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Old 05-14-2006, 10:59 PM
Big_Jim Big_Jim is offline
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Default MSNL FAQ

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Channel #MSNL on Efnet.

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Where should I post winrate threads and other posts about how well people are doing?

We have a special thread just for you.

Please keep posts about:
Winrates
Goals
Best players/how others are doing
Coaching Offers/Coaching requests
Anything going on within the MSNL community
Any hands you want to share that you aren't really looking for strat advice on
And other general discussion that doesn't require its own thread to within this thread.

Keep in mind there is a special forum for Beats, Brags, and Variance. Some of it will inevitably end up in the general thread, but just keep that in mind.

Who are the best players at XXXXX?
We have several threads running for each major site. These threads are to be kept to a minimum, and only one/site will be permitted to stay. They will be periodically locked, and replaced by a new thread. Search for them before making a new thread.

Should I post in the Mid Stakes forum?

Here are some things to consider when deciding which forum to post in:

1) Where are you at in your poker development? It is generally assumed that players in the Mid Stakes forum will have a solid understanding of the fundamentals of NL Holdem. Questions related to math (odds), fundamentals, and basic ABC play belong in Small Stakes.

2) How skilled are your opponents? There are a couple types of opponents that you'll encounter in Mid Stakes games:
a) Thinking players who have studied the game and built a bankroll at lower limits and moved up
b) Decent players that have learned to avoid making huge mistakes, and had a nice run at a lower limit and are jumping up to a bigger game
c) Gamblers that are going to bust out quickly and not return.

With the exception of the clueless gamblers, most Mid Stakes opponents know enough to fold marginal hands when faced with big bets, and know how to protect their hands and get value from them. Playing overly straightforward is unlikely to win any decent amount of money from them. Mixing up your play, disguising your hands, and bluffing all become much more important against these opponents compared to Small Stakes opponents. While a solid game without too much mixing up of your play can still show a large profit, mixing up your play a bit is important to maximize it. Hands posted in the Mid Stakes forum will frequently focus on times when a player should deviate from a basic, ABC play in order to maximize his EV in a specific spot.

The guidelines for the Mid Stakes forum specify that hands played at stakes of 2/4 through 5/10 belong here. 1/2 hands belong in Small Stakes. If you are new to NL you should probably start by posting in Small Stakes regardless of the actual stakes you are playing. If Phil Ivey puts you all in for $80,000 and you hold only a nine-high straight draw, you have a Small Stakes question (basic math/odds). It's not the money that matters, it's the concepts involved.

What is acceptable content for a new thread?

Hands that you have played, general theory posts, and anything else dealing with <u>strategy</u> in Mid Stakes games.

If you post a hand for analysis, it is expected that the following information will be present:
- The stack sizes of all players involved
- The position of all players involved
- How many players were dealt in
- Where the game was played, and how the table had been playing recently
- Your reads on your opponent(s)
- Your opponent's read on you
- Your cards
- All action up until the point at which you have a question about
- Nothing beyond the point that you have a question about (including: future action, future board cards, and results at showdown)

The forum software has a very simple feature to use to preview your post before submitting it. There is no reason not to use it. It is surprisingly common for hands to be posted which contain drastic flaws (for example, the hand converter malfunctions and leaves most of the hand blank). There is usually little hope for resurrecting a thread which has been badly botched at the start.

What is NOT acceptable content for a new thread?

- Bad Beats (belong in the Beats/Brags/Variance forum)
- Brags (ditto)
- Non-strategy posts/questions related to cardrooms (belong in the B&amp;M forum)
- Non-strategy posts/questions related to online cardrooms (belong in the Online Gambling forum)
- Hands from tournaments, limit games, or games other than Holdem (this includes Holdem variants, which belong in the Other Poker forum)
- Odds questions (belong in Probability, Beginners, or Small Stakes, depending on the exact content) Note: If your question also requires you to put your opponent on a range of hands, then it may belong here
- Advertising of any kind, including advertising of coaching services
- Questions abour winrates (see above)
- Trade X money for Y money requests

Posts that are found to be unacceptable will be deleted on sight, or moved to the appropriate forum at the discretion of the mods.

What's the URL for that hand converter?

Here are a few:
LegoPoker
FlopTurnRiver
Bad Beats, Good Vibes
PokerZion

Please remember to preview your post to check for errors.

If the converter isn't working for you, please just take a few minutes and type it out.


What is acceptable content for a reply to a hand?

You may post your thoughts on how the hand was played/answer any questions presented, and explain the reasoning behind your answers. In some cases, other people will have already gone over the reasoning which supports your answers, and a detailed explanation would be redundant. However, if your response contradicts the advice that most people are giving, you are expected to provide some justification. Otherwise your reply is simply a waste of space. If you constantly provide useless responses, you may find that people begin doing the same when you ask questions.

Personal attacks and general trolling are a good way to get temp banned, and eventually permabanned.

Why do I get ignored?

Almost everyone who posts here has one primary objective: To improve their own game. Responding to hands that other people have posted often help to achieve this objective by forcing everyone to analyze hands in detail. However, no one here is under any obligation to respond to anything at all. If you want people to provide quality feedback, it is YOUR responsibility to make people want to reply. If your post is hard to read (raw hand histories, etc), you won't get good feedback. If your hand is missing most of the important information (stack sizes, reads), you won't get good feedback. If your hand seems really boring/routine, you won't get good feedback (maybe it belonged in Small Stakes).

What's a good winrate?

Anything greater than zero.

Lots of solid winners have experienced sharp losing streaks, and breakeven stretches across tens of thousands of hands. At other times, they enjoy remarkable winrates across a similar stretch of hands. Determining an accurate winrate with a reasonable degree of accuracy requires something well past 100,000 hands. During that time, it is a virtual certainty that the player has made adjustments to their play, and that their opponents have changed slightly as well. Therefore, it is nearly impossible to make accurate assessments of anyone's exact winrate. The subject has been discussed frequently, and it generally involves people posting (bragging) about their winrate across a recent stretch of good cards, while those that have worse winrates keep quiet.

A Pretty Good Winrate Thread: The Definitive Hourly Rate Thread

What's the deal with all this crazy poker lingo?
Below is a list of common acronyms and terminology.

TAG: Tight-aggressive player.
LAG: Loose-aggressive player.

It is important to note that the distinction between TAG and LAG has little to nothing to do with their post-flop play, although there is often some correllation.

LAP: Loose-passive player. Typically a fish.
BB: Big blind.
SB: Small blind.
CO: Cutoff. The seat directly to the right of the button.
UTG: Under the gun. The first player to act preflop, directly to the left of the BB.
OTB: On the Button
PF: Preflop.
PFR: Preflop raise or preflop raiser.
Aggro: Aggressive.
PP: Pocket pair.
SC: Suited connector.
HH: Hand history.
PSB: Pot-sized bet.
PSR: Pot-Sized Raise.
FPS: Fancy play syndrome.
PTBB: Poker Tracker Big Blind = 2xBB
CB: Continuation Bet. A bet made on the flop by the pre-flop raiser. Very often a bluff.
TPTK: Top pair, Top Kicker
TPGK: Top Pair, Good Kicker
TPNK: Top Pair, No Kicker
FE: Fold Equity - The chance of a bet/raise taking down the pot.
MHIG - My Hand Is Good
MHING - My Hand Is No Good
ATC/A2C - Any Two Cards
OP : Original Post(er)
FR: Full-Ring

PT: Poker Tracker
VPIP - voluntarily put money in the pot
AF - aggression factor
Villian is 24/10/3(98)- Pokertracker stats indicating VPIP/PFR%/AF (with preflop aggression taken out) over 98 hands

Donk Bet: To bet into an opponent, without the initiative.
Stop and Go: To call a bet or raise on one round, and lead the next street. Same as Donk Bet.
Stack-a-Donk: Raise PF, Lead flop, Check/Raise turn all in with a good hand. Typically, an overpair.
3-Bet: A re-raise.
4-Bet: A re-raise of a 3-bet.
Float: To call on one street with the intention of bluffing/taking the pot away on a future street, with little or no outs.
Metagame: The "flow" of the game. Generally, your reads on opponents tendancies, and their view of you.
Shania: Generally refers to Metagame.
Nit: A Weak-Tight Player

Any Other Resources I Should Look At?
Small Stakes FAQ, Digest, Links
Lots of links to some great posts, old and new, in here.

SSNL FAQ
Covers much of the same material as this does, and some more.



Good luck, and welcome to the forum.

Thanks to soah for writing this.
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