Found my way back into poker lately and been playing on a native site the last couple of months.

This year my plan is to try to grind up a roll @ Pokerstars, starting at 2 NL. Im also going with a real conservative bankroll management and starting with 200dollars, so 100 buyins. And wont move up before i reach 500dollars.

All play is going to be 6 max NL Holdem.

Played a short session this morning, more to come this evening. The sessions was only 139hands and +$0.84

Bankroll: $200.84

My biggest winning and losing hands was these two, any input on my play here are welcome.

PokerStars - $0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

UTG: 46 BB
Hero (CO): 100 BB
BTN: 166.5 BB
SB: 62.5 BB
BB: 227.5 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has A A

fold, Hero raises to 2.5 BB, fold, SB raises to 4 BB, fold, Hero raises to 22.5 BB, SB calls 18.5 BB

Flop: (46 BB, 2 players) 9 Q 2
SB checks, Hero bets 13.5 BB, SB calls 13.5 BB

Turn: (73 BB, 2 players) 5
SB checks, Hero bets 21 BB, SB raises to 26.5 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 5.5 BB

River: (126 BB, 2 players) 9

SB shows 7 7 (Two Pair, Nines and Sevens)
(Pre 20%, Flop 42%, Turn 25%)
Hero shows A A (Two Pair, Aces and Nines)
(Pre 80%, Flop 58%, Turn 75%)
Hero wins 121.5 BB


PokerStars - $0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

CO: 129.5 BB
Hero (BTN): 100 BB
SB: 171 BB
BB: 45 BB
UTG: 220.5 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 6 6

UTG raises to 3 BB, fold, Hero calls 3 BB, fold, fold

Flop: (7.5 BB, 2 players) 9 T 6
UTG bets 4.5 BB, Hero calls 4.5 BB

Turn: (16.5 BB, 2 players) J
UTG checks, Hero bets 8 BB, UTG calls 8 BB

River: (32.5 BB, 2 players) 8
UTG checks, Hero checks

UTG shows Q Q (Straight, Queen High)
(Pre 81%, Flop 13%, Turn 23%)
Hero mucks 6 6 (Three of a Kind, Sixes)
(Pre 19%, Flop 87%, Turn 77%)
UTG wins 31.5 BB

let's go

Hmm, facing trippel barrels out of position at the micros - how should one play?

Feeling that im most of the time beaten here even with my overpair, but also feels to nitty to fold.

Any inputs here?


PokerStars - $0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 112 BB
Hero (SB): 105.5 BB
BB: 100 BB
UTG: 62.5 BB
MP: 45 BB
CO: 42 BB

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has J J

UTG raises to 2.5 BB, fold, CO calls 2.5 BB, fold, Hero calls 2 BB, BB calls 1.5 BB

Flop: (10 BB, 4 players) 8 3 T
Hero checks, BB checks, UTG bets 5 BB, CO calls 5 BB, Hero calls 5 BB, fold

Turn: (25 BB, 3 players) 2
Hero checks, UTG bets 7 BB, fold, Hero calls 7 BB

River: (39 BB, 2 players) 9
Hero checks, UTG bets 15 BB, Hero calls 15 BB

UTG shows 9 T (Two Pair, Tens and Nines)
(Pre 18%, Flop 23%, Turn 30%)
Hero mucks J J (One Pair, Jacks)
(Pre 82%, Flop 77%, Turn 70%)
UTG wins 66.5 BB

Hi, _Manificat_!

It's better to 3bet this hand preflop (like most SB hands) and play HU with a weak player.

We won't earn a lot of money by playing multipots. Especially out of position.

Flop-River is okay. The opponent gives us good calling odds and we will often be ahead against a weak player's range.

Bankroll management is an individual thing, but in my opinion, it is too conservative for NL2.

At this limit, you are unlikely to be able to develop the skills that will be useful to you when moving up the limits.

But at the same time, you will spend a lot of time winning 150 BI (150k hands with a 10bb/100 win rate).

Therefore, I recommend you play 30-50k hands in NL2. If the results are good, then start connecting NL5.

If NL5 seems difficult, then you can return to NL2 at any time.


You can also post your hands on the discussion thread and on our discord server.
We welcome new members and will be happy to answer your questions.

GL!

Thanks for your input here, and i feel like i need to widen my 3betting range from every position but especially SB.

Not been playing that much since i started the blog, only 468 hands and im acutally down -$1.22 but it will change soon,i hope =)

Bankroll: $198.78

I agree with slyless that 100 buyins feels extremely conservative, especially for 2NL. You could honestly already jump up to 5NL with $200, if you feel comfortable with doing this.

Adding on to what slyless said about this hand, you really want to take a 3bet-or-fold strategy from the SB, when facing a raise. We are at a huge disadvantage when we're always going to be OOP, and by calling in the SB, we end up in lots of 3-way pots, as we price the BB to make wider calls. Knowing that we don't want many 3way pots, it makes sense to adopt this 3bet/fold tactic.

If you have any more hands you want to take a look at, crack them in my Discord and I'm more than happy to go through them with you.

Status so far, +$3.01 in 966 hands. Will play a lot more during the weekend but running right now at 15bb/100 but i guess its notsutainable. What are decent winrates in 2NL 2022?
And i know of course that i need a real big sample size to get accurate winrates, just curious.

Biggest winning and losing hands this session.

PokerStars - $0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (UTG): 100 BB
CO: 171.5 BB
BTN: 124.5 BB
SB: 158 BB
BB: 100 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has K Q

Hero raises to 2.5 BB, CO calls 2.5 BB, BTN calls 2.5 BB, fold, fold

Flop: (9 BB, 3 players) 4 T Q
Hero checks, CO bets 3 BB, BTN calls 3 BB, Hero calls 3 BB

Turn: (18 BB, 3 players) 5
Hero checks, CO bets 10 BB, fold, Hero calls 10 BB

River: (38 BB, 2 players) A
Hero bets 11 BB, CO raises to 156 BB and is all-in, fold

CO wins 58 BB

Standard raise pre and OOP on the flop with TPGK, i like to check here cause i dont like to get 3bet on this flop. Should i cbet here instead? On the river i bet out a small 1/3 pot blocker bet. Guess its an easy fold when i get raised but better of check/call or check/fold.

Secoond hand, easy game

PokerStars - $0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

CO: 94 BB
BTN: 274.5 BB
SB: 77.5 BB
BB: 83 BB
Hero (UTG): 102 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has A A

Hero raises to 2.5 BB, fold, BTN calls 2.5 BB, SB raises to 77.5 BB and is all-in, BB calls 76.5 BB, Hero raises to 102 BB and is all-in, fold, BB calls 5.5 BB and is all-in

Flop: (246 BB, 3 players) 3 4 J

Turn: (246 BB, 3 players) 9

River: (246 BB, 3 players) 2

BB cashed out 25.5 BB for a fee of 0.5 BB

BB shows A K (High Card, Ace)

Main Pot [235 BB]: (Pre 11%, Flop 7%, Turn 0%)
Side Pot#1 [11 BB]: (Pre 11%, Flop 7%, Turn 0%)

Hero shows A A (One Pair, Aces)

Main Pot [235 BB]: (Pre 79%, Flop 89%, Turn 98%)
Side Pot#1 [11 BB]: (Pre 89%, Flop 93%, Turn 100%)

SB shows K K (One Pair, Kings)

Main Pot [235 BB]: (Pre 10%, Flop 4%, Turn 2%)

Hero wins 237.5 BB

Imo its very much possible to win 15bb/100 at NL2 reg tables.

Yeah, I completely agree. Might take some work on one's game to realise it, but I think the sheer amount of people spunking it off allows you to print.

I don't think we should be afraid of flop raises in the MW pot. We can defend our hand against two players, but check is okay too.
Block bet has sense and it's an easy fold on the river.

Good luck.. Subbed..

Why waste your time at 2nl with a 200 roll?

This is, as you say, a very conservative BR strategy. This is fine, though many people will tell you it has downsides. The best thing about this is that it will force you to prove you can go through the improvement cycle (play, find leaks, study leak fix, implement, see the fix in the data, repeat) and it will get you in the mindset that the accrued 300 dollars is the proof. One downside, though, is that the rake at 2NL is pretty bad, so it can take longer, even if you are beating the game to build up your roll.

One thing you might think about is to think about "moving up" not as a binary thing ("I was 2NL, now I am 5NL") but as something a little more fluid. Maybe when you have 100 buyins for 5NL, there's no reason to play 2NL anymore, but you might define a lower threshold to "take a shot" at 5NL while keeping 2NL you main game. It depends a lot on the site, obviously, but generally 5NL isn't going to be too much tougher than 2NL. If the players were exactly as tough, the rake will help your win rate. The point is if you always have a threshold where you allow yourself to try a higher level a little, but if you fall below this they you stop allowing that, then you have a fluid move up/down feedback loop built into your roll and it's going to be almost impossible to go busto this way.

Eg: maybe at 50 buyins you allow yourself to play up to 25% of your hands at 5NL. When you arrive at 5NL it's possible you might be slightly losing there. If you are winning at 2NL with an offsetting amount, then your BR will hold around the same level. While this is happening, looking at your 5NL hands will give you much better feedback on your mistakes, so if you study your leaks, eventually you'll improve. If you are losing more at 5NL than you are winning at 2NL, it'll push your roll back into the 40 bi's and so you stop with 5NL for a while, but since you were only in for 25% it won't feel like you've been demoted and it probably won't take long to build it back up.

No matter what, you have to plan out the process for how you switch from a lower stake to a higher one based on some conditions you set so your BR level is dictating what stakes you can play. If you make it a step function, it'll be a bit of a jolt when you suddenly switch. You may find that you've tuned your game to exploit 2NL player tendencies that aren't found in 5NL. What you want is to develop a single style that beats the higher levels and lower levels simultaneously.

I want to develop my game and fix the leaks i have and be sure that i beat 2NL before moving up, but i might as well move up before i have 100 buyins for 5NL. It will depend on my winrate, at the moment i have 9bb/100 so doing OK at least at 2NL.

Yeah, for sure will i come up with a good plan when its time to move up in stakes. But im not there yey, have to play a lot more and fix some leaks first =)

Update on the progress so far. Been playing 3353 hands so far and the result is in the green, +$6.43 and with a winrate of 9bb/100. So i guess im doing OK. Made som changes due to the comments i´ve got from the hands earlier. 3betting a bit more from SB for example and it works out good so far.

Will post some graphs and stats when i reach 10k hands so you can help me further how to adjust.

And as always, the biggest winning and losing hand since the last update. Always appreciate some comments about how im playing the hands =)

The biggest winning hand, QQ from the SB.

Cbet here or make them hang themselves? Feels like im getting more value from bluffs when i check this board. Otherwise only folds or raises with better hands from villain? But maybe we should cbet here most of the time and just get it in?

PokerStars - $0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

UTG: 81 BB
CO: 96 BB
BTN: 45.5 BB
Hero (SB): 112 BB
BB: 85 BB

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Q Q

UTG calls 1 BB, CO raises to 4 BB, fold, Hero raises to 13 BB, BB calls 12 BB, fold, CO calls 9 BB

Flop: (40 BB, 3 players) 6 8 2
Hero checks, BB checks, CO bets 38.5 BB, Hero calls 38.5 BB, BB raises to 72 BB and is all-in, CO calls 33.5 BB, Hero calls 33.5 BB

Turn: (256 BB, 3 players) 3
Hero bets 27 BB and is all-in, CO calls 11 BB and is all-in

River: (278 BB, 3 players) 2

Hero shows Q Q (Two Pair, Queens and Twos)

Main Pot [256 BB]: (Pre 66%, Flop 80%, Turn 90%)
Side Pot#1 [22 BB]: (Pre 80%, Flop 89%, Turn 95%)

CO shows 9 9 (Two Pair, Nines and Twos)

Main Pot [256 BB]: (Pre 16%, Flop 11%, Turn 5%)
Side Pot#1 [22 BB]: (Pre 20%, Flop 11%, Turn 5%)

BB shows J J (Two Pair, Jacks and Twos)

Main Pot [256 BB]: (Pre 17%, Flop 9%, Turn 5%)

Hero wins 268.5 BB

Biggest losing hands, also with QQ. I just flat call the MP opening, maybe i should like always 3bet QQ instead? and when i do call here, is my play standard on all streets or am i doing something completely wrong here?

PokerStars - $0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 78.5 BB
SB: 155.5 BB
BB: 315 BB
UTG: 106 BB
Hero (CO): 100 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Q Q

UTG raises to 2.5 BB, Hero calls 2.5 BB, fold, fold, BB raises to 12 BB, UTG calls 9.5 BB, Hero calls 9.5 BB

Flop: (36.5 BB, 3 players) 3 6 7
BB bets 35 BB, UTG calls 35 BB, Hero calls 35 BB

Turn: (141.5 BB, 3 players) J
BB bets 68.5 BB, UTG calls 59 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 53 BB and is all-in

River: (312.5 BB, 3 players) 8

BB shows K K (One Pair, Kings)

Main Pot [300.5 BB]: (Pre 77%, Flop 65%, Turn 74%)
Side Pot#1 [12 BB]: (Pre 85%, Flop 68%, Turn 74%)

UTG shows Q J (One Pair, Jacks)

Main Pot [300.5 BB]: (Pre 12%, Flop 31%, Turn 24%)
Side Pot#1 [12 BB]: (Pre 15%, Flop 32%, Turn 26%)

Hero shows Q Q (One Pair, Queens)

Main Pot [300.5 BB]: (Pre 11%, Flop 4%, Turn 2%)

BB wins 301.5 BB

H1 - I would bet 1/3 Cbet to defend the Flop and jammed on the blank turn.
It's unbelievable what NL2 opponents are capable of lol.

H2
Yes, it's 3bet preflop with QQ.
In general, I would recommend not using Cold Calls by default. Just 3Bet or Fold from free positions and SB. The exception is when the fish is in the blinds and we don't want to bust him out of the pot.
On the postflop we get good Odds and should call.

The main difference between H1 and H2 is that in H1 both opponents were capped to the nuts AA-KK, while in H2 we were capped, but the BB player wasn't.
Also, such hands have high dispersion and low EV.

At higher stakes against more solid opponents, it will generally be -EV.

On a downswing at the moment, not massive but still a downswing. And i also realise that i have huge leaks in my game since i cant beat this stake for more than like 2bb/100 ev-adjusted.

So been analysing my game and database a bit, and im playing way to nitty. Raising to litte first in especially from BU, SB and CO. I 3bet to little and call to much preflop etc etc.

So at the moment i am looking at my 3bet ranges, i started this year playing really tight because i wanted to have easy decisions in the beginning before i develope my game during the year. I have been 3 betting mostly only JJ+ so far and called like all PP for setmining and even called AK, AQ most of the time.

I went trough my database, and this is just an example if im thinking about this the right way.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Say for example constructing a 3betting range vs EP/LJ position.

The population in my databases raises 14,1% from EP/LJ, folds to 3bet 34,87% of the time and 4bets 10.34%.

So if im doing the calculations right here they only 4bet like QQ+ so if im getting 4bet from an EP player i should like only getting it in with KK+ (or should i also add like AKs here?)

Since they fold so little vs 3bet i should stick with mostly value in my 3betting range, so im thinking of expanding it to this range - 99+, AQ+ since this range have equity advantage over EP/LJ continuing range.

But i think i also should add in some bluffs even if the folds a tiny amount, so if i should add som bluffs to this range- which hands should i add? Like all suited aces since they have blockers vs AA or just something else?

Hit me up with your toughts here, i might be far off with my tought process here.

Just find some preflop ranges online, no point spending time generating material that's freely available to you anyway. If you don't like how much you're supposed to be 3betting, just tighten it up a bit, but the idea is that people will fold even when you're bluffing. It's not like they can see your cards.

Still agree with CNB that you could just play 5NL with your roll, and have it be a more linear game

So now its the time for the promised 10000hands stats and graph update.

Just some more background on these numbers and how i started out.

Been away from poker a long time, started playing again during 2021 on a native site and during the year went +$200 on there. But all tables are anonymous and you cant track the games so therefor i went to Pokerstars this year since i think tracking my game will also show me which leaks i have and in that way develope my game.

So started at 2NL on Stars and tought it was like before, playing really tight and valuebet. The ranges i started out with was like Sircuddles "complete guide to beating the micros" and i soon found out that these ranges was way to tight in 2022. So i have expanded them during these 10 000 hands but they are still way to tight.

So searched some GTO ranges and will start from there the coming 10 000 hands and see if that can fix some problems like negative button winrate, catastrophic redline etc. etc.

But hit me up if you see something other terrible that needs to be fixed ASAP.

Bankroll: $198.73

Wow! When I read about tight ranges I didn't think it was that bad until I looked at the graphs!

11/9 is VERY tight even for FR tables!
You definitely need to expand your preflop ranges.

Despite such tight opening ranges, you fold to 3bet 78%! (Should be at least 65%)
Also, your 90% fold to steal on the SB and BB allows your opponents to simply print money preflop. (Should be at least 85% on SB and 60% on BB).
Does Sircuddles "complete guide to beating the micros" list such a tight game?

You just need to sit down and make your preflop model.
Download some free software like Equilab and create and save all ranges for all positions from open raises to 5bet shoves.

These will be your standard ranges, points from which you will start in various game situations.
Until you know these points, you won't know how much you need to widen or narrow your range and how it affects other indicators.

Hold approximate preflop indicators to which we need to strive.


I also recommend checking out some up-to-date and inexpensive courses or a good micro stakes book to learn basic poker concepts.

Download Pokersnowie and go through the 6max NLHE play with computer assistance as many times as the free trial will let you before you continue playing for real money is my advice. You are playing too tight and too passively. Do you play with a HUD?

How are you? Don't leave us!

Work on sensible preflop ranges ASAP. Contrary to what was posted before (common misconception) rake at 2nl is not that high (it steadily increases as you move up thru the micros though, so be prepared to get ripped off at 10nl and 25nl ), but just get smth like pokersnowie ranges for 20nl and you'll be fine as a start (maybe it's still too tight for the real world, but right now you're just a big nit, no offense)

I'm on the 100 BI min for each stake group, and think this is perfectly fine. You won't 5nl with your current strategy anyway, so better to fix leaks cheaply.

Cheers