RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

Basically, I am home for Thanksgiving. Can't play much online poker or live poker. So I will attempt to just randomly spew out my thoughts on SSNL and how a lot of you can improve.

There really will not be any structure to my rants or my points. Just whatever pops into my head, I'll post about.

Hopefully, I can keep this thread reasonably active til' Sunday and we can get some good discussion going.

This will mainly be geared to struggling NL50 and NL100 players who just can't find the next level in their games. To most of you though, I'm sure all of this is going to be very trivial.

This isn't a "Well" so lets keep the discussion poker related and on track.

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

Crossposted from "Stars regs thread"

[ QUOTE ]
Taking this thread in a different direction because it has basically turned into a NL100 gossip ground

What do you think separates a lot of the winning NL100 regulars from being able to take the next step and become winning regulars at NL200? I know a lot have tried and ended up back at NL100. Please don't answer "they suck."

Some of the reasons I think is that at NL100, I think a lot of us fall into sort of a trap. It's the first level where you can really make significant money multi tabling and the competition for the most part is relatively horrible. So we develop a style that works well multi tabling NL100, however, this style becomes very exploitable as we play better competition.

One thing I have noticed is that a lot of NL100 players, our ranges become heavily weighted towards a specific spectrum in certain situations. And vs observant opponents its very easy for them to take advantage of that and continuously own us. I really won't go into more about this specific topic here, because I think this is one of the things that allows someone who isn't on autopilot at NL100 to really take advantage of all the other TAG regulars and exploit them heavily. SABR42 indirectly touched on this when he earlier int his thread talked about how easy it is to pick on other players at this level and why you are leaving money on the table by not doing so.

Another, thing I have noticed and this goes hand in hand with what I said above, is that lots of regulars at NL100 still practice avoidance, and for a lot of them this is the best thing, since, well they play horrible. However, this is allowing the better players at the level to just bleed them dry by constantly abusing them and they never adjust and play back. Prodigy's comments about avoidance, I think are spot on for the weaker players who can't adjust, yet, still are able to make $$ vs the donks. But again agreeing w/ SABR42, avoidance isn't nessecary since its so easy to just relentlessly pick on and exploit the other regulars.

I know a lot of people are going to read this and say "blah blah blah, I win at 4ptbb/100 and I don't do any of this." Well, think of how much money you are leaving on the table? Why should your WR be satisfactory, when you are leaving so much on the table?

This brings me full circle to my original point about what is separating winning NL100 regs from being winning Nl200 regs...Everyone can play good vs horrible players. It's not hard to learn to extract the maximum vs bad players. You need to learn how to play the other 70% of the game, most of you just play bad, and thats why you will always marginal NL100 winners.

Hopefully, this will get the thread back on track and we can focus more on what certain players are doing well and learning from that to help improve our own games. Instead of just bashing everyone and gossiping like HS girls.

[/ QUOTE ]

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

Thanks Ryan! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] I am new to 50NL so I'll probably be reading here like...every 5 minutes. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] I'll mail you some food as thanks!

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

crossposted from "Stars regs thread

[ QUOTE ]
-AGGRESSION
-Hand reading
-recognizing situations

They are aggressive in spots where they need to be.

Good players also hand read very well, and use their superior hand reading skill to put their weaker worse opponents to tough decisions and also are able then to extract more value with their marginal hands.

They don't just do things because they are told to do them or because they heard you should 3bet more. Good players are able to recognize situations where you should be 3betting light, firing multiple barrels, valuetowning middle pair.

A lot of players you mentioned also, play a slightly more Laggy game compared to other TAGs at our levels. This does two things for them.

(1) It allows them to believably be able to represent a wide range of hands post flop. Which in turn allows them to bluff more effectively and also extract more value from thier marginal hands.

Example - "Ahh bottomset defiantly would 3bet me w/ a suited connector and this flop of 567 hits him pretty hard" Conversely, "He is always 3betting me light, he doesn't have anything here" and you stack off w/ a marginal hand.

(2) You know so little about thier reasonably wide range, however, they know so much about your narrow range. Someone who is very actice and agressive its very hard to put them on an accurate range of hands, especially for a novice or bad TAG regular at NL100, especially the ones playing shitons of tables. However, its very easy for them to put you on a range of hands and then just abuse you.

Starting to get the point?

[/ QUOTE ]

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

What is the ideal ratio of bong hits to open tables?

Does this change if you are stacking or tiling?

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

Also

http://www.roflcat.com/images/cats/2...db35fdd4ca.jpg

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

That cat looks human and it creeps me out when I see it.

Nice idea Ryan. Where are those vids you procrastinator??

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

Use your position to attack weaklings and unknowns.

Dont limp up front

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

Image.

Image is a two sided coin at SSNL. Vs the vast majority of opponents you will encounter at SSNL, image is meaningless and no one really ever pays attention.

However, VS. some of the better opponents, if your not taking your image into consideration you are losing money in one way or another.

For instance, if you have a really aggressive and loose image, you can effectively be valuetowning your marginal hands on the river vs observant opponents. Obviously, that is a very basic and general example.

Continuing...

If you have a nitty image, and you suspect another regular has been 3betting you very light, you can play back at them a lot more frequently and technically be re stealing lots of pots whether it be pre or post flop.

Again, a very basic and general example, but you can see how by just auto piloting folding you are giving up too much? when based ony our image you can certainly understand why they are picking on you?

While both those examples are very basic and not very important in the grand scheme of things, hopefully it will get you thinking about in general how you can use your table image to your advantage.

Continuing...

Its important to keep track of your constantly evolving image. Lets say you have started to play back vs people who are 3betting you light and pushing you around and they have been for the most part allowing you to re-run them over. You need to be aware of this and adjust accordingly.

Again, hopefully, this will just get you in the mind set of looking for situaions where you can use your image to your advantage, and also for situations where you need to be weary of the image you have cultivated recently.

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

ok, lets start w/ some uncomfortable positions I find myself in as a nitty TAG 12/9/3...

I find that lately more of the 15/12 regs that have been moving down are calling in position my EP and MP raises. Due to my lack of experience in these spots I find it difficult to play hands like TT-KK, AQ+ on a flop w/ 1 or 2 overcards(TT-KK) or a blank flop (AK)

what do you recommend as the best way to approach these situations.... also how to approach the more favorable flops like no overcards (pocket pairs) or TPTK (AK) in a way to not telegraph the relative strength of my hand

I think I find myself taking the same lines I'd take against a more predictable player (like myself or an even donkier player) and I feel I am being exploited, just simply by the amount of time I am put in uncomfortable spots by the better players

thoughts?

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

[ QUOTE ]
What is the ideal ratio of bong hits to open tables?

Does this change if you are stacking or tiling?

[/ QUOTE ]

haha, love the picture you posted [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Ehh, its no secret I love the MJ.... I can't remember a serious session where I wasn't high.

I think having something whether it be cigarettes, the occasional drink, weed. Just to help curb the emotions while playing is nessecary for many of us.

Pot helps me keep a level head when variance is not going my way and keeps me thinking objective about situations as I play.

Emotional control is such a huge factor for poker players, and weed just happens to be my anti-tilt.

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

[ QUOTE ]
That cat looks human and it creeps me out when I see it.

Nice idea Ryan. Where are those vids you procrastinator??

[/ QUOTE ]

Videos soon... Ran into a few problems w/ encoding them and not haivng the audio sync. And I also lost a few of them when I had a computer crash, soon though I promise [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

Getting maximum value vs donks & not being a total pansy on turn and river.

There are sooooo many horrible players at SSNL, and these players are paying off w/ so many marginal hands...

You need to get comfortable trying to get 3 streets of value w/ lots of your hands vs these players.

This means, STOP CHECKING THE TURN THROUGH so much. People way to much at SSNL check the turn through under the guise of "pot control." The players are horrible for the most part, load up the bus to valuetown and maximize our profits.

Learn to bet the river more also, you need to learn to be valuetowning marginal hands on the river.

Lern how to hand read better, put your opponent on more accurate ranges, valuetown your hands vs those ranges. It's simple, yet so many players don't valuebet thin enough or near enough in general at SSNL.

I know this is broad and general... But all you need is to hear it once, then work on it on your own. So next session you play, look for more opportunity's to be getting maximum value from your hands.

Alternately, think of creative lines where you ca extract post flop more... Vs. bad players your concerns should be how do I get the most from my showdown worthy hand, not just how do I get to showdown.

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

Situations vs. Stat.

Way to many SSNL players are concerned w/ the "big 3" stats. VPIP/PFR/AF. While these stats defiantly are important and can tell a lot about a player, they aren't the end all be all of a SSNL player.

Worry more about finding situations to up your VPIP and PFR, not just asking what hands should I play UTG?

Look for situations where u can isolate a weak limper w/ a raise. If the table is playing very passive, open up and start abusing them.

Again, I can't stress it enough, look for spots to be agressive or spots to be in more pots. Don't just try and do so because you heard that 14/10 style is ideal.

Poker is a situational game where we take in the information available to us and make the best decisions. Adapt to your situations, use your superior hand reading skills, make good sound plays, your PT #'s will show this.

Again, focus less on having pretty stats and more on playing sound good poker and finding situations where specific actions are appropriate.

Furthermore, VPIP/PFR/AF are not everything stats are to offer. Learn the importance of other stats such as WTSD, att to steal, etc.

Hopefully, this will get you thinking more about recognizing situations to do X action, moreso then doing so because well if I want my PT stats to be at Y point, I should do this.

Way to often people ask like "how to do I get to 15/12, or how do I up my agression" The answer is, become a better poker player and your stats will fall into line.

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

You should stop now, this thread is gold enough lol

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

Resources available to us; 2p2, Programs, etc.

Today is the best time in age to be a poker player, there is so much information available out there that can improve your game. Learn to take advantage of it.

So many members on 2p2, yet so many losing players...

You need to learn to post more hands, reply to more hands, get involved in the hand review sessions, find people through 2p2 to talk poker w/ away from forums. By just lurking and occasinally posting, you are giving up so much as far as developing your game. Mainly just BE ACTIVE.

Learn to use programs like Pokerstove to play w/ ranges and analyze common situations. Renton talks about this sometimes, and its something I think not nearly enough people use as a learning utility.

Pokertracker is more then just a program to track your WR and stats. Learn to use it to help improve your game.

I know you hear it a lot but it needs to siad again - Put in just as much work away from the tables on your game as you would at the tables.

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

I think an important part in a poker players progression, is when they learn that its ok to stop multi tabling and sacrifice the hourly for a short term, so that they can become a better player.

So many robotic TAG players that are just giving up money and hurting their games by never taking the time to cut down on the tables and improve.

My advice to any struggling player, is to for the next few sessions you play cut down your tables to 4-6 and just focus on your play. The small $$ you sacrafice in short term hourly, will be worth it by the improvments you will make in your game.

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

CHange thread name to "chicken soup for the pokerplayers soul"

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

The most important question to ask yourself while playing.

Next, time you play a session before you make a decision ask youself this...

"Why am I doing what I'm doing?"

Having to rationalize and defend your play while your playing to your harshest critic, yourself. Will make you a better player. It will get you thinking about the game on a deeper level and get you working over in your mind why you are making these players, rather then just being on autopilot.

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

Any suggestions how I can practice hand reading? For example, fire up 4 tables, tile them and start playing and think each hand and look what opponents doing. It would be good exercise? Or anyone have better ideas?

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

[ QUOTE ]
ok, lets start w/ some uncomfortable positions I find myself in as a nitty TAG 12/9/3...

I find that lately more of the 15/12 regs that have been moving down are calling in position my EP and MP raises. Due to my lack of experience in these spots I find it difficult to play hands like TT-KK, AQ+ on a flop w/ 1 or 2 overcards(TT-KK) or a blank flop (AK)

what do you recommend as the best way to approach these situations.... also how to approach the more favorable flops like no overcards (pocket pairs) or TPTK (AK) in a way to not telegraph the relative strength of my hand

I think I find myself taking the same lines I'd take against a more predictable player (like myself or an even donkier player) and I feel I am being exploited, just simply by the amount of time I am put in uncomfortable spots by the better players

thoughts?

[/ QUOTE ]

Take notes on players, establish more accurate ranges vs these players. Play accordingly vs these ranges for a basic premise.

I can't stress enough how player dependant this is. Some people coldcall lots of sutied connectors in these spots then bluffraise lots of flops. Take note.

Others, while coldcalling a wide range are playing very honest postflop, take note.

Take into account your percieved range vs thier range. Do you think you can hit that flop? Ask yourself that before you cbet.

Do they float a lot? Can we be c/r'ing turns and taking lots of pots away from them w/ inferior hands after they float and bet turns?


I'll elaborate more later.

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

[ QUOTE ]
Any suggestions how I can practice hand reading? For example, fire up 4 tables, tile them and start playing and think each hand and look what opponents doing. It would be good exercise? Or anyone have better ideas?

[/ QUOTE ]

Diebiters hand range tool is a great way to start, I'll look up the link a little later.

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

So much to say

I wish I could elaborate my thoughts better than 1 liners lacking real content.

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

[ QUOTE ]
Diebiters hand range tool is a great way to start, I'll look up the link a little later.

[/ QUOTE ] No longer works. I pm'ed him about that and he said he's going to rehost it soon.

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

FR game, 9 handed. all full stacks. early position fish limps, mp raises 5x and hes a tag, YOu hold AsQh, what do you do?

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

[ QUOTE ]
FR game, 9 handed. all full stacks. early position fish limps, mp raises 5x and hes a tag, YOu hold AsQh, what do you do?

[/ QUOTE ]

We are in LP I assume? There are so many different classifications of TAGs, is he a more aggressive type? Does he actively isolate weak limpers? There are so many things about players that people don't consider enough...

Generally, I think we can give his range something like - ATo+, 22+, 89s+. If he is more agressive and isolates limpers regularly, I think we can expand that to include lots of Axs type hands as well as some suited one gappers 79s+.

Vs. that range I like a 3bet to around 3.5x to 4x his initial raise size. Vs. some opponents I'll sometimes coldcall and plan to raise lots of flops that I think they could see my range hitting. Plus, we can do things like float lots of flops and take pots away on turns.

Also, the type of limper that they are isolating has lots to do w/ my decision here whether I 3town or coldcall. For the most part, I'd say 85% of the time, I'm 3betting.

I'm pretty much never folding though, even vs the tightest and most straightforward of TAGs, simply because thier range of calling my 3bet is so narrow compared to what I can possibly be 3betting there, that its going to be very easy to play postflop vs them. ANd, they fold way to much preflop OOP to my 3bets.

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

If im not currenlty in any pots I tend to watch one table thats heads up and try to put each player on a range of possible hands. If it results in a showdown you can typically get a decent idea of your hand reading abilities. Its also a productive way to pass the time when your not currently in any pots.

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

Merging Ranges and Making yourself less horrible.

There has been lots of talk in my posts and specifically other respected FR's latley about ranges and more impotantly balancing and merging ranges.

I'm going to give my brief and likely badly worded thoughts...

It's important when you take an action in poker, that your opponents can't immediatly associate your action w/ a specific and accurate hand range assement.

A simple example, 3betting. Most TAGs have very unimaginative 3betting ranges, so when a solid player gets 3bet, its very easy to quickly establish where we stand in the hand vs the 3bettor. Solution, balance your range, by adding in other hands to your 3betting arsenal. (Be careful to not just start randomly 3towning junk, make sure you have a reason!)

The above is a very simple and easy to understand example. Below is another simple and similar one.

When I 3bet another regular and they call, their range is again very easy to define, and subsequently it becomes very easy to play vs them throughout the hand. Since we always have a somewhat accurate idea of where they stand.

Ok moving on to a more elaborate yet still simple example...

A lot of people may be thinking, ok so if your 3betting a wide range vs me and then cbetting lots of flops, I'll just call the 3bet PF and then c/r hard lots of flops. Uh oh, see where I am going w/ this? That is a sitation where your range again becomes very well defined as being in the upper echelon of your hands. You can balance this by again making this play with a wider range, so it's not so easy for me to play perfectly vs your range. (Again, don't just randomly go c/r'ing flops in reraised pots, make sure you have reasons)

From those 3 simple and brief examples, hopefully you can start to think about how your giving up so much by having such an easily defined range so often, and then it will get you thinking on your own of ways to combat this and play better.

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

Note taking.

Learn the importance of taking notes, especially taking notes on regulars in your games.

Your notes should be structured in a way that you can quickly glance at them and gain valuable information about how they play.

DO NOT wirte down entire hands or entire action on hands, too hard to quickly process and gain infomation from when multitabling.

Often times more deailted notes are worse then breif simple notes.

Your notes should be worded and constructed in ways that they are general...

For example

"Capable of calling raises light OOP"
"Can't fold overpairs postflop"
"Capable of LRR w/ marginal hands"

Notes should be taken in a way that at a glance can tell you about a player, you don't want to have to be piecing together information from your notes while your trying to play a hand.

Learn how to take good notes, its one of the most importants aspects of my game I think.

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

I'm going out for the night.

Hopefully, this has been helpful to some so far.

When I get back late tonight/morning I will be able to answer any questions and hopefully I'll have tons more thoughts and ramblings to type out.

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

solid thread curious as to what your stats such as WTSD, att to steal are?

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

Awesome thread mate! I'd say maybe even the best one I've read here.

I've got a topic for you... game selection. Do you even bother table selecting at 100NL? If so, what type of tables do you look for? Ones with lots of full stack predictable tags/nits or ones with heaps of donk calling stations, that all have around 1/2 to 3/4 buy-ins? What other factors do you consider?

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

%saw flop then $per pot for selection

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

Absolutely phoenominal writing skills and knowledge of the game Ryan when is the 1st book. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
Oh and move up already, I cant sit at your tables anymore! [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

[ QUOTE ]
I'll elaborate more later.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'd like to hear more on this subject.

I think it is one of the toughest situations, when you are out of position and you missed the flop.

If your opponent is a nit, you can just check/fold, but if they are loose and there are draws on the board how do you play the turn and river out of position?

Also do you try to balance your play by checking the turns with your strong hands after cbetting the flop? I sometimes do this but there are so many more weak hands than strong ones I don't know if it's worth it.

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

I play 5/3/1 style.

Do you think this is too aggressive for these stakes?

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

if i am running 15/10, how often should i be folding my PFR to blind 3/bets? Min 3/bets? 3/bets from regs?

How about if the 3/bettor has position?

Like other 2p2 players, the later the position, the wider my PFR range. I feel like against most players 3/betting the blinds, i should be folding a majority of my hands. But if it is a min PFR i'm calling often because i have position, as well as the fact that it is cheap to stack him. I feel one leak is that i'm folding way too often to regs who are 3/betting me light from the blinds, and with position i should be calling much more often.

If the 3/bettor has position, i'm very much inclined to fold.

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

[ QUOTE ]
I play 5/3/1 style.

Do you think this is too aggressive for these stakes?

[/ QUOTE ]

That may work at nl400 + , but not at nl100 -

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

Excellent thread so far, looking forward to more [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Also, here's another cat:
http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/5...nterestmm9.jpg
[img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Re: RYANCMU teaches struggling NL50 and NL100 players
 

I am wondering what u prefer in a preflop raise between 3 or 4 bb +1 for limper. I find that I can make arguments for either depending on the playing style of the player game and the factors of how loose or tight a game is, as well as a few other things to consider that I wont go into now.

edit: Id luv to hear other people's view on this as well