I don't blame raising with KTs when folded to on the button, I make this move quite a lot.

While the draw is not great, I still consider a call depending on the villain if he likes to donk bet a lot or has a high AF. That looks like a decent time to float to the turn imo (villain dependent).

To be honest, as you mvoe up cold calling preflo becomes better because generally speaking people raise a much wider range and you start to gain an ability to play postflop well. However at low levels you really dont need to worry about balancing your range. Just play good hands strong and dont station weak passives or nits.

Your welcome!

Just attack that **** yo.

I have never played mid stacked in my entire life, and only played shortstacked for 2 days of my life when i had to hit gold star and needed to make the vpps.

If i had time to work with it I think it has potential but i have not done the analysis effectively.

Put on sunglasses. When reading souls it is important to have good uv protection. (for obvious reasons)

Play good hands from everywhere, and less good stuff from late position. What that means to you figure out.

Your welcome!

I think you might be best off going super laggy during the day, not sure. I had better results tho during the day running super duper loose.

If you have 20 bi, take shots. Its just money = ).

too vague but generally a 4 bet is optimal.

Just fold, he has a hand. If he donks 25-50c id raise tho.

hi doug- first i want to say that i think its real classy that you take time to help other people, should you ever be in munich germany, feel free to sent me a pm and i will invite you to a schweinshaxn.

as for the pokerstuff:
my background:
i am currently (since i began to play poker )-: ) a nl50 player.6max.
learned last month to play 4tables and still being relaxed.
my stats are weaktight ( depending on table 16/8 to 22/14 but with an af of 5-10). so i guess some kind of a weaktightaggroplayer.

since last week+yesterday my roll is 1650 (had 3k but cashed out to pay some bills+lost 300 in roulette and 4buyins yesterday).
my mainproblem is, everytime i try to play a style which fits to the characteristica of a good tag i loose. yesterday i lost 4buyins playing 20/18 in
1000hands. so my main question: when playing my weak style , i get 3,4dollar/100hands +rakeback over a samplesize of 50k hands.
is that okay? should i try to build my roll up to play 100nl and then adjust or try to change my style now to a perfect stats style before moving up? (with the difference that i should win while playing this style?).
or is everything good as long as i am winning?

2.
i contibet almost every flop i opened with. i really do have a problem with getting floated, doublebarrels and spotting flops which are bad for a contibet.
any advise how to learn that?
my normal line is raise, pot and if i got no hand at the turn check, if i got something i usually bet bet and bet the river with toppair or better, with middlepair etc i mostly check the river.
also i almost never call a bet with a gutshot or bottompair. is that normal?

3.
when playing small pocketpairs, i almost always just limp in and try to see the flop cheap- is that okay or should i raise 22-88 also? because if 3betted i mostly dont know what to do. i do it on real passive tables, but 1 or 2 regs and i completely shutdown to do that.
additional, if i am oop , calling a raise with pocketpairs facing 3 overs against 1villain, donkbet or not? call the contibet or not? (i always fold to a conti and never donkbet if missed)- leak?

ty

Here's the thing. Let's give you a pretty tight (i.e. strong) button raising range of something like 22+,A2s+,K9s+,QTs+,JTs,T9s,98s,87s,A8o+,K9o+,QTo+. Let's assume you only call his bet when you flop at least a pair of nines or an open-end straight draw. In this case you will be calling only 36% of the time. This means that your opponent can bet $3 here and win $4.25 64% of the time, which is an expectation of $2.72. Your opponent is almost breaking even before we've even given him any chance to win the hand when called.

The upshot of this is that you can't simply fold to bets when you dont make a pair or good draw. You have to put your opponent under more pressure than that. This assumes an opponent with any skill at all; if your opponent simply bets out with good hands and checks with poor hands, then beating him is not going to be very difficult.

WCG... a few questions that I think I know the answer to, but still would like to hear from you:

1. Are the micro games still as bad now as they were when you first played them? Have you noticed any big changes?

2. In your one post you said that people playing micros should be raising and 3 betting a lot, and rarely (if ever) limping and cold-calling. I would assume after playing the amount of hands at 25nl, that you would still believe this to be the case. Am I correct in this assumption?

Sorry for the confusion but if people are raising a wider range of hands shouldnt 3 betting become more profitable (as opposed to cold calling)? I would assume if people have a larger pfr% on average 3 betting with moderate hands (AJ, KQ, SC, ect.) while you have possition will do a couple things.
1) Let you take control of the hand and
2) Help you narrow their range down if the call or 4 bet you.

I figured it would be better to 3 bet people who raise a wider range than people who raise a really tight range? Or are you saying people will 4 bet a wider range pushing you off a some of your 3 bet hands?

I own sunglasses but do you own a blog?
Do you coach cash, I'm a SNG go player but have dabbled in cash.

1) Just build your roll and move up when your comfortable, there is no rush. Learn the game.

2) Yeah this is normal. Dont worry about having to double barrel or anything at this point yet. This strategy is fine and prob optimal.

3) RAISE THAT **** =).

What exactly is a "thin value bet."


I googled it, while i came up with value bet, i dont want to assume that i know what the whole term means.


Thanks alot

Do you think someone who is not a donkey, practices decent bankroll management and is otherwise emotionally stable should be a winner at .50/$1 nlhe full ring games online ?

Is it that simple ?

No it's not that simple. $.50/$1 is a decent level to be playing at, no random ass guy that knows BR management and emotionally stabled can just beat it. You're leaving out the most important factor.

You need to know how to play poker. Guess it depends on your definition of donkey. I would never start at $0.50/$1, unless you really wanna test your emotional stability.

If you're just barely starting, start at 2NL, if you have software post your stats post your hands and ask for tips or advice. Try to raise preflop as often as you are in the hand.

GL.

Question for Doug.

Do you feel that playing nit at low limit cash games is the best way to win them? (ex. 13/13/inf for 6 max)

Another question.

Books, how drastically do they help your game? I feel I'm a decent player now, and I have not yet to read any books. I'm not a very good reeter... I've never tried reading poker books, but I feel I probably would have a hard time reading them as I do everything I try to read. I have bad comprehension once I read it I forget it.

Would it be worth it to read books? I'd probably have to read it 10 times, would it be a good investment of time?

A value bet is a bet that you hope will be called because you think you are ahead in the hand.

Betting for value if you have a somewhat weak hand but still believe you are ahead of your opponent is a "thin" or "light" value bet.

I am sorry, I dont understand where the "thin" comes in at. I thought it refered to the amount bet, I guess not.

Hey, great thread

I have a question, as this is something that is really bugging me, and going through my PT stats, it looks like this is where I lost most of my money.

Im currently runnning at 17/12/3 but my BB/100 is only 1!! (11,400 hands @ NL20)

Anyway, out of the money I lose, most of it is my QQ v KK or my KK v AA etc etc

This is what happened yesterday at FR NL20.......me and villain both had $20.....villian (no info on him) raised 4xbb (.80) in mid position, I was next to act and had JJ. I 3 bet and made it $3....all folded apart from villain who called.

Flop came 2 4 8 rainbow and villain bet pot......I thought and thought and thought but eventually folded, thinking that he knows ive reraised so must put me on big PP or at very least AK, and has bet pot. I put him on QQ, thinking he wouldve reraised again preflop with KK or AA, but at the same time thinking he could make the same play with tens (over pair to the board, and the type of hand that would raise and call a 3 bet preflop).

Also, I thought a reraise on the flop would mean all my money in the middle and realised this is where im losing most of money (big PP v bigger PP)

Anyway, I folded the hand (much to the disgust of my friend who was watching!!!). Id be interested to know what you wouldve done?

Thanks for your time, really appreciated