I started playing poker at bwin a few years ago. But with some experience, like most more professional poker players, I ended up at Pokerstars. Currently I live in Spain and mainly play Texas Hold’em Poker and Omaha with pokerstars.es. In terms of the number of players, tournaments and cash games, Pokerstars is simply the best provider on the net for me. The gameplay is also fast and fluid. Options allow you to configure your table and seat as you wish, which are very convenient features for the player.

Most of the time I play at home on my PC with the Pokerstars download software and lately more often on my smartphone with the Pokerstars app. I also play on the road, but only when I have a quiet minute.

Strategy in poker

The strategy in poker cannot be determined from the beginning. It is game dependent, not only on the cards, but also on the opponents and positions a player takes at the poker table. Certainly, luck also plays a big role in poker. But usually I play as a tight and aggressive player. My way of playing cash games differs a bit from my tournament poker. Here I always try to make as many chips as possible at the beginning and play hands before the blinds go up. This strategy doesn’t always work, of course, but if it does, it’s very effective at reaching the paid seats in poker tournaments. There are many websites on the Internet that offer the right poker strategies. I’ve read a lot of tutorials about poker until I reach my level today.
The Pokeroffice software helps me with my strategies and training. It evaluates my playing behavior in real time and shows me mistakes. Cash games and tournaments can be analyzed separately. This allows me to further optimize myself. This is also a great help when playing Omaha when it comes to probability calculation. Generally, I find Omaha more difficult to rank than Texas Hold’em because there can be more Poketcards and combinations between players and opponents.

To practice poker you can also play for play money. However, this is not taken very seriously by most other players, so that you have to struggle with constant All-Ins, which are less common in regular real money games. Beginners should practice with play money at the beginning and learn the rules.

Cash games, tournaments, zoom, sit and go

I play cash games, i.e. poker for money, as well as tournaments and zoom tables. I have played about 350,000 hands of cash games and tournaments at Pokerstars so far. That may sound like a lot, but other pros have played up to 1 million hands. I prefer to play at tables with 6 to 9 players. Headsup Cash Games (1:1) and Sit and Go I actually like to play less.

When time allows, I prefer tournaments because I think I’m a tournament player. At tournaments my successes have been better than at cash games.

Height of the amounts

My wagers on the Texas Hold’em and Omaha games vary depending on my budget.

• Cash Games 0,10-0,25 Euro (Blinds), 0,50 Euro/1,00 Euro (Blinds)
• Zoom Games 0.10-0.25 Euro (Blinds)
• Tournaments 1 to 20 Euro

Those are actually my standards in poker that I play. In between I also play higher cash games or more expensive tournaments, it always depends on what my bankroll looks like. I used to play a lot of Texas Hold’em freerolls for practice.

Compensated winnings and losses

Right now, my profits and losses are offsetting each other. After good profit phases, there are still minor setbacks that prevent a constantly rising bankroll. But this is also due to my risk-taking way of playing. I am still working on maintaining a certain level.

In tournaments I have reached several final tables and can also be found in the paid seats. At the moment, however, I play a little less as usual. I’m not satisfied with my success yet, I’m missing a big tournament victory. However, I’m still working on myself and improving my game so that the winnings will soon be much more than my losses.

How I do it with deposits and withdrawals

To make deposits at Pokerstars, I usually use my credit cards or Paypal. But I think credit cards are the best, because the payment is faster and you can deposit your data in the cashier area. From time to time I also deposit with a reload bonus at Pokerstars. So I get between 10-30% extra on my deposit. Therefore I simply enter the Reload-Bonus code in the cashier area.

For payouts I use my bank account at Pokerstars. The payout usually takes 3-7 business days and I have never had any problems. When I first paid out, I faxed my ID card to authenticate myself to Pokerstars.

my opinion about online poker

Poker is not only a game, but also a sport. Playing poker is a game that generates a lot of emotion through winnings and losses alone. In addition there is of course the fun factor and the constant tension that prevails in the game. Who plays Poker must live with it also losses to drive in. But you can also be just as happy with your winnings. That’s an experience I had to have as a player. Often it is really small mistakes or a clever tilt attempt of the opponent that lead to the loss of the game.

Emotions have no place in poker, and that’s why most professional poker players don’t show any emotion. If you want to become a good poker player, you have to practice a lot. In the beginning I was annoyed very often and thought I had to play according to a certain system. I always folded certain cards. Today I see poker very differently than when I was a beginner and the negative emotions for the game have become much less. Experiences that every poker player has to gain.

Experience report written by Sascha M., 39 years, living in southern Spain