1. Not sure for 2NL, but I've don't second guess stacking off AKs vs all but the nittiest of players (vpip <13%, 3b ~1-2%). My experience between NL 10 through 50 is to stack off. Had one guy who seemed like a reg today call my 5b shove w/ A8o vs my AKo. versus nits I flat and they play their hands face up, so pretty easy to know when to float/dump flops you don't hit.

Here's a general rule: if you're not willing to 3b and then get it in w/ AKs vs your opponent, don't 3b. That way you keep inferior Aces and possibly other lower same suited hand that could be a big bingo for you.

2. Don't bluff most of the time at the lowest of micros. I'd say cbet to rep any A or K hi not very coordinated flop vs a single opponent, and also cbet opponents who have a high 'fold to cbet %'. C/f 'ing is fine because it seems plenty of people will hand their money over to you with your value hands.

3. If they're not folding ever, change your range to be value hands. Then if they're not folding you're just extract extract extracting.

4. I'll 3b most anyone with an ATS higher than 30%. Versus EP raiser I might flat. But if you're only 3b'ing AA KK from the blinds it's an easy fold for them right?

Thanks for the well wishes and good luck!

I have no idea what you're talking about with 2nl tables being full of super nits. They really aren't, you just have to table select. There are always enough tables with plrs/flop greater than 29% at 2nl. Label the nits and regulars that you see all the time, and avoid those tables. I personally will refuse to play at a table if:

1. My HUD table VPIP <20%

2. I have labeled at least 3 players as regulars.

It's simple, you just don't have to play against these somewhat thinking players yet. So you shouldn't. Especially with the low BR that you have.

Good luck!

I've been finding much better tables recently, table selection is still relatively new to me. I used to just sit down anywhere but I'm trying not to be such a fish. It was just the other night there were the same players at nearly every good table. All the regs were on the waiting lists for the looser games. I'm beginning to label them now so I can avoid them and I've got some fish labelled too.

Thanks for the advice though.

Thanks for the help. Hopefully over time I'll develop the experience to know how to play these situations. I'll try and get some sessions in today.

good luck, will keep an eye on teh challenge
try to post hands if you have them saved?
(for advice and whatnot)

Just finished my last session and I suffered a pretty annoying loss. I felt like I was playing ok, not as well as I have in the past few days but I didn't run good either. No flopped sets, had AK about 7 times and didn't pair on any flop. There was one fish seated to my left who would often shove to my steals from the BTN and CO but I never had a hand strong enough to call off like 80bb. I would always have like KJ or something, I don't feel comfortable risking my stack when he could be value shoving like a donkey.

One hand I took my biggest loss with:

SB: $2.00
BB: $2.66
UTG: $1.99
UTG+1: $2.03
Hero (UTG+2): $2.36
MP1: $2.14
MP2: $2.02
CO: $2.63
BTN: $0.70

Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero is UTG+2 with 9 9
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to $0.08, Hero calls $0.08, 2 folds, CO calls $0.08, 3 folds

Flop: ($0.27) 6 8 2 (3 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero bets $0.27, CO raises to $1.08, UTG+1 folds, Hero raises to $2.28 all in, CO calls $1.20

Turn: ($4.83) 7 (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($4.83) J (2 players - 1 is all in)

Not really sure if I can do any differently. At this time I'd had AK twice in a row and a few pocket pairs and my raise percentage was at about 24%, quite high for my style. I was getting played back at more and more and when I get the overpair on this board against an aggressive opponent I don't know if this is just a cooler or if I can play it differently. Any advice would be really welcome.

Really down on this session, the progress at 2NL is already frustrating enough without this kind of session.

Session: 175 hands
Profit/Loss: -$3.41
BR: $26.05

Here is my advice which is based on my experiences at 2nl which is over 40k hands.

1. AKs is good enough to stack off at 2nl. There are times you will be coin flipping but sometimes you will also be up against AQ, AJ, Ax really at 2nl. If you combine these with the coin flips you are looking at a 60%+ win rate with AKs. The only time I wouldn't stack off with AKs at 2nl is when you PTR running and you see a guy who is something like 15/8. chances are he has AA, KK, QQ, JJ, or AK. Out of those 5 hands your best chance to win is against QQ and JJ and against both of those you are an underdog.

2. Absolutely no bluffing at 2nl. It does not work. The only time I would suggest bluffing is when you have over 500 hands on someone on PTR and their stats show they will fold often. c-betting is not included in this. I consider 2 factors when deciding to c-bet or not. The first factor is the opponents c-bet fold %. If this percentage is high I then look at the board texture. On a dry board T72 rainbow I will cbet. On a board like T94cc, I am less likely to cbet because I will most likely get called by a flush draw or a straight draw. I would suggest c-betting on dry boards only, unless you are semi-bluffing on a hand like where you have KQss and the flop comes TJ5ss.

3. Blind stealing is definitely something to do at 2nl. I have found the best spots to blind steal are when you have PTR running. If the SB and BB are something <20 vp$ip then blind stealing usually works. Also you can look at their blind defense percentages as well. However most ppl at 2nl don't understand the button is raising with a wide range of hands so they usually dont play back. They usually just play their normal hand range. So the vp$ip stat should be enough to make that decision.

4. I am always raising and reraising with AKo no matter what position I am in. There is really only circumstance I would suggest cold calling with AK pre-flop. That is when someone from EP has raised and someone has re-raised. I would only cold call here because the re-raiser is showing alot of strength by re-raising someone from EP. If you call here and the flop comes AT6 and you get it all-in on the flop and villian flips over AA there is nothing you can do. Chances are though if you cold call and hit an A or a K villian will not have AA or KK.

Good luck with your challenge. I will be following closely. I am attempting a very similar goal right now as well at the microstakes. It does get difficult only winning a dollar or two over a few hours but quoting the one and only Vince Lombardi "The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary." Always remember the time you put in now getting better and following good BRM will pay off in the future. Before you know it you will be grinding away at the $1/$2 making a bunch of money every day!

If you would like to get together and have an AIM or skype session let me know. I am always up for bouncing ideas off of other people and going through different situations.

Thanks, I really appreciate your advice and your comments on BRM and patience too, I've had tilt problems in the past because at the end of the day $26 is no loss to me but the real goal is turn this into $260 and beyond! I'll get back on the grind later and post hands, I converted my first HH ever earlier.

That is the mindset that so many people fall into. That is the main reason alot of people lose the BR. $26 isn't that much to me. While this is true this the mindset you need to get out of. You need to treat that BR like it is a fragile child lol. You cannot let that fragile child die. You need to raise that fragile child well so it grow to be big and strong lol. Go ahead and keep tabs on my challenge. I will be posting hands there which will kind of give you and idea of how I play some of my hands. Here is the link:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/17...-grind-846437/

Yeah I agree, to be honest I have been treating my BR like that, it's probably why I suffer the tilt when I lose some of it. I had another session just now which I've finished. I had a bit of tilt after my losing session so I shut my laptop down, went and did some cleaning round the house with the vacuum to just chill out a bit and I came back feeling better. Good to post a win, no matter how small.

Didn't particularly run good either so I'm happy. One hand I think I lost the minimum with when I was facing a REG who was often flatting raises. I had some notes on him though and I'm 100% he had me crushed

MP1: $2.03
MP2: $1.32
CO: $2.32
BTN: $1.88
SB: $2.49
BB: $1.29
Hero (UTG): $1.82
UTG+1: $1.20

Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero is UTG with K K
Hero raises to $0.07, 3 folds, CO calls $0.07, 3 folds

Flop: ($0.17) J A Q (2 players)
Hero bets $0.10, CO calls $0.10

Turn: ($0.37) J (2 players)
Hero checks, CO checks

River: ($0.37) Q (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $0.44, Hero folds

Could I have played this better? Advice always appreciated.

Session: 243 hands
Profit/Loss: +$0.95
BR: $27.00

One thing I would really like to ask is on the question of small pocket pairs. I often limp them if there has been 2 or more limpers before me but I never open limp. I also call small raises in position to try and hit a set but that's where I have a question. What odds do we need to justify "calling to hit a set"? On about 3 hands I think I spewed chips calling raises with a small pair and missed a set all 3 times. It'd be great if somebody could offer their insight there. Thanks

tl:dr version
- Small profit after longish session, who cares?
- Needs help with odds calling with pocket pairs
- Wants to know if he screwed up playing pocket kings.

been playing much im still stuck at $56 gonna try some mtts tonite

I feel like I'm playing quite well but the slow progress is really frustrated. I wanted to be winning more than this. I had one hand which could have gone another way and gave me pretty big profit for a session. With 4 limpers ahead of me I call in the CO with K2. The flop comes AA2 giving me the nut flush draw. UTG leads out for the pot on the flop and on the turn. UTG+1 calls each bet, as do I getting odds for my flush on the turn and what I reckon are huge implied odds on the river since it's so likely he has trip aces, more so given the $5 in his stack.

well i dont know cash very well but i see 2 problems here.

1. you are possibly drawing dead to a fh.

2. you are not getting correct odds to draw anyways, even if some of you outs are not tainted, which by your read they are. (my understanding is your pot odds are 2/1 vs worse than 4/1 to hit your flush per street.

As for pf overlimp i dont really like it, but it is defensible. I hate playing garbagey suited crap and this is exactly why. But many good players seem to always do it, and every bad one.

GL at the tables

For calling to hit a set often people will recommend villain has 10 - 15 times the bet size your calling left in his stack. Yet for me I will also look at villains stats and take into account whether I can actually get his whole stack. For example:

UTG running at 5/4 raises to 4BB with 96BB left behind, I'm sitting BTN with 100BB. It costs me 1/20th of my stack to call with villain having 19x's his opening bet left. The fact that he is a super-nit and the raise has come from UTG means his starting range should be monsters, meaning if I hit my set on the flop there is a good chance I will stack his over-pair.

Often however things will not be this black and white and you will have to questions villains opening hands, stack size, and whether you can actually win the % of his stack to justify the call.

The 10 - 15 times bet size is needed as there will be times that you hit your set and stack villain.
The 10 - 15 times bet size is needed as there will be times that you hit your set and villains folds.
The 10 - 15 times bet size is needed as there will be times that you hit your set and get stacked by a better hand.

Good luck.

Well i did about the same...

To me it wasnt about money. I saw it as chips and a BR that i wanted to build up.
Son let me tell you.... it is a griiiiiiiind. Sometimes i think, i cant be done!
I've played around 15k hands now and am only breaking even.
I guess i was playing very agressive, i would steal alot in LP and obv c-bet/steal alot of flops. Pretty much doing what everyone here is advising you to do!

I did it with the TAG and LAG approach and neither made me a winning 2NL player. Playing with the same mindset and strategy at 5nl and 10nl did lead to a nice profit.

I dont want to discourage you but really i'd say skip 2NL save some money and roll urself voor at least 5nl but rather 10nl. If u got what it takes go grind those tables, start with about 4 tables and learn the plays. I guarantee u will be crushing 10NL in about 2 months.

GL nonetheless,...

After a year or so of tilting away BR after BR, I've finally changed to Stars and have put a ban on the limits that I can play. As such, I can now only play 0.02/0.05 and $3 sngs.

I'm also grinding 2nl at the moment, and I agree with everyone that its an absolute nightmare at times, but it is super soft. Nice to see the OP still sticking with it though, it's mighty tough especially when you're first starting. Will follow this thread from now on, keep it up.