New $5+.50 player

(I have read the FAQ's, but this is only my 2nd post. Please be nice /images/graemlins/wink.gif

My current bankroll is around $55. I don't really want to go through the hassle of depositing more through neteller, but I really want to try some STT's (As opposed to the $1+.20 45 person MTT's I am currently running.) I Have about 200 $1's under my belt, and this took me from $35 to $55.

I don't have poker tracker, but I have recorded some results in a spreadsheet. I have a pretty good grasp of pot odds, Fold Equity, and when to start "Pushbotting".

If anyone has experience going from $1 to $5, or general experience with $5's, I would love to hear from you. Any other missing information you might need, please ask.

Thanks for all your kind replies /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[mlagoo]

push preflop

[bawcerelli]

don't play turbo's

Tight early, push late. Don't be afraid to fold a good hand if there's a good chance you're beat. Listen to the warning bells and take their chips later. Discretion is the better part of valor.

[cha59]

[ QUOTE ]
Tight early, push late. Don't be afraid to fold a good hand if there's a good chance you're beat. Listen to the warning bells and take their chips later. Discretion is the better part of valor.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is good general strategy.

If you really want to keep getting better, read this forum a lot, and post interesting hands here.

[unreal_nh]

these might help you...

Link 1 (http://archiveserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=&Number=591779&page=&v iew=&sb=5&o=&fpart=)

Link 2 (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Number=602767&page=&view=&sb =5&o=)

[crew]

Read those links, and other posts, in order to improve your game. In terms of bankroll, you definitely have the risk of ruin with only a 11 buy in roll. If you play goot, you will be okay. The play quality will be as bad as you can imagine.

I've actually already seen those links, thanks for the repost though. I guess I'll give a few a try, see how it goes.

With my BR, how many SNG's can I safely play, then call it quits? I'm guessing play 4-5 to gauge how I stack up to the general playerbase?

[ThrillFactor]

[ QUOTE ]
I've actually already seen those links, thanks for the repost though. I guess I'll give a few a try, see how it goes.

With my BR, how many SNG's can I safely play, then call it quits? I'm guessing play 4-5 to gauge how I stack up to the general playerbase?

[/ QUOTE ]


If you're here, and you've looked around, and you have just a basic understanding of the concepts you listed in your original post, then you're lightyears ahead of the general playerbase.

But do yourself a favor and deposit $100. With just 10 buy-ins you're going to be scared money and so risk-adverse on the bubble that you're going to need the deck to run over you to see any kind of return.

[JGlo]

If you have any basic understanding of the game, which it sounds like you do, you will be fine in the $5 SNGs. I have found that it goes something like this....

$5 sng - 4 people at the table have some idea of what they are doing. They just have to avoid the bad beat from a donk at the table and compete with each other to get ITM.

$10 sng - 5 people

$20 sng - 6 people

Play tight early on, when you catch a hand, bust'em because they will call anything at the $5.

[Ragnarok]

I started out about 3 months ago at the 5's. I put $50 into netteller and never needed to reload. I would highly recommend reading HOH 1 and 2 (especially HOH 1 right away), play tight early and aggressive (but smart) always. By just folding everything but the top 4-6 hands the first 3 rounds and playing aggresive after that you will typically make it into the money half the time (that may be overestimating it, but that what it seemed like to me). Then when you have a bit bigger bankroll, you can start mixing it up a little and seeing how you do. This is probably what you do in the MTT anyways.

One other thing, just because you know what pot odds and fold equity are, don't expect the others at your $5 tables to. Making bets that don't give your opponents the proper odds to call will almost always not be effective.

I am not an expert by any means, but not too many people on these boards have probably played any 5+.50 recently (I currently play the 20's).

[GtrHtr]

It really depends on what site you are playing. If you are playing on Party, you should probably reload and play the 11s. If PS or UB, I'd say you are still under rolled but at least the rake isn't eating up your ROI as much.

[lorinda]

You probably have quite large downsides in those $1.20s (Yes I play them more often than I should) and I'd say that keeping yourself a 35-40 buyin roll is paramount.

If you CAN deposit again, but would rather not, I'd drop this to 25-30, but you then run the risk of all kinds of nasty things happening to you.

You may also with to try the 1c/2c NL ring games and just buyin for $1 at a time and play incredibly tight, this may boost your roll faster than anything else.

Just some thoughts.

Lori

[Phill S]

[ QUOTE ]
push preflop

[/ QUOTE ]

What a dick.

4th person ever to go on ignore.

Phill

Thanks so much for all your replies- the first guy really had me worried that this thread would just be flamebait.

The 1c/2c suggestion I might try, but I always seem to do poorly in ring games. Maybe the donks calling with A-rag will help out?

[IdiotVig]

I started out on the 5.50s on Stars. If that's where you're playing, then:

1.) The player pool is huge at this level, so don't worry about varying your play, ever. ABC poker is all you'll need, and even then, variance can still swallow up an 11-buyin bankroll.

2.) Be tight and disciplined early. ATo may look great UTG in the middle of level 2 with 9 players still remaining, but you still have to be able to muck this type of hand, even if you haven't yet played a hand.

3.) Betting for value rules.

4.) DON'T attempt to bluff off the guy who's been in 70% of the pots preflop.

5.) Bubble aggression r00lz. Small/medium stacks become very passive 4- or even 5-handed. Know who's vulnerable, and exploit your position when able. YMMV.

[nuclear500]

As a regular at 'Stars $5.50 and $11.00 (and starting an occasional $22 when I feel gitchy) the best strategy is one that many advocate here.

Tight early, only play big hands out of position, or when getting incredibly huge odds play that 78s in late position.

Don't really start trying to make moves (either by bluffing or otherwise) until the blinds hit 25/50 because a 4BB raise is a considerable amount of money now. Hopefully by this point you are still at the starting stack of about $1500, maybe a little under or over. Any raise with a strong hand should be a minimum of 4BB in the first 3-4 levels.

If you intend to raise and are looking at a Big Blind or Small Blind that essentially has 1/4 or more of their stack committed, be prepared to call a push, or make the raise enough that to call essentially does pot commit them - the decision is tougher for that player then. If you aren't prepared to call a push from that player, fold the hand, or limp/fold.

Watch out for min-raises in a limited player pot. I'm seeing this more and more being done from people with big pairs in the hole.

So many other things I can't think of at the moment, but these are the biggest ones that stand out to me right now at work.

[smoore]

If losing that $55 would be devestating to your online play (i.e. you're never going to deposit again) then don't do it. If you can piss through $55 in a couple hours at the bar like I can then I say go for it. You're taking a shot but the play at 5.50 on PS is pretty damn crappy /images/graemlins/wink.gif You could easily lose it all but math should be with you.

[Oluwafemi]

do you have 200 $1.20s under your belt or 20? if it's 200 and it only took your bankroll from $35 to $55, that's a problem. i think you meant 20. keep playing the $1.20s. you'll find that once you learn how to comfortably play the $5.50s, the $1.20 45-player SNGs can be very refeshing and help you out with long range (MTT) play when playing 1- or 2- $5.50s.

also, focus on getting good at postflop play. because PS gives you t1500 chips to start, it allows you to better be able to do it [even when the blinds get bigger] than Party's structure does. postflop play is the meat n potatoes of my game. when you get enough experience at it, it allows you to pick up pots [by playing smart and aggressively] in spots where you might've been unsure of. example:

let's say i have t2750 chips at blind level 50/100 and i'm dealt A /images/graemlins/diamond.gifQ /images/graemlins/diamond.gif on the button. UTG has t1100 raises 300 and it's folded to me and i call [SB and BB also fold]. the flop comes:

3 /images/graemlins/club.gif4 /images/graemlins/spade.gif4 /images/graemlins/heart.gif rainbow (t750)

whether bet to me or checked, i've often bet the pot or more with my big stack . why has this play worked for me? alot of $5.50 players will raise with hands like K Qo- K Qs, K Jo- K Js, Q Jo- Q Js, etc. in early postions but are dumbfounded when the flop comes this way. if you've been paying enough attention to the way they've been playing all game, you can usually tell whether the flop has made them uneasy. i've won numerous pots this way but it's came through recognizing these spots as they arise and that's developed with experience.

a word of caution, make sure you pay attention to the stack sizes involved in the hand [ i like to have the big stack in this situations but i've worked well with it as the shorter stack too], yours and your opponents. because i feel my edge [overall] is higher than most of the players i'm up against, i feel i can make this move with the lesser stack because my ability to make better decisions after the flop is more pronounced and i'm better able to excercise discretion. even as you move up in limits, make post-flop play a priority. once you become very proficient at it, then you can also bluff and semi-bluff more effectively also. NL SNG poker isn't just a [i]push/fold game. the players that know how to play post-flop well, as well as, push/fold are the real players.

I was thinking 200 because thats how many FPP's I had, but it is def. not correct. First off, I donked off around $20 when I was a pretty bad player, then I played a mix of $1.75 turbos (2 FPP's) and $1.20's (1 FPP) to go from 15-70, then I ran sort of bad to go back down to 55.

Anyway, I played 4 $5's last night, first 2 were OOTM (Some pretty bad beats), then got 3rd, then 2nd in the last one (Had AA, raised PF, Flop, Turn push, and he flips Q6 for 2 pair. I had 15 BB's, so pushing didnt seem like I would get any action. Maybe this was a misplay?)

[2Fast2Furious]

I'm pretty new too but think playing the smaller tournaments like you and I seem to be doing (like the $1 + 0 or $2 + 0 on Party) is a good introduction and gives you experience in later stages of tourneys for low risk. However, in the long run I think it isn't necessarily all that good for your game (although it does give you time to play very tight for long periods of time due to blind structure). Not sure how it works on Stars but I regularly play for like 4 hours in these Party tourneys and finish in the money (221 or lower) - level of play is pretty bad until the way later stages, so generally I feel I'm not learning anything other than how to play tight early on and survive.

Anyway, I'm down about $75 so far (bankroll not an issue, for now!!) so I think variance can easily eat through your small bankroll even at the 5+1s. E.g. I played 6 STT's saturday monrning 2-tabling (to be able to focus and improve my game better) and finished 1st twice and 3rd once, then last night I played 5, had a couple bad beats and did a couple things wrong and only got 1 3rd.

One thing i have to keep reminding myself early on is to really make sure you're actually playing tight. I can't tell you how many times I thought about playing stuff like A-9 suited and KQo in early-mid position like it was a good hand. I know in later stages this is ok, but the couple times I did it got burned (even when 5-6 handed). So AJo needs to get thrown away early on as you're usually dominated and it won't hold up (but maybe I'm too weak tight).

AJo is an easy muck in levels 1-3. I've even comtemplated mucking AQo, but I figured I was facing players who would limp/raise any ace/king. The 5's are incredibly loose.

[2Fast2Furious]

Agree completely, but got beaten 2x last night with QQs with AJ so the loose players will definitely call your all-in bet with it (and practically anything else, including J9o last night!). Once hit my 3rd queen when all in early and he made straight on river when a 10 came and the other I had KKs and he made trips on the river. ughhhhhh

Early on I muck AQo facing big raises and almost always limp in early position and call mini-raises.

I played 4 $5's last night, 2 OOTM, 1 2nd, 1 3rd. Best donk was guy that called my push with A4 on a board of 46Q rainbow. My push was 2x the pot, but I took the advice given earlier in this thread, and it worked beautifully. I flipped KK to knock him out and double up on the 2nd hand.