Graduation (Warning Long)
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I've reached my move up goal of $1600 and that means it's time to say goodbye to the BC as far as posting my hands there is concerned. I'll be grinding 50NL with a 12BI loss limit as of tonight so hopefully I will never return to microstakes ever again!
So really just wanted to say thanks to everyone that contributes to the BC in a good way because it has helped me out a ton in the last year or so (even though I've not been playing for most of that time) I've always tried to visit and post while I've been in the country. I'm hoping that there will be plenty regs sticking around now iopq is gone to keep sensible poker content constant. After all stacks and that spenda dude can't do it all on their own can their own can they?
As a parting gift to the microgrinders and regs of the BC or anyone else who might find this useful. Here's the Carroters summarised guide to beating 25NL 6 max. I have no expereince below this stake, but I'm sure many of the same concepts apply to lower stakes.
The Carroters 25NL 6 Max Doctrine
The golden rule - Incase you haven't heard this before for some odd reason: VALUE. There's absolutely no excuse for not controling fancy play syndrome (FPS) in these games as it's just totally uneccessary. If you're finding yourself feeling all macho and egotistical vs regs then you aren't table selecting properly.
25NL Opponents
1. The Tagfeesh Reg: This guy will be multitabling and playing a pretty solid game capable of making money at these stakes. He's likely close to the toughest opponent you'll regularly encounter. Most of these multitabling regs have a good idea about what positional play is and are competent post flop compared to the rest of the field They rarely get too fancy and are easily exploited when you have position on them.
Vs these guys I'll take plenty of notes and learn their tendencies this is important since they'll likely be on some of your tables somewhat frequently. A lot of these regs suffer from FPS once you get into 3 betting wars preflop. By all means 3 bet them lightly in positon and find out how they react. This tends to tilt the shit out of them. Make sure though that you learn which ones like to fold to plenty 3 bets and which ones get messed up in cock comparisin wars. Vs the latter, it can be so profitablt to weight your 3 betting range heavily towards value and watch them explode.
So a general rule is to just not get caught up in 4 bet bluffing too much or getting too fancy. There are so many fish that we just don't need to be messing with these guys without a good read or a hand.
A few tips about the reg:
A) They tend to over adjust for the most part. If they see you 3 betting lightly one tme you can expect them to start calling 3 bets rediculously light so just tighten up and profit vs their spewage. These are mostly guys that understand what it is to be a good player but can't quite get there themselves so capitalise on they're failed efforts and over adjustment by not being reckless.
B) The 25NL reg generally c bets far too much and gives up on the turn. It can be pretty profitable to flat hands in position vs the more predicatble ones and float flops or c/r flops with some equity. Beware though as many regs are volatile and over adjust post flop too so don't play back at them constantly.
C) These guys are still fundementally stations. There is no need to feel you cannot bet like KJ on J 8 3 3 2 for 3 streets of value etc as you usually can town them.
So in summary if the 25NL reg is a thinking aggro one: let him level himself and stack his ass with your value hands because he's probably bad.
2. The Stationy Limping Donk: These guys are literally all over the place. A good way of finding them is to table select using the % of players seeing the flop stat in the lobby.
So how do we exploit these bread and butter fish. Value bet and value bet some more. B/f is a great line to take as they will commonly just call with mediocre hands and then min riase when they actually have something. So we can value bet thinly for 3 streets until they raise. Preflop, we can isolate them in position all day long but with a range containing hands that are likely to flop top pair or good draws/monsters. What I mean is KJo is better to isolate with than 64s, because we dominate their limp calling ranges and thes guys don't fold on flops often so we want to have something to town them with, not a gutshot and back door flush draw because out FE is usually minimal. These guys are your bread and butter money source so seek out tables full of them.
3. The timid limping bot: These guys are even better in some ways than the limping station. You can isolate them with a ton of hands preflop as they either fold right there or call and fold to a c-bet. They are very fit or foldy, but also felt top pair no kicker with minimal thought. Iso hands like 75s or anything with a sliver of potential provided the blinds are tightish and you'll show good profit vs these idiots. C bet close to 100% of flops when you identify the guy as one of these. Their stats are usually like 45/8 fold to c bet of 60% or higher.
4. The crazy ass spew bucket: These are the 25NL maniacs. They generally run like 65/14 or something and just spew off chips in every way possible. They min riase bluff flops, min riase 3 bet bluff or just call down with A high. They are absolute stations and crazy maniacs at the same time and all we do is wait for top pair and profit. Nuff said really I think.
5. The TAG nit: This is a nit that runs like 12/8 or something and knows how to raise and be positionally aware. They will 3 bet only the nuts, play loads of tables and never adjust to anyone. Steal their blinds, flat them with god implied odds hands in position and fold marginal stuff like AJs when they open. They proivide plenty of slow steady income from surrendering their blinds. If one of these is in the bb I'll open close to any 2 on the button depending on the SB.
6. The pasive uber nit: 9/2 or something like that usually. They limp call stuff like TT and AQs so just stay out of their way and take their blinds.
Some players don't fall in to any category but this is generaly what you can expect. There are LAG regs sometimes in these games, but they are far less common than those groups I've discussed and usually suck. If you meet a good one, change tables but this will be rare. Generally they level the shit out of themselves based on their percieved aggressive loose image.
Okay so those are the players types I've won money form in the last 6 weeks.
Now for some general principles. Please take these with a grain of salt since 1. obv I'm no expert and 2. They are general principles and exceptions will always apply as with evrything in poker. Also, they aren't in any particular order so this may be a bit of an unorganised rant.
1. Don't play too laggish, it just isn't profitable given the amount of stations around and you probably aren't god enough to pul it off. Opening 56s utg isn't cool when you're table has a players to flop % of 36. I think 25/21 or something is fine, but when you get to the likes of 34/28 this is better saved for low stakes where you have some fold equity if you insist on being a LAG one day at all that is.
2. Linked to that last concept of FE, never auto pilot raise a draw. Sometimes we just have to play draws passively at these stakes since our opponent may always have top pair or better that he isn't ever folding. Therefore, we have awesome implied odds, but less than 50% equity to felt the flop. Learn to recognise these spots and profit.
EG. Villain is a type 2 player (^^^^ see above) running 44/7 over 100 hands. We get 8d7d and open on the CO, Villain flats in the bb.
Flop is Kd Jd 5h: we bet the flop and he min raises. Now we know this guy is passive with like his entire B range, so we can deduce this is his A range and our FE is minimal. SO we obviously call the flop and his retardedly small turn bet unimproved. Then on the river we make a flush and he bets small again say 1/3 pot. We can riase huge here against this guy and get paid. This bring us to the next principle.
3. Don't thoughtlessly bet small because (you want to get paid)
Often the 25NL regs and stations alike will decide they aren't folding regardless of the bet size. Say we've bet KK for 2 streets on Q 6 6 2 6 as PFR and the pot is 13 on the river. Villain is stationy and always stacks off with top pair. His range here is mostly Qs and hands like 99 88 etc. So just be like 12. He probably never folds much of his range for any bet size so don't think "ohh I'll bet 8 b/c I'm gonna town him." Money we fail to win from stations is as good as money thrown away.
4. Rarely flat AA KK QQ preflop to an open. There are certain few times when this is good, but wont go into them b/c most of the time it sucks. People call 3 bets so lightly in general and commit themselves in 3 bet pots with top pair or some shitty draw. It's nonsensical to slowplay premium hands pre vs a huge % of opponents.
5. Don't slowplay post flop if villain is likely to have any piece of the board. This is obvious, but don't autopilot slow play like 55 on KQ5 when a passive villain has just c bet into 3 opponents and it folds round to you on the BU. Build the pot and get stacks in. With a strong hand vs passive fish that's betting, get your fucking stack in! I can't stress this enough.
6. Size bets in order to achieve the last sentence of point 5. If you've got a type 2 raggy-ace playing, limp/calling, station in an Iso'ed pot calling your c-bet on an ace high flop when you have AQ, pot the turn and pot that fucking river or overbet it because he's never folding.
Remember the mantra - value we fail to get is the same as money we lose.
7. Only 4 bet bluff if you know the reg 3 betting from the blinds is a simple robot one and not a cock waver. These spots are rare but they do exist so look out if you see a 12% 3 bettor that sucks and autopliot 3 bet folds all the time.
8. Table select to hell mofo and avoid tables full of nitty regs. Sure you can outplay them, but not as massively as you can the feeshes!
9. As a general rule don't felt TT JJ AQ preflop. This is hugely -EV since 3 betting rnages are in general still very tight. Please don't do this just because you've seen the guy 4 bet once already or some bullshit reason like that.
10. Steal assloads of blinds. People call out of the blinds too much, but they suck and fold to c bets too much or call down too much. It doesn't matter. Steal blinds wide as hell because postflop everyone sucks so even if they do start calling you with a wider range preflop, they own themselves post flop all the time oop. Also being tight in the first 2 positions and opening up your game from the CO is awesome because not only do you get to play loads ofm pots with fish in position, you also give yourself a loose aggro image. This means the fish will start calling you lightly when you open your stornger range utg because they are positionally unaware retards. It's a flawless system to run like 21/18 ATS = 38 if you know what you're doing post flop and not FPSing all over the place.
Okay this thing's gone on long enough. Sorry about the unorganised mess of it, but hopefully it helps those moving up to 25NL 6 max or what not and those playing it just now.
I'll continue to post in the BC on other's thred obviously, but as far as this being my home is concerned, goodbye oh faithful BC. I hope the up and coming microstakes noobs can imporve at a good rate and keep this place ticking over in the future as we all graduate to 50Nl and beyond.
Thanks to stacks, spenda, M2M, Boog, Surviva, Dranger, Oskar, Daven etc etc all the folks that post here regularly and keep decent advice and analysis filtering through the streams of freetrolling garbage. I'd be able to list a dozen others that have helped solidify the BC over the last few months and helped me with my game but fuck it, y'all know who you are anyways I'm sure.
Thanks to IOPQ for postingadivce in every one of my threads always. RIP Sir.
I can haz same win rate at 50 ennels? Guess we'll find out.
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