ShareHigh stakes poker players are not only exciting to watch, you can also gain insights into poker strategies by examining how they play the game. By observing high rollers such as Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, and Phil Hellmuth, you can adopt strategies to make you become a better poker player. Let’s take a closer look at how you can gain insights by watching high rollers.
Following a poker journey
High stakes players, such as Daniel Negreanu for example, give poker enthusiasts the opportunity to accompany them on a journey through major poker tournaments such as the 2023 WSOP. Via his YouTube channel, you can gain insights into the ups and downs inherent in the World Series of Poker and the various strategies he adopts during a tournament. Negreanu also shares strategies through explainer videos which are an invaluable source of information regarding poker terms and tactics. Players can benefit from the strategy behind a squeeze, which is when one player raises and another player calls, then you proceed to re-raise. The idea of a squeeze is that the player calling does not have a strong enough hand to call the re-raise. Similarly, you can learn about one of the main poker debates of the moment, game theory optimal or GTO versus exploitative play.Putting theory into practice
There is nothing quite like putting poker theory into practice when you have gained insights from some of the best players in the game. Rather than jump into a tournament scenario, there are approaches you can take which will allow you to test out your new strategies in a no-pressure environment. For example, CasinoBonusCA lists a range of online casinos, such as 888casino and Legzo Casino, which offer deposit bonuses to new customers. The welcome bonuses of between 100% and 200% on the first deposit give players the chance to try out a varied selection of traditional casino games including video poker. This means you can get to grips with the rules of poker without any pressure and without having to use your own funds.Patience is key
The approach of putting theory into practice chimes with the poker philosophy advocated by Phil Ivey, who has won ten WSOP bracelets. The high roller, who has amassed over $38 million in live career winnings, propounds a patient approach which involves accepting that losing days are inevitable. The ability to accept off days is the key to controlling your emotions. For Ivey, a losing run makes it even more essential to maintain a cool head: “For me, I don’t want to be too high up or too down low at the poker table. I want to stay emotionally level, especially when losing.” Even for a high roller like Ivey, bankroll management remains an essential part of a poker strategy. A patient approach involves the ability to increase stakes at the right time. He views this as being particularly important for players who are new to poker as they should keep a cool head and pace themselves when it comes to staking in tournament games.
Analysis of poker games
In his book Play Poker Like the Pros, Phil Hellmuth outlines a wide range of strategies on HighStakesDB, but also identifies various player types including the Jackal, who has an unpredictable playing style, the Elephant, who plays an excessive amount of hands, the Mouse, who plays in an extremely conservative manner and the skillful and hard to beat Lion. For Hellmuth, poker involves not only preparation in terms of analyzing previous games to look for strengths and weaknesses, but also the ability to react to the playing styles of opponents which reveal themselves in live games. Of course, the risk of sharing this type of poker strategy was witnessed when Jason Koon beat Hellmuth at the PokerGO High Stakes Duel Battle by adopting a strategy tailored to Hellmuth’s playing style. With a wealth of high stakes poker encounters available to watch, one strategy for prospective poker players to adopt is to try to identify the four playing styles in a live tournament situation.As we can see, players can learn a great deal from high rollers. Hopefully this article will have given you some new insights into the game and inspired you to study some of the high stakes poker players in action.
