I was gonna write responses to every post here to defend my current BRM choice, but it is what it is. Doesn't matter if you understand it or not, although I think FazendeiroBH at least understands it a little. There's no big risk to the BR, so it's fine for now. I will be trying this out, and if I feel the need to adjust it, I can adjust it. We'll see how it goes.

And FazendeiroBH, I'm not worried about training materials/tools yet. I feel I can do a lot more on my own first for free. Once I feel I need more outside help, I can then plan to purchase other stuff.

Yeah, my last suggestion was meant when you actually get to nl100 (or nl50), which seem to represent quite a bit of skill level jump compared to lower stakes. My previous suggestions of looking for tools and outside training right now were more to help make things easier and quicker, but I understand your point and being successful while doing the effort 100% by yourself will be epic ofc

GL!

Thanks FazendeiroBH. Just played about an hour so far. But I can already tell you that it's a lot harder for me to tilt so far it seems. Knowing that I'm one mistake away moving down really keeps my focus razor-sharp, and the excitement of moving up being just around the corner also helps to cement my focus. I think it's a lot easier to tilt when you have more BIs, cause losing a BI doesn't hurt as much. Just my thoughts so far; now back to playing. Started at nl10 with my $80 BR, but moved up to nl16 halfway in.

Just a couple hands from today since I haven't posted any in awhile lol.

This is the hand that brought me into nl16

PokerStars - $0.10 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: $12.65 (VPIP: 9.68, PFR: 9.68, 3Bet Preflop: 13.33, Hands: 34)
Hero (SB): $10.00
BB: $11.67 (VPIP: 18.07, PFR: 14.46, 3Bet Preflop: 6.25, Hands: 88)
UTG: $7.10 (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 2)
MP: $23.06 (VPIP: 21.59, PFR: 18.36, 3Bet Preflop: 13.29, Hands: 414)
CO: $10.00 (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 1)

Hero posts SB $0.05, BB posts BB $0.10

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.15) Hero has 9 9

fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to $0.25, BB raises to $0.75, Hero raises to $2.20, BB raises to $11.67 and is all-in, Hero calls $7.80 and is all-in

Flop: ($20.00, 2 players) 9 K J

Turn: ($20.00, 2 players) 7

River: ($20.00, 2 players) 3



-----------

I thought this was an interesting hand

PokerStars - $0.16 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: $21.19 (VPIP: 46.15, PFR: 38.46, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 13)
SB: $17.69 (VPIP: 21.80, PFR: 16.35, 3Bet Preflop: 8.38, Hands: 493)
BB: $17.64 (VPIP: 18.67, PFR: 16.00, 3Bet Preflop: 11.54, Hands: 75)
UTG: $14.87 (VPIP: 33.33, PFR: 33.33, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 3)
Hero (MP): $16.00
CO: $29.74 (VPIP: 6.67, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 16)

SB posts SB $0.08, BB posts BB $0.16

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.24) Hero has 4 4

fold, Hero raises to $0.40, fold, BTN raises to $1.44, fold, fold, Hero raises to $3.50, BTN calls $2.06

Flop: ($7.24, 2 players) 3 J 2
Hero checks, BTN checks

Turn: ($7.24, 2 players) 6
Hero checks, BTN checks

River: ($7.24, 2 players) 9
Hero checks, BTN bets $3.52, Hero calls $3.52

I understood your idea, and it left me flabbergasted really, mms/and other guy told you everything, logically it does nothing jumping from limits. Think about it and you will understrand why.

I can jump today from nl400 to nl1k, and would do nothing really, its pointless, if you dont beat limits it does not have any sence, you my find yourself at nl100 with 2bi , and are not able to beat nl10, what did you do, Nothing.

It is destined to fail, its what fish do, roll 1bi for zoom nl500, 3bi for nl200, and get murdered, its noble to give money to the pool i applaude it, but from strategy point its pointless, and you are not closer to your ultimate goal = beating poker. So i would advise against it, but do as you please.

And finally, you have time, if you are serious you can learn and beat limits in few months and be rolled for nl50 and play it as main game and take shots for nl100 when you feel good, and after a lot of work on your game.

I've heard some people say "ABC poker" wins up to nl100. And if that's not the case, I am working on my "simplified GTO-type" strategy as I go along. So eventually (if I can't beat nl100 yet), I will get to the point where I will. I've moved back down to nl10 again, and only half a BI to gain before moving back to nl16. So far, I've been having more fun this way. And isn't that what it's really about? Having fun while making money?

ABC has been a nonsense term for about 6 years now.

edit - I actually disagree it's always been a nonsense term. Just an unhelpful way of better players belittling those below them. Just click buttons and win essentially.

edit 2 - I should also add whilst I am the person thinking that really aggro BRM is the way forward I do think if you don't beat that stake you don't beat the next one. This all implies you are working your ass off to get better. I obviously see the downfalls in this strategy and if you don't control what you do it can be dire as you can lose a roll very quickly that may have taken you a long time to build.

I by no means think it is a get quick rich scheme.

You can **** up and lose money very quickly it is not an entry level suggestion. I do not even suggest it for OP I only suggest it to myself as an optimal way for me to care and move up. If I **** up that is on me, if other people **** up that is on you I am not suggesting I have posted some great idea or even close to all the pitfalls that can come with it.

I have grown up with gambling addicts I know how much people can **** themselves over. If you follow it to the tea it is not high risk however it is high risk in terms of needing discipline to follow the rules. Please do not try this if you are new, not a proven winner at the lowest stakes (at least) or just in general as there is no need.

I in no way shape or form encourage people to play poker at anything more than a completely recreational ****s and giggles with friends type activity for pennies.

No one has asked me to post this it is just my thoughts, I do not encourage lurkers to follow this unless it is purely their own choice and I would benefit from worse micro stakes players moving up past their station as I play those stakes.

Just my 2c about ABC poker. Misleading term, esp if people think ABC is valuebetting heavily your strong hands, betting smaller/pot controlling the weaker value and check/fold the worse ones, without thinking about who you´re playing against, about ranges, position, pot odds etc.

Poker is not like that, never was and never will be, even at nl2. A better way to think about poker is: develop a default strategy, based on solid theory, and learn how to spot leaks, adjust and exploit them the best you can. Play the player. That is the ABC that really matters

Ok, I'm gonna re-evaluate my BRM plan, and maybe make it a bit less aggressive. One downside that I'm finding with this is that I can't really multi-table much, if at all. So, I want to fix that part of it because volume is suffering, and without volume, progress becomes slower (which defeats the purpose of an aggressive plan). And most of those other points have some validity to them. There's no extra risk to the BR or anything, but I won't know if I'm actually beating levels or just getting lucky. And trying to figure that out at nl100 might be a tad ambitious. So, I'll figure something else out.

So after some more thought, instead of trying to go straight to nl100, I'm gonna break it up into a couple steps. My first goal is aggressively try to get to (and settle in at) nl16. I will be playing nl2, and building 1 BI shots there. So everytime I make $16 profit at nl2, I will take a 1 BI shot at nl16. Once I establish myself at nl16 and gain a certain (undecided as of this point) number of nl16 BIs, I can start thinking about how to go about shot-taking higher.

Do you have enough in your br to multitable nl16 after winning just 1bi? Anyway, GL!

Btw, nl2z from what I saw last week, is unbelievably fishy, in a way that I was almost killing myself lol. With some rungood and volume you might get the 16d in just 1 or 2 days.

Yeah, I have enough. Although I'll only 2-table max anyway at nl16 until I get a few BIs under my belt, just so I don't run the risk of accidentally losing more than the 1 BI for the shot. And thanks, yeah, it's seeming really fishy right now lol. Just haven't been able to take advantage of it yet.

I came across this thread searching wtsd for mtts. I loved the first post with all the titles of your PG&C threads haha gotta love the persistence.

You have heart! Keep going. It doesn't matter how old you are or what commitments you have. Watch Pursuit of Happiness. There is time for everything just not procrastination or hours of daily adult training and forearm strengthening videos.

I browsed through the threads and I was suprised by all the negative comments people had. It must feel like arguments with parents. Say something nice or helpful or keep it yourself imo. These people posting must not be Canadian.

I saw a lot of random plays and button clicking as I browsed the posts. I do that as a well a bit but maybe I can explain some things in this post and change the way you think in game.

Study GTO just to get a reference point to how far population/individual recreational players deviate so that you can understand with confidence how hard you can exploit them.

If you want a list of GTO ranges/%s to study I’d say first figure out average raise sizes then the GTO % of each of these stats for that size:

-BB fold to SB steal
-BB,SB fold to BU steal
-BB, SB, BU fold to CO steal
-BU CC% vs CO/LJ
-BB CC% vs LJ
-BB fold to cbet vs BU
-Skip cbet/check fold SB vs BB
-Skip cbet/check fold 3b pot BB vs BU
-Skip cbet check/fold IP
-Cbet % on a few different flops
-Barrel % on a few different turn cards

Study ranges of everyone and play around with them all. Check equities vs equities of different ranges and check which turn and river cards improve each players ranges. IP will always have a slight extra edge in spots so keep that in mind.

Study similar players in your game and combine them into an alias.
See what they do that might deviate too much from GTO.

Do they cbet too much OOP? Maybe that’s hard to exploit but maybe they don’t protect their checking range enough and you can stab and win lots when they check.

Maybe some random fish is donkbetting a ton into you and it’s annoying you but you saw him lead KT on K84 and you know that he has a super exploitable checking range so you can just safely overfold vs the donkbets if he donkbets 25-30% of the time since you'll exploit him when he checks.

These ranges seem okay but you can probably raise 100% vs most players in SB and 70-80% from BU at microstakes but it depends on population SB/BB fold to BU steal as well as the BB fold to SB steal. It might feel dirty and some players will 3bet you more but you know even if there 3bet goes from 10-20% or something they are just taking those hands from their cold calling range so their overall defend range is still too tight so you’re still exploiting them.

If you don't already have that in your HUD I would add those stats to improve your SB and BU steals.
You should create default RFI ranges for the button that maximally exploit population. I would 2x on the button and 2.5x everywhere else.

The size you make it should depend on who is in the big blind and how often the players left to act CC/3bet. You can adjust it vs a whale in BB to 3x or whatever.

You realize more equity IP but super rough GTO for how often blinds should defend for you to not autoprofit raising ATC is from the BU that formula would be:

2/2+1.5=0.57 which means they have to fold a combined 57% but they also probably fold to cbets too much so if give yourself 1.1x or 1.2x equity realization IP they only need to fold a cimbined (0.57/1.1=0.518 call it 52% or 0.57/1.2=0.475=47.5%

You can play around with the numbers but 80% SB fold to steal and BB 60% fold to steal would get 48% combined fold to steal which would mean you autoprofit stealing with any two.

As you move up stakes you have to adjust more and realize that people understand you're a reg so you have to only look at fold to steal stats vs regs. Hand2note can do that. You can specify the type of vpip/prf a reg is so you can study how population does vs players who play similarly. These stats will be more relevant than overall stats and eventually use vs hero stats.

Start with preflop spots and a basic understanding of the GTO of each betsize and situation. Betsizes change strategy a lot but since players are human we have very static calling ranges. I don’t know cash game ranges but random numbers to explain what I mean:
BB defend vs 2x is 40% instead of 60% that it should be lets say and BB defend vs 3x is 30% instead of 20%. Both ranges stay close to 30-40%.

It takes more skill to know how to defend the BB vs 2x, 2.5x and 3x but it's hard to adjust in game fast enough and players and humans end up not adjusting enough. Bet sizes are the biggest factor when thinking about continuing ranges. It's good to study what the most common bet sizes are and work with that. You don't have to play perfectly. Look at your database and see the most common betsizes. Don’t trust your intuition because it might be wrong and you don’t have to with data.

What this means is you can bluff smaller and value bet bigger in spots and have 0 bluffs or balance in some spots to exploit players who station. Exploit sounds aggressive or something but some of your exploits will be underbluffing like that or overfolding in spots that players don't bluff enough.

I would play pretty loose and adjust betsizes based on the player stats if you have a sample or the population stats. Studying GTO without studying population so you understand the adjustments isn’t super useful.

I wonder though if someone has a high fold to steal say BB vs BU I at first think we should just minraise with a wider range but what if they have also have a high fold to cbet? Should we size up and get more money in before they fold?

If they fold to much postflop it means they probably have an inelastic calling range. Should we just cbet 1/4 pot to 1/3 with range to exploit them for folding too much or is it better to be super exploitatible and just bluff 1/4-1/3 pot but cbet value 2/3 to full pot?

Things I wonder but the EV and differences between different players isn’t a huge deal and certainly not enough of a deal to worry. Think confidently about your game at every spot knowing that you probably exploited the player at some point in the hand so you cna be more comfortable folding. We get insecure sometimes when we’re not sure what to do in poker and it tilts us more. Study hard enough that you are confident with your ranges and strategy.

Think more about spots when you review and just think of things yourself. This is the beauty of poker many different things work and true GTO is to do some things randomly anyway so if you feel like overbetting some spot because maybe the timing tell or tilt of a player told you he’s snap calling you down then just do it completely unbalanced to value.

Check out Napoleon Hills book Think and Grow Rich to help get motivated and set goals.
Read Josh Waitkinz The Art of Learning.

Here is a summary of it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inBA0g0LeCE&t=2203s

Become the next Zoom prodigy and then teach me cash games!
Oh and for bankroll it's just whatever. If you have a job and can replenish it then it's probably best to study a ton and save up or deposit a bit off each paycheque untill you have $1000 to grind nl50 comfortably. You should just be able to crush nl2-25 though and build it up. If you want to practice being exploitative then keep playing lower and understand that games get tougher because you might have default or static range in some spots that just happen to be more profitable in lower stakes but you weren't sure why. I imagine that for nl50-100 you'll have to defend bb wider, float more vs cbets, raise slightly tighter but iuno.

This is real life and just remember you can't pick and choose which parts of poker you love and hope that you'll succeed. You have to love the good and the bad like love the studying, the variance and downswings, the mental work, the session preparation, the avoidance of alcohol while playing, the grinding on some weekend nights, the hours spent on the computer. I'd say love poker enough that you'd want to do all these things for play money.

Thanks rickyt88 for taking the time to write all that. Much appreciated, and some good stuff in there. Lol at the "or hours of daily adult training and forearm strengthening videos". And yeah, when I become the next zoom prodigy, I'll teach you cash games. We seem to be from the same area, so should make it easier hahaha.

no offence mate and just yanking your chain but, maybe get a better dictionary???

prodigy
/ˈprɒdɪdʒi/
noun
a young person with exceptional qualities or abilities.

How old are you and how long have you been playing??

Hahahahaha you got me there. Getting close to 40 lol. I'm still young compared to some people....

I was thinking about possible titles for my next pgc thread, and one of them would be "The next Nitring prodigy", but I guess I´ll have to reconsider now.

Lol how old are you?

I just found this, so it seems prodigy doesn't just mean young person (although it usually does). So I think the thread title is still safe?

Finally finished a session where fish were spewing money to me. So about to start the first nl16 1 BI shot.

Nice. So I can still pursuit the dream of being the Nitring prodigy lol.

37

So we're about the same age then lol.

Bad week volume-wise; not sure why. I think I spent too much time fussing over my BRM strategy and not enough time playing.

Anyway, still on that 1 BI shot at nl16, but now it's about a 5.5 BI shot. It might look like I've been running really hot at nl16 and that I should really be losing. But that couldn't be farther from the truth. Me running over EV like that is actually karma for me running horrible in other spots. All my big losses were coolers and suckouts, and all but 2 of my big wins were just bad play from my opponents. And slightly losing on the luck bell curve. Now, not saying that to complain, cause obviously I'm doing pretty well. I'm just providing perspective, to show that I should be winning nicely, and I'm not running hot like that.

nl2 this week:


nl10 this week:


nl16 this week:


from the start:


BR: $174.28
Cashed out this week: $0
Cash Out Total: +$86.84 CAD

How would you rate 16nl compared to 10nl? Big skill jump, a little tougher, the same, easier, ...

Now that you figured the BRM, it´s time to go to work and put serious volume, come on

GL!

Let me answer that with a couple of hands:

--------

PokerStars - $0.16 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: $16.00 (VPIP: 24.32, PFR: 16.22, 3Bet Preflop: 12.12, Hands: 76)
SB: $16.00 (VPIP: 22.83, PFR: 16.30, 3Bet Preflop: 2.94, Hands: 94)
BB: $20.29 (VPIP: 28.57, PFR: 22.22, 3Bet Preflop: 9.09, Hands: 29)
Hero (UTG): $16.36
MP: $43.31 (VPIP: 18.75, PFR: 12.50, 3Bet Preflop: 10.00, Hands: 17)
CO: $22.13 (VPIP: 26.73, PFR: 19.06, 3Bet Preflop: 6.67, Hands: 412)

SB posts SB $0.08, BB posts BB $0.16

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.24) Hero has K K

Hero raises to $0.40, fold, CO raises to $1.52, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to $3.52, CO calls $2.00

Flop: ($7.28, 2 players) T 5 8
Hero bets $2.29, CO calls $2.29

Turn: ($11.86, 2 players) A
Hero checks, CO checks

River: ($11.86, 2 players) 3
Hero checks, CO bets $15.86, Hero calls $10.55 and is all-in



------------
PokerStars - $0.16 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: $14.21 (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 1)
SB: $16.16 (VPIP: 26.67, PFR: 23.33, 3Bet Preflop: 27.27, Hands: 30)
BB: $14.80
UTG: $30.04 (VPIP: 27.78, PFR: 22.22, 3Bet Preflop: 14.29, Hands: 18)
Hero (MP): $16.00
CO: $8.16 (VPIP: 28.57, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 8)

SB posts SB $0.08, BB posts BB $0.16

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.24) Hero has K K

fold, Hero raises to $0.40, fold, BTN raises to $1.12, fold, fold, Hero raises to $3.52, BTN calls $2.40

Flop: ($7.28, 2 players) T 6 T
Hero bets $2.29, BTN calls $2.29

Turn: ($11.86, 2 players) 9
Hero checks, BTN bets $5.60, Hero calls $5.60

River: ($23.06, 2 players) 7
Hero checks, BTN bets $2.80 and is all-in, Hero calls $2.80



-------------

You got people calling 4bets with that garbage lol; it's like a gold mine! It does actually seem easier so far. I think part of that is the smaller player pool. Seems like there might be a bigger rec to reg ratio, and the smaller player pool means you play the same fish more often. And it seems some of them tilt against me lol.

And yeah, time to get more volume back this week! Might actually risk the BR on nl16, as there's not a whole lot of risk of ruin if my winrate is good, now that my BR is over 10 BIs. And I can always deposit again. Really want to get established here quickly.

Seems like 10nl so far lolol

Btw, h1 fold river, never defending KK vs an overbet in an A high board that hits his range big, h2 I´m probably just going bet bet jam river.

I'm never folding KK in a 4bet pot where an ace doesn't flop. If they have an ace, so be it. They paid too big a price to get there.

Hand 2, I like checking the turn. I think I get more value from calling their bluffs (and worse value) than I do from betting again. Not completely sure on this, but that's my thoughts.