How poker changed my life

How many times have you asked yourself how poker changed your life?

Maybe you did it hundred times, or maybe you find yourself at the beginning of the road and you are still hesitating. It’s normal to have doubts and to question the fact if poker is the road you should follow.

If you need answers to your questions, we have them, and they came from the best. Our top players and coaches are sharing their poker achievements with you. So this is how poker changed their lives:

SOMETIMES IT’S ALL ABOUT THE START…

areanu: My Spin & Go journey has started in late 2017; before that, I was an NL & PL cash game player, but in either format, I have not moved past the 0.25/0.5 stake. Back then, I was a “rakeback grinder”, a thing which was very detrimental to my progress. With the Spin & Go format, I changed my approach entirely: I focused on quality instead of quantity, and from then till now I’ve been only playing 2-3 tables at a time. The change in approach did wonders for me though: I joined a school and very quickly went from $5s on Party Poker to $60s on PS. I also met a lot of great people (special appreciation and love to Stefan, Pierre, Diginius, Wolle83, Alchemikpl, and many others), and later followed them into bitB Spins, which I’m still very happy about.

I joined bitB Spins team willing to be a little bit more than just a player; I have experimented a bit with giving a few sessions on the areas of poker that I excel at, but the role that stuck is the “hand judge”. I feel like I’m good with words, both reading and writing, and I also enjoy sharing the knowledge and being helpful, so it suits me perfectly.

Furthermore, a big part of any job is some sense of “goodness” that we contribute as human beings, and poker is a very ungrateful job in that regard — pros work hard to outplay the hobby players, but it would be a bit much to expect any appreciation from their side

And so this role covers that need for me, I feel like I’m being appreciated and that I help others walk a similar road and contribute to their progress. It’s a wonderful feeling.

…THEN IT’S ABOUT A CONSTANT LEARNING PROCESS

sbala90: I like to learn well. For me, quality is over quantity. I know I could earn more by analyzing less and playing more, but as I said, I enjoy exploring. I think there are many different things one can do wrong in learning poker.

Not focusing on the right thing, not following the logic of the GTO, not understanding how to exploit it well, forgetting strategies, having unstructured strategies, not having the optimal environment, etc. You can do many things wrong in learning. I think I am able to learn well because I realize bad processes and I pay attention to avoiding bad habits in learning.

AT THE SAME TIME, POKER IS ABOUT SHARING WITH KNOWLEDGE WITH OTHERS…

Stefan: Hey, I’m Stefan, also known as Fetedlabiere. I’m playing poker professionally for a few years and I started my career by playing 6max, but I quickly switched to HU Cash. At that time I was already creating videos and offering coaching sessions for a big poker school. All in all, I have to say that I was playing up to NL1k, when in 2016 my poker-related friends told me how profitable Spin & Go’s are.

Soon after this moment, I understood what a big opportunity this is and I started playing this poker format more frequently. I started slowly with the €10 Spin & Go’s and I committed myself fully to this type of poker game in June. At the end of 2017, I was already playing €100’s and I started to feel comfortable at this limit.

In 2017 I started my career as a Spin & Go coach and I had multiple projects on which I focused a lot on helping small groups of students to improve very quickly. Right now I’m mostly playing €250’s and only adding some €100’s if there is no traffic at the highest Spin & Go stakes.

…AND CONSTANTLY IMPROVING BOTH AS A PLAYER AND AS A COACH

Darkornot: It’s tough to really describe this as an exact moment, but I would say that it was that period of time when I was playing the same style vs recreational players and vs regulars too. It took me some time to really split my approach and to introduce more and more theoretical answers vs best opponent. I think it was like this because I played this exploitive style forever. So, even though I was working at the theory on a daily basis, even though I was creating efficient content to effectively fight against advanced players, I was not using this knowledge in my own game.

Today I would say that there is still a lot to improve in my game vs regulars, but I am way more satisfied with what I can produce now. And again, I am the first concerned by the deep theoretical work we set up in this regard. That’s why I am dedicated to making it accessible to anyone who wants to perform vs regulars and I am also extremely optimistic about my future as a poker player.

However, it took me some time to reach this decent balance and I keep trying to improve, but I think now it works great. It’s not like my kids come and “rake some father time”, but the opposite. It helps me to breathe and to shut down from poker during these family times. The main issue is that I am not really setting time limits or off days like in a standard job…and since my family always has the priority, I just extract time everywhere else, removing most distractions.

IN THE END, IT’S ALL ABOUT THE ROAD TO BECOMING THE BEST

Wolle83: Being surrounded by top players but also top coaches in the poker industry are challenging and pushes me to work at a very high level. It’s a bit like a sparring partner in the gym, you push each other and you grow together. To stick to that comparison, if your new gym partner is Arnold Schwarzenegger you will have to “bite” as hard as you can in work to keep up with him and that’s what (in the most positive way) I feel in this new environment.

Not long after the experience that I have already shared with you, I became a coach because I saw how much working together was rewarding both sides. My coaches were so happy with my development and I was so proud to make it to the top and create more and more $EV every month while we both made more and more money.

This symbiosis was even more rewarding than keeping the winnings and success to me and I wanted to create this connection between myself and players and to help them climb to the highest stakes. Almost 3 years later, I am very happy with my decisions and I am happy to find myself in this new and amazing team together with Darkornot and Fetedlabiere (two powerful players and coaches), hungry than ever for the success of my students.

How did poker change your life?

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