– The poker dream is still alive. The other day I breached the mark of $1 million profit on Ignition. Started in 2018 at NL100. In honor of this event, I wanted to give some tips on how to succeed in poker.
1. Get ready for a constant struggle. Impressive high stakes grinders can give the illusion that poker is easy. Due to the fact that you no doubt produce results worse than them, self-doubt may arise. But do not forget that almost no one talks about downswings.
Even the most profitable players go through frustration, difficulty, and setbacks at times. Poker is an incredibly difficult profession, and absolutely all regulars at some point begin to doubt their game and experience stress. I had four unsuccessful attempts to gain a foothold on $10/$20.
I took shots in June, August and September 2019 and again in February 2020. I even got depressed. I've been grinding $5/$10 for months only to get another $10/$20 wiped out. At times, it seemed that the regs at NL2k were some kind of superhumans, and I would never defeat them. In the end, through hard work and perseverance, I succeeded.
2. Persistence is more important than genius
Poker suffers from a cult of geniuses. Geeks like Linus have risen to the pedestal, beating high stakes every day with the ease of a computer. You may feel helpless because we have very little ability to directly influence our intelligence. There is a feeling that Linus and his ilk are cut from a different cloth, but they're not. Many have the potential to become a six-figure player. It is enough to find the right direction. I struggled with the micros for years until I got accepted into a poker school. I also saw a lot of other players who have been stuck in one place for years, but in the end they still managed to succeed.
Our life is not predetermined from birth. Yes, not everyone is destined to become Linus, but many have potential to be realized.
3. Have faith in yourself.
A few years ago, Bill Burr was asked if he should take the risk and change his profession ( ed. – The listener worked as a teacher all his life, but dreamed of becoming a writer ). Bill supported the author of the question and replied that the most reasonable thing is to do what your heart tells you: “It is impossible to lose when you follow your dream. It's bound to lead to something good."
At that time, these words were very relevant to me. I worked as a wedding photographer, but I really wanted to try my hand at poker. In the depths of my soul I believed that I could succeed, but this could only be verified by taking up this business in practice.
I decided on a radical change, dropped everything and applied to the school. In the application video, I said, “I will become the most successful player in the history of your school.” And so it happened. There was no boasting in my application, only respect for myself and my abilities.
Believing that you are the coolest person in the world is a big part of success. So, if you are truly passionate about something, trust that passion for real and move forward. Dream big. Never display false modesty in front of others. To hell with phrases like “My winnings are nothing special. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time, and I overdid it." For several years after each session, I spent 30 minutes or more sorting all the pots larger than 10bb. Invested countless dollars and time in trainers and software. A lot of my shots failed, I just had to shake myself up and try again. And I'm damn proud of myself.
As expected, a lively discussion unfolded in the comments.
“I want to remind you that for the sake of explicit advertising, you can remove bad sessions from the database,” one of the readers started a short interview with Marinelli. – There is nothing easier. Therefore, the question of the reality of such results is quite natural. Can you show a chart with winnings without a showdown?
“Yes, graphs are easy to fake,” Joe Ingram supported him . – That's a fair comment. There are a lot of scammers in poker in general. I have no idea if this author is honest. But in general, I liked his message, so I even retweeted his post.
"I don't blame you," Marinelli replied. – I’m sure you’ve seen a lot of shit in poker 😂 Unfortunately, I can’t “prove” my results in a room with anonymous tables, unless someone I know confirms that I play expensive tables all the time. Where is Landon Tice when you need him the most?
Marinelli is a monster. The results are not fake,” Tice gave his summary.
– Tell me, how exactly do you work on your game?
– I was helped a lot by training with a coach who was not fixated on GTO. I myself wasted a lot of time when trying to memorize solver solutions. It got a lot easier when I learned to ''simplify''.
– How much time did you spend at each limit? What differences in the field can you see at different levels?
– I would advise you to work more on your game, and not think about the field. Everyone has faces, even our idols at 25/50+. If you develop a good strategy of your own, any limit will be within your reach. I went from NL100 to NL1k in six months. Bankroll management has always been conservative. It's never a mistake to remind yourself that this is gambling first and foremost and you should only risk what you can afford to lose. It doesn't matter if you are a professional or an amateur.
– It is quite logical that people who work hard show good results. But I wonder how many people have worked and studied theory as hard as you, but did not achieve anything in poker?
– I'm not arguing with that. It is very sad that for many people their careers will end in failure, despite their best efforts. But I still prefer to strive for a dream that, if achieved, will radically change my life. And failure in my case, in any case, would not have been a tragedy. Poker has one advantage over the game chess. – here a huge number of mid-level players win quite decent money. In addition, it very much depends on your country of residence. Somewhere around $40k a year would be a great income in most parts of the world.