Can I use Poker Snowie and other learning resources to improve my game, without playing?

Question

I currently do not have a bankroll, but have been studying poker from books and using pokersnowie to play against the bots and analyse each street using the knowledge i have gained.

I know that it trains me to optimize my play towards a GTO strategy and do not reap the benefits of playing against real players , with whom i can use Maximally exploitative or Minimally exploitative lines.

My question is is i worth me to carry on doing this for the next 2 to 3 months before i can save up a bankroll and then start putting my practice to action?

Or should I delay and stop my studying until I have a bankroll big enough for me to be able to study and play throughout the weeks?

I am currently studying towards Data Science and could use those extra hours i currently use to study poker for extra hours studying those future career prospects.

Answer 1

I think you have an excellent plan in place and should continue what you’re doing.

Not only are you learning to play but you’re also building the discipline needed to play the right starting cards as well as making the right folds when you need to. These are very valuable skills and you now get to build them for free.

Also I like this plan because it’s similar to how I learned. I used a different site than snowie but I consider that time of my training a time where I learned a lot and still refer back to some of my thoughts from those sessions.

Finally, it’s good of you to recognize the need for a dedicated bankroll and waiting is the right option. Some people would sit as soon as they have 1 buyin available and that’s a massive mistake. Take your time to build your roll, learn in the meantime, and you’ll be ready to play in a much better way. Good luck!

Answer 2

Against real players you also use winrate maximization strategies when you play tournaments and there are concepts of icm.

Playing the bots is good way to learn general betsizing and lines but It may still be quite difficult to learn these;

• card removal & blocking effects
• direct & implied odds
• counting combinations
• range composition in general
• analyzing population tendecies (need data)

I think if you just emulate the gto play without understanding the range composition & frequencies, it can be quite bad. Once you do understand how the gto ranges are made then you can easily come up with the more or less exploitative strategies and ranges as well.

Id recommend focusing on your data science until you have time to really work on your poker game as in;

• investing in a solver ie pio solver
• investing in tracking/database software ie pt4
• investing in a gto analyzer/trainer ie instagto
• investing or otherwise obtaining gto preflop ranges
• investing or otherwise obtaining exploitative pf ranges
• investing in optional ui software
• some coaching (preferable)

Ideally you would want to get the software setup above and just play some 150-300k hands online to analyze your game and to establish your winrates. You don't need to play mid/high stakes to do this but you need to track your hands, stats and strategies.

It's important to play a lot to get a feel for the variance and to establish the winrate before you go playing for big stack in the live games. It is also important to invest in solvers and become quite good at making ranges and counting odds/combinations if you plan to make ALOT of money from poker and to play in games with solid regs.

Therefore i would advise to focus on your career until you have ~2-3k and some 50-100+ hours/month to invest into playing & studying the game. It's better to spend 2k on software and start grinding micros than allocating a big portion of your roll to play games with indeterminate winrates.

I guess that at 50h a month it will take the avg person about a year of consistent work to get the samples you need to start transitioning to games where you can make a living and you will also build a roll in the process of learning and establishing winrates.

When you have winrates you can manage your money very effectively based on kelly criterion.

I don't advise deviating from this plan because it will be very stressful for most people.