How I Made $44,341 Playing Low Limit Poker

blackrain79 poker winnings
I have made a lot of money playing poker over the years and most of it has been at stakes which many people would consider to be very low. I am talking about games with a buyin of $2, $5, $10 or $25.

In fact, last time I checked I had made $44,341 mostly by just playing in these games. And this is from several years ago by the way. It is a lot higher now.

Also, this figure does not include rakeback and bonuses which means that there are 10's of thousands more dollars that I made on top of this as well.

So how did I do it? Well, I am going to tell you exactly how in this article.


I Have Played A lot More Poker Than Most People


The first thing to note is that I have played a lot more poker than most people. In fact I have played more poker than most live poker pros will ever play in their entire lifetime.

Last time I checked it was somewhere just north of 10 million hands.

I did this mostly by mass multi-tabling online poker for many years as a sick grinder, often playing as many as 20 or 30 tables at a time for hours and hours upon end every single day.

You can find all the messy details somewhere back in the history of this blog. It's completely insane how much poker I used to play!

blackrain79 micro stakes winnings
Me multi-tabling online poker

The thing is though, when you play this many hands you start to see patterns and figure out the game for yourself on a deeper level.

For instance, when you have seen the same tight/passive player type raise the turn on a certain board texture 100 times, you start to understand what their range is.

Or in plain English, you begin to realize what hands they are doing it with. This allows you to make the right adjustments and ultimately make more profitable decisions at the poker table.

This is why I have preached endlessly over the years on this blog that simply playing more poker is easily the #1 way to improve your game.

It is important to study the game, discuss the game, learn from your favorite players and so on. But most people do far too much of this.

Just like achieving any high level of skill in life, getting really good at poker requires endless hours of practice and repetition. There is no better teacher than massive amounts of direct experience.

This is a huge part of why I have made so much money playing micro limit poker games over the years. I am that guy who is always sitting at your tables, on your left, and re-raising you :)


I Only Play in Games Where I Am a Big Favorite


The other important thing to understand about my results is that I only play in games where I am a big favorite. Or in other words, I only play against bad poker players.

Now when you play at stakes as low as I do, this tends to happen a lot naturally anyways. But it still requires plenty of work sometimes. I am constantly table hopping no matter what limits I play.

And I have made no secret about this over the years as well.

Here for example is a very typical hand I played against a complete fish:


While some people seem to think there is some sort of "honor" or respect in battling it out against tough skilled players, I disagree completely.

In fact, I think this is about the dumbest thing you can possibly do if making lots of money in this game is your goal.

And the reason why is because the profit in poker doesn't come from outsmarting the other solid thinking players who don't make too many big mistakes.

The money instead comes from fleecing the clueless recreational players who have massive fundamental problems in their game and tilt like crazy.

Look, we all started playing this game for fun but there is really only one metric that will determine your success or failure at the end of your career.

And that is your total profit.

They can say whatever they want about me. Believe me I have heard it all, "bumhunter king of the micros," "he can only beat bad poker players" etc etc.

But at the end of the day I am up big time over my poker career where it actually matters, extra digits being added to my bank account.

You can find me on the left of some fish stacking him over and over again.

By the way, here is my recent post that went viral on the 12 biggest lessons I learned as a 10+ year professional poker player.


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I Learned to Become Incredibly Patient


The last thing I want to mention about my poker winnings is that I had to develop a near super human level of patience at times in order to create these results.

You see the thing is, when you play a lot at the lower limits like I do, then you are naturally going to encounter more players who play loose and call too much. Even the regulars will do this sometimes.

This means that statistically you are going to take more bad beats. There is simply no way to get around this. It's just math.

When they don't fold their bottom pair or some ridiculous draw like they usually will in higher stakes games, they are simply going to hit that miracle card on the river sometimes.

And it sucks, it hurts. Believe me, I know this better than anyone!

blackrain79 poker winnings

But you can either choose to get all frustrated and tilt away your money like most people do, or understand that the math is on your side and you will win in the long run.

Now I know this isn't an easy thing to do. I had terrible tilt problems for years.

But eventually I learned that if I ever wanted to be successful in this game, then I simply had to learn how to get over it. Or at least quit the game for awhile when I could feel the tension building inside me.

Look, you are going to take an unbelievable amount of bad beats over your poker career especially when you play in small stakes games and when you play as much as I do.

What is the point of getting all bent out of shape over every single suckout? The only thing that actually matters is that your poker winnings graph is going in the right direction over hundreds of thousands or millions of hands.

As long as your results are positive in the long run, does it really even matter what stupid river card they hit again this time?

Good hand sir, on to the next one.

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Your Results May Vary


Now let me finish up here by saying that even if you follow my strategy exactly to a tee and become a mass multi-tabling sick grinder like I was, you may still not achieve these same results.

The biggest reason why is that most of these results are from several years ago when the games were quite a bit easier.

Also, playing millions and millions of hands in small stakes games is clearly not the most efficient way to turn a big profit in poker anyways!

Life is full of irony though.

In a bizarre twist of fate, by playing all of these hands and achieving these results, I became known as one of the foremost experts in the world on these low stakes games.

This allowed me to create a large side business teaching the game through this blog with multiple books, video courses, coaching and countless other opportunities coming my way.

None of that was planned at all but it just goes to show that when you pursue anything in life with a maniacal passion, good things do tend to happen in the end.

But even with all of that said I would be the first one to advise against my strategy of playing a ridiculous number of hands like this in low stakes poker games.

Your plan instead should be to move up and play at stakes where there is considerably more money to be made.

Also, in today's games it is much more important to lower the table count and focus more on finding the fish and making the best poker decisions.

As I have stated for many years now, I don't play 20 or 30 tables at a time anymore. I play much less than this and I also table select and site select like a madman.


Final Thoughts


If you only take one thing away from this article I hope it is that you can get whatever you want in this game but you have to be willing to put in the work and persevere no matter what.

I have never been someone who dabbles in this game of poker. I have been all-in with it since day one. 

I always made it my mission to out-work everybody else and always keep a clear vision of what my goals are.

This is why I have achieved the results that I have both on and off the poker tables now for over a decade as a poker pro.

This has also given me the freedom to travel the world and live in exotic tropical locations like Thailand and the Philippines.

blackrain79 poker winnings

The flashy number that I put in the title ($44,341) to make you click on this article really isn't the important point at all. 

It's just a stupid number and I have made way, way more than that overall in this game anyways.

What I want you to see instead is the dedication and the commitment that it takes to achieve these results.

I wasn't born with some sort of superior ability to understand this game. And believe me, I am nowhere near one of the best poker players in the world.

But I am really good at one thing, I don't quit.

I just keep making the right plays on a consistent basis no matter how bad the results have been lately. And this is a skill that anyone can learn.

Start taking massive action towards your goals every single day (poker, fitness, business or whatever), and you can achieve anything you want.

Thanks a lot for reading and all the best at the poker tables, unless you are on mine :)

If you want to know my complete strategy for beating small and mid stakes poker games, grab a copy of my free poker cheat sheet right here.

If you found this article helpful or inspiring in any way, do me a quick favor and give it a "Like" or a "Tweet" below. Thanks!


blackrain79 poker winnings

25 comments:

  1. Great article thanks for writing!

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    1. Thought-provoking and helpful as always. I grind online MTTs and you describe resilience to bad beats very well. I've felt very tilt resistant for years and my overall mindset is rarely affected by bad beats, but I recently found a major leak in this area. Although my strategy at other tables remains consistent, I've noticed some really sub-optimal decisions in the MTT where the beat occurred. I think I get too focused on making back the chips I had, especially during the later stages when I've become attached to my deep stack/deep run. Thank you for the reminder that I still need to work on this!

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    2. No problem Greg glad I could help!

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  3. I'm puzzled by that number ($44,341) as it doesn't seem anywhere near enough. Is there a zero missing?

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    1. Hey Ed,

      Like I mentioned in the article these results are from several years ago and they also do not include rakeback/bonuses.

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  4. Is it really possible to play poker on laptop computer - on a balcony - with that view? It screams boating, drinks and social company. I would have to rent a office, setup a serious big screen desktop computer - and grind it out - like running a normal business. On another note: We all want to see your updated all-time results - and your longest ever downswing. Greets from Copenhagen in Europe. :-)

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    1. Hey Michael,

      Yup it's definitely possible. I travel a lot so I do everything from my laptop including poker. I don't have the hand histories for all the hands I have played going back 10+ years so I don't think it's possible to get a career graph.

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  5. Replies
    1. Thank you Masoud, I could always use a little rungood from God too!

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  6. Hi Nathan,
    As someone who has 'lost' (I prefer to say 'loaned') a lot of money to the 'Sharks' on the sports trading sites like Betfair, I hear what you're saying about going after the fish.

    Its a dog-eat-dog world out there and the fact that you can now earn money from teaching others how to fish is great - long may you continue and prosper. :-)

    I enjoy your email info and think that you have got the whole ethos of the online Poker 'game' bang to rights! :-)

    Many thanks
    George.

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    1. Thank you George, appreciate the kind words and I am glad I could help!

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  7. Everyone thinking of playing Poker should know Nathan and read his output. Especially this one!

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    1. Thanks Mike, appreciate the kind words!

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  8. If you gonna read one post, this should be the one! Big fan keep up the good work!

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    1. Thank you sir and thanks for being a regular reader :)

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  9. Great read hope all is well Nathan much love Peace . . . 🦊 😎

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  10. Hey I saw in your other article that Ignition poker is the easiest site for American players. If I’m just getting started is this still the best even though I can’t use a HUD on it? Or is it better for me to start somewhere else where I can use the HUD to help me with a lot of decisions?

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    1. It also only goes down to NL5 to start at not NL2

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  11. Excellent post ur are the GOAT

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    1. Thank you sir, glad you enjoyed this article :)

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  12. Thanks for your posts and the help you provide.
    rakeback, how does one get this?

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    1. Glad I could help Mike. Rakeback is something that almost every online poker site provides in some way or another. You just need to go to their website and learn about their rewards program.

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