A new member

[Tobler]

Hi, first post

As stated in intorduse yourself sticky thead I'm relatively new to NL. I have played house game's with friends on and off for years, 5 card draw with wild cards that sort of home game. Why NL now, well a friend at work talked me into playing in a local charitable NL game at his church 6 months ago.Since then I've been hooked. Playing in 6 more event's cashing in the last 2.

Also in the last 6 month's been playing on Poker Stars, play money. Lurking sites such as 2p2, Ed Millers site and ofcourse this one to get a better understanding of how the game is played. Since I was playingwithplay money felt no need to post heredue to fact it wasn't real money topics.

It will be 5 weeks this coming Wednesday that I have been playing with real money. Not posting anything as of yet, due to the fact that I didnt know how long my deposit would last. the first week was a new experience for me learning the patience of the game.Since I wasn't to patient I was playing like a donk at $10 NL tables. So i took a day off and started reading the sites again, trying to find where I'm making my mistakes. Which was playing to loose and chasing to many hands.

Remembering Aokrongly's 19 starting hands, I moved up to $25 NL tables. Having the bakroll for this table and feeling like it would force me to play smarter and to stick to Aokrongly's advice. Probably not recommended but I went ahead and did it anyways. And week 2 brought me success, adding to bankroll and feeling good. Week 3 was well variance week, losing what I won in week 2. Not trusting my reads on a few hands, basically paying to see If I made the right read. Well I was and losing money in the process. Week 4 brought me Poker Office so I could start analyzing my bad plays from my good one's. So far so good I'm in the plus this week.

So that's my history and hoping the future will treat me well.

First question and most likely many more to come.

Since I am sticking to Aokrongly's advice, and getting the table of a TAG, only strong hands and playing them aggressively. When do I loosen up a bit as far as starting hands go. I understand position is everything when it comes to that, but what hands should I go with.Or should I not bother with that part of the game until I get some more experience playing.

[euphoricism]

Welcome to the boards. You can stick with AOK's strategy until you know WHY and WHEN to deviate from it. You'll get there, it'll be like a lightbulb

[XTR1000]

Hi and welcome to the world´s greatest forums. good to have you here!

sticking with AOK´s 19´s is fine in the beginning, if you want to open up, this will be the first step:
http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...renton%B4s+169
http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...renton%B4s+169
http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...renton%B4s+169

[Chopper]

to start off, i am an aok deciple (horrible spelling), too. however, i never got quite that tight.

i never deviated from my "starting hands" for at least 30k or so. and cleaned up. but, i started "opening up" and WHAMMO! variance, or so i thought.

on thing i settled on, however, is to "hide" behind habitual open-limpers. i have position and gain valuable, relatively inexpensive experience in playing a looser range.

things like sc's and gappers. i love to hide with 79s and hit an oe draw on the flop. and bet it out anyway. then hit it on the turn!!

you'll see stuff like that soon enough...most likely from the blinds first when you hit the "big blind special." and you may try it a few times in position...then, you will start to find "fun" hands to play.

and, WHAMMO!! on comes the light.

welcome.