How do you win at SSNL?

[wagon30]

All poker winnings come from our opponents mistakes. Ed Miller does a great job in explaining how one wins money at small stakes limit by explaining what types of mistakes opponents commonly make and what strategies combat that play. As examples, I'll try to hit the high points:

Pre-flop:
Play strong hands and play in position. Don't cold call raises with marginal hands (reraise or fold most hands).
Speculative hands go up in value in loose games, suited Aces, top pair hands go down in value KJo.

Flop:
Understand the strategic differences in playing big and small pots. Play well in big pots this means using extra bets to protect your hand and correctly determining pot odds which means understanding counting/discounted outs. Also, value bet more hands than you would in a tough game.

Ed Miller gave me a great understanding of where an expert player's edge was in small stakes games. I was hoping you guys would discuss what you think your opponents biggest mistakes are and how you combat them. Do you feel like your money comes in lots of small pots where your opponents make little mistakes that add up or mostly in big pots where your opponents make huge mistakes but infrequently? What are the most common and costly mistakes and how do you pounce on them?

I am hoping your answers will help me and other NL newbies have better poker intuition and also better evaluate our games. As Ed stresses when looking for leaks, plug the big leaks first, help us figure out what those might be. Thanks.

[mudbuddha]

read faq
read hands [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
join discussion
apply to ur own game

its that easy

[DMBFan23]

This post from fimbulwinter might help you, but it probably doesn't get as specific as you might want.


fimbulwinter has a money reply in here (from FAQ)

[wagon30]

Thanks for linking that post. I have seen it, but not in awhile. I am looking for a little more detail though. For instance, Doyle in SS seems to think his money comes from taking lots of little pots that people give up because he is willing to sometimes take the worst of it in big pots. His opponents wait for a better spot and when they finally fight back he feels like he is free rolling.

Small stakes NL almost seems like it would be opposite. You give up a lot of small pots where your marginal hand might have trouble holding up vs. several opponents, but every so often you catch your opponent making a huge mistake getting attached to a weak hand.

[Slap My Jack]

SS1 is from the 70s.

Doyle wasn't playing $25NL or anything close to it.

[wagon30]

I totally agree...

EDIT: I guess I was using SS as an example to show how different opponents necessitates different playing styles. Our opponent obviously isn't Doyle's. I'm just wondering against the average SSNL player what do you think an expert does better that gives him a big edge.

[Slap My Jack]

I don't like the term 'expert' in this context.

A winning player is usually familar with all of the basics of winning play, there isn't any secret recipe. Then their increased experience gives them more advantage.

Most importantly, the number of terrible players is where you get your next biggest edge in SSNL. You can play unimaginative straight forward poker and win consistently, see quote in my location for Ed Miller's opinion on that.

[jsnipes28]

Most SSNL players biggest mistakes are...drawing improperly with flush and straight draws.
Overvaluing big pairs and AK, not being able to find a fold on the flop.

The biggest donkeys slowplay big pairs, and all hands in general and don't understand the most basic math of the game. They also don't understand position and the importance that it plays.

So i guess they don't grasp the fundamentals and don't understand why good play will win. They are also probably extremely results oriented which leads to more bad play.

That is why if you read/post and play solid abc poker you win lots of moolah at these limits. Hope this helped some, but if you really want to get better just read and play man.

[Simplistic]

i think the biggest leaks people have at SSNL,

too loose and play marginal hands very poorly i.e. calling off their stacks with TPWK.
passive play isn't punished as much as SSNL as it is higher up.

[ahnuld]

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thats it



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