Hello.

So, I've started playing again since january. Played back in 06-07 but the game is very different now.

I started out on 888 for a few thousand hands but then switched to PokerStars cause I read it was lower rake for micro. (I'm playing without rakeback since it's not available in my country as far as I know)

I've been a winning player at 0.01-0.02 since I started playing, and lately I'm absolutely crushing it on 6 tables.



I've done two pokes up on 0.02-0.05 and it's a huge difference in playstyle and I'm getting absolutely crushed.



Despite people obviously being alot better, I also can't seem to ever have the best hand. I miss close to all flops and no one ever folds to a cbet bluff/semi-bluff and whenver I do have something they disapear quicker than a fart in a fan-factory.

I find myself because of this playing differently, and likely worse cause I'm scared because the worst thing seems to happen to me every time.

Any tips on dealing with this?

take a lot of shots, but also be willing to drop down a lot til you catch your break. set yourself a limit of how many buy-ins you can afford to lose til you go back to 2nl. rinse and repeat, you'l get there. try not to get complacent at the lower limits, all you should be doing is trying to move up when your bankroll allows it.

variance is a big deal and 18k hands is not a significant sample, but there's no reason to think you won't do well at 5nl. The difference must be really small, essentially everybody is various forms of bad til you get to 100/200nl, otherwise they wouldn't be there.

study the game a lot, with time you'l get better and it only gets easier if you put the time. GL

If everyone calls your semi-bluffs and folds to your bets with made hands, you're doing something different. If they were calling all of them or folding all of them, it would make sense. Are you betting different sizes?

So after grinding back my BR I took another shot.

My 5 biggest hands are all loses and I dont wanna fill up a whole thread with meaningless hands but I'm just getting sick of it

Cards with no color has irrelevant color for the hand.

88 Board: 89J A 6
Villain TQ

AQ Board: 9AQ T 9
Villain T9

AK Board K6A 2 2
Villain 66

KQ Board 6J9 Q 4
Villain 8T

87 Board 23A Kh 5
Villain 44 (check check on river)

And none of the hands are slowplayed, Cbet size is 66-80%.

This was in 26 minutes of playing and -2.5 buyins. Now its no problem I have 9 buyins left on this level(and 23 on the lower level) but I've set my stop level here so I gotta go back down and grind it up before trying again.

So it's back to 0.01-0.02 again to grind back a bit. It's just so frustrating and I'm just very happy I can get the BR back relatively quickly, I'm handling it pretty well tbh but I do feel a need to share my frustration a bit. It just feels unfair and I don't wanna play the lower levels cause I feel like I dont learn anything from playing there.

What a wholesome reply. You are by far my favorite user here!

Maybe a small subtle adjustment you can try next time you move up is to slightly vary your CBET sizes on flop & turn to favor both YOUR STATS and the average VILLAIN's play against your stats.

For example, look at your flop Cbet success on .1/.2 vs .2/.5 -- If there is a significant difference here, examine your bet sizing, and if you are getting profit on your folds. If villain's at .2/.5 are over-folding because you have a strong range when betting, which seems likely because of your high red line, which I assume to mean you take down a lot of pots preflop or postflop w/o realizing your value equity, that also means that currently you'll have higher than average fold equity until villains adjust.

This means your adjustment could be to bet less on flop to take advantage of villains' overall higher than average Fold-to-Cbet percentages.

So start betting a lot of 1/3 or even 1/4 flops and see if you get the folds you want. If they call, bet 1/2 or 1/3 on turn. Do this for your entire range.

^That's just a quick suggestion based on a lot of assumptions.

The problem may be reverse, they may be overcalling your flop cbets. In this case, you may do better with a higher flop CBET with a tighter more polarized range, like bet pot on flop with only monsters and strong draws with some air mixed in.

I like this.

Do you keep on your HUD stats relating to all streets? That is important, and tailoring your actions based on those stats.

Yes, many good comments indeed despite the kind of whiny thread,

I've already experimented a bit with CBet sizeing, and I'm also starting to adjust it more based on dry vs wet board. So let's say it's a work in progress, like all of my play atm

On my last poke I yet again got 2pair with AK vs a set of 7 and I actually burst out laughing when losing, the guy was even named 777uliana wich on my HUD was shown only as 777ul (ul being short for unlucky ofc ), it was after around 30 hands and the first big pot

Kept grinding a bit and I think I play way too weak, I did some uncomfortable river calls and they were successful. For me it's very difficult to play top pair vs the general population cause they play very aggressive indeed when I show weakness. I don't like barreling with top pair but then I get big bets against me instead. Anyways recouped some of the losses of that early hand and BR is still above what it needs to be to take another shot tonight.

on my HUD I have

Notes
BB/100 Playername WentToShowdown HandsAbbreviated
VPIP PFR 3betPreflop FoldTo3BetPreflop
Raise first in for EP,MP,CO,BU,SB

Fold vs :CO open, BU open, // Float flop, fold to float flop,
SB open, 3bet vs steal // float turn, fold to float turn

Flop: Cbet, Foldto FCbet, raise Cbet, Fold to raise cbet, saw turn percentage
same for turn, saw river percentage

I think you’re underestimating variance. You need at least 10k hands before you can get an idea about how well you’re doing. Even then, winning players are gonna go -7bb/100 during that sample sometimes. So you’ve gotta be okay with uncertainty until you put in lots of volume.


It looks like you’re beating 2NL pretty comfortably, so your biggest problem is a small sample. I think the best thing you could do is save up $500 for a proper bankroll at 5NL. That would help you handle the variance better and put in more volume.

show me yo positional stats son. u prob have some big leaks. iirc my biggest leak from 2nl to 5nl was cbetting too often.

I know about variance, I'm just worried that it's not because of variance but being outplayed. I'm basically a nonprofit sharity taking donations from 2NL spreading them to anyone showing up at 5NL.
Also I will take your tip about grinding a bigger stack before trying again next time. I just don't want to stay spending my time at 2NL longer than I need to. I'll go up to 150-200$ before trying again next time. Good tip.


Positional stats fullring
http://tinyimg.io/i/kCSIPQD.PNG

On 2NL I'm just able to outplay general population on flop/turn and also realize equity by getting a hand checked down. This rarely happens on 5NL, people expect some postflop play and they bite as soon as any weakness is shown. Also I think some regs has taken note to my dumpings and start to show up at all my tables.

That's pretty unlikely and probably just you feeling bad about your game.
If people at NL5 are actively hunting somebody who plays a solid TAG game preflop and has a few leaks postflop then poker really is dead.

Are the 5NL Stars games you play really full of people playing optimal preflop stats? If so then I would go back to 888 for the softer games.

Took a screenshot of the tables I played yesterday, people seem fairly balanced honestly, there are some outliers but most seem to know how to play preflop, a 3bet usually means QQ+AK.

Hi man,

I'd say u play waaay to tight es. in late position. Ur PFR should be at least doubled from CO BU. I'd start there.