1st Month 5NL - Tell me where I suck!!!

[Sam62]

So I just finished my first full month on 5NL. I lost around $23 I learned alot though

I also took out a 3 month Grinders School membership. I am loving the videos so far. I have been reviewing my hands in PT3 and have reviewed one to many hero calls The final night of the month I ran HORRIBLE ... I was putting people on correct ranges and flopping bad flops. I feel I folded when I should which was hard after 2.5 Buy In's worth of 5-10% outs bad beats. Then came Quad 5's over my AAA1010 boat I kept my cool and ended the night only down like $7 which I think is a big success for 200 Hands saw 17% flops and won 2 out of 7 showdowns I am excited about tonight because as my graph shows I had a night very similar to this and started to hero call ... because there was no way they had the nuts AGAIN (chart going down)

I have played poker online for awhile, but never to serious. I read a few books and would consider myself an average losing player. I decided to focus on cash games and read and post here and track and show my results. My goal for month 1 was alot of hands to flush out leaks and maximize learning opportunities.

Month 2 I plan on going from 4 tables to 2 and focusing on appling what I learn here and from Grinder School and once I feel ready to go back to 4 tables and grind up to 10NL.

Thanks for the feedback!!!!

My Month

[TheBowlBoy]

Sounds like you're on the right track. Keep posting hands and thinking critically about your own play and you'll do fine imo.

[Sasquach991]

Start an OP.

[TheBowlBoy]

For some reason, I didn't notice your garphs last nite when I replied which is why gave such vague advice.

You seem to be very aggressive which can be a good thing but you might want to tone it down a bit.

Sample size is pretty small but it looks like your completing way too often in the SB.

I think you should tighten up a lot UTG and UTG+1 and stick to AK, AQs and pp's there. There's really no need to balance your range in early position at this level as most villains are rather clueless when it comes to the subject.

I'd maybe cut down on the cold calling as well. I usually associate cold calling wide ranges with the intent of floating or raising a lot of cbets and taking pots away from the pre flop aggressor in position. The problem is, its NL5 and you don't really outplay people. They outplay themselves, so stick to situations where you can valuetown them.

[ArcadianRock]

If you're at 5NL you will want to play more conservative than not. Completing the SB is causing you to lose major money.

You don't really play poker at 5NL as well, people make so many mistakes that you just need to ride the money wave until you get to higher levels where poker does come into play. Tighten up your starting hands and when you have a hand, bet, bet bet, because that's the only way you'll make up for being drawn out on.

[jyms]

Ok first off, if you belong to grinderschool watch JGB's vid on Gap theory.
2) Stop calling from the SB, I don't care how cheap it is.
3) Stop open limping, EVER.
4) This is key, you make all your money at micro stakes by betting good hands for value and not paying of hands better than yours. Bluff less, and don't slow play anything. Nobody is paying attention but their two cards so you won't make them fold second pair so bet top pair all the time and fold to raises.

Your going to showdown way to much. Cbet your missed flops and give up if called. Stop calling river bets

[Sam62]

Thanks for the feedback!!! Keep it coming ...

I just got the Grinder School membership. The last 400-500 hands are post Grinder School. My SB is high ... I will review that again to beat it in my head. I called way to many river bets ... That is something I have improved on.

Month 2 = Profit

[Jason]

If you're consistently losing @ $5NL, my guess is that there are MANY fundamental poker concepts that you have not grasped or are not putting into practice. If you haven't already, I'd recommend reading "Theory of Poker" by Sklansky followed by "Professional No Limit Volume I" by Miller, Mehta, and Flynn and finally "No Limit Theory and Practice" by Sklansky. Keep watching videos and reading this forum, too. If you truly absorb, learn, and apply most of that material, you should be a winner through $25NL in today's environment if not further.

If you are not a proven winner @ $2NL meaning you've won $60 from ONLY playing $2NL cash games, I would recommend dropping down and doing that. A big problem losing players have is they don't start at the bottom and learn to be a winner there. That leads me to my next point that you need to follow what I consider good bankroll management. You need at least 30 buy-ins to play any level of no limit, so to play $5NL, you need $150, not $50. If you deposited $50 on PokerStars, you should play $2NL and win the $60 to prove you're a winner @ $2NL and THEN enough money to push it up to $150 to be rolled for $5NL, which would be another $40 - that's 45 total buy-ins you need to win @ $2NL. You could "cheat" and deposit $40 more to start you off so you only need to win the 30 buy-ins, but if you're losing @ $5NL, I would probably recommend you take it nice and slow and just get used to winning.

Generally speaking, I try not to put too much stock into graphs and stats, but you seem to be losing a LOT of money in the blinds. It looks like you're calling too many raises out of position from the big blind and completing too many small blinds. Just because you get a discount in the small blind doesn't mean your hand will play well or that it's worth that price. When you do play from those positions, you should consider raising more and many times if it's not worth a raise, it's probably not worth calling either. Notice the difference between your VPIP and PFR for all other positions compared to the small blind and big blind. The difference between the other hands is small meaning you play aggressively and are rewarded. The difference between the blinds is smaller so you're probably playing your hands weakly from there and it's translating to bigger losses that you should expect.

That's my advice. Good luck with the journey!

[jjbish]

+whatever on completing from SB. And even calling a pfr from bb which it seems you do too.

As for your comment on hero calls. The vast majority at this level don't have the capacity to pull huge bluffs. If you really think you're beat, you usually are. I think this is why your wtsd is a lil higher than I expect at FR too.