"Today's grinders at an $11 ABI could have been top 5 in the world in 2003" — Aaron Baron
Aaron Barone, an American regular and coach who has earned over $1 million in online poker over the past 5 years, spoke about the current level of players and summed up his bankroll challenge in an interview with Poker.org.
In October, Barone decided to run his bankroll up from $2,500 to $10,000 playing low stakes. He completed the task six days later, having played 562 tournaments. The regular described how online poker has changed over the past 20 years:
"The games have gotten much tougher, strategy has evolved. High-stakes players today are far better than they were 20 years ago — that's true, but grinders at the very lowest stakes have also become much stronger.
If you took a winning MTT regular with an ABI of $11, put him in a time machine and sent him back to 2003, he could end up among the top 5 players in the world. That's insane if you think about it, but that's just how far we've come in strategy and understanding of the game."
Barone also named the main lesson that he believes poker players should take away from his challenge:
"I'd like people to know: you can still win at low stakes. All this doom and gloom is often just a mask people put on to feel better when they can't win.
The reason some people lose isn't some kind of 'forces working against them.' The RNG isn't rigged, people aren't being cheated. Of course, online poker has problems that need to be solved, but the main reason most people lose at low stakes is that they're either not good enough or they're not putting in enough volume.
Of course, nothing is guaranteed in poker, but you can work hard and that gives you the best chance at success."
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In October, Barone decided to run his bankroll up from $2,500 to $10,000 playing low stakes. He completed the task six days later, having played 562 tournaments. The regular described how online poker has changed over the past 20 years:
"The games have gotten much tougher, strategy has evolved. High-stakes players today are far better than they were 20 years ago — that's true, but grinders at the very lowest stakes have also become much stronger.
If you took a winning MTT regular with an ABI of $11, put him in a time machine and sent him back to 2003, he could end up among the top 5 players in the world. That's insane if you think about it, but that's just how far we've come in strategy and understanding of the game."
Barone also named the main lesson that he believes poker players should take away from his challenge:
"I'd like people to know: you can still win at low stakes. All this doom and gloom is often just a mask people put on to feel better when they can't win.
The reason some people lose isn't some kind of 'forces working against them.' The RNG isn't rigged, people aren't being cheated. Of course, online poker has problems that need to be solved, but the main reason most people lose at low stakes is that they're either not good enough or they're not putting in enough volume.
Of course, nothing is guaranteed in poker, but you can work hard and that gives you the best chance at success."
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