Great thread, great advice, but I have a quibble.

People should play what they love and what they are good at. For me, that's SNG. I tried everything. I suck at cash, I'm OK at MTT, but I'm really good at SNG. I play 95% STT, and an MTT once in a while for variety.

I find cash boring without the tournament strategy factor. In fact, part of the fun of tournaments is that if you trap a guy, he's out, and you have all his chips. What fun is it when he can just reload?

I know I wouldn't do half as well playing cash as I do SNG. I think if I played cash at an equivalent level, I would be lucky to break even. I moved up from $5 to $10 SNG in June, and my ROI for the month was 22.3.

I read a thread recently where a new player said several times that he really likes SNG, but was going to play cash, even though he doesn't like it, becasue all the experts here told him that's what he should do.

I told him he was making a big mistake.

Look at it this way. Let's say a certain hand is responsible for 2% of your profit. That may not sound like a lot to you, but there are folks on here who play a million hands in a year.

With that kind of volume, that extra 2% is a whole lot of money.

Because if he reloads, then you can stack him again.

Stacking the same guy twice in one session, I swear to God, it gives me a chubby.

It was a misformulation on behalf of whoever said it. It's more that on a whole heap of hands you lose, and on a small number of hands you win. The amount you win on AA and KK will indeed form something like a half of the balance of the amount you win and the amount you lose, but of the raw amount you win alone it will be a small part. For an example if I use the same formulation then 77-JJ will also make like a half of the balance, 22-66 and AJ+ will also make like a half etc., the sum will be a few hundred percent.

Not to mention it means if you stack a fish he isn't necessarily gone. He can rebuy and still have money sitting there for you.



Back to back hands vs. this guy sure was fun:




Poker Stars $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em - 4 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

BTN: $436.85
SB: $198.00
Hero (BB): $200.00
CO: $315.40

Pre Flop: Hero is BB with 9 8
1 fold, BTN calls $2, 1 fold, Hero checks

Flop: ($5.00) 6 3 7 (2 players)
Hero bets $3.50, BTN raises to $7, Hero calls $3.50

Turn: ($19.00) 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $20, Hero calls $20

River: ($59.00) 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $282, Hero calls $171 all in







Poker Stars $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

CO: $236.85
BTN: $197.00
Hero (SB): $399.00
BB: $200.00
UTG: $315.40

Pre Flop: Hero is SB with A K
1 fold, CO calls $2, BTN raises to $8, Hero raises to $30, 1 fold, CO calls $28, 1 fold

Flop: ($70.00) K 3 9 (2 players)
Hero bets $32, CO raises to $64, Hero calls $32

Turn: ($198.00) T (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $104, Hero raises to $208, CO calls $38.85 all in

River: ($483.70) 2 (2 players - 1 is all in)

I think I was the person who said it first, and and I think it's important so I'll say it again:

In the long run for a cash game player AA & KK will account for more that 50% of your net win (emphasis added for clarity).

This is because, even though AA & KK tend to win small pots, then win those small pots consistantly.

In the course of a single session, most of your profit for that session will come from just one or two large hands. Usually these big pots will come when you see a flop with a speculative hand and you flop a well concealed monster.

I believe these factoids are important because, as NL cash game players, they tell us where the money comes from.

WCG -

What is meant by "levels", ie level 4 thinking, etc. Where can I find info pertaining to this subject?

Level 1: What cards do I have?
Level 2: What cards does he have?
Level 3: What cards does he think I have?
Level 4: What cards does he think I think he has?
Level 5: ...

Haha sorry phydaux, I mean it was a misunderstanding on my behalf :P

I can't find any of it though. Was the post I replied to posted in the wrong thread?

What is the best way to analyse your performance after a session playing cash games? How can you check for leaks while using pokertracker? And what is the recommended total time to play cash games? would you recommend to multitable tournaments??

Thanks for your advice!

omg - why don't i get those players on my tables? Your bankroll must gonbe up sky-high!

Okay, I have to ask. Is this typical of players at 200nl, or was this unusual? I'm guessing there's a mix of fish and good regs, but how common is this?

what is a good strategy for MTT with 3000 chips or less and with 15 min blinds ?

Not really. It was only a little more than 2 BI's.




This was not too normal an occurance. He was terribad. Not many people that bad.....but when you find someone who is that bad or even a bit less bad than that the table usually fairly quickly becomes that player and 5 TAG regulars all out for his money.


That guy definitely made my buddy list though. Hope he sticks around for a while.

could someone tell me how to read my poker ev graph? i'm not going to post it yet as i only have ~2k hands so far @ NL10 (but i'm running around 20ptbb/100, sustainable imo:-)

I play mostly MTT's, and usually am only playing 2-4 tables max, so when I want to cut an paste a HH into 2+2 to start a thread, I just do it during the course of the tournament.

When you're 8-tabling or more 6-max cash and the action is fast and furious how do you get these hand histories to make threads about? Requesting HH from Stars?

You can request HH from Stars, but unless you have the option turned off, all HH are in your Pokerstars folder. As an example this is where mine are found.

C:\Program Files\PokerStars\HandHistory\*Your screen name here*

WCGRider,

Still reading the thread through, slyly at work!, and wanted to ask a few things which I hope haven't been answered already.

1 How exactly do you play 24 tables at once, do you have six tables on four monitors or something? - Is it easy to set this up? I struggle to play 5 tables as I'm thinking about one hand and other tables start beeping, you switch to them briefly and check or fold, then return to the hand you were thinking about, but as I say, 5 tables is about maximum for me and that is fairly full on imo.

While I don't think I enjoy the game so much playing lots of tables, I know I do need to do it as I really want to develop my game to the point where I can make a living doing this (Circumstances dictate that it would be extremely good if I could find a secondary form of income).

2 I have in the past struggled at 6 max as I am not naturally aggressive and tend to become overly suspicious and call down aggressive bettors when I am holding light hands. I feel I am more suited to full ring. How do you feel the two are different and how do you adapt your game?

3 I often limp in full ring games 50NL with AJ suited, A10 suited - J10 suited, AJ unsuited, sometimes even QJ unsuited. I guess I need to work on discipline - I know I have to stop with the unsuited cards definately, but the suited cards are worth open limping or calling a limp, no?

What are your thoughts? Cheers. Rob

Hi WCGRider,

I started playing seriously in april, went from 25nl and I am now dabbling at 100nl with 43BI, I played ~110K hands to get there, most on FTP.

1)Some HSNLers(eg: fees) that moved up very fast (say from 25nl to 2Knl or higher in one year) advocate reducing the number of tables to 4 maximum (for 6-handed tables). What's your position on that matter ?

2)What advice would you give to someone who kind of crushes 50nl, failed a 100nl attempt miserably(spewing a ****load because i thought everyone was making a move on me, combined with running pretty bad that resulted in a cool 35bi downer) and is attempting to move up for the second time ?

3)Also do you think practicing HU is a good idea for 6-max games ?(I am doing that when I can't find good tables)

4)Buy spadeeye ?

Thanks

Dont worry about balancing your range at nl 25.

Basically play your game, but remember when stacks are more shallow that being loose isnt quite as an advantage. You may want to tighten up but if you are comfortable with 28/24 then stay there, its just it will probably be a bit harder for you.

I would imagine you are ready for it, just play a little more tag, take newbs to value town, and build your roll.

Yeah you arent getting away from this one unless he is a nit. I dont mind calling the turn and then calling the river, but i also dont mind calling the turn and then shoving the river. As played isnt terrible i just think by 3 bet shoving you probably get only pretty solid hands to call.

Wayyyy too loose. Tighten it up.

Well i suppose i should of been more specific. If your goal is to maximize your hourly, play cash. If your goal is to enjoy poker, play what you want.

JJ+/AK will be the majority of your winnings.

Shick hit the nail on the head