I welcome you to the Live Low stakes NL forum. All are welcome here, from the player who is about to play his first hand of live NL poker to the pro who is making their living from playing NL poker. By even coming on to 2+2, you have shown that you are looking to get better than the majority of players you face. The purpose of this forum is be a resource for people looking to improve their game. We're here to help you.

In any new environment, you get the most out of it by learning the conventions of the forum. Below are some Frequently Asked Questions.


Behavior Standards

The posters in this forum don't like an atmosphere in the forum of personally insulting people for their opinions. It is one thing to write, "Folding is a terrible decision." That's OK, although if your goal is to actually help someone, putting it a manner that they are more likely to heed the rest of the message is more useful. It is quite another thing to say, "You are a terrible poker player," "You're stupid to," or "LOL, do you know what a poker table looks like?"

If you see a post that you think violates the rules of this forum, click on the triangle icon . You fill out the report and it is automatically sent to all the mods of this forum. One of us will review it and take action. The standard is that if you're debating whether a post should be reported or not, you should report it.


Reasons to Make a Post or Thread

There are three primarily purposes in making a post or thread. The first is that you have a question that you haven't been able to find an answer about. It could be a theory question or a hand history (HH) where you unsure of what the right decision is, or even a HH/idea that you think others could learn/enjoy working on. Next, you can respond to a thread where you want to test yourself by applying what you know to a situation and see if other players agree with your assumptions/logic. Finally, you are looking to pay it forward. Some time in the past, you didn't know the correct response and somebody helped you. While you can't help them, there is someone else who could benefit from that knowledge.

There's other reasons people make posts and for the most part that's fine.


Unacceptable Reasons for Making a Thread or Post

Insulting and Provoking Arguments: We have a wide range of players with a wide range of skill sets. Insulting a poster because they posted what you perceive is bad advice is not acceptable. Everyone is here to learn and making a bone-head post is one way to do it. Remember, at one time you were thinking the same way. At the same time, if someone posts that you’re wrong and doesn’t mince words about it, don’t over react. Take a moment to think about what is posted. If they are wrong in your mind, state why. That’s how everyone learns.

At the same time, making a thread or post looking provoke posters into an argument or reacting is trolling. Trolling is not acceptable. You can tell someone that you think they made an awful play or gave awful advice. You can't tell them they are a fish and should give up poker because they are hopeless. If unsure where the line is, then error on the side of caution. If you're looking to get into a fight, there are other forums that tolerate it. Go there.

Blogs: There are plenty of sites that host blogs. If your thread is mainly about your poker life, it will get locked.

Conditions at certain poker rooms: The Bricks & Mortar forum covers this, along with rake, promotions, names of players/dealers/floors or angle shooting situations. This is a strategy forum.

Staking: Live cash game stakes at low limits are hard to obtain. You can try at the staking forum, if you want.

5/10 or Higher Stakes: These should be posted in the Medium Stakes PL and NL or Medium High Stakes Full Ring forums. Just because you only get 3 responses, doesn't mean they aren't good ones. That said, if a 5/10 hand is posted, it may be left on this forum if judged to be more appropriate for this level of play. Of course, if you are posting 5/10 questions left here on a regular basis, you should begin questioning whether you have the skills to play 5/10.

Complaining about How Bad the Villain Was: This can either be in the form of a "reverse" HH where you are actually the villain and you're trying to show how bad your opponent is, or a "How can he call my bluff" thread. The idea is to play poker against players worse than you. Expect them to make bad plays.

Tipping: As of March 2011, there are approximately 3,687,126 threads on 2+2 about tipping dealers and other support people in a poker room. There just isn't a need for another one. The facts are that dealers and other people in the poker room are paid near minimum wage or less. Tips make up the bulk of their earnings. The minimum tip is $1, although some people will tip more than that if the pot is large. Some people tip $1 for every hand they win or every item that is brought to them, like drinks. There are some that never tip, while others will only tip dealers they believe are doing an above average job and/or the pot is large/goes past the flop. It is a matter of personal preference. Economics plays a role since tipping every hand won can significantly eat into a player's win rate.


Starting a Thread

I strongly suggest a course of reading and responding to existing threads before posting one of your own. That allows you to learn, understand how a good thread is made, and often answers the question you had in the first place. Your goal should not be to know what you should have done, but rather how to work out what you should do in similar situations. You are losing a huge opportunity to learn if you post a sloppy Hand History (HH) or theory thread. That’s why I discourage posting more than two HHs per day. There are posters that can teach you a world of concepts over one hand, if you let them.

If the thread is about a bad beat you took or how great you are at bluffing, we have a Brags, Beats and Variance thread you should put it in.

If you have a question on what is a good winrate (10BB/hr) or how big your bankroll should be (2000 BB or 20 100BB buyins), then post in the winrates, bankrolls and finances thread.

If you are going to start a thread, here are some tips to get better responses and more in depth analysis.

Easy to read Formatting: The standard 2+2 format looks like the OP of this thread.

At a minimum, it should include stakes, reads on the players (this is live folks, you should have at least 4-5 pieces of information as the player sits down and before he plays a hand), what your image is, relevant stack sizes, your hand, the action, the board and pot sizes on each street. Do not post results, but stop the action where you have a significant decision to make. Let us know what you are thinking as you make an action.

One hand per thread: The more hands you stuff in a thread, the less likely posters will want to wade through it all. Most multiple hand threads get quickie responses. You should want more.

Be descriptive in your title: “Turn Decision” doesn’t make people interested in the thread. If you say, “1/2 with AA, facing raise on flop,” the readers have some idea of what they are going to comment about.

Heros and Villains: 2+2 convention is that the poster is the “Hero” of the hand, while his opponents are the “Villain.”

Finally, everyone encourages you to post winning hands. Many people post hands they lost and they want to know if they could have avoided it. There are some times you win a hand, but played it so badly that you didn't deserve to win, or it the decision wasn't that great, but you won a 40/60. Those are far more valuable, but far too rare to see.


Abbreviations

CMAR had an excellent one in the past, but the powers that be have created the official 2+2 abbreviation page which is far less complete that replaced it. If you are lost, you can start here: http://www.twoplustwo.com/acronyms.php


Suggestions

Any suggestions that you have to improve your experience in this forum should go in the Suggestions thread.


Chat

You can chat with other live regulars about anything from the best chip castles to your favorite breakfast foods in the official chat thread.


Hot Women (or Men) in Bikinis

2+2 has a policy of banning full frontal nudity. That includes nipples for pictures of women. This forum is for everyone interested in live cash game NL poker. Posting pictures of semi-clad men or women is not encouraged. “Not Suitable For Work” (NSFW) threads will not be tolerated in this forum. Everyone needs to be comfortable reading any thread in this forum. Yes, my family calls me the party pooper (the dogs just know me as the pooper scooper).

If you want to see these type of pictures, I suggest using the search function and type in “NSFW” (no quotation marks) and you’ll find lots of threads that have virtually every free internet picture available that can be uploaded. BBV4L has some of the loosest standards.

That said, I don’t intend on playing “wack a mole.” If you occasionally have a “hot” picture you just have to post, give notice and post it in a spoiler in the chat thread.


Enforcement

The first time on this forum you break the rules, you'll get a warning. After that,

10 point infraction, then
20 point infraction, then
40 point infraction, then
Permanent ban.

Be assure that there is no poster in this forum that is so good that we wouldn't permanently ban them. In addition, if the mods believe that someone needs time away from the forum, we're going to temporarily ban them, too.

Finally, if you miss the old FAQs, they are linked here.