Joined: Oct '13
Location: Philippines
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 54
Hello everyone. I've decided to make a little guide for beginners (and possibly intermediate players) on 2nl. I've had a pretty solid run (may just be luck though) 2nl on partypoker and would like to share a little knowledge I have on the community.
I've been playing on partypoker since last december and is currently playing on 4nl. Click here . When I was on 2nl, I won $90 on the course of 20k hands (again, maybe just got lucky). Here's the graph:
This will mainly focus on 6max tables but can also be applied to full ring tables.
Disclaimer: Use the guide at your own risk. I will not be responsible for any loses that you might have.
With that said let's get down to business.
First we'll start with position. Yes fellas, position is very important in poker. After the dealer button are the blinds, which is the worst position anyone can have in poker. You have to put mandatory bets and you are out of position most of the time. The player next to the blinds is UTG (under the gud), he is the first to act pre-flop. Next to UTG is MP (middle position) also known as hi-jack. Then there is CO (cut-off) which is the second best position you can have. Then last and definitely the best position is BU (button) because you can act last post-flop.
The basic strategy of this guide would be tight/aggressive playstyle. We will rarely slowplay. We'll bet when we think we are ahead and fold if we have reason to believe we're not. We will be tighter when we are in the early position. When we are first in the pot, we will open raise and if someone limped, we will also raise. Our raise will also be 3x the big blind + 1 big blind for every limper. If we are going to 3-bet, we will raise 3x the original raise + 1x the original raise for every person that called the raise.
UTG 10+ A10s+ AKo+ We will mostly be out of position when we are utg so we need to maintain a tighter range of hands.
MP 77+ A8s+ AQo+ K10s+ QJs+
CO 22+ A2s+ A10o+ K9s+ K10o+ Q10s+
BU 22+ A2s+ A10o+ K2s+ K9o+ Q8s+ Q10o+
Small blind would be same as the CO and Big blind would be same as the BU. This first part would be for raising, meaning nobody has raised yet, and calling a raise. The next part will be 3-betting ranges and calling 3-bet ranges.
Joined: Mar '11
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 7371
These guides can be very helpful or equally very confusing. I personally think that the best way to learn is to play and adjust to the mistakes you make. To try and follow someone else is not for me but anyone who follows you guide i wish them all the best and i hope they are successful
Posted by adok: The basic strategy of this guide would be tight/aggressive playstyle. We will rarely slowplay. We'll bet when we think we are ahead and fold if we have reason to believe we're not. We will be tighter when we are in the early position. When we are first in the pot, we will open raise and if someone limped, we will also raise.
Congrats 4 your success. Thats basically ABC poker, and these are the things every cg beginner learns when starts to play. I agree with doubletop777 everybody should learn from their own mistakes. But dont let my opinion disencourage you. Also good TAG players dont go into set mining with small pocket pairs even from late position, its hardly worth it.
Joined: Oct '13
Location: Philippines
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 54
Posted by doubletop777: These guides can be very helpful or equally very confusing. I personally think that the best way to learn is to play and adjust to the mistakes you make. To try and follow someone else is not for me but anyone who follows you guide i wish them all the best and i hope they are successful
Yes, I do believe that experience is the best teacher. I made this guide because a lot of people still make mistakes in starting hands selection and forgetting the importance of position. This is intended for beginners and also old players who are still fishy at the tables.
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Posted by bowie1984:
Posted by adok: The basic strategy of this guide would be tight/aggressive playstyle. We will rarely slowplay. We'll bet when we think we are ahead and fold if we have reason to believe we're not. We will be tighter when we are in the early position. When we are first in the pot, we will open raise and if someone limped, we will also raise.
Congrats 4 your success. Thats basically ABC poker, and these are the things every cg beginner learns when starts to play. I agree with doubletop777 everybody should learn from their own mistakes. But dont let my opinion disencourage you. Also good TAG players dont go into set mining with small pocket pairs even from late position, its hardly worth it.
Anyways it's just a guide and anyone can change any part of it. The good thing about small pocket pairs is that it's an easy fold post flop and can be very profitable when you connect.
Joined: Oct '13
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 41 (M)
Posts: 175
Good guide adok, 2 differences from my point of view. I open wider from every position. Only slightly but certainly every pair. Also my bet sizing is smaller.
Posted by adok: Anyways it's just a guide and anyone can change any part of it. The good thing about small pocket pairs is that it's an easy fold post flop and can be very profitable when you connect.
I do not want to argue, and your intentions are clear and very positive to me. But I think openlimp with 22, 33 or 44 is not a tight move, folding post flop if you not connect but still in position isnt agressive. Many guys do this on micro stakes, none of them are TAG players.
Joined: May '11
Location: Canada
Age: 34 (M)
Posts: 979
Posted by bowie1984: But I think openlimp with 22, 33 or 44 is not a tight move, folding post flop if you not connect but still in position isnt agressive. Many guys do this on micro stakes, none of them are TAG players.
I use that general tactic if I know the table is passive but I'm also a LAG
Joined: Oct '13
Location: Philippines
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 54
I made this guide so that the fishy players get a GRASP of how to play tight aggressive.
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Posted by Nastasha1982: Good guide adok, 2 differences from my point of view. I open wider from every position. Only slightly but certainly every pair. Also my bet sizing is smaller.
I also open wider. This is not my personal playstyle. I made this only to give fish players who, say open limps with j7s UTG, know how garbage that hand is and that he should throw it away.
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Posted by bowie1984:
Posted by adok: Anyways it's just a guide and anyone can change any part of it. The good thing about small pocket pairs is that it's an easy fold post flop and can be very profitable when you connect.
I do not want to argue, and your intentions are clear and very positive to me. But I think openlimp with 22, 33 or 44 is not a tight move, folding post flop if you not connect but still in position isnt agressive. Many guys do this on micro stakes, none of them are TAG players.
Open raising pocket pairs doesn't mean that you will always play passively post-flop when you don't connect. You can always c-bet flop and turn, depending on texture, which I will also discuss in the future. And yes, even the fishiest of fish do this. It's not like TAGs are the only one who can 3-bet aces right?
Joined: May '11
Location: Canada
Age: 34 (M)
Posts: 979
At the end of the day I think poker is to diverse of a game to just set guidelines for and expect to become successful because a good poker player will know how to exploit it. I think its more a matter of actual experience that really defines a player. Not really disagreeing with your chart, I do think its a good thing to give a guideline to someone who's starting though because it gives them a base to build off of and from there they can edit it and find what exactly works for them.
Joined: Oct '13
Location: Philippines
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 54
PART 2
3-betting, Calling 3-bets vs 5-betting, and 3-betting against a steal
3-betting is when you re-raise someones initial raise. There are a lot of purpose to 3-betting. This is what I can think of at the moment but it's not definitely limited only to this list
1. To isolate a player, or to thin down the field. 2. To put more money in the pot when we have premium hands. 3. To re-steal a possible steal from late position 4. Have the initiative post-flop
For the purpose of the guide, we will only 3-bet premium hands. In any position, we should only 3 bet with QQ+ and AK. When we are facing a 4-bet, we will take into account our position. When we are out of position, it is better to just 5-bet shove (assuming we have 100bb) all of our premium hands. However, if we are in position against our opponent or we are deep (200bb+), flatting AK and QQ is fine but we should generally 5bet AA and KK. The reason for this is that because we are in position, we can make better decisions post-flop.
We can also 3-bet when we think our opponent is stealing the blinds. Steals usually happens in late position (CO, BU).
eg. You have KQs and you are in the big blind. It was folded on the button who open raises 2x the big blind and you suspect him to be stealing. you can 3-bet here to 6x the big blind. If you get called then you should be more careful post-flop.
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Posted by Jibberish: At the end of the day I think poker is to diverse of a game to just set guidelines for and expect to become successful because a good poker player will know how to exploit it. I think its more a matter of actual experience that really defines a player. Not really disagreeing with your chart, I do think its a good thing to give a guideline to someone who's starting though because it gives them a base to build off of and from there they can edit it and find what exactly works for them.
Yes, that is actually the purpose of this. When a player grasp the basic of the game, they can modify the strategy to what suits their playstyle best. This style is very exploitable especially when you move up in stakes but at 2nl, this is quite profitable. This is just ABC poker but I learned this the hard way so maybe I can help a few beginners with this guide.
