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Finding your optimum level in Texas Holdem

I have always maintained that the optimum level that you should play at in Poker Texas Holdem is a subtle combination of factors that isn’t always easily measured. I once remember the 2004 World Series of Poker Champion Greg Raymer coming out with some rather prophetic words when he said that in order to find your optimum level then you should play at a level that “motivates and not intimidates”.

What a statement that is and if either of these two factors apply to you then you are not playing at your optimum level. It really does not matter how much knowledge you have about the game because knowledge is only a small part of what actually constitutes a winning poker player. I would also add a significant layer of complexity to Greg’s statement as well because some levels do not intimidate you to play them and they also motivate you but yet they still may not be the optimum level to play at even then.

This is to do with being psychologically able to withstand the swings that are inherent in Texas Hold’em. For example let us say that a player was playing NL100 and that buy-ins of $100 were certainly not intimidating to this player. They were also motivated to play the level because $100 was a significant amount of money to them. The problem was that they were not suited to playing the level in terms of the downswings that happen in it.

This player had a mental cut-off point of $200 where when they lost this amount of money then they felt sick inside and bad for the rest of the day. Any serious player of course would scoff at such a notion but the fact of the matter is that this player although not intimidated by the level and highly motivated to play that level was still not suited to the level. So in a way the “intimidation” part of it is coming not from sitting down with $100 but from the variance within that level and the amounts of money that this means.

So if you simply cannot accept even $200 losses then you need to be playing lower even if this simply doesn’t feel like poker to you. On a psychological level, many players who are trying to actively play the game are not suited to poker for one single reason. This is because you are not in control of your results and people who absolutely loathe losing make poor poker players because they simply cannot mentally take the losses and the losing days.

This is an inevitable part of poker playing but if you simply hate the thought of what seems like throwing money away then you will have huge psychological problems playing poker for even small amounts of money. It is a fact that many people, millions in fact simply are not suited to playing not just poker but any risk orientated form of gambling.