Hello guys, i'm teaching a friend that is new to poker how to beat NL2. But i think if he take the same way as me he will crash a lot(i crashed twice on NL2, began with a 10 dollar bankroll lol), since i began winning at poker in SnGs, although i think it's easier to make money and manage tilt on ring games.

So i've made a strategy that has some rules to follow, it doesn't depend on HUD or anything like that(i prefer to leave him learning a little more until he can use the stats, since i think it's too complicated for someone who started last week), so it will treat all enemies in the same way.

I made a strategy that may work very well against fish and some regulars(which are fishy on NL2), although it may be easily exploited, i think only few players on NL2 try to exploit the others by looking at patterns on their moves.

Rules are simple, pretty basic poker:
play good hands only, a little looser from BTN and CO, but within a tight range in average. Don't try to steal, 3-bet light or do fancy moves.

Hand ranges will be like this:
EP = raise 77+ AQo+
limp 22-66
MP = raise 22+, AJ+
LP = raise 22+, JTs+
Blnds = same range as EP

3-bet pre-flop KK-AA
Fold to any 3-bet(unless you have a pocket pair and villain's stack is >$1)

The flop play will be simple: if you're aggressor and it's heads up, always cbet, regardless if you have a hand or not, if called and don't improve OTT, just rise the white flag.
If you're not the aggressor, bet-raise only if you have a good hand(TPTK+)
bet 75% of the pot if you have a good hand and keep betting until the river(only stop if there are 4 of the same suit if you don't have a good flush kicker or 1 card to a straight, if that happens, check-fold)

If he has TPTK or less OTT and gets raised OTT, fold too.

if it's a multi-way pot, only bet if he has something.

Now pre-flop betting sizes:
KK-AA = 8BB + 1BB per limper
QQ, AK = 6BB + 1BB per limper
TT-JJ = 5BB + 1BB per limper
77-99, KQs+ = 4BB + 1BB per limper
22-66 JTs-KQo = 3BB + 1 per limper

If he finds himself on the blinds, raise +2BB per limper istead.

When he has KK-AA, his 3-bet will be 5x of the raiser.

Also if he has a combo draw, just shove the flop to make it simple.

I told him some things about flush draws, so i decided to tell him only to draw if villain's bet is below 75% of the pot(i still need to teach him a little about pot odds, but i think i'll lend him daniel negreanu's book, it's simple and easy to learn that in that book)

That's it... what do you think about it? Any idea to make it easier to play?
Do you think it may work on NL2?

Thx guys

Looks good, athough slightly complicated. Why don't you let him play a short 30bb strategy? And give him a shove/fold chart. Shortstacking works wonders at 2NL since players tell calls off very light against shorties.

I would just tell him to dump 22 - 66 in early position. It will get him out of the habit of thinking that it is ok to limp, (when really 99% of the time a good player should never be limping without some good reasons to be doing so), plus these hands aren't that profitable to begin with and they will be hard to play OOP.

I would fix preflop betting size for a beginner and not vary it depending on hand strength. You don't want them timing out if there is too much to think about preflop. 5x plus 1bb per limper is probably about right and easy to calculate quickly.

2nl pots grow exponentially post flop and what value you might lose from premium hands preflop using a fixed bet size, is made up for post flop because you can still get your stack in with big value bets when you hit.

thx for the advice top_jimmy,
i usually do that bet sizing because it works a lot against fishes, i've seen people call weird stuff like 20BB bet Pré-flop, bur in a nit table i just bet normal.

But i think i'll change that in the strategy since he can't find fish on the table.

and pokie, 22-66 is ok to limp because of set mining, no?
the idea is just limp, if raised, limp again if odds are ok.

if you don't hit the set, just put the white flag on, i think set mining works wonders on NL2

I agree with pokie, 22-66 I would suggest fold because on the flop he'll be OOT, there's a chance that some reg will 3bet, or a battle between 2 guys 3-betting and 4-betting, and if nobody does and he gets the set, the pot will be small which makes harder to him stack someone (so it would be a better strategy raise with these cards, but since he can get in tough spots, fold is better)

Sounds like the sort of thing you would use to program a certain Poker bot.

Just saying.

poker bots don't need to be simple, in fact i think they should be complex, since the only advantage they have over a human being is mathematics and fast calculations

when i was in PS some guys and i were discussing if some guy were a bot, so we began to 3-bet light him and he always folded, something pretty weird, like 4x in a row, even someone who doesn't know about poker he would fight back(and with reason, and probably would be +EV too)