Taking a look and comparing sessions... Losing sessions where I get coolered over and over are always worse than my good sessions are good.

Not sure if I worded that properly, but for example.... I had a session this afternoon, 2.5 hours +3 BI. Session this evening 1.2 hours -3 BI. Another session this evening .7 hours -3BI (stop loss at -3....).

When I lose, I lose a lot quickly. When I win, it's in small increments. This is not a tilt issue - I'm pretty good at controlling tilt, or if it's really affecting me I sign off. I review all my big winning/losing hands, and in general I'm fairly satisfied with most of my decisions (of course I still make stupid mistakes here and there, but in general).

I'm playing 2NL right now. I have been value betting my good hands more and getting a lot of profit that way (also losing big pots with overpairs when people flop sets and trap, out of 26 times I've gotten KK I'm -$1.22 with it ). But maybe I should be shoving when I make really strong hands instead of just putting out PSB? At micros it might be likely that I'll get people hoping to hero call a bluff or something.

I almost never shove for value - I'm afraid I'll fold out people who would call smaller value bets. I guess this is villain/hand dependent, and I'll have to judge on a case-by-case basis whether I think they think their hand is strong enough to call a shove. Or whether they think I'm bluffing.

Should I be shoving for value more often at 2NL? In what sorts of scenarios should I be doing it?



I just notice there is a stark difference in my BB/100 column in winning/losing sessions. Winning sessions the numbers are: 35, 37, 27, 22, 43, 67, 21, 29, 13, 193 (okay, so I did have one big rush!)". BB/100 numbers in losing sessions are more like -100, -143, -155, -60.

Is this standard? Or do these numbers this suggest a leak in my game? I can tell you right away that I never value-shove and I'm not really sure when to do it. So maybe that's the leak right there.

2NL is shove town. they will call, because you're "bluffing"

Please play 5NL.

Can't wait to get to 5NL, but I'm trying to grind up a BR from the free stars $5. My BR is too small for 5NL, once I get to $100 I'll move up and have 20 buyins of $5. Will they respect my raises there?


Here's an example hand:

Poker Stars $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

UTG+2: $1.72
MP1: $4.20
Hero (MP2): $2.00
CO: $2.26
BTN: $0.57
SB: $2.41
BB: $1.70
UTG: $5.00
UTG+1: $2.32

Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero is MP2 with 7 6
1 fold, UTG+1 calls $0.02, 2 folds, Hero calls $0.02, 1 fold, BTN calls $0.02, SB calls $0.01, BB checks

Flop: ($0.10) 8 7 4 (5 players)
SB bets $0.08, BB folds, UTG+1 calls $0.08, Hero calls $0.08, BTN folds

Turn: ($0.34) Q (3 players)
SB bets $0.08, UTG+1 folds, Hero raises to $0.28, SB calls $0.20

River: ($0.90) K (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $0.75


I know I know, should probably have raised or folded (probably fold) rather than limp from MP... But this is 2NL and I find that limping sc from any position is very +EV if the table is passive enough. Very common to see it just checked around. Obviously this will change when I move up limits.

Do we shove the turn when we hit our flush? Shove the river after he checks? It looks like we scared him a bit by raising the scare card heart on the turn. Maybe shoving the turn is best because he will think we are bluffing, pretending to have hit the flush whereas if we wanted value we would just raise. I wonder if shoving river is better here, too, because him checking makes it unlikely that he will call a value bet... But maybe he'll make a hero call if he doesn't believe us?

1 dollar sng?

Seriously 2NL is not the place to start learning real poker and youll sure as hell experience alot more stress than is needed.

They won't respect your raises until 25-50NL from my experience

I have to imagine that one of the advantages of microstakes is that it's cheap to experiment.

Try it. Add shoving more often into your mix of plays. See what happens. Experience is the best teacher.

Whether you get burned a few times, or actually discover an effective weapon for your usual game, your long term profit from thinking about the game, trying different plays, and closely observing results, will more than pay back the short term losses you might face from a couple of bad gambles.

1 dollar sngs have immense rake. play the 3 SNGs at least

I wouldn't know..I have only played those when on tilt and trying to blow off some steam by going all in every hand and sucking people out. I jumped right into 3$ sng and NL5 cause I couldn't do NL2.

Pot control isn't just a method used when you have marginal hands.

You should definitely be using pot control to set up a shove on the river when you have good hands.

No need to shove the turn. Just raise more, to something like 80c instead of 28. Give him this golden opportunity to make a bigger mistake. It'll be an easy shove on the river. Also, if he's drawing to a bigger flush, you want to reduce his implied odds.

it's been a while since i played 2nl but how you played that hand seems fine. shoving the turn is too obvious. the villain's small donk bets likely mean a weak made hand, but i suppose you could argue for a river shove if he's been spewy since he did call your raise on the turn.

not sure how big your sample size is but it might just be variance. stick with ABC poker and keep grinding 2nl until you're killing it. ABC poker IS PROVEN to kill 2nl regardless of what people say about donks "not respecting your raises" and etc.

What makes you think they do at 50 nl?
It is not uncommon to sit at a table (50 nl) with players who have stats in the order of VPIP 70% PFR 50%...
If you'd throw a stick I am pretty sure they'll chase that too...
Which obviously is good for business.

table selection = looking for players that won't respect your raises

You have a bit of FPS at the micros I think

What am I missing? At Stars (at least), the 1 dollar sngs have a lower rake (at least for the MTTs) than almost anything else in the range (10% at a $.10 rake, for example, compared to something like $.40 on a $3 game).

sounds like ur a payoff wizard

My guess is that you are a slight losing player overall ignoring big pots. So when you do play a big pot, if you win it moves you from slight loser to slight winner, but when you get coolered you drop from slight loser to big loser.

Stop trying to get people to respect your raises. Period. I HATE people who respect my raises. I play 25nl btw. If people call you down with junk just be patient (something that new players tend to be terrible at) and wait until you have a set/straight draw/flush draw and stack someone. If you stack someone every time you get a decent made hand to complete you'll be a HUGE winner.

Just play your hand. Winning play at 2NL is very very very boring play.

I was being sarcastic when I suggested moving up to where they respect raises....

I'm aware- but this guy seems to be complaining about how hard 2nl is. God it's so easy literally because everyone pays you off... every time.

raise that flop 100% of the time, you have an enormous monster, get value from it right there and then