I have been grinding 10nl for a while and seems over the course of a little over a month i have been a break even player. Partially due to tilt but also a big part is playing too nitty. I'll usually only play top hands and am very weary of breaking away from that even in position.

So my question is, would dropping down a level and playing 5nl for a while and testing a wider range of hands be beneficial to me or would i just be running into more issues at that level with a looser style play?

And finally, is there any way to track hand histories for myself on Bovada poker? I know you can't vs other players cause of the anonymous crap they do. Or would it just be worth my while to move to like Carbon poker and play there so i can use some form of HUD?

Just try to get ABC poker def in those levels..

What makes you think that being nitty is hurting you?

Maybe he folds a lot..or play scared money.

This, need more info. OP could be playing 14/12 at FR for example which wouldn't stop him being a winning player.

When it folds to you in the CO or BTN, raise every hand.

Report back in 20k hands.

more info please OP. Are you FR or 6max? what are your VPIP and PFR (overall) ? and do you prefer the beatles or the stones?

+1

I'm not so sure that it is actually hurting me. It just seems like I'm playing so few hands that 1) if any of the players are actually paying attention it is very easy to get that read on me 2) It feels like the down swings of my good hands getting cracked or having to fold them due to certain boards out weigh the hands that i do win.

Like i said in my original post I am unable to track my stats due to Bovada's system of anonymous play so I couldn't begin to tell you anything like that.

"When it folds to you in the CO or BTN, raise every hand.

Report back in 20k hands" ---- is this serious advice or not and if so what are benefits?

i usually play 6 max but if there aren't 4 open tables i'll play a table or 2 of full ring.

i don't like the beatles or the stones, i'm an electronic music fanatic.

May I know what is ABC poker def? Is it a book?

its just basic poker play. practicing all the basics and not all the advanced stuff that you see people in higher limits doing.

You say you're a break-even player despite losing money to tilt. Take out what you lost to tilt and that means you're profitable.

That's not surprising, because a nitty player who has some clue what they're doing is almost always going to be profitable at lo stakes. Nitty is almost never the best way to play, but at the same time, it's almost never a really bad way to play. At low stakes, a nit will probably make money, just not as quickly as someone who is able to play a wider hand range profitably.

I'm a reformed nit ( ), and the way I started to learn how to open up my game was by gradually adding new plays to my repertoire. I'd usually think about how to use different types of plays -- check-raise bluffing someone who c-bets 100% of the time, or raising suited one-gappers on the button preflop, or light 3-betting with 54 suited -- away from the table. I'd ask myself against which types of opponents I'd want to try those types of plays, and against which I wouldn't; if you're going to light 3-bet 54 suited against someone who only ever raises KK or AA, or against someone who will happily 4-bet shove QJ, you're just throwing money away. But if you're light 3-betting someone who raises too much but who folds to 3-bets, or against someone you can easily outplay postflop, you might be winning some nice pots with hands you wouldn't otherwise profit with. I'd also figure out, away from the table, what my plan would be postflop if things got that far, so I'd have an idea of what villain would likely have in these spots, and of what I'd do on different board textures.

If you just experiment with one new play each session, your overall style won't be too much different (which is good, because any bluffy play you make will then get a lot of credit). You'll just end up in a couple more pots where you're trying something new. At first you'll probably lose money in those spots, but after a while you'll figure out which plays you can make money with and which you can't. It is really important though to try plays against the right opponents - if you're just trying plays at random with bad cards against arbitrary villains, you'll find yourself in a lot of stupid situations. And if you try to completely overhaul your playing style all at once, you're more than likely going to lose a lot of money quickly before you work out how to play that new style profitably. If you do want to experiment with a super-loose aggressive style, drop down to a level where you can afford to lose a few buyins, and write it all off as an educational expense. But be aware that at the lowest stakes, almost everyone is playing a crazy loose style anyway, so there you'll probably just be playing bingo.

I was completely serious. You'll learn to play marginal but still +EV hands. You'll learn to play completely **** hands and use position to your advantage. You'll learn to play marginal hands with position and own people. If you're on the button in an unopened pot and you look down at T7s and think "crap, gotta fold" you really need to re-evaluate your game.

"Nittiness" is a preflop thing really.

If you aren't a winner over a significant sample then I'm guessing you have leaks in your postflop game - Either overplaying your hands and/or not getting enough value from them.

Here is a COTW that thoroughly defines ABC poker:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/78...7/#post9216858

You're getting good advice from other posters about starting with the basics (ABC poker) and then GRADUALLY adding new bullets to your gun, i.e. blindstealing, loose play, bluffing etc. Crawl, walk, run is more profitable than run, trip, fall .

To answer your question about moving to a site where you can use hand histories, I find it very hard to believe that it's absolutely impossible to save hand histories from Bovada - they'd be out of business due to worthlessness in comparison to all of the other poker sites! I'd contact their customer support and/or post on a forum asking the question before giving up. But if you seriously can't keep hand histories, I'd leave. You're losing unfathomable opportunities to analyze and improve your game.

As for a HUD, IMHO if you play on a site that ALLOWS a HUD, you NEED a HUD, for the simple reason that you'll be going up against villains who HAVE one, putting you at an instant disadvantage. I love pokertracker myself - you can download the 60-day free trial.

i agree. do you go on training site doug?

Thanks for a lot of valuable information guys. I guess i never really thought about the crawl, walk, run concept and was thinking about a complete overhaul of my game but what was said about slowly adding ammo to my pile sounds much more solid.

I will give it a shot as to the raising in the CO and BTN if folded to me as well. Question regarding that though. A lot of the videos or write ups i've looked at always seem to say "have a plan" if i'm just raising to grab the blinds and to play in position that isn't really having any sort of plan. Would this be a point where i play solely off of board texture and my position?

and Menhtinhcanh i have been browsing this forum, cardrunners, and pokerstrategy. I haven't signed up to any of them as a full member yet but suspect i will to cardrunners in the near future.

Little bit of an update regarding this thread --

I played for about 2 hours 4 tabeling (broke it down to 2 sessions of 1 hour each) and really tried to focus more on position play and just the really basic stuff.

The first hour i felt i played amazingly well making folds where i wouldn't normally make them and playing hands i never thought i would be in the middle of. Some of them were definitely written off as learning expenses and others worked out the way i would have liked them to and turned profit. I ended that session up about 1.5BI at 10nl

The second hour was a little more rough. I think i played solid poker but I caught myself a couple times i think trying to get too advanced either for myself or for that level of play. I ended that session down 1BI.

One of the things i struggled with was playing the SB I think. I felt that often times it was a spot where i felt that calling into 2-3 limpers (6max tables) was the right choice with any 2 cards? Is this correct?

While I think it's a mistake to play any two cards there, it's obviously never a huge mistake, provided you fold almost every flop except your dream flops, since it only costs you 0.5 BB. But if you find a way to play 83o profitably out of position multiway, let us know how you did it!

I fold quite a few hands in the SB no matter what odds I'm getting; I wouldn't often give much thought to playing unconnected and unsuited hands like J2o or 94o. Against limpers, I'd probably prefer to bluff-raise those hands (if I thought the limpers would fold) than limp along and give up a half BB every rotation, though I'd fold most of the time for sure.

+1

Makes a lot of sense. It was easy to fold garbage after the flop and wouldn't really dream of making moves in that position. I just thought with the odds i'm getting it would make sense. But maybe i am better off saving those 0.5bb every rotation. So in that position then would i only be playing top hands and any PP?

I almost never make moves in that position either, but I'm a bit of a nit.

If you can limp without fearing a raise from the BB, you should definitely limp along with hands that have some potential. You'd absolutely never fold a pocket pair there, for example - raise it or limp and hope to flop a set. I'd also limp along (or sometimes raise depending on the table) with suited connectors or suited one or two gappers - hands like 97s can make disguised straights for example that will often pay off exceptionally well against the types of hands limpers tend to have (often T9 and JT type hands which can make a pair or two pair against your straight). And if I had a semi-premium hand in the SB against limpers, I'd always be raising, never limping. If you do limp speculative hands in the SB in multiway pots, just be prepared to fold all but the most promising flops.

I think some people here will advise against limping in any circumstances, but I think it's often a good idea to limp the SB with interesting but non-premium hands, since you don't want to play big pots out of position with marginal cards, but you also don't want to fold hands that could be very profitable on the right boards.

83s or better