In your opening post you said that it seems like it's just nits waiting for the nuts. Since the nuts is hard to make, we can sometimes choose nice spots to bluff these dudes. But as tenbob says, you don't need to. Value betting is the best way to beat the game.
Why not post some hands you are having problems with?
Why not post some hands you are having problems with?
The game does change as you go up in stakes, but it does not get easier. You just need to adjust your strategy to fit your opponents. Are you using a hud? Taking notes? With a HUD and notes, you can tailor your game against each opponent and the stakes will not matter until you reach beyond your skill level. Find their weaknesses and exploit them. Playing a NIT? Steal till he fights back - then fold. Playing a maniac? Trap him for his stack? Playing against a calling station? Raise quality hands, c-bet 100% and keep pounding as long as you expect to be ahead of his range. etc... .... If you cannot find and exploit your opponents leaks at the level you are playing, you are not ready for higher stakes. Instead of complaining about how your opponents play; adjust.
RythmAndBlues said:
Sometimes you can't avoid it. Variance is part of poker. However, it might be how you are playing the hand. If you are limping with aces or not value betting large enough, or not folding to obvious signs of a better hand.
Really it could be a lot of things. If you don't already have it get Holdem manager or Poker Tracker. They both have free trials. The hud is not the most important thing when you are learning. The most important thing is that they will allow you to build a database of your hands with statistical analysis for you to break down your play.
Post some of these hands in the hand analysis sub forum or in the learning poker forum and members (even my grumpy sarcastic self) will be glad to help you.
In the mean time start reading other's hand histories in the hand analysis forum and two things will happen. First you will probably see some similar spots to your own. Second, you will start to get an idea of how better players think about the game.
Without specific hands its really hard to help much because the devil is in the details. Its like trying to solve a math problem when the only info we have is that its addition.
Good luck.
Link to cash game hand analysis forum: https://www.cardschat.com/forum/cash-game-hand-analysis-50/
Last edited:
OK, I thought I'd run a lolsamplesize experiment, and just ran a session playing 10NL 6max on Stars. I usually play 50NL.
Findings. Initially it took a little bit of adjustment .. my redline even went slightly into the positive until I realised that this was not optimal play. 10NL involves a lot of showdown winning, although there's plenty of 3bet/squeezing going on too, I skewed mine to value (as you can see).
A couple of my bluffs monumentally failed, but apart from that it was OK. Oh yeah, and although my river calling eff isn't negative, bluff catching on the river is not the most profitable way to go forward in these games. At 50 it can be against the right opponents in certain spots.
Basically, you can get the money in soooo good over and over again, so just do that and you'll be fine.
Here's the graph and basic stats.
At least now I feel as though I can comment on 10NL and not be told that I don't play it so I have no idea.
As you can see, I played pretty ABC preflop. However, post flop is a closely guarded secret 😉
A couple of other notes. I obv had no history on any of the players, so reads had to be made on the fly and I couldn't rely on my more usually used HUD stats like tcbet frequencies (and other such stats that could not be reliable in these sample sizes). Also I 6 tabled.
Value bet, and fold your AA when they have you beat type thing. They hate folding, so no elaborate bluffs, although you can still apply pressure in certain spots.
10NL is beatable. Who knew!?
Findings. Initially it took a little bit of adjustment .. my redline even went slightly into the positive until I realised that this was not optimal play. 10NL involves a lot of showdown winning, although there's plenty of 3bet/squeezing going on too, I skewed mine to value (as you can see).
A couple of my bluffs monumentally failed, but apart from that it was OK. Oh yeah, and although my river calling eff isn't negative, bluff catching on the river is not the most profitable way to go forward in these games. At 50 it can be against the right opponents in certain spots.
Basically, you can get the money in soooo good over and over again, so just do that and you'll be fine.
Here's the graph and basic stats.
At least now I feel as though I can comment on 10NL and not be told that I don't play it so I have no idea.
As you can see, I played pretty ABC preflop. However, post flop is a closely guarded secret 😉
A couple of other notes. I obv had no history on any of the players, so reads had to be made on the fly and I couldn't rely on my more usually used HUD stats like tcbet frequencies (and other such stats that could not be reliable in these sample sizes). Also I 6 tabled.
Value bet, and fold your AA when they have you beat type thing. They hate folding, so no elaborate bluffs, although you can still apply pressure in certain spots.
10NL is beatable. Who knew!?
It's not beatable for the one person in the entire world who runs so bad he can't even win at NL10 when just having average luck would rocket him into the nosebleeds.Cafeman31 said:
It's just odd that this one person keeps showing up in the forum multiple times every year, and with a different name each time. 😛
I dont understand people saying you can't bluff, it's total bollocks to say that.
Yes, i totally agree there are many more fish and calling stations at the micros, so it's not good to bluff, but it really depends on your opinion of bluffing.
If you are playing against someone crap who likes to peel off flops with his 70/10/20 range, then you just have to watch his moves pre flop and after the flop, and you can represent hitting a street if youre confident you have a handle on your opponent.
Not suggesting you should do it all the time, or even that it works 100%, but you can take down many a pot holding Jack Shit just by being the first to bet.
Agreed though, ABC poker at micros, but i'd personally include stealing pots that no one wants to bet into with f-all or semi bluff is an awesome weapon, even at .01.02
Yes, i totally agree there are many more fish and calling stations at the micros, so it's not good to bluff, but it really depends on your opinion of bluffing.
If you are playing against someone crap who likes to peel off flops with his 70/10/20 range, then you just have to watch his moves pre flop and after the flop, and you can represent hitting a street if youre confident you have a handle on your opponent.
Not suggesting you should do it all the time, or even that it works 100%, but you can take down many a pot holding Jack Shit just by being the first to bet.
Agreed though, ABC poker at micros, but i'd personally include stealing pots that no one wants to bet into with f-all or semi bluff is an awesome weapon, even at .01.02
How I interpet "don't bluff" is don't start firing with air on the turn. Of course you still c-bet and of course you steal pots in position but if you haven't improved your hand to top pair or better don't go firing away with when all you are counting on is fold equity. They don't like to fold. Obviously there will be exceptions but in most situations betting for anything other than value on the turn or river is -ev at the micros. IMO.