adjusting my game to nl10

[hoyasaxa]

I am a winning sng player over a significant sample size. The problem is, sngs leave me with an intense desire to kill myself. So im switching to cash games. I am wondering about the stats of winning players at nl10.

in a sng, the idea is to play extremely tight early, and then resort to a push/fold strategy once the blinds get high enough.

the result is I tend to play like a gigantic nit, with an emphasis on preflop rather than postflop play.

I am thinking I will play loose and passive preflop, only raising with monsters. I will limp pps, suited connectors/1 gappers, and a10+. I will try to play very abc, and not bluff very often.

I will also not call down light, and prefer to win one large pot over 10 small ones.

Are there any suggestions people might have to help me adjust my game?

[Khumalo]

Some more info would help. Do you plan to play 6 max or full ring? There is a FR forum if the latter; you posted this here, so I'll speak a bit about 6 max.

First, you might want to check out "6 Max fundamentals for SSNL players" by Tien (just type it into the search engine.) It's a little advanced, but will give you a sense of where your game should be as you progress in short-handed cash NLHE.

Set-mining and nut peddling will certainly make you a profit at NL10, and that's not a terrible way to get your feet wet, but you should really open up your range on the button as soon as you're ready.

You want to get to a point where you're comfortable raising a lot of hands on the button even with (especially with, sometimes!) 2 or less limpers in front of you (something like 4xBB + 1BB for each limper.)

You also will benefit from continuation betting liberally so that you develop a feel for when such bets work (typically, some majority of the time barring unusual circumstances) and when they're inadvisable, or when some other action is preferable (like check-calling, or firing a delayed bet on the turn.) The pared down formula is to c-bet almost always in HU pots (say, between 2/3 to 3/4 pot) and about half as much when two players take a flop with you, and even less as you add more opponents. But experience and reflection are your best guides.

More advanced concepts, like not overplaying TP(TK) versus resistance from passives (but surely yes versus super-stations and maniacs), reading board texture when deciding how big you want to grow the pot on the turn, finding good spots to steal small pots when no one shows interest on the turn or river, and so on, will come with practice (as you open up your game gradually) and reading / posting on 2+2.

P.S.
1) Very rarely should you open-limp! Adhere to raise or fold, as hokey as that sounds.
2) There are a lot of passive players at NL10, you can relentlessly steal their blinds, c-bet them to death.
3) There are also a fair number of mega-stations, who call huge bets on three streets with any piece, and as soon as you recognize one, adjust accordingly (i.e. value bet them light, overbet your straights and flushes, etc.)
4) Shoving KK+ all in preflop when there was a standard raise in front of me made me a lot of money at NL10. People called off their stacks with 88+ and A10s+ (sometimes KQs.)

[Synur]

Be ready for swings. Make sure you bankroll can afford it to take a few loses. Even if you play perfect poker it's likely that you'll have bad swings. One foolish night I jumped limits and lost half my bankroll because of consecutive bad beats. ABC poker and bankroll management is going to be your bread and butter.

[eMbAh]

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The problem is, sngs leave me with an intense desire to kill myself.

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[gedanken]

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The problem is, sngs leave me with an intense desire to kill myself.

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is that because the style of play you describe surrenders all control to the cards?


Khumalo's advice is all solid. Look at the stickies in this forum for an invaluable cache of tips.

NL10 has been very soft for me. I think at that level, it's not much of an oversimplification to say this: play insanely straightforward. Bet when you've got something big, don't "mix up your game", don't bluff. Fold when you have nothing, because you can wait for a good hand and get paid off very often.

You should be raising around 3/4 of the pots you enter, and taking down a vast number of those with cbets. Many NL10 players don't seem to look at their hands until the flop.

Keep in mind though, that by all accounts 6max is a postflop game. You'll probably learn a lot from it! NL10 is a good place to start, I bet.

In ring games you will have to make better postflop decision, compared to SNGs IMO. But your game probably needs that. Maybe you should try starting with full ring instead of 6max and then make the move to 6max.

go thru these stickies. Don`t try to incorporate everything at once into your game. Do you have Pokertracker / pahud ? If not you should consider getting it. Since it will help you alot, and you could post some stats.

[TTStrangler]

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The problem is, sngs leave me with an intense desire to kill myself.

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FWIW, if the boring nature of SNG's is what is causing these suicidle tendencies, then you should really enjoy 6 max if/when you give them a try. You'll really be forced into many post flop decisions too which I really feel I miss out on in a SNG. Like everyone else has said, especially at NL10, you should do ok with ABC poker, then you can expand your game from there.

[hoyasaxa]

Its not that theyre boring. Its the variance. To cash in a sng you have to go all in time after time. There are so many coin flips/60 40s its sickening. It is not uncommon to go on 20 buy in downswings on a fairly regular basis.

I am running like god at 10nl... something like 20ptbb/100.
cant wait for variance to set in.