Novice NL player....any advice appreciated

[ringwielder]

A brief history of me -

Started playing limit poker 15 months ago at Truepoker on the $1/$2 tables. After a year had made $3000 profit, and was flattered to be considered a 'shark'. But in truth i didnt consider i was a good poker player, just that i understood the concept of pot odds and basically followed Sklansky's advice on starting hands (my thanks to Sir Sklanksy for his superb written teachings).

3 months ago i made the move into NL playing on the crypto network at Caribbean Sun Poker at the $25 tables (15c/25c blinds). Had some initial success down to good cards holding up in big pots, but also recognised some major flaws in my game (over betting, under betting, and some bloody awful all in decisions). I have a databse of about 17k hands in PT but i figure it took the first 7k hands before i felt reasonably comfortable with my game.

For my last 10k hands, my pt stats are:

VP$IP = 15.86%
PFR = 5.28%
W$WSF = 27.61%
WTSD = 22.39%
W$ASD = 61.57%
BB/100 = 6.19

IMO, i feel that my winrate is lower than what it should be, but my bigger concern is that my VP$IP% seems to be quite low, and i wonder if i should be seeing more flops? If so, should i be lowering my calling standards for earlier postion or for late position? Currently, in EP, i fold any suited cards lower than TJ....but i sometimes wonder whether hands like 8Js, 9Js, 9Qs, 9Ks are as bad as i believe them to be before late positions. I'm also reluctant to play hands like AQo, AJo, ATo any earlier than mid position (some bad early expierences leading the betting with a dominated hand).

I'll be putting in a few hand examples in the days to come. Thanks for listening /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[mudbuddha]

lookin at your stats, the first thing that strikes me is that your PFR is a bit low.. 6% is pretty passive preflop.. If your using poker tracker, here is a good post which i found very useful.. I hope i dont get in trouble for posting another site..
bet the pot (poker tracker advice) (http://www.bet-the-pot.com/poker-tracker-part-two-page32.html)

a good post on evaluating your own play (http://archiveserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=&Number=464069&page=&view= &sb=5&o=&fpart=1)

[Tuben]

wow 15% only thats rock for me atleast i have like 23%
You must be werry werry easy to read.

Maybe i am wrong. But i don think it is great too be to tight at cash games. Maybe in tournaments.

Maybe it isnt so tight that i think beacuse i dont known for sure,

[mudbuddha]

ah.. nothing wrong with playing tight as cash tables, when you bust them they leave anyways. i think its better to b tighter in cash games personally.. where you can play tight aggressive the whole time.

being tight in a tourny (STT) who u will see more hands with will catch on, dont u think? if their observant.. and when the blinds raise and u dont get cards your gonna have to loosen up and change gears anywyas

I agree, that while many styles can work, "tight is right" pre-flop. In a tourney, blinds go up--you can't sit around and wait for better starting hands or you'll get blinded away. Not so in a cash game.

Depending on your opponents, I feel that not limping in with Q-Jo is going to make me some money when I have A-Q against that guy and Q flops.

IMO, at the typical low buy-in NL game many players don't have the patience to wait for a better opportunity. Exercising a little more patience should lead to $$.

[mudbuddha]

the real question is whether you loosen up as ur stack gets deeper or tighter. for me its no question.. i tighten up as im winning and i loosen up when im loosing haha bad thinking patterns that i cant avoid i guess its also known as tilting

[Mackerel]

I think these stats look fine for somebody with only 3 months of NL experience. Granted, your BB/100 will improve if you loosen up a little and get a little more aggressive pf, but only when you have the judgement to open your game up correctly. That judgement develops with experience. I've always advised new players to crank there game down tight until their feel for the game improves (that goes for limit as well as NL). I think that's just sensible. However, if you are going to play more hands, play them in LP not EP, unless the table is very loose-passive and you can limp with hands upfront without a lot of fear about a raise behind you.

There is much more I could say about this, but I think you're on the right track, and my "work" day is over, so I need to get home and play some poker!

Best of luck,

Mack