Some Basic NL questions

[davidross]

I apologize if these questions are too basic, but I've never played NL ring games before.

The limit games I've played for years have dried up so this week I decided to play some 200 NL and see what I thought. In a very limited sample, 3000 hands playing 4 tables, I managed to win $1,078.

1) How do you measure your win rate in NL? This win seems a little high to me, but I've found a lot of people willing to call off a lot of chips with mediocre hands.Is this normal in these games?

2) If I play the 2/4 400 game, is it much different from the 200 game? (I'm playing at Party)

3) Do you keep topping up your stack if you get much below $200? It seemed to me that I wanted to keepmy stack as high as possible in case I hit a hand to doubleup with, but I wondered if there was any advantage to letting it stay low.

4) What about leaving a table and starting fresh if your stack gets particularily big? Kind of the reverse from the last question.

Finally a couple of observations. SInce the only NL I've played before are tournaments, I think I'm in chip preservation mode. Reviewing some of my hands it seems to me that I've left a lot of chips on the table seeing how quickly some of my river bets (half pot for example) are getting called. It also seems that people on flush draws will call any amount. I'm used to betting just enough to make a flush draw -EV, but I'm wondering if you make over sized bets if you suspect they are drawing?

Any helpful hints would be much appreciated.

[napkins]

1. 6-8PTBB/100 seems standard for being very good and anything above is pretty much killing the game.

2. Not much different as long as you don't change the way you play (assuming you're a winning player).

3. Yes. The advantage of keeping a low stack is that you make you're decisions a lot easier, and people will not be able to chase hands profitably against you. More info on this in the Sklansky/Miller book.

4. In a game where I consider myself the best player, I always want the big stack at the table.

You want bets to be called by people chasing so long as you're setting the price, and making sure it's an unprofitable amount for them. So when you have someone pinned on a particular draw bet the most you think they will call (that is also profitable for you).

As a warning you could just be on a heater with your 3k hand sample. If you have a shallow bankroll I'd consider playing the $200 game some more just to make sure that you're just not running really well. The worse that happens is you make some more money in the $200 game and move up to $400nl with utmost confidence that you can beat the game.

[davidross]

What do you mean by 6-8PT?

[orange]

poker tracker bbs, 2x normal bb.

[AZplaya]

you have pokertracker right?

[AKQJ10]

6-8 Ludicrous Poker Tracker Apples to Oranges Statistics that People Like to Throw Around Even though They Have No Basis in Poker.


12-16 big blinds per 100 hands, that is what it means.

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poker tracker bbs, 2x normal bb.

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Normal BB? NORMAL BB?!?

I will now go stick an icepick in my eye to get my mind on something more pleasant.

[AZplaya]

oh, and welcome to SSNL david, I loved your story and weekly updates while you became a pro. Read the FAQ, there is lots of helpful info in there. Also if your new to NL, I would suggest starting at NL$100 as the quality of opponents is fairly substantial when you move from NL$100 to $200, at least on Party. I don't think starting out at the $400 games is the best thing to do until you get more familiar with NL cash. Good luck!

[davidross]

Thanks for the welcome, I do have PT but haven't used it in ages (after filling 3 db's I just stopped refreshing it) i guess it's time to start again. I found the FAQ section after posting this so I guess I have some reading to do.

I play around 20 hours a week of NL tournaments, so what I've started out with is just my deepstack tournament strategy. The 200 has felt pretty comfortable so I'll stick with that for the forseeable future.

[PoppaTMan]

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Also if your new to NL, I would suggest starting at NL$100 as the quality of opponents is fairly substantial when you move from NL$100 to $200, at least on Party.

[/ QUOTE ]

QFT

[dardo]

Hello David. Welcome to SSNL. I also enjoyed reading your weekly updates. You comment that the games you are used to play have dried up, do you mean for a time or that you don't think there's a profit to be made from them anymore?

1) I would say 5PTBB = 10BB (big blind) is a good winrate.

2) From what I've read good limit players don't have much problems adapting to NL. I would suggest to put another post at HSNL. There are a lot of good limit players who swicthed to NL posting there.

3) A deep stack is an advantage for the experienced player, so ...

4) Same.

Yep, a lot of players at SSNL pay whatever you put in front of them to chase a draw.

Good luck!

regards,

dardo