Hey guys, I am a winning 4 NL player at the moment
I have learned A LOT since I last played 1/2 live poker.

I was never able to be a 1/2 live winning player, but I haven't attempted it in a long time, and since then have learned a lot of key fundamentals that I was not knowledgeable about before.

My bankroll is very tiny at the moment (lawyers took all my money) so I can't take shots like I used to not care.

Basically, what do you guys think I need to be able to beat online to be profitable at the live 1/2 games? I hear all the time that they are very soft, and I understand the game ten fold more than before, but I am curious what the 2p2 community suggests.

Thanks.

When you stop playing 4nl and actually play some serious stakes. That doesn't mean you shouldn't play 4nl in a serious way, I ran my br up from 2nl to 50nl by being disciplined and seeing bb's instead of cents. (I Don't play right now) it's a mixture of being able to afford the stakes as in brm and having developed the correct mindset down the road of the grind. About brm if you feel like you can absolutely squeeze the heart out of a 1/2 game maybe you can take a 2 bi shot with 10bi....MAYBE...you really have to be certain about your game and I mean certain certain and even then you'll lose those bi a decent amount of times. A rational approach would be 3-4 bi shot at 20ish bi...it entirely depends on you and your discipline. ..I've seen crushers that take really aggressive shots because they know what they're doing and they've been there, done that...I've seen brm nits who take shots at 50+ bi. What I'm saying is your choice when my advice is stick to micros and study the game until you have the mentality to judge your skill appropriately.

Sent from my GT-I8190 using 2+2 Forums

Take a shot a soon as you have $600 or so to spare. The players will seem to do things that are extremely poor play from an online perspective, but remember that most $1/$2 NL players are regulars and have adjusted their style to minimize loses. The biggest difference will be that most of your hands @ 1/2 live will be played multiway (4+ villains) as opposed to the usual HU play of online. I suggest buying in for the minimum (no more than 80Bb and ideally much less), playing super tight, and getting a feel for the game, while paying super attention to every player in the game and their tendencies. Furthermore, don't be surprised when a villain flops the 2nd nuts IP and check/calls every street. GL

It's not really comparable. You likely already have the aptitude to beat 1/2 but that doesn't mean you will be able to right out of the gate, even if you already beating 25NL.

FWIW, I'd like to see you beat 10NL and working on beating 25NL before taking a shot live. It honestly shouldn't take you that long to get to that point but it will show that you have the discipline it takes to be successful in poker.

Well this is tough to answer since it doesn't sound like there is much of a bankroll to speak of. I took a few shots at 1/2 NL with 2 buy ins. I was one of the lucky ones as the game was very juicy and there were lots of bad action players. I'd say check out the local games and ask around to find out where the best games are.
If you run well you could build I small bank roll. I think even buying in for 50 bb isn't a bad idea. You can turn 5 buy ins into 10, again this only works well at lose games. Bankroll is a huge part of the equation and you need to be honest with yourself as to what you can afford to lose. And be aware of being scared money, I have been there and it is no good for your game.

Without some more info about your financial situation Its hard to give good advice.

I would take a look at your finances and see what you have as disposable income.

If you have 600+ you can lose without changing your life take a shot.

The problem is that you are essentially jumping up in stakes x50 so 1bi@200nl=50bi@4nl

sounds like we need to grind online a little longer.

Thanks so much for the responses.
A lot of you guys are talking about BRM which I agree is very important I guess I was more wondering what stakes online should I be able to beat to equate to being able to beat the 1/2 live games.

I feel like I already could but I also thought that before. And now looking back I have learned so much more that I wish I knew before I dumped money in to 1/2 live. I think I will wait until I am at least break even at NL 25 before I start trying my luck at live again.

Thanks again.

Take this with a grain of salt:

95% of my volume comes from live play.

The only website Im available to play online is SwC due to my location and this is where things can get a little hazey because as the price of bitcoin fluctuates so do the stakes.

As far as FR goes on SwC im confident that if a player could beat the lowest stakes available they could also beat 1/2 live.

6max MAY be a different story, but to me that is a totally different game.

Thanks I kind of figured that as well.
I was never able to beat micros until recently with a lot of studying,
and so I am feeling much more confident about my live play.

I think the hardest part is going to be seeing such little hands and staying true to a tight range.

The style of play online is a bit different than live. You can crush 100nl but if you don't adjust properly to live play you are going to struggle. However I do think even 2nl is going to be "tougher" than your typical 1/2 table. The player pool online tends to be homogenous. Mostly weak TAGs with a few whales and nits sprinkled in. Live you may have a seasoned pro and a drunk craps player at the same table. You will have to do a lot more player soecific adjusting. Playing online is good for learning the basics, but if you plan on being a live reg I would recommend moving over asap.

Do you live players still recommend a tag play live?
Or are we playing more lag against certain spewy opponents hoping to hit it big on the flop and stack them off?
I see some winning players playing lag to make money but it sort of contradicts everything I've been taught about being a winning online player.
Am I going to need to change my whole style up to be profitable?

Take what the table gives you.

in a vacuum:

Stick to being "TAG"
I think one of the biggest leaks alot of llsnl regs exhibit is trying to constantly outplay the opposition.

I live in Edmonton and I just read this guys post about Edmonton games:

http://www.pokerforum.ca/f7/why-edmo...terally-26884/

In the post he says:

6. Even "solid" regs can be outplayed fairly easily my shifting your style up. Where I play, regs NEVER change their style of play. This makes it very profitable to play in even the late night weeknight reg infested games if you are willing to shift between LAG and TAG in the right spots. I am almost certain that at least 3/4 of the regs I play with are losing players (being conservative).


I am curious about knowing when we need to switch between these styles. I understand that a tag is going to have a certain range of preflop hands, and on certain boards knowing when I can cbet them off their hands etc, but what else would this guy be doing?

Maybe I should rephrase my previous point:

I think one of the biggest leaks alot of llsnl players exhibit is trying to get players to fold hands.

So even that is too fancy hey..
Wow. I have to really adjust.

You can Cbet +EV at 1/2 a ton.

but people never fold top pair.

Whenever you feel comfortable, remember, dusting off $200 isn't gonna kill you

DGIharris has a few good threads entitled "The real llsnl" part 1 and 2.

Big hands but easy folds

typical donkalicious hands

check em out to get a feel, some of the **** that goes down is disgusting.

Well the max buyin at our 1/2 games here is $500.
I feel like buying it at 200 is a mistake, and also just screams noob.
So it will cost a little more than 200.
I'm not too worried about losing a buyin though, I just want to make sure I am at the proper level before going back in for it.

Will do, thanks.

No worries, but I'm going to lock the thread at this point. One of the rules is one question to a thread. You're now drifting off to how to play LLSNL. I suggest reading the stickies and the links in the stickies for more information.

Locked.