Crushing poker and quitting the day job has been a long-time dream of thousands of poker fans around the world. Yet, with the games getting more competitive by the day, that dream seems harder and harder to achieve every year.
The conventional wisdom has it that the only way to crush poker is to keep studying the game and getting better, until you reach the very pinnacle in terms of skill.
However, being the very best is nearly impossible in today’s poker world, and poker champion Daniel “Jungleman” Cates just revealed why he doesn’t believe you need to focus on being the very best.
In fact, his most recent video discusses how there can be only one actual best player, while everyone else plays catch up and looks for different ways to beat the game.
Jungleman explained what made him so good at poker and put out some interesting concepts that you can use to better your poker career as well.
Diminishing Returns of Improving Your Poker Skills
If you want to be great at poker and make it your profession, you will need to be good at the game, and there is just no getting around that.
Getting at least pretty good at poker in general is necessary, but Jungleman reveals that continued improvement starts bringing diminishing returns over time.
Studying the game is important, but once you reach a certain point, there is only so much extra EV that learning about certain spots or mastering GTO strategy can bring you.
Conversely, focusing on different games and looking for pockets of value within the poker world can bring much greater returns in a shorter span of time.
For example, Cates explains how his career shifted over the years, taking him from online heads up games to PLO games, to live cash games, to mixed games, to Short Deck Hold’em, etc.
Over time, Jungle focused on the games that he deemed to be the most value. Even if he was not the very best in all of those games, his skill edge over the competition was greater than it would be if he just kept on playing the same game.
The heads up games dried up for Jungleman at one point, as no one would play him for high stakes anymore. This forced him to think about how he can make money in poker beyond the heads up tables, and this is a good lesson for all the up and coming poker players out there.
Where Can You Find Value?
The big question, of course, is where can you find the value Jungleman speaks about in his recent video?!
The poker legend addressed this head-on, explaining that there may be several different niches that you can focus on instead of simply grinding the same tough poker games day in and day out.
The best value can often be found in:
- Traveling to other countries to play poker
- Playing in private live games
- Playing in private online games
- Finding new online poker sites to play at
- Playing in segregated markets like France and Italy
- Learning new poker games
Jungleman considers each of these particular areas to be higher value than simply studying poker and getting better at a game like No Limit Hold’em.
Concrete examples of this, which Jungle reached during his market research, include poker tournaments in Latin America and cash games on Italian online poker sites, both of which are significantly softer than their competition in other markets.
By playing in these games, you can take your win rate up several notches without improving your poker skills at all.
While getting better at poker along the way will also help, a simple move to a new game or market can be the difference you needed to jump start your poker career.
Introducing Jungleverse – A New Poker Community
Jungleman has been a legend of the poker world for many years thanks to his incredible success in heads up games, online cash games, and even live poker tournaments.
More recently, he has been focusing his attention away from playing and toward the business side of things through several fun projects.
The most recent of those is Jungleverse, a unique poker community aimed at giving players access to the tools they need to succeed at poker.
While some of these tools focus on improving your poker skills, others are focused on the exact topic of the recent Jungleman video, which is finding value beyond your hard poker skills.
Jungleman invites all aspiring poker players to join Jungleverse and explore the community, which you can also do without paying any subscription for the basic package.
What Does All This Mean for Me?
Poker players often fall into the trap of looking for an instant fix that will make them poker millionaires.
The truth is that not even Jungleman has such a fix, and all the information found in his videos and Jungleverse is just a part of the puzzle.
Yet, Dan’s unique approach to poker is very helpful, especially coupled with advice from other poker coaches and personalities like Doug Polk and Jonathan Little.
While the latter two aim their content at teaching you how to be the best NLH player you can be, Cates focuses on finding the hidden pockets of value that can improve your win rate instantly, without any studying.
Coupling those two can be a deadly combination, and you can now have access to tons of content across both niches without paying a cent.
If you are in the early stages of your poker career, or have been struggling to succeed, we recommend checking out Jungleman’s content for some extra ideas on how to win in ways you may not have considered thus far.
