When You can't Reload....

I don't know how many of you guys play on lock... Let me know if you do, and I'll Friend ya....

Anyway, like I was saying the other day. I took a big downswing the other day. I started playing again like 2 months ago, with $30 bucks(which is only 4.5 buy-ins). Luckily I'm starting a new job this coming week. So I'll be able to reload in Approx. two weeks or so. With only 4.5 Bi's, I'm surprised I've made it this long. I first went up to about $40(10-Bi's). Then I downloaded PT3. Started climbing again, and BAM!! I'm down to 2Bi's.

I was talking to Boris about this the other day, and I really liked what he said to me about 4nl.......

Also, just beat 4NL - maybe you could beat 10NL if you were rolled, but really it's completely unimportant, it's just the same game with different numbers. I started back after a long break at 50NL, I got told to move down, I didn't much like the idea but I sucked it up and moved down to 25NL, it was absolutely the right thing to do, even though I was rolled for 50NL - the name of the game is to improve, that is the only thing that matters, the bigger limits are appropriate once you can beat them, not because you are rolled for them, dig?

.......

It's nice to hear words of encouragement on the forum. I used to, or still do belong to another Forum. When I started playing in '09. I was pretty clueless to the game, and those guys would let me know it. I go to the point where I just stopped posting hands because of the bully like attitude of some of the members & moderators.

Anyway, back to my point. I was @ 2 Bi's when I started today. On Lock, They have shallow tables(Which on 4nl means the max Bi is $2).
Do you guys think it's better to play on these tables when your roll is sooo small.

It's I had been playing 4nl with the intention of hitting 20 buy-ins, and moving up too 10nl. After Boris posted to me the other day about hitting 100 Bi's. I did some thinking and some research, and I couldn't agree more. If I just played 4nl to 20 Bi's and moved up..... HA!!! Ready or not I can see that being a mistake. Boris said the magic word to me 'Variance' and @ 20 Bi's , who knows but there would probably be a lot less skill in it than if you fight it out to 100 Bi's.....

Thanks Boris

IS there not a 2nl table? Play 100bb at a 2nl table rather than 50bb at a 4nl table. Bigger stacks (in BB) favour better players as the money tends to go in over more streets which means more decisions to be made and more opportunities for villains to make mistakes.

Thanks man, glad my comments helped.

If you're really short and under-rolled, probably playing the short tables is a good idea until you can reload, but it will require a different game. I'm not a shortstacker, so I can't really help that much, but I know you'll want to:

1. Move in more preflop with hands that have good equity against a calling range. (Given the fold equity, I suspect moving in preflop with like JJ+ and AQ+ will be good, but again, I am not a shortstacker so I'm kind of guessing)

2. Be willing to get it in on the flop with good, one-pair type hands since the SPR will be low enough to make this generally good.

Generally, I wouldn't advise playing a short stack in terms of your long term development, since it won't really help your post-flop play very much, but if it's all you're rolled for right now, I guess it's better than not playing at all.

Are there any freeroll tourneys you could play on Lock? Again, not normally something I'd advise, but if there are you'd get some free hands in and hopefully make a little bit of roll from them.

Lastly, don't let it grind you down if you go broke. With the kind of super short roll you describe right now, you're pretty likely to bust out, so if you do don't start thinking it has anything to do with your game - it might do, but the best player in the world couldn't escape the high probability of going broke with such a short roll, so if you bust out just reload when possible and keep on grinding.

Definitely agree with playing on a site with 2nl until you build your role, partly to avoid the risk of busting out the first night of the month but also because your long term development will hugely benefit from being 100bb+ deep for each hand (as well as being able to exploit the fish to the maximum). Freerolls are certainly one way you can build your roll if you're desperate, but they can be annoying if you play for 3 hours to win 50c. It's the way I started though and you can learn a little bit about MTT play in these events.

Challenge is important for your long term development, but one option might be to put your money on a really fishy site in the short term (I've never played Lock so can't comment). The play on Sky Poker in the UK for instance (which is open to some other European countries) is just retarded at the lowest level of approx $6nl and you could easily roll $30 upwards just by not being an idiot - there's a lot of players on there that get given £10 free play and they literally do not have a clue.

I'm also with you re FTR - easily the most mature forum out there. You can give your opinion or bounce some ideas around without getting being insulted and all criticism is constructive.

BRM works two ways, when to move up, and when to move down. 100 buyins seems excessive to me at microstakes, but comfort level is important. I prefer a much more aggressive BRM approach, but I combine that with strict movedown points as well. At the end of the day, its important to come up with the plan that works for you, and then to be sure it really works for you, and isn't what you want it to be.

Yeah,

so I played about an hour session at the shallow table yesterday. I tripled my roll, So now I have two Bi's for the regular 4nl. I think I will switch back to them. I don't really like the shortstack play, and it def isn't helping my game.

i.e. I know from my PT3 I need to start being more Aggressive in the blinds when the BU is open-ra'ing. But its tough to 3bet in SB w/ say A8s with only 50bb's or less. So I'm just gonna play my regular game, and try not to think about my short roll.

so I played about an hour session at the shallow table yesterday. I tripled my roll, So now I have two Bi's for the regular 4nl. I think I will switch back to them. I don't really like the shortstack play, and it def isn't helping my game.

i.e. I know from my PT3 I need to start being more Aggressive in the blinds when the BU is open-ra'ing. But its tough to 3bet in SB w/ say A8s with only 50bb's or less. So I'm just gonna play my regular game, and try not to think about my short roll.

Typically you should have 20BI's minimum for any level you intend to play. You won money shallow, I would recommend you stay there until at LEAST 40$/10BI's. You wont learn much SSing but you wont learn anything being busto either.

Yeah,

Well,

I'm a bit more stacked now cause they gave me some of my sign-on bonus I asked for.

So, right now I have 6 Bi's for reg. 4nl & 12 for the shallow tables....

I'll run on the shallows for a couple more days here and see what I can do. Cause actually it doesn't take long to double-up, but you start to run into implied odds problems w/ the other shorties at the table.

Originally Posted by WeldPhaser

Yeah,

Well,

I'm a bit more stacked now cause they gave me some of my sign-on bonus I asked for.

So, right now I have 6 Bi's for reg. 4nl & 12 for the shallow tables....

I'll run on the shallows for a couple more days here and see what I can do. Cause actually it doesn't take long to double-up, but you start to run into implied odds problems w/ the other shorties at the table.

I am confused reading over this.... Are you playing the shallow tables?? If so is do you buy in full? Is this still considered shortstacking if the you buy in full? sorry for my confusion lol

Originally Posted by WeldPhaser

Yeah,

so I played about an hour session at the shallow table yesterday. I tripled my roll, So now I have two Bi's for the regular 4nl. I think I will switch back to them. I don't really like the shortstack play, and it def isn't helping my game.

i.e. I know from my PT3 I need to start being more Aggressive in the blinds when the BU is open-ra'ing. But its tough to 3bet in SB w/ say A8s with only 50bb's or less. So I'm just gonna play my regular game, and try not to think about my short roll.

Good to hear you made some money.

You say A8s for example would be hard to play because of a short stack, I think you can still 3bet-fold 50bb deep. I think a little further up the value scale, like AJs, you'd be better off just moving in if you've already got a 10bb 3bet in the pot and there's a ton of dead money to steal.

Just play the 100bb tables.