What should I do to beat 2$ nl cash game?
Join Date: Aug 2024
Posts: 3
I am trying hard to beat 2nl cash and are probably right now just making even neither loosing nor winning.
What should I study or learn to beat the 2nl?
Join Date: Aug 2020
Posts: 1,330
I don’t know where you are in terms of your poker knowledge, but if you are just breaking even at 2NL, you probably need to work on your fundamentals quite a bit. A good place to start is to get some preflop charts and learn these. To start with you should be playing a fairly tight range of hands preflop. If you find that you are involved in more than about 1/4 of your hands after the flop, the most likely problem you have is simply playing too loose pre. Are you getting involved with hands like A6o or K7o? These are garbage — just fold them preflop.
Now, once you have eliminated all the garbage hands from your preflop range, the next step is how are you playing them? Are you limping in with any of them? DonÂ’t do that. Always raise when you are going to play a hand. Exception to this - some hands do okay if you overlimp; that is if one or more players ahead of you have limped, you can get away with limping yourself. To start though, I wouldnÂ’t really recommend doing that. You will do far better if you just raise when you play a hand. You should also be careful to not vary your raise sizes with different hands. Generally a 2.5BB raise size plus 1 additional BB per limped works best.
There are a few reasons for this. One is that you can win a pot right now with no risk if you raise. That cannot happen if you limp. Picking up a 3-cent or a 5-cent pot may not seem like much, but it does add up. Just think about it this way: if you raised every hand and everyone always folded to you, your win rate would be 150BB/100. This is an astronomical win rate - good players can usually win at about a 10BB/100 rate or so. This is magnified when you can win a pot pre with multiple limpers.
Another reason for raising - when you play the right range of starting hands you will be at an advantage on average against most 2NL players who play a lot of junk. Since you are at an advantage, you want the pot to be larger. Raising makes it larger, not only immediately, but it also results in larger pots on future streets. When you do hit a flop, you want to continue to build a pot. Having more in it to start helps this.
Another reason is to thin the field. Playing heads up generally is better than multi-way unless you are lucky enough to flop a monster like top set, nut flush, a straight or something like that. For most hands being heads up is best and raising will generally help
Accomplish this. Not that you should be bluffing a whole lot at 2NL, but bluffing multi-way is darn near impossible to do profitably, especially at low stakes.
Finally, this one is a bit less applicable at 2NL than higher levels, your raise can help define your opponentÂ’s range and help make further play go easier on future streets. For example, you raise AKs and see a flop of A44. You obviously are in good shape unless your opponent has a 4. He might, but if you raised it is less likely. A4s and 44 are the only 4x hands that are likely to call a raise. If you bet and your opponent calls, he could do so with a wide variety of hands you beat - Ax, pocket pairs, etc. If you donÂ’t raise you have to include additional 4x hands in his range, especially if he was BB and checked pre.
Learn when to raise, when to 3 bet, when to fold to an opponentÂ’s 3 bet, etc. preflop. This is only a starting point, but it is a good one. It is simpler to learn than postflop play. It is a decision point on every hand; you will always be dealt a hand; you will often not be playing postflop. It also is pretty easy to get away with just playing a fairly straightforward post flop strategy. Either flop a good draw (high flush draw, straight draw or combo draw), at least top pair good kicker, or simply fold on the flop. That is not an optimal post flop strategy, but it is a simple one that should allow you, when combined with good preflop play, to at least start showing a profit. You can then work on improving your postflop play.
Join Date: Aug 2024
Posts: 3
Thank you very much for your extensive answer.
I’m working hard on preflop play by learning charts and apply some simple exploits like stealing blinds a lot.
I noticed it was a disaster to play my overpairs and top pairs to strong so I’m slowing down more when I don’t have the nuts.
Thanks for mentioning that raising pre flop is important for estimate the opponents range.
Playing a lot and studying a lot should do the trick I hope.
should be called sevenfour
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 75,240