"It's super possible to rise through the stakes" - FaLLout86 & Coldsmile

We chat to the Raise Your Edge coaches about studying your database, GTO vs exploit, population tendencies and his free upcoming cash game webinar.

What is the 'cash game players report' that has been added to the online cash apprentice course?

Coldsmile: It is a report that takes a first look at my very own leaks when moving up through the stakes. We take an uncensored look at everything I did wrong, why I did it wrong, and how I fixed it. Going from there we are developing a report that refers to all the leaks we see players do in today's cash games based on my experience as a student, as a professional player, and also as a coach.

The goal is to give an overview of leaks and tendencies that have a very high impact on your winrate and provide a good set of rules and heuristics on how to make significant changes to your gameplan, knowing exactly what you are doing.

What were the most common player pool tendencies and leaks that you noticed/struggled with when you got started?

faLLout86: The absolute Number 1 would be that players always play their actual hand instead of thinking in ranges. This one starts somewhere at NL2 and goes all the way up to mid and high-stakes games. You often see players size way too big (or way too small) for what their range wants to do just because their hand tells them to. Instead of thinking about what their range wants to achieve in a certain situation, they just bet the amount they think their hand is worth.

"Study large samples of common spots" 

What are some of the more recent player pool tendencies that are common in the modern game that were not an issue before?

Coldsmile: Definitely trying to copy a solver output. This is a new tendency since solvers and general GTO knowledge are much more available nowadays compared to before. Players start as low as NL5 to look at solver outputs, and since this tool often tells you "Good Job, well played" or "That was a mistake," it is very easy to just plug hands into the tool and do whatever it tells you.

This results in players trying to copy outputs but not fully understanding what they are doing. Even more important is that looking at a solver output is good, but on most stakes, there is almost always a better exploitative option to take.

What mistakes do players make when they study their own databases? What areas do they focus on that don’t help much, and what should they be doing?

faLLout86: First of all, you need a big sample size before doing anything in that direction. Even 100k is a short-term sample, but you could start looking at some things to get an idea. Important is to look at things that come up very, very often and ignore everything exotic or rare.

Just because you had that crazy spot where you got double-check raised in a 4-bet Pot doesn't mean it has any significant influence on your winrate. However, if you make basic mistakes in C-betting Flops in a single-raised pot vs the Big Blind, this will have a way bigger impact. I would also not look at positional winrates too much since even in a 200k hands database you have roughly 33k hands per position, which is way too little to make something out of that.

There is a lot of talk about GTO these days, but this obviously seems to be exploit-focused, is that where players can create the most edge?

Coldsmile: Yes and No. The first won't work without the other. By making good adjustments to your player pool, you will make money. But if you don't know what you are doing or why you are doing certain things, it won't work. The goal is to 1. understand a situation from a theoretical point of view (GTO) and then 2. identify what players might be doing wrong and 3. how you want to counter or exploit these mistakes. Number 3 will make all the money, but it's useless if you don't know what 1 and 2 are.

"A free sneak peek into Online Cash Apprentice"

When designing exploits, do you use solver-advised exploits (i.e., node locking) or do you find those to be flawed?

faLLout86: Node locking can be dangerous when your assumptions are wrong or not close to what happens in reality. I personally did very little node locking, but when I did, I focused on the things I was very confident about that the population is far, far away from playing optimal. When node-locking or playing around with strategies, I'd also not try to copy/paste what I find but rather try to make rules for which situations to be more aggressive (and why) and where to be more careful. Based on that, I would try to find a lot of bluffs where it's very hard for me to have bluffs and the other way around, for example.

What can we expect from your upcoming free cash game webinar?

Coldsmile: The free webinar will be about all of the above. Subscribers will get an insight into my database, look at the hands I played, and also why Steffen Sontheimer puts only "????" when he looked over my numbers years ago, haha.

Jokes aside, it will be a sneak peek at the upcoming update for the Online Cash Apprentice Course, which is the Cash Game Players Report but also look at the "common beliefs" of poker players who are at certain points in their careers. I'll show that it's super possible for a beginner to still make it through the stakes, the NL25 player who struggles to get a high winrate and also the rising midstakes player to break through. I'd like to share a bit for everyone while sharing my own story, own struggles, and results and make it very clear that I've been through all of that in the past, and still go through all of that today with my students, but also that it's possible and super doable if you sign yourself up for putting in the work.

You can join FaLLout86 and Coldsmile in a free webinar on August 2 at 19:00 CET. The free webinar will be a sneak peek into the Online Cash Apprentice course from Raise Your Edge. You can sign up for it below:

Join the free cash game webinar

Get our unbeatable Raise Your Edge discounts