I'm 44 and played a fair amount of low-mid stakes poker successfully back in the day after the poker boom. If I remember correctly, I was a 4-5 BB winner over about 1,000,000 hands at 100NL - 600NLpre-Black Friday. Was a CardRunners member and took it quite seriously back then. Had PokerTracker. I stopped after BF and other than playing some live poker, I haven't played since then.

I live in a state in the US that has legalized online poker and I'm getting back into playing. I'm rolled for much higher but am going to start by playing 200NL. Think I can beat it?? LOL I downloaded DriveHUD since that's what the kids seems to be using today to track everything. My how things have changed. I can keep people updated on my status if that would be of any interest to others as I get back into it in this current landscape.

Good luck dad!

LOL I'm not a father, but thanks!!

My first week back.

Kids be calling down light these days.

Hand History driven straight to this forum with DriveHUD 2 Poker Tracking Software

NL Holdem 2(BB)
BTN ($189) [VPIP: 15.9% | PFR: 11.3% | AGG: 23.5% | Hands: 445]
SB ($201) [VPIP: 22.6% | PFR: 17.9% | AGG: 27.8% | Hands: 838]
BB ($266.05) [VPIP: 54.4% | PFR: 13.9% | AGG: 25.3% | Flop Agg: 5.7% | Turn Agg: 43.8% | River Agg: 33.3% | 3Bet: 8.3% | 4Bet: 0% | Cold Call: 51.6% | Hands: 80]
HERO ($222.84) [VPIP: 24.7% | PFR: 20% | AGG: 25.4% | Flop Agg: 27.9% | Turn Agg: 26.6% | River Agg: 22.6% | 3Bet: 9.2% | 4Bet: 10.1% | Hands: 4793]
CO ($114.40) [VPIP: 56.3% | PFR: 25% | AGG: 50% | Hands: 16]

Dealt to Hero: K J

HERO Raises To $4.40, CO Folds, BTN Folds, SB Folds, BB Calls $2.40

Hero SPR on Flop: [22.29 effective]
Flop ($9.80): 9 8 4
BB Checks, HERO Bets $6 (Rem. Stack: $212.44), BB Calls $6 (Rem. Stack: $255.65)

Turn ($21.80): 9 8 4 T
BB Checks, HERO Bets $16 (Rem. Stack: $196.44), BB Calls $16 (Rem. Stack: $239.65)

River ($53.80): 9 8 4 T Q
BB Checks, HERO Bets $38.33 (Rem. Stack: $158.11), BB Calls $38.33 (Rem. Stack: $201.32)

BB shows: K T

HERO wins: $127.46

The main profit-forming skill of taking a place in position to a fish is still with you.
The rest is not so important

Since I've been back playing online poker for the first time in a lot of years, I'm fascinated at how much the game has changed, and also by how it hasn't. I remember so far back that you used to just post the results of a hand in a forum, and then people were like, you know, maybe you don't want to put the results in there, maybe it'd be more helpful if we all didn't know how it turned out. So you started hiding the results. Then came HUD's and everyone wanted to know the VPIP/PFR numbers. It was much cooler if you played a 32/28 than a 16/14, but LAG's and TAG's were all viable approaches. But the feedback of a hand you got from people was very interesting. Because people couldn't jump into a computer program or a web based system to run the hand and then immediately come up with the right "answer." A lot of back and forth discussions were happening about player types, leaks, history with the player, meta-game image, etc.

Not that the feedback was more helpful than today's feedback, but it was definitely more interesting. Other than some unique spots against whales or nits or MWP's I'm not sure why you even post a hand anymore. You're just going to get people to tell you that GTO Wiz has you checking 40% of the time, or if you bet you split between 75% and 125%. Info I can get for $50 a month. Or people telling you what the population does because someone sat down with 50 million hands and figured that out. And I know that's important against unknowns. But the issue is, with all this solver info out there and so many people striving to play that way and with all the data that's there, I still see players making a ton of mistakes. I thought maybe these programs and this information killed poker, or at least wounded it pretty well. But not from what I see.

People are making different types of mistakes, but nonetheless they are making a lot of errors. So though solver study is extremely helpful, I think going old school with simply taking notes and watching what players do, in games where you can, is going to make more money than copying solver output. It's good to know what GTO baselines strategy is, I can see that, but mostly for then knowing how and when to deviate from that strategy to take advantage of poor play. Obviously you don't want to overdo it, because then you yourself become exploitable, but back in the day it was the same attitude. Find a leak and attack is as much as you can without leaving yourself out there to be openly attacked as well. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Yes, it's impressive how people train hard in GTO-trainer and try to play this strategy at the tables instead of exploiting opponents and making money.

What state? It's possible we've played together.

I'm in a similar spot as you, played a bit pre black friday, took a decade off (played live 1/2 casually) and am now back in full force. Most of your money still comes from fish and just beating the piss out of them, no GTO training necessary. However at 200NL you will be up against some pretty high level pros who have done a lot of GTO/solver study. So really the advantage to studying the stuff is so that you have a fighting chance of battling these guys to a draw (or at least not bleeding all your fish winnings back to them).

But like you said, fish are still fish, that part hasn't changed, and they are the primary source of our profits. Even a lot of the stuff that came out solvers wasn't exactly earth shattering. It's mostly just concepts that people were roughly understanding pre sovler era, like when to be merged vs. polar, and what type of range to x/r with. Solvers really just fine tuned it a bit IMO.

Cool sounds great man, glad to find someone like me who was away for awhile and now back at it. I will PM you the state info. Yes there are definitely players who you can tell are solid and studied and don't do anything too out of line or crazy. Everyone has leaks and weaknesses, certainly myself included, so I strive to find the weaknesses and leaks even in the "solid" regs. No one plays anywhere close to GTO. That's a guarantee. So to find how they deviate from that strategy and where they open themselves up to exploitation is a lot of fun to me. Always was back in the old days too.

And I agree most of the solver information isn't earth-shatteringly new. Some spots caught me off guard, like no flatting raises in MP or CO, and also the amount you're supposed to 3-bet out of the blinds, or how polar it should be out of the BB. I know people I was playing against, myself included, weren't 3 betting a 16% polar range out of the BB.

For sure, I certainly see the value of knowing a baseline GTO strategy and how it can become more useful as you move up in stakes. But at 200NL I think the most money can still be made by just taking note of holes and weaknesses in people's games and trying to silently take advantage of that.