Unfortunately I've used up both PT3 and HEM trials, as soon as I can afford it, ill buy HEM.

Although I dont think its 100% accurate, from aug 10th (when thread was made) onwards i think.

http://www.pokertableratings.com/ful...earch/YouFaiil

@Viva La Crayon, damn skype lol, ok ok i'll get it. .

Just for lols.

Full Tilt Poker $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

UTG: $2.29
CO: $2.46
Hero (BTN): $2.00
SB: $1.63
BB: $1.40

Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero is BTN with K 6
2 folds, Hero raises to $0.07, SB calls $0.06, 1 fold

Flop: ($0.16) 6 K K (2 players)
SB bets $1.56 all in, Hero calls $1.56

Turn: ($3.28) A (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($3.28) 9 (2 players - 1 is all in)

TILT and SPEW, that could sum up my online poker career ! :-@

I'm sure there are many more who could say this as well, although thinking on a large scale, I wonder how many pro's who came up through cash games had these problems.

Tilt, spew, emotional control, all such important factors and this isn't even considering every concept/aspect of play at the tables.

everybody starts somewhere, even pros were begginers once too! something to keep in mind

There are some free alternatives for the mean time, check out the Free Software forum.

I dont know if you have posted it in the thread but do you mind me asking how old you are. Im from the UK too and although i really love my job i would love to be in the postion to be say 18 and 19 again and to have found out about poker. By the looks of it you do quite a bit of study and some really good advice would be if you have quite a lot of spare time while you are not working to just study study study. Post in strat threads and all that, dont worry about been flamed theres plenty of people out there willing to help someone who is genuinly willing to learn. Looks like you have a couple on here too willing to help you, take them all up on their offers. Get a good grasp of it now while you are not working and when you do find work this will be a nice little earner for you. The pleasure you get when your hourly from poker becomes more than your hourly from work is imense.

+1 (except i dont need 2 know your age lol)

I'm 18, birthday was may 17th.

Ok, just logged on to check the thread, I havent grinded for like 2 days, when I first started this it was supposed to be a side earning for when I start work, and im slacking. I can see now that I'm actually in an ideal situation as I'm not in work yet, I can grind like 9-5, 5 days a week and i'm not taking the oppurtunity.

I think one of the main reasons is that I still don't have my head around moving up, I know its suited to each individual but without ever doing it before, idk. Maybe because I have more time on my hands, I can move up more aggressively as I have more time to grind it back if theres a problem.

Mate hit me up on Skype when you want to take a shot at 5NL im UK as well so times are the same and im currently without work as well at the moment.

Ill show you how its no different to 2NL just the pot sizes

I think I need a sweat badly, I just put in a session at 2nl, down 1/1.5 BI, didnt run too great but I felt I played fairly bad, will add you on skype now.

Still havent figured out when im going to take a shot, either @ 15 BI's or 20. I have to go out to this job searching course in about an hour and will be back around 5/6 :/.

Just read the whole thread

I bet you are laughing at this now when looking back?

I'd like to have a sweat session with you as well. 2NL or 5NL doesn't really matter to me.

Considering it was a very small 3bet, you can 4bet JJ here. However, in a vacuum without reads, I don't like the bet size at all. You could have obtained the same results for a lot less while cutting your opponents implied odds significantly if they call with drawing hands (Ax type).

Moreover, assuming your opponents are thinking decently, they will fold most of the hands you beat and call with the hands that beat you. By raising all-in, you allow them to play correctly which, according to the fundamental theorem of poker, is a mistake.

Good luck at 2NL, this is a very good stake to learn poker with low risk.

Hey about moving up, I'd recommend cutting down on tables, playing like 2 tables 2nl and 2 tables 5nl. I don't even think you need 20 buyins, it's a standard number that is thrown around but taking shots just depends on so many things. The most important thing imo is to do it when you're playing/running well and confident. I'd just take shots now, or as soon as you feel good about it. Maybe set a 3 buyin loss at 5nl, that could put you back a bit, but it could also launch you so much further. If you get above 110 i'd just start 4 tabling 5nl, then add more tables as your BR increases and maybe play 10 when you're at 135 or whatever.

Considering 2nl-10nl should be the same, and 25nl is still easy as **** if you play tight (I only noticed a difference/need to change my game at 50nl tbh) you are in a position to move up really quickly considering you are a good winner at 2nl. Just take aggressive shots if you feel comfortable with it, and yeah grind a lot. Maybe set up a life routine so it's easier to grind. If you played 4k hands a day I can't imagine it being unlikely that you are playing 25nl in under 5 weeks.

GL, no idea why I'm interested in this thread but I'm following it, so GL.

edit: and for the JJ hand I think a shove is fine, but I'd prefer a small 4bet. SB is going to call 55c if he is going to call 86 or w/e (too lazy to minus his 3bet from his stack lol) and it's not really bad for you if the button calls with weaker hands because the SB will have ~1/5 pot left so he's pretty inconsequential to the hand afterwards and you're playing a 4bet pot with a strong hand, where your opponent will have less than a PSB left to put in. Also once you 4bet you're not gonna fold JJ to a shove from BTN (unless he's suuuuuper tight) so at least you give him some percieved fold equity. If I knew BTN would call a small 4bet with 78ss I would definitely do that, because also the SB will widen his range soooo much for calling your raise, or might just reraise himself in which case you can just get more money in the pot (calling or shoving, w/e).

Generally just try to think about what action will let your opponents make the most mistakes (in this case preflop and postflop) and do that.

Regarding moving up, here's how I would look at it. There's NOT a lot of difference between 2NL and 5NL, I don't imagine, I never played those stakes, lowest I ever played was 10NL, but even at the stakes I currently play (NL50 and NL100), there's only a marginal difference between each level. The key thing you need to figure out is if you're a strong winner at your current stake, not just winning from rakeback etc. In other words, if you have a 10bb/100 winrate, and the next stake up is 25% harder, you'll still have a 7.5bb/100 winrate at the next stake up. However, if your winrate is close to breakeven, then moving up could cause you to be a "losing" player at that new stake which you may or may not be able to offset with rake.

So, I would figure out what your winrate is first, if it's huge across a significant sample which is also important (and i've seen some huge winrates at 2NL) then you don't need to worry at all about moving up, 20 buyins is more than enough, but the closer your actual winrate at 2NL is to breakeven, the more buyins you need to move up.

Other things to think about moving up, play fewer tables, 4-6 maximum until you're comfortable but honestly, I wouldn't play more than 6 tables at all at 6max. Set a stop loss, i.e., a bankroll amount at which you will move back down no matter what, like 80 bucks or something, that's 4 buyins loss at 5NL assuming you start off losing right from the start when you move up. You should also set stop losses for each session as well. Finally, you can buy in for a "shorter" stack as well at the higher level to help minimize variance, I would recommend 60bb. I'm not suggesting playing short stacked, i.e., the 20bb thing because I despise that strat, I'm just suggesting ways to minimize your variance by playing a little shorter than the full 100bb stack. That being said, if you're not used to playing with only 60bb, you might not want to try it. You might also leave when you double up a 100bb stack, at least until you're used to the higher level, i.e., if you sit down with a full 100bb stack and double up to 200bb's, you might consider leaving unless you're comfortable playing a deeper game.

Finally, I'd add 10 buyins to each level you move up at. I.e., if you're going to have 20 buyins for NL5, I wouldn't move up to NL10 until you have 30 ($300) buyins, then 40 buyins for NL25 (1K) etc. That way when the money actually starts to matter, you'll have a big comfortable roll.

These are all just suggestions but they should help when you decide to move up. If I think of anymore, I'll let you know. GL!

@Donkey111, First, thanks for the reply and I totally see your point about folding out worse hands and getting called by better, however I probably should have included that I was certain the 100bb stack was raising the BTN a lot and that I'd have to fold to a shove if i 4bet the 100bb stack, I decided to shove so show super strength and isolate the short stack.

@SmokeyJ, I will probably mix in 2nl and 5nl, e.g. 2x5nl, 4x2nl until i have a more comfortable roll to play only 5nl and perhaps 4-6 tables. Main reason is I dont want to change my play by focusing on just 5nl and start to do things I dont normally do and secondly the rakeback, more tables = a bigger amount at the end of the week + the $100 bonus i have. Secondly I dont like things being slow, i play worse and lose focus, 4-6 should be ok and ill hopefully get to 9 tabling 5nl once my roll is bigger.

I thought about aggressive shot taking a lot and thought that If I use good BRM and stop loss limits etc then theres no reason why not, I'll take shots at 5nl at 15 BI's and 10nl at 25 BI's perhaps. 25nl in 5 weeks? Seems like a challenge to me . Timing isn't a big issue although I currently have a tonne of free time and therefore I should probably use it more efficiently, considering once I start working I wont have anywhere near to as much time to play as I do now.

JJ hand: Thats a good point about the split pot issue, something that I didn't think about during the hand and perhaps should of. I'm starting to feel a little more edged to a smaller 4bet than a shove as I can still iso the sb and get away from my hand if the bigger stack moves over the top.

This thread is amazing, thats why your interested in keeping up ! I don't know, maybe its because I play a lot and things are moving pretty fast.

@Dr_Hyde, With regards to WR, without having PT3/HEM I have no idea, I also dont record all my sessions which I know I should. However I estimated at the start that I'd need to play around 45k hands @ 10bb/100 to move up, but with the bonuses and rb as well I'm not sure. This is something ill look into before I move up.

I'll start with 2 tables then 4 then 6 mixing in some 2nl as well, I'll 100% include stop loss, generally I buy in for 100bb, and leave when I reach 175-200, I'm not keen on playing so deep, it increases variance with bad beats etc.

I like the suggestion of buyng in short however like yourself I also hate short stacks, I might give that a go when I take shots at higher limits, I'm not sure.

Yeah I think for 2/5nl 20 Bi's is fine and at 10nl 30 BI's and increase from 10 there on, i like the idea as WR's decrease and the games are tougher.

Thanks for all the replies and support so far, I don't think I would have made it past 2nl without this therad .

tilts me when you write I instead of L in ldo

Good luck though!

Ok Update: Today, received second $10 bonus, ($20/100 cleared) and received my $15.43 rakeback from last week.

BR: $95.98, 5nl here I come...

Or not, kinda annoyed I haven't kept stats on how many hands I played or WR, and that ive received a lot through rakeback/bonuses.

Move up or not?

lolol I dont even know what ldo means haha, I always thought it was an I, and it was IDO, but im glad I tilt you

now, what does it mean lol?

Play 5nl and drop back down when/if you hit ~$80 imo

You used it in the right context/way though.

it means like duh obviously

Ok, sick life, I think 2-4 tables and stop loss at either $90 or $80.

That sounds reasonable.

I want to stab someone now since I know what that means.

Dont be afraid to take shots at nl5 because the bonus money will also help you when moving taking shots at nl5 and trust me its nothing different from nl2.

GL

@ArchitectPro, lol ive seen it around so much, good to finally know... Yeah I thought about that, rakeback + bonus means i can be a bit more aggressive, going to take shots now, 2 5nl tables and 2/4 2nl tables.

OT: Thread-wise, should I make a new one or ask mod to change title?

I wouldn't bother making a new one just because we talk more about strategy and so forth rather than you hitting goals lol. Just keep this one alive. I changed my goal this month without changing the thread title because its basically the same thing.