18345 Hands at 2NL up for review

Hi guys, I've been here for 2 or so years, mostly lurking, reading, learning, but unfortunately I don't post much. Anywho I finally decided to turn my poker fate around this month. I bought Phil Gordon's Little Green Book which has literally done numbers for my poker game. Also I've tried to incorporate a little of Professional No Limit Hold'em's SPR concepts into my game as well (although i've found they don't apply much, I can get all in with decent hands against many people who think TPTK is a monster hand).

I started with $40 in my account (well didn't start, but thats the point I started being determined to win, and do it right). I have only played 2NL so far, trying to keep within my bankroll. I'm up to $71.70 right now after 2 weeks of playing. Enough about that though, here's the meat and potato's, ready to be relentlesly scrutinized by the much better players on FTR than me. I'll gladly discuss any of my stats, provide any extra stats for critisizing, and if you want to see some of my hands and my typical play on strong hands, weak hands or mediocre hands, I'll post those to. Alright, without further delay, the stats:



As you can see I'm about 3.5 BI's above AIEV. Thats unfortunate because I always try to get in with the best of it, but obviously I've failed a couple of times and got lucky. The earlier hands though I was running bad, which lead to playing a little less than my ideal game.



I'm not exactly sure how to interpret these stats. I do feel proud of winning over 56% at showdown. I think thats a big improvement over my old self. I recall only winning 48-50% of the time at showdown, and the river used to be one my biggest losing streets. I've found checking down is okay, and checking on the river with doubt in your hand is a hell of a lot safer than bluffing. Another thing that I have a hard time letting go of but I know I should, is C-betting. I do it probably close to 60% of the time, and it is just not yielding me profits.



Those red numbers next to position 3 and 5 are a mix of trash hands played poorly, and the fact that in position 3 AKs and AKo total have lost me $3.30, AQs and AQo have lost me $1.78, AJs lost me $1.92, KK lost me $.91, and JJ lost me $1.44



This goes to show my "I bluff to much leak". C-Bets are greatly contributing to that red lines continuous decline.

Also another thing I discovered today, I've given $3.22 to the blinds by coming into hands when not in the blinds. Thats HUGE!!!

Alright guys, critique away. I look forward to reading the responses and discussing my game with fellow players tomorrow and following.

Also, I intend to participate more at this board. Theres a lot of knowledge to learn here. Thanks guys

actually the redline declining means you bluff less and call less than the people you play against

I can see from your stats you're not very positionally aware. This means you raise about the same kinds of hands on the button and UTG. Even though I see you play a lot more hands on the button, you do it by calling raises and probably limping. You probably don't isolate bad players by raising them enough, and don't steal blinds enough.

As far as cbetting and W$SD goes, I can't really offer any advice because my cbet is 74% and W$SD is 47%

I do feel I'm a little loose in the early positions. I'm still raising hands like KJs and AJo from early position. My limping range is definitely tighter, but I feel at 2NL, I'm still playing tighter than most, therefore I justify my early position raises by thinking that callers behind me are going to be below my range a lot. I do play a little more carefully after the flop if I only hit top pair, and keep the pot smaller than I would if I was in position. I'm interested in seeing the decrepancies in other peoples ranges on the button and CO vs. UTG and MP.

Also could you expand on my red line. Perhaps it's cause I play the turn weakly after missing the flop and throwing out a C-bet, but my normal line if I miss on a dry board is C-bet flop, get called, then check down hand. Should I be firing the 2nd barrel more often if the board still looks bad. Thats hard for me to do against so many loose opponents.

Tighten up in EP, loosen up in LP, and stop open limping.

Additionally, remove "3Bet" from your PT3 report and add "3Bet PF". The "3Bet" stat shows how often you 3-bet total for all streets which isn't particularly useful. The "3Bet PF" stat only shows how often you 3-bet preflop which is what you want. To do that, click the little wrench icon to the right.

Originally Posted by housefish17

I do feel I'm a little loose in the early positions. I'm still raising hands like KJs and AJo from early position. My limping range is definitely tighter, but I feel at 2NL, I'm still playing tighter than most, therefore I justify my early position raises by thinking that callers behind me are going to be below my range a lot. I do play a little more carefully after the flop if I only hit top pair, and keep the pot smaller than I would if I was in position. I'm interested in seeing the decrepancies in other peoples ranges on the button and CO vs. UTG and MP.

Also could you expand on my red line. Perhaps it's cause I play the turn weakly after missing the flop and throwing out a C-bet, but my normal line if I miss on a dry board is C-bet flop, get called, then check down hand. Should I be firing the 2nd barrel more often if the board still looks bad. Thats hard for me to do against so many loose opponents.

sometimes you can bet the turn when it looks really bad for the opponent, but at da 2NL it might not be a great play, probably shouldn't continue against loose players that can't fold a pair ever or when the turn is multi-way
but against some people it's fine
like if the board is ten high, and a king comes that card is going to be in your hand so often that it's profitable to bet it against tighter players

Okay my 3bet Preflop % is 3.04%

I've won w/o s/d if i bet/raise on flop 53% of the time. That tells me that it is a profitable play depending on pot size. I think most of the time it succeeds is on very small pots (2-4 bb)

stop open-limping. Stop limping behind so much. Start iso-raising from cutoff and button more. Dump more hands UTG. You're doing ok.