Top 10 lessons poker players can learn watching live streams

The way we consume poker content has changed dramatically, with poker live streams becoming the dominant format over the last few years.

Poker live streams like Hustler Casino Live and Poker at the Lodge differ from shows like High Stakes Poker in one major way: we see every hand as it happens, and the content isn't edited.

For viewers at home, live streams are the perfect chance to watch live cash games in their full glory, good and bad.

While live streams are not meant mainly as educational content, there is certainly a lot to learn from them. If you pay close attention, there are many lessons you can take from watching poker live streams, and these are the top 10:

10. How to spot a good poker game
The most important skill a live poker player can have is recognizing whether a game is worth playing within the first 30 minutes at the table.

Live streams give us insight into all the players’ cards, so we can see different player profiles in action.

A good poker game has several splashy whales and very few strong players. Ideally, you would want to play at a table with no professionals, or at least one where the pros are tight and not trying hard to win every pot. Watching live streams can show you which poker games are most profitable and which player types you want to avoid.

For example, players like Garrett Adelstein or Andrew Robl, who are trying hard to win and getting involved often with re-raises, are the kinds of players you want to avoid, while the likes of 3Coin and Jellyfish are ideal opponents for a good game.

9. How to stay safe in a live poker game
Over the past few years of live poker streams, we have seen our share of scandals emerge, with multiple groups accused of cheating even when the games were televised.

Following poker news on sites like SoMuchPoker can also help you keep track of controversies surrounding live-streamed games and how organizers respond. Poker can attract some shady characters, and cheating is not uncommon. If you want to play live poker safely, you want to recognize cheating patterns and avoid them.

Watching live poker streams, and rewatching episodes involving players who were accused of cheating, such as Mike Postle, is great practice for recognizing those patterns in your own games. These streams can teach you how to spot cheaters and when to alert the game runners to potentially shady activity.

8. How to manage your poker bankroll
Bankroll management is another key skill for any live poker player, yet one that’s often neglected by a large number of players. On live streams, you will often see players playing way over their heads, with the likes of Rampage or Correy Eyring openly talking about having their entire net worth on the table at one time or another during their careers.

This kind of behavior might make sense for some content creators, and it might not even be true at the time, but you want to avoid it at all costs.

Playing beyond your bankroll is a sure way to end your poker career before it even begins, so learn from the mistakes of your live stream heroes and keep a steady bankroll for your games at all times.

Knowing when to fold is just as important as knowing when to attack.

7. When to make a big fold
Making big hero folds in deep-stacked situations is another important skill a live cash game player must develop to succeed. On poker live streams, you will see many situations arise where a nitty player bets or raises the river, and another player is put to the test for hundreds of big blinds.

Nine times out of ten in these spots, folding is the right play, but players often call anyway, costing themselves a lot of money.

Watching these big hands over and over and learning which player types never pay off on the river can be the difference between being a small winner and dominating the tables.

6. How to size up your bets like a pro
Bet sizing is an element of poker you can really play around with in live games, since players usually don’t pay much attention to your bet sizes, stack-to-pot ratio, and other key strategic factors.

If you want to crush live poker, you should learn how to size your bets so you get your desired result almost every time.

Watching good cash-game players size up their bets and adjust based on their opponent can be a fantastic way to learn. Poker live streams give you a unique opportunity to watch some of the best players in the world practice proper bet sizing while seeing how the recs do it and where they make mistakes.

5. When to quit the game
A great poker player knows when to quit a game, whether it’s because it's become less profitable, too big for their bankroll, or for any other reason. Many lower-stakes players forget they can leave whenever they don’t feel comfortable, so they end up in spots they don’t really want to be in.

Even at the highest stakes, you will often see players stick around when they shouldn’t, playing with scared money, or in games where they are simply overmatched in skill. Seeing these players' mistakes on live TV, and the results of those mistakes, can teach you when to leave a poker game that’s no longer good for you.

4. Not to chase your losses
At live poker tables, you will see players chasing their losses all the time. More often than not, this means they will buy in for more money than they did before, they will expand their range significantly, and play way too aggressively across the board.

For optimal results at the poker tables, you want to play your best game at all times. Whether you are winning or losing should not affect your playing style.

However, watching players like Nik Airball or Rampage go into full-tilt mode on poker live streams can show you how a player’s style changes when they are chasing losses. The lesson to take from these players is how not to act when you are losing, and what types of strategic adjustments you should not be making at the tables.

3. How to spot the whales
Whales are the bread and butter of live poker. These are the players with deep pockets, weak poker skills, and a reckless disregard for money. When we use the term whale in live-streamed cash games, players like Eric Persson and Matt Kirk come to mind; these are just a few whales who have played on the streams over the years.

A whale has a recognizable playing pattern that you should learn how to recognize. Whether you are playing $1/$2 or $1k/$2k, whales will always be in the games, and you want to spot them early and get involved as often as possible.

2. How to play in multiway pots
One of the biggest differences between live and online poker is how often pots go multiway. In online poker, most pots get down to heads-up before the flop, and players generally play reasonable ranges from all positions.

In live poker, especially on live streams, multiway pots are common, with players splashing around, playing a wide variety of trashy hands, cold-calling 3-bets, and making other moves you won’t see skilled online players make.

Watching live streams will give you ample opportunity to watch these players handle multiway situations both in and out of position, and both as aggressors and as passive participants of such hands.

If you pay close attention, you will spot the exact multiway situations you want to avoid, as well as the ones that might be very profitable in the long run. Mastering each of them will help you immensely in your own live poker games.

Learn how to play with a deep stack.

1. How to play with a deep stack
Most importantly, live streams will show you how deep-stacked poker games work in real time. Nowhere else will you see players routinely sitting with 1,000+ big blinds in their stacks, so it’s the ideal learning opportunity for deep-stack poker.

Of course, many players on live streams misplay their deep stacks all the time, so your learning process will involve learning how not to play just as often as how to play. By observing players make mistakes on a deep stack, you can learn what not to do when you find yourself in a deep-stacked situation, mainly in terms of playing out of position and playing hands that are easily dominated.

Put it all together, and you may be able to build a comprehensive live poker strategy just by watching your favorite live poker streams regularly.