Such a good video. Would love a video on hand reading!

[@hansmartinmikkelsenkvendse1893]

Amazing insider content. Hope this helps a lot of aspiring plaeyers.

[@PhilGalfond]

I hope so too!

[@romkastomka1510]

Another great video,BRM is my weaknesses, definitely one of the first things in poker to master, without it will stay constant loser.

[@PhilGalfond]

Thank you 🙏🏻

[@butcho7492]

Phil- since solvers and GTO seem to be a big part of the game today, how much advantage do you think they give you in reality? Say for 90% of players- not the top 10% elite pros.

[@Brisk317]

Awesome info. Thanks for posting! What is your approach to playing second pair in any given situation and what helps you to determine if it’s best?

[@user-zo4ew2xe9c]

Love ur videos bro I hope u keep growing and I hope all the other pros start making videos like this

[@PhilGalfond]

I appreciate that!

[@andersnielsen6044]

You forgot the most important thing I see almost all beginners or low-stake players struggle with. They are NOT enough aware of that their opponents is NOT playing perfect GTO and they do have ALL the same flaws in their game as you do, and that is what they actually are going to exploite if they want to become a winning player. For example: You mention under the "figuring out hand value", that there is a difference in hand values in the different positions and streets etc, but remember here, that 97% of the players on real low-stake does NOT have "figured" that out yet either. Try and watch some of the live poker streams and take notice of how often and how many of these players, even in pretty high stake games, that has NOT "figured" these things out, even tho they have been playing for years. The same goes for people playing nl25 or lower online. ;)

[@djm2196]

You should do an audiobook Phil id listen to it all the time

[@SevenUP-xm4xj]

A question for Omaha players...what are the odds set vs draw with 20outs

[@dylanphan8564]

Hey Phil, how do you adjust after flop ? Whether there’s a straight or flush draw that goes against you or when you flop a middle pair what can you do ? Or even if you have top pair with a draw going against you?

[@cristianivan7247]

I follow you from Rome, you are a genius ❤

[@louismaberry9683]

Excellent! Thanks again!

[@chepper8405]

Thx💪

[@darrenhadden1037]

A whole other video on tilt alone would be good. This will make or beak you!

[@LinguineMaster17]

Great video

[@PhilGalfond]

Glad you enjoyed it, thank you!

[@ejw4300]

Your videos are sensational. Appreciate it.

[@qsdailydose8970]

Love Phil’s content.

[@campbellsmith5484]

Thank you Phil

[@superultimatewilly]

hey Phil I have a weird question, hopefully you can answer it here or in another video. Im a new live poker player started this year, since im the most inexperienced player at the table mostly I buy in for minimum. I am actually quite successful at doubling or tripling up over one or a few hands, but I noticed after I win those big pots my stack gets drained pretty quickly because im not used to playing deeper stack. Any tips would be amazing! thank you for the great videos!

[@TrentonO3000]

I can try to help with this. As Phil said, the main thing that will help you improve all around is getting good at hand reading. The main difference when you get deep-stacked is that implied odds become paramount, which means post-flop play becomes more important. It's not enough to just push big pairs and Broadway cards strongly - you really need to have a nut advantage given what the board is to start going to war. Not that you'll stop playing AA, but if you both have big stacks and you only have an overpair to the flop, it may be wise to look to play for pot control. A lot of people will play more speculative hands when they have a big stack against another big stack, hoping to get lucky and hit a jackpot and win a giant all-in. It may behoove you to start doing this as well, as long as the price to see a flop isn't too high. Hope that helps.

[@chanceneck8072]

Nice that you brought up A,Q 😅 Because I played A,Q FIVE times yesterday. And I lost EVERY time... 🤭

[@thegreyfox8000]

Us newbies really need these types of videos

[@PhilGalfond]

So glad you found it helpful

[@diegoalvarado916]

Been dropping heat non stop brother 🙏

[@antonquirgst2812]

I want to see one of these guys play lets say nl50 zoom on stars and show me that they can win lets say over a course of 50k hands- bc. I dont think its possible!

[@joshyjosh8817]

Bankroll management i think is my biggest leak.

[@ronaldnicor8799]

Hi sir..I'm from manila...

[@chanceneck8072]

I mean, when I bust in the first hand of a tourney with pocket aces against Q,3 like yesterday.... How many regrets can I have? ... 😅

[@chanceneck8072]

Oh, and it was worse than you imagine, btw. Because I didn't go all in preflop, I went all in ON the flop. Because I flopped a set of aces. I think it was like 8,A,9 or so... And then runner fucking runner straight cards.....

[@chanceneck8072]

He called with fucking QUEEN, THREE... And won......

[@chanceneck8072]

Sorry I mixed that up. I just looked it up again. The set of aces was on a board where I flopped set with pocket aces on a K,A,Q board. One club. And the guy calls my all in with Q,8 of clubs and hits runner runner flush. But the guy who called with Q,3 was in another hand where I got pocket aces. And he called on a 9,2,10 board.... I mean.... WTF???? 🤷‍♂️ All that happened yesterday. Why do I lose these hands? Why SO dumb(ly?) ? Why all in one day? Today I won a flip again with A,Js against 3,3... But that went all in pre. My two examples went all in on the FLOP!

[@pacobela]

I have listen plenty of your and others videos and can say nothing of tips and tricks don work when you r playing Micro for example 0.10/0.25 . There as i see i just need to wait for realy strong hands and hope for good luck... Just to add i am not a good poker player....

[@johanvander6193]

Who needs AI, when we have Phil Galfond

[@dunne54321]

Spotless information as usual

[@johnkelly4304]

Phil, may I ask why you are not an author. You would run circles around other poker literature. Thanks again.

[@chepper8405]

Maybe next time: "Top 5 poker skills intermediate...", please.

[@elasmojones]

heh, you grind for 8 hours and it all comes down to a coin flip in the end.

[@Fatpigkenny]

Too vague

[@letsinvestigateit]

These are def not the top 5 from the hand histories I have looked at. Mistakes not just beginners make but also yourself constantly make is over reading a situation if you just use common sense you will realize your beat. I see it all the time really good players make bad calls over analyzing over reading a situation where you are not winning that spot often enough to call, but your losing the session so you make yourself call. And Also over playing top pair and not having a strong enough check back range is mostly what I see from weaker players making it easy for good players to barrel them off weaker hands. If you are not catching players bluffing very often you are playing to abc . The bankroll management is not a poker skill its just not managing money properly. That would probably be number 1 on why players career ends, but that is not poker skill.