New to twoplustwo, not as new to poker. I have been playing for about 10 years, and while
I love the game immensely, I am coming to terms with the fact that I am a fish.

2023 has been a low for me in poker. Definitely not my most losing year, but IÂ’m just consistently getting crushed in the games that I am playing and want to play… those games being home games hosted online (9-max NL25-NL50) and home games/casinos 1/2-2/5.

I will try and be as honest and introspective about my game as possible so I can receive accurate advice on how to proceed. My intention with this post is to at least like to put myself on the path to reach my goal, which is to be able to play these stakes and enjoy the side income.

I am quit for the rest of 2023 because of my financial situation/I expect to be going to Vegas in January 2024, so I figure there may be resources available to me to help me improve in the meantime - you all being one of those resources.

I will use my most recent play in 2023 to evaluate how I play and where I think I need help. If I were to group myself, I would say recently I have really been playing tight/weak-loose/passive:

- I have got “fold pre” down pretty good I think… I feel I stick to the principal of only playing premium hands oop and mixing it up in position

- I think I am pretty terrible at playing pretty much everything once a flop comes. Why? I think one big reason is I dont know what to think about - I think I play very impulsively. I struggle to get value out of my strong hands because I dont know what sizing to use in what situations and I dont know how to effectively put the opponent(s) on a range. When I am bluffing, I am still not putting opponents on ranges well, and I just feel totally unsure when I should be following through with bluffs or not, which is probably leading to me not bluffing enough and picking the wrong spots. All of these issues are exacerbated when I am oop.

- I think the concepts I am most comfortable with are: basic pot odds, implied odds, and board texture (within that, blocking/unblocking)

- Lately I have noticed a pattern of getting up big, playing looser against deeper stacked opponents while I am in position, and just losing because I cant continue to make hands and I am scared of losing

- I am getting bluffed more lately it feels like. People keep showing me their missed flush or straight draws or bottom pairs and I am folding my top pair weak kicker or middle pair, after some betting on the flop/turn, just for me to fold to a huge river bet because I feel unsure

Would love any guidance as my confidence is at a low with poker. I want to keep going but not with a shrug and just to keep banging my head against the wall… I want to actually do things to improve but I dont know what.

Hey Donnie. Congrats on your first step. Critical self evaluation is very hard to do. IMO this is a main reason why poker can be profitible to this day. People are able to delude themselves they are just running bad year in and year out.

For beating low stakes live poker 1/2 - 2/5 you want to head here https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/1...t-holdem-cash/

All of the info you need to become a winning player is in this forum.

You can start by reading threads in the best of section here:

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/1...lsnl-hsnl-297/

The strategy threads have good info BUT you have to wade through a fair amt of nonsense. There are some highly skilled players that contribute to those threads and you will learn who they are quickly.

Hello guys

I am new to the site and actually poker in general, so I will be watching these threads!!!

Wow Donnie, I do not know even where t start, I am 41 and this year I have just started playing TH online.

I guess my first goal is to try to profitable on microstakes 0.01 and 0.02

Any wise words would be very much appreciated!!

Hey there,

I’m also trying to improve my game right now, albeit at a different format and at a different stage of my poker journey, so I can relate to wanting to get better.

You identified a key leak in your post that you widen up your starting hand selection too much when you build up a stack and show up with too weak of a range by the river to withstand significant pressure.

You should keep playing tight when deeper is my advice. Avoid the weaker off suit broadways, hands that make top pair actually decrease in value when deep due to reverse implied odds. Hands that make strong flushes and straights and strong sets are still good though. Gl!

Dumbos Trunk

I have started off on micro stakes NL2 0.01/0.2,

I have been reading regarding what hands to play and position. I raise what I think is a good hand pre flop in position, sat button, and I find at these stake levels everyone calls you!!


WHy do you think this is? ALso is it better t simply just play a tight game at this level.

Regards R

The best thing is to learn strong fundamentals, not to optimize your game around beating a microstakes environment filled with random plays. To that end, I might recommend structured video content like redchip core or the upswing lab, or a book like grinder's manual (a bit outdated now but likely still a decent starting point).

In terms of postflop logic, the main thing you need to think about is how the board connects with each player's ranges. Does the other player have a lot of trash while you have many more good hands? Maybe you want to start with a small cbet at high frequency. Do they connect strongly with the board and have flopped sets and other very strong hands? Consider playing more carefully and checking more. Do our midstrength hands benefit from protection bets, or should we bet less often and larger? And so on. This is a skill that takes a lot of dedicated time and effort to start developing - we need to understand preflop ranges for each player by position and action (srp, 3bp, 4bp), which hands are strong enough to consider stacking off with, and so on.

In my opinion, this is the core skill to develop in terms of playing fundamentally strong poker. Baseline strong play is built around these concepts, and exploitative play then springs from understanding what mistakes in understanding or what poor habits your opponents have.

This is a lot to bite off and chew on for a newer player. As a more approachable starting point, try to think about the strongest combos and which player (if either) has them or has more of them. Think about if either player has a lot of junk in their range or not. And think about whether turns and rivers substantially change these dynamics. Developing a stronger picture of each player's ranges throughout the hand will pay big dividends over time.

This is some really good advice cheers, I will re-read it a littl elater and dissect what yo are saying more. I did watch a video on YT from Jonathan Little, he talks about nut and range advantage, size and frequency of C bets. It echoes allot with what you are saying.

I need to practice matching the board up with their ranges.

I have started to review pre flop charts per position, I have had to make notes though as they are quite hard to remember ar first


Cheers

Regards

R

Yes, nut and range advantage are huge concepts which relate heavily to gto strategy and strong play. It takes time and repetition to really start getting this stuff down; there's no way to master these concepts overnight but with regular effort over time you will see yourself improving.

Fwiw, I have been a full-time player for a long time and still do preflop drilling and range review often (and regularly learn + correct small errors I make). You don't have to be perfect to make a lot of progress!

Because they’re just bad. Yes, tight is right, especially in a high raked environment.