I posted this in the BC, its my observations and thoughts on 5nl. If any low micro players see this, they can have a look, hopefully there is something to take away from this:

-Typical passive player, instead of running 30/3/1.5 now they run 20/3/1.5 (just slightly weaker/nittier but not much more)

-Lots of regs running >10/2/3 Some as low as 5/2/2 just very nitty.

-Ran into players who would limp AA even from UTG just to be trappy

-Learn to play large pots w/ TPTK or even middle pair against the maniacs. Its tough b/c
“I” would never go into a big pot with worse than TPTK but “they” will.

-Learn to size your value bets….I hear a lot of talk about “pot, pot, shove” and sure against some you can, but when the board isn’t too threatening and the villain is weak, you cant always pot the flop. If the flop is $.70, you may need to bet 2/3 to keep a weak villain in there. You have to manipulate them a little to make some money off an extra bet.

-When you put a player on a range, and at showdown he shows up with the top portion of that range and beats you, it doesn’t mean your range was bad, it just simply means that he showed up with the best part of that range in this particular hand. I had a hand that bugged me for a bit. I had 2 pair and a fish stacked me with a set. I was sure that he would do that with a variety of TP hands, 2 pair hands and sets…..Illfavor reassured me that it was a proper call given his tendencies…he just happened to have the best possible hand given his possible range, but our call vs that range was a good call.

-Don’t be too aggressive….what do I mean? I remember in 2nl I would have say AK on a K high flop and villain would bet into me maybe ½ pot. I would immediately reraise b/c “I haz TPTK…I need moneez”, and then they would fold. You sometimes have to call a few streets when it looks like opponent is well behind. Let them hang themselves once in a while. This is villain and read dependant but you cant blow every opponent out of the pot just because “calling seems weak” and raising is cooler than calling. The idea is to make the most money possible against that particular opponent, given what cards you have, villain has and what the board contains.

-Cbet flop almost every time against loose passive players (the ones that run 20-30 vpip and pfr >5), unless the flop contains 2-3 overs, I cbet them with success.

-Play your pocket pairs and raise them pre. Esp if there are a lot of loose passives, you will win a lot of pots with cbets.

-I had to adjust my 3betting a little. Rather than always 3betting with KK, AA with position against a weak opponent, I sometimes just called their raise. Seems strange but I found them to fold a lot b/c they would only continue with the strongest of hands…so I flatted and let them into the pot with a wider range. Some may disagree, b/c yes I have AA so what am I worried about, well they wont call my 3bet without QQ+ which doesn’t happen often enough to 3bet imo. Let them come in w/ AQ and win a decent size pot.

-Punish limpers….I still didn’t do this enough but I worked on it. The tables are full of loose passives who fold a lot preflop to raises after limping, so raise and profit.

-There is a lot of money to be made in multiple small pots. I didn’t go to showdown often and didn’t get into a lot of all-ins…but I had tonnes and tonnes of small HU pots where I won on the flop with a cbet (after I missed). These types of pots were often against…. you guessed it, loose passives.

-Unless it’s a maniac, 3bets usually mean big hands so don’t let the ego get involved.

-Set mining is hugely profitable vs regs running 5/2/3…they don’t fold they’re big pairs.

-Unless it’s a maniac, big overbet/shoves are usually with strong hands. Many players you run into can’t build a pot worth shit, and they shove to look like they are bluffing, don’t fall for it unless you have a strong read.

-When it comes to playing the really, really terrible players, don’t let your “I’m better than him” ego take control. You cant call every river bet they make just b/c they suck. Shitty players still get monsters too, the cards aren’t prejudiced.

-Take notes…..bet sizing, timing tells, stack off w/ draws, if they go for broke w/ TPTK etc…

-I had very little chat with other players. You don’t want to be at 5nl long enough to get to know them.

-Make sure you review hands you played bad in and see where it went wrong. Don’t waste your fucking time looking at coolers, look at hands where you stacked off w/ TPTK vs a pretty straightforward player who reraises the turn and shoves the river…. Why did you call and where did you go wrong?

-I learned to double barrel a few times vs weak players on boards that were non threatening and contained low cards.