It is a regular occurrence today that you see a post on a forum or hear of a poker player who is struggling to win at the game nowadays. This is usually a new player to the game who needs some guidance and practise. However, it can happen that an accomplished player begins to struggle with the game. Just last week, a poker player who I highly respected and who started to play a long time before I did, told me that he was dropping down to play small stakes no limit hold’em. He claimed that the games were too aggressive for him and that they weren’t as easy to beat any more. This guy used to play up to 5/10 and 10/20 NLHE at his peak but then decided to drop down to grind out a living at 400nl and 600nl because it was less stress and he could play more tables. He played MSNL for the past eighteen months, but noted that he was generally winning less and having more losing months recently.

When he told me he dropped to SSNL, I was shocked and though he must have been on one hell of a downswing or just plain forgot how to play poker. I asked him did he talk to anyone about it or look for any gaping leaks in his game. I nearly fell of the chair when he told me that he hasn’t done any sort of poker training in about two years. He said he was comfortable cruising the mid stakes games and never felt he would need it. His basics routine was to play 1500 hands a day and then go do something else. He said it was rare that he would look over a hand history or even chat to one of his poker friends about hands.  He said he had an old expired subscription at CardRunners and had never heard of any of the new poker training sites.

The thing about poker is that it is a fashionable game. Trends start off in the higher stakes games and usually filter down to the lower stakes games over a period of time. Take for instance, 3betting. 3 betting light started in the high stakes games when the top online poker players realised that it was ridiculously profitable to constantly pound on your opponent with re-raises pre flop. This trend filtered down to the mid and small stakes games and even exists in the micro stakes games today. To counter act this 3betting, people started 4 betting light. Again this trend followed suit and eventually passed down to the lower stakes games.

If you are not in-tune with the trends and patterns in today’s games, you won’t last long. Take for instance, my friend who was probably getting 3bet to shreds and didn’t look to study and train in order to counteract this. He was able to crush the games (and will again soon) when he was in-tune and training. The top online poker players who are studying the game, and are constantly working by reviewing sessions, begin notice these patterns early and profit from them. Poker training is essential to the player to keep up with the games today and to start working on plans to counter act the new trends that every other player at the table will be using. My friend is currently subscribed to Bluefire Poker and already has said that he couldn't believe how much the game has changed. I don't expect it will be long till he moves back up levels, and I'd say he has learned his lesson.

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