Originally Posted by someone

I'll go to 12c or more with QQ, JJ, AKs. Standard raise with average-good hands, such as AJs, KQs, TT etc would be to 8c (4xbb) + 2c (1xbb) for each limper.

As for being worried about people making their draws, just bet like 80-90% of the pot. If they call, that's good for you, long term you win money from this call. The chances of someone making their flush on the turn is around one in six, so if they're paying a pot sized bet to see the turn, they are losing money long term, unless they get paid off huge if and when they hit. So don't pay them off too much, and bet enough so if they call you're making money. It's important to see poker as a long term game, you're playing more than just one hand. He might make his flush when he pays a pot size bet, but he isn't making it every time. Over 100 similar hands, he's missing more often than he hits, which is exactly why you win more than you lose if you bet correctly.

Don't be afraid of folding to a bluff. It happens, we all get mugged off, and for sure it's annoying when you fold top pair and he shows two rags. But if you call every time he *might* be bluffing, you're gonna lose money. Call river bets that offer ridiculous odds if you have a hand, like 40c into a $2 pot with 2nd pair, because you only need to catch a bluff one in five times to break even, compared to folding. But if he bets twice the pot on the river to a thrid spade, and you have top pair, it's a fold, because you need to catch two bluffs in three hands, and that's not happening. Top pair is losing to this bet more often than one in three times

Originally Posted by jyms

Seriously, none of it matters. It's $2NL. Read the stickies, bet your hands, never bluff and just fold when you miss. You will be out of $2NL in a week unless you absolutely screw it up. Bet 4BB +1 for every limper in all positions until you get to a stake that matters. You screw things up by betting stupid amounts that are noticeable, playing your monsters slow or your TP's too fast. Don't get married to pairs and just bet, bet, bet, and fold to aggression. Easy game.

There used to be this highly debated , generally hated system called "19hands" that an old poster thought up. It pretty much ran him out of town around here because it sucked. But it also worked becasue it was so simple. It worked because you couldn't screw it up. Fold all but the best hands and bet the hell out of them, some you folded to aggression and some you just kept betting. It sucked because it didn't teach you anything like position, implied odds, opponents tendencies or even board textures. So you learned nothing, and you won until the competition got better, around $10NL-$25NL depending on site and tables. There is no reason to over think the micros. Learn the game, play some hands and figure out why. Your BR will grow faster than your knowledge without a doubt, so just keep trying to learn. Your not trying to learn to beat $2NL by shoving AA preflop, your learning to beat the game at the higher stakes and we don't do that by having rigid rules like betting a certain amount based on the two cards in our hand. The cards in your hand are only going to matter if you get to showdown.

Here's an interesting little tidbit. We average about 20VPIP meaning we only play about 20% of our hands, we go to showdown about 25% of the time which is only 5% of our total hands and win about 50% of the hands at showdown, meaning only 2.5% of our hands will be winners at showdown. The rest of the time we play poker. Play a 1000 hand session and you will only show your cards 50 times. I think there are more ways to win than having the best hand, don't you think?