so i was hoping to have alot of AH-HA revelations during the course of mastering 50nl and 100nl and then posting them on here to shorten the learning curve for others, but that hasn't been the case. i don't feel i've really made exponential advancements in my poker knowledge. instead, it's been pretty much like how others have said, you just start understanding the meaning of concepts in a way that allows you to play better. with that said, i think the best advice i can give is to play alot if you want to get better. and i don't mean 10 table for an hour. i just mean spend more time playing poker. and try to understand what is going on. i don't think this can be done very efficiently playing alot of tables. in my opinon, if you playing to learn, you shouldn't play more than 4 tables. if you're playing to earn, then by all means play as many tables as you feel comfortable with. well since some of you reading this are probably thinking "wft that's all you've got for me?" i figured i might make a guideline of sorts, on what concepts you should be focusing on at a certain level. i have no basis for this other than i was at these levels when i started working on them........(note: there are some concepts i haven't mentioned like table selection, opponent's hand ranges, etc. anything i don't mention should be worked on from day 1 imo. k thx)

10nl and lower
- i believe your primary focus at these levels should be working on hand selection. i don't think positional play is too relevant at these stakes. that's not saying there aren't people that do alot of stealing, or have a wider range in later position, just that you don't have to have it to be successful. in fact, i think it can hinder your play sometimes. you'll find yourself trying to outplay an opponent, one who doesn't even take your hand into consideration when deciding his actions, and end up owning yourself.
so back to the point, work on your hand selection by having a relatively strong range. hands that when they hit, you can be fairly confident you have the best hand. which brings me to my next point.

- learn how to play your hands. that means more than figuring out what wins and what doesn't. that means learning how to play your TPTK on different boards, when and how much to bet, etc. learn to recognize when your hand is beat.

- take notes. this is how you learn to make reads. by noting how your opponents play their hands, their style of play, etc. anything that you think will help you have an edge against your opponent when you play them again.

- learn to classify your opponents. if you have tracking software and haven't already, download some autorules. if you don't use software, manually take notes. use common terms, like station, tight aggressive, extra loose, whatever. the point of doing this, of course, is so you know how to exploit them.

when you are able to do these things, you should be able to beat these limits. which brings us to the key concepts of......

20/25nl

- work on keeping a stronger range than your opponent's. this is done by watching hands your opponents are involved in, not just the ones you are in. if you see an opponent who is playing any ace, you should be focusing on having an ace with med-high kickers.

- start working on positional play, which to me encompasses the following strategies:
1. expanding your hand selection in later positions/ learning how to play implied odds hands
2. stealing blinds
the purpose of stealing blinds is to increase your winnings. the key concept as to why this works is position. you are forcing opponents to play out of position in a raised pot with a marginal hand. most opponents will not do this because they believe it will lose them more money than they will win. once you identify opponents who think like this, you start opening more marginal hands against them. the main reason this is done in the later positions is to keep opponents, acting after you, from taking advantage of your weaker range.
by practicing blind stealing, you are learning how to play more marginal hands. but, these marginal hands have the potential to have big payoffs for you, which is why they're called implied odds hands. if you want more info on implied odds hands, check out these threads.....
http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...20odds%20hands
the last post in this one....
http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...20odds%20hands
and you can search for more on here

so then comes 50nl
- aggression. you will start seeing alot of aggressive opponents from here on out. but just because they're aggressive doesn't mean they're good players. so you have to learn how to deal with aggression, and how to dish it out. 3 and 4 betting becomes a little more rampant.

- spew. you will start finding out that things you were able to do before you can't do now. and if you don't learn how to identify leaks and plug them, you're going to get murdered. if you have poker tracking software, here's a link that will help you out.....
http://www.jimmakos.com/en/online-po...r-tracker.html

- bluffing is something that is something you'll see more of at this level. the key is to learn to when it's likely an opponent is bluffing.
the keys are reads, the board, and the player's betting. also, don't over think bluffing. it's a great tool but don't overuse it. that'll just get you owned.



well i think that about sums it up for now. if i think of some more things i'll add them