Garrett Adelstein’s 5 Live Poker Tips To Boost Your Win Rate

Do you play live poker? Then this one’s for you.

Garrett Adelstein is the most feared livestream player of all time. He started at the lowest stakes online and worked his way up to $1,000/$2,000 games in Los Angeles. Along the way, he became one of the biggest winners in live poker history. (He just released a memoir, Beneath the Cards, that covers the whole rise and the multiple falls along the way.)

On the latest episode of the Upswing Poker Level-Up podcast, Garrett sat down with Mike Brady and shared his 5 best tips for live cash game players.

Below is the quick version of each tip. Watch the full episode for the details, the examples, and the stories behind them. As Garrett puts it, “the devil’s in the details.” 😉

Live Poker Tip 1: Game selection is everything

This one sounds obvious. But most players don’t take it nearly far enough.

During his rise, Garrett grinded the graveyard shift at Commerce Casino, 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. Why? Because overnight he could play short-handed against VIPs at $50/$100 or $100/$200 instead of 9-handed $10/$20 during the day. He was often making 10x to 100x more per hour.

You don’t need to move to LA to apply this:

• Play in the best possible game. If there are 3 tables at your stakes, find the softest one.
• Switch tables and seats as needed. Don’t stay put out of laziness or politeness.
• Don’t lock up wins when the game is great. Maybe you can’t play until 7 a.m., but you can push until 2.

“I don’t care if I’m one of the best. What I’m supremely confident in is I’m one of the biggest winners in live poker history.”

Live Poker Tip 2: Pay attention

“I know it’s difficult,” Garrett says. “But pay attention.”

Most live games are soft, and most live players are transparent. Every hand you watch is free information. Two things Garrett tracks most:

1. When the big money goes in, do they usually have it? Lots of “decent regs” always have it when 100+ big blinds go in.
2. When their line makes no sense, what does it mean? For okay players, a nonsense line almost always means a big hand. For VIPs, it’s often the opposite.

And here’s the counterintuitive part: study the weakest players the most. The worse someone plays, the more transparent they are, and the more value there is in watching them. Garrett didn’t review a single Doug Polk hand from his recent Lodge session because Doug plays close to GTO.

Live poker is slow. You only need to track 20-25 hands an hour. Put the phone away and watch. 📱

Live Poker Tip 3: Play hands against the biggest VIPs

Tip 1 gets you into the right game. This tip is about building your preflop ranges so you play big pots against the weakest players and shut the strong players out.

In practice:

• VIP in the pot and you’re in position? Isolate them and build the pot. They almost never fold preflop.
• Strong player raises, VIPs behind you? Lean toward calling so the VIPs come along.
• Hand is a mixed decision in theory? Pick the option that gets the VIP in the pot.

Mike pulled up the Lucid Poker Trainer for a 150bb button spot where hands like KTs, AQo, A5s, and 65s are all splitting between calling and 3-betting. Where the VIP sits at the table decides which way Garrett goes.

The principle behind all of it:

“When you’re playing against people you think you’re better than, make the pot as big as possible. The bigger the pot, the more expensive each of their mistakes will be.”

Live Poker Tip 4: Know the theory

“This one’s going to be controversial,” Garrett warns.

You don’t need thousands of solver hours. But you need a baseline. If you don’t know the theoretically sound play, how will you know if, when, and how far to deviate from it?

Garrett learned this the hard way. When he started playing livestreams around 2017, players like Dan Zack and Art Papazyan were much stronger than him theoretically, and he couldn’t overcome that gap on exploits alone. Watching himself get outplayed pushed him to lock himself in his office and study for years.

The good news: you can skip most of that grind. His course, Destroy Live Cash, is built around simple heuristics that get you 80-90% of the way there.

If you’re crushing $1/$3 on intuition, you’re probably succeeding in spite of not studying theory. Add some theory and you only get better.

Live Poker Tip 5: Exploit, exploit, exploit

This has been Garrett’s bread and butter since 2004. Live poker is soft whether you’re playing $1/$2 or $1,000/$2,000, and live players don’t think you’re paying attention.

The process is simple:

1. Find out what each opponent is up to (Tip 2).
2. Build an attack strategy against each of them.
3. Execute.

One warning: it’s a Goldilocks thing. Push an exploit too far, like showing up at showdown with a hand that’s way out of bounds preflop, and your opponents may catch on and counter-exploit you. Be ready to play the leveling game.

“You don’t need to be the best in the world at game theory. You don’t need to be the best in the world at exploits. But if you’re solid at both, you’re going to be a tough out.”

Bonus: Garrett’s $600,000 pot vs. Rick Salomon

Garrett closed the episode with a hand from Beneath the Cards. It shows Tips 2 through 5 in action at the highest stakes he’s ever played.

The short version: Garrett has $300,000 in front of him. That’s roughly 80% of his bankroll. He 3-bets Rick Salomon out of the small blind, flops big, and by the turn nearly his entire net worth is in the middle.

We’re not going to spoil the rest here. Garrett walks through every street himself, including:

• The read on Rick that told him not to slow down
• Why he uses the same bet size with the nuts, a bluff, and everything in between
• The run-it-three-times negotiation, and why a fourth board would have been a disaster
• What the hand taught him about gratitude vs. entitlement in poker

Fair warning: it’s also a lesson in what not to do with your bankroll. 😅

Take these tips to your next live session

Quick recap of Garrett’s 5 live poker tips:

1. Game selection is everything. Play the best game, switch tables and seats, and don’t lock up wins when the game is great.
2. Pay attention. Track lines and bet sizes, study the weakest players the most, and put the phone away.
3. Play hands against the biggest VIPs. Use your preflop mixes to get into big pots with weak players and shut strong players out.
4. Know the theory. You need a baseline so you know when to deviate.
5. Exploit, exploit, exploit. Find each opponent’s leak, build an attack, and don’t push it so far that they catch on.

Want to see exactly how Garrett applies all of this in real hands? His new course, Destroy Live Cash, breaks down 50 of his most strategically interesting livestream hands over 35+ hours. You’ll see the reads, the exploits, and the decisions behind his aggressive style.

Get a sneak peek of the course here.

Good luck, poker players!