You don't want to think of poker in terms like this. You do something when it is +EV, not 'every X times'. If you want to randomize it, sometimes do it and sometimes don't. If it's something you want to do very sparingly, do it only once per session or once every other session.

This is all true, but I still wouldn't recommend this for players without a healthy winrate over a large sample. It opens up too many situations that are going to contain unknown variables (that they aren't even aware of) that can lead to bad things.

Table image and metagame play a huge roll in situations like this and that is something that most 10NL players aren't going to be able to fathom, deal with, or adapt to (as they shouldn't).

I just found this thread and want to thank the OP for posting it. I have just started to play online cash games for the first time in almost and year and I was doing pretty poorly, I think this guide will help with some of my leaks. Mostly FPS because for the last 9 months I have been playing 3-4 nights a week with the same group of guys who are all decent or better so FPS is kinda required.

One question I had tho. With the pre-flop range you have given do you think this would produce I high enough VP$IN/PFR to be profitable? With this range does anyone know what your stats would be assuming you were always the first to raise a pot as long as you held the two cards?

Raising first in:
UTG/UTG+1: AQs, AK, 77+
MP1: AJ+, 55+
MP2/3: AJ+, KQs, 22+
HJ/CO: AJ+, KQ, QJ, 22+
BTN: A8s+, KQ, KJ, QJ, 22+

i don't think of poker like this. i'm just trying to ask questions you can easily answer and will help clarify things for me.

should i worry about a 21% wtsd or is that standard for the weak-tight play which is profitable at the micros?

yes its proffitable, and i'd estimate ur vpip would be around 9%

don't worry about 21% thinking, I need to get it up. Think of it as a indicator that there are a few times you are probably folding the best hand. Now you have information and now look for SPOTS were you are probably ahead and call down the river more (or not fold earlier in the hand). But be cautious with this and don't become a calling station or a payoff monkey.

ave sircuddles, i salute u!

Great post, really simplified things for me. Is there a specific post anywhere thta deals with micro stakes blind play?

Here is a good one that I believe is pretty recent. Lots of good ideas.

Awesome, OP - thank you Sir!

Any help going from 10NL to 25NL? It is way easier to get a ton of value on your good hands at 10NL than 25NL. I am having a difficult time adjusting. I beat 10NL pretty easily, but 25 NL is a bitch. I am showing down second best a lot of times when I would get a lot of value before hand.

i second this, 25nl is owning my soul

I did some 25NL too, for the uNL FR Challenge. 25NL has changed, since 2 months ago, it seems to me. It used to be enough to just concentrate on valuebetting. Didn't work too well for me anymore. So I played a more aggressive style, and that worked, somewhat, for only 6bb/100.

Hmm, maybe SirCuddles' guide is more popular than we think, and there are lots more weak-tight at 25NL now. That would explain why lagging it up works now.

There's not too many loose passive fish anymore... So if someone calls your cbet, and you fire a second barrel, a lot of the times you're going to see that person come over the top with a raise, generally with a hand that beats yours.

But lagging it up works amazingly well at 25 NL, Generally, a lot of these multitabling nits that seem to frequent NL 25 lately live and die by stats... I don't know if a lot of them come to 2+2 or what... but.. they'll see a 35/30 as instafish. So they'll stack off to you with top pair or an overpair, a good portion of the time. So you throw away anything that doesn't beat top pair once they raise you (or shut down if they call). Meanwhile while they were waiting for those hands, you were picking up a lot of blinds. And when you do get a big hand, you're going to get paid off if they have anything decent.

i cannot stress enough to just play your standard ABC game at the micros. Some of you won't believe me because you enjoy read 400nl+ strategy but trust me there is NO need for balancing/polarizing under 100nl. I think the latest fr vid at CR by Fooz also says this. I just cringe everytime people overlevel and outthink themselves at the micros when u should just play a standard game and work on hand reading.

You don't have to play superdupa awesome i'm the greatest betbetbet raiseraiseraise 3bet zomg 4bet zomg 5bet ship it in with tens lag to beat $25nl.

Kudos to you sircuddles...

I came across this guide the other night, after deciding to get my feet wet at NL, in an effort to break the monotony of limit hold 'em. I have played a little NL before, but had not had any success. This was largely due to not believing that many players would call my push so easily. So rather than just shipping it, I'd make small bets to "avoid losing customers." However, I would often end up either finding out they had a hand that I could have stacked them with, or I ended up letting them in cheap enough to suck out and stack me, all the long blaming by "bad luck."

So imagine my surprise when I decided to try 2NL again tonight, armed with your guide, and found that many of these players are truly abysmal and will stack off with any piece of the board! Early in my session I had my first All-in with QQ and when I got called, I expected to see KK or AA, or at least AQ! Nope, I got called by J10o. I was completely dumb founded. As bad as that was, it just got worse and worse. Many of the calls were just unbelievably moronic!

So I've end my first small session up 2.5 buy-ins. Regardless of my results, I am now convinced and reformed of my prior beliefs. Thanks again for such a simple, yet effective guide!

Thank you very much for this

....So its been a couple of months since I made the first post, and now, after posting several hands, going over this thread and many stickies multiple times, I am now winning at a rate of 10 bb (5 ptBB) over 22k total hands - up 23 total BI - at 2NL (partly spiked by a massive run on the good side of variance today, so my true rate is likely a little lower). Certainly still room to improve, and lots more learning to do, but just wanted to testify to the power of 2p2 and the micro forum in particular........

Congratulations! Well done.

Question about this thread: do you think this advice pertains to live NL 1/2 games? Or is it too simplistic?

Live 1/2 is about equal to NL10 in terms of player skill, for the most part. Live is a different beast though. I'd recommend supplementing this with some live-specific guides (search button). Overall though yes, it's about the same post flop.

Thanks for the heads up, but I am having trouble finding these live specific guides you speak of. Could someone please hook me up with a link?

geez last year 1/2 live was equal to 25nl online. are the micros getting harder to beat, or 1/2 live getting worse?

micros are just getting better - alot more players read 2+2 /books/ hem or pt3 ?alot of things i think make it a tougher game - but still beatable as long as you try to improve your game as well .

Sircuddle, thanks a lot for this amazing post!

I'm looking forward to play NL10 with all of your tips and see if I'll be a better poker player!

Many thanks from a frog