Patrick Leonard is a successful professional poker player, WSOP bracelet winner and ambassador for CoinPoker. He has picked up major wins both live and online, where he has 10 WCOOP and 8 SCOOP titles, among many other accolades. This week, Pads shares advice for how to keep learning, keep growing, and ultimately keep playing...
I've played poker for the last 15 years and success to me will always be defined by longevity.
I have seen so many better poker players than me appear, succeed and then disappear, either through falling out of love with the game, feeling stale, unfulfilled or a bunch of other reasons. For me, success will not be if I win five titles in the next five years; I could go on a heater next year and just do it. Success for me will be still waking up and wanting to play poker in five years. Sticking around will naturally create opportunities for success, the number one thing that everybody needs to have success isn't knowing how to bluff, it isn't a flawless mental game, it isn't a Stevie Chidwick stare down, it's simply - showing up.
Thinking ahead
A few years ago I asked myself, what could help with longevity? I see the poker landscape changing, let’s imagine I took the route of playing high stakes cash: I would have done it, I would have worked however hard enough I needed to, to win. But then recently the games were removed from the biggest site. Now what? I would have been lost in the middle of a personal sh*tshow.
Three years ago I decided I would dedicate time to one area that I didn't think would disappear: SCOOPs and WCOOPs. I would make content around them and show the journey. I saw PokerStars wouldn't remove them, at least in the next five years, and it went really well. They added structure to my year and they gave me stuff to chase. Outside of WCOOP/SCOOP, I decided I would try and play every different form of poker (except limit hold’em!)
Mixing it up
I played live private games for the first time in my life, studied stand-up game strategies, 4-blind strategies, worked out how I could benefit games and make them more fun for others. I played heads-up vs ButtonClickr (the best heads-up player in the world) online; I played 6-max cash games; I played 9-handed ante cash games (!); I played Spin & Go tournaments; I played all-in-or-fold and I started to learn mix.
In mix there are 20+ different games you can learn. I currently play a mix including 2-7 dramaha, pot-limit 2-7, badugi, double board PLO and A-5 triple draw. I mix it up and I love it. It keeps it fresh and it's very different to the 30-days-in-a row, 20-tabling WCOOP grind, but at the same time it makes me miss that grind, so I can enjoy it when I step back in that arena too.
I love poker, but I don't isolate myself in one format. I am not the best tournament player in the world, I am not the best heads-up cash player in the world, I'm not the best live cash player in the world and I'm certainly not the best badugi player in the world! But I think I might be the most rounded, at least in terms of volume. I am no psychic, I can't predict the future, but whatever it holds I know that I won't be too far behind to catch up.
Transferable skills
If right now you are playing one format and that's all you've ever done, I strongly recommend dipping your toes into something else. When I play PLO I learn concepts for my hold’em game.
For example, if it's a flop where equities will change a lot on the next street, sometimes it's good to slowplay that street and wait for a massive equity-shifting turn where you can get your money in a lot better. In mixed games where everybody is getting 10,000:1 to call you on the river, you have to be creative, selective and disciplined with your bluffing. This helps me in tournaments identifying who, when and what to bluff.
Most of all, it's just very fun. Going from playing the exact same ranges on repeat for five years and becoming almost robotic, to playing a completely new game, uses different parts of your brain and builds up a better, more well-rounded idea of what poker is.
$50K Poker Players Championship 2025 - I'm coming!
You can follow Pads on X and Instagram, or find him on the tables at CoinPoker.
Featured image courtesy of Trevor Scott
