Beating 25NL 6-Max

[UOPokerPlayer]

I'm writing these emails for a friend of mine who wants to learn how to play poker. He's completely new and fresh, so I try to keep it light and strict until he develops a feel. I thought it would help some of the newer guys on the forum.

Preflop Play at NL25
by Adam Lorts

Initial thought -
Socrates once wrote, I think therefore I am. The same can't be said for the poker players that you'll face at this level. You will have the leg up simply because you will be thinking, and they will not. I'll explain. Poker players at this level are just gambling, playing a game. They're here for enjoyment to blow some money. They act upon instinct. Call, fold or raise are decided on a spontaneous whim. They have favorite hands, they follow their folded cards to every flop and the have a ball of a time doing it. Correct poker is different. It's thinking instead of acting, it's focusing on the means, and completely disregarding the ends. I've had sessions where I've lost $100 and felt great about only losing that much about myself and sessions where I've won $300 and felt awful because my cards were so good I should've won $500. To me, the thinking player, it's not whether or not I win or lose, or how much for that matter, but it's how I played the game. Think about that the next time you play and focus on playing each hand as well as you can. Don't be affected by whether or not you won the hand playing that way. If you played it your best and correctly, that's all you can ask for. You will constantly be changing your play, but you will never, ever do this because of the results of a previous hand. As I close, I want you to think about and explain why this statement is true.

Bad beats are good.

Alright, onto preflop play. I'm assuming you're playing 6 person tables, which is what I know how to play, and these tables are much more profitable than the ten person tables. If you're not playing the 6 person tables, you should be.
Open preflop play is going to be pretty automatic and mechanical. When I say open I mean that everyone has folded to you, or you are first to act. There are three options for each hand, raise (r), call (c), and fold (f). I will break this down into two positions, early and late position, early position will be the first two spots to the right of the big blind, and late will be the next two seats after that. Ok, here are your open pf standards.

Early position -

These cards you will play this way suited or unsuited

AA,KK,QQ,JJ,1010 - R
99,88,77,66,55,44,33,22 - C
AK,AQ,AJ - R
KQ - R

Play these cards only if they are suited

A10 - R
A2,A3,A4,A5,A6,A7,A8,A9 - C
QJ,10J,109 - C


Late position

These cards you will play this way suited or unsuited

AA,KK,QQ,JJ,1010,99,88,77,66,55,44,33,22 - R
AK,AQ,AJ,A10 - R
KQ,JQ - R


Play these cards only if they are suited

A2,A3,A4,A5,A6,A7,A8,A9 - R
10J,109,98,10Q,KJ,K10 - R

FOLD EVERYTHING ELSE.

Size of Raise - The size of the open raise should be 4xBB's. This is standard and should be used in 99% of situations.
When raising after others have entered the pot, you should use the guidelines of 5xBB + 1BB per limper, or person who has just called before the flop. For making re-raises, these should be pot-sized. To calculate how much a pot-size-raise is, you need to determine the size of the pot when you just call his bet, and add that amount onto the call. Example: Opponent 1 raises to 2, Opponent 2 calls, You make pot size raise. The pot size raise is (.75 (blinds) + 4 (raise + call) + 2 (your call) = 6.75. So add that to your call (2) and that comes to 8.75.

A little special advice for the few times that it's folded to you when you are in the small blind. Play this situation as the exact same as you would in late position except if you have QQ,KK,AA and AK. If you are dealt one of those hands you should simply call the small blind. If the big blind raises, you go all in.

Ok, so that's how you play open preflop poker at this level. It's going to be a lot of folding, but you need to play tight at these tables, because no one ever folds. The situation is a little different if someone has acted in front of you. This does take a little bit of judgement on your part. You need to decide whether or not this player is tight. If they are, you need to respect their raises. Be careful if someone raises from first position, as this is usually a good hand. You also need to be aware of stack sizes at this point and follow the 5-10 rule. What is the 5-10 rule? Glad you asked. The 5-10 rule means that you should call a raise with a speculative hand (suited aces and small pairs) if you're investing less than 5% of your stack (or his, whoever's is the smallest), and should fold if you're investing more than 10%. If it's somewhere inbetween you need to use your best judgement. Here's your standards.

A tight player has raised in front of you -

pairs below tens or suited aces, JQ suited, J10 suited, KQ suited, - Follow the 5-10 rule

AA,KK,QQ,JJ - Re-raise
1010 - Call
AK,AQ,AJ - Call

A loose player has raised in front of you

pairs below eights or suited aces, JQ suited, J10 suited, - Follow the 5-10 rule

AA,KK,QQ,JJ,1010,99,88 - Reraise
AK,AQ,AJ -Reraise
KQ - Reraise

A little special advice with AA or KK - Alot of people have trouble folding AA or KK after the flop, especially beginners. The truth is, you will sometimes get outdrawn. The key is to not put money in after you've been outdrawn. If you raise two dollars with AA and got called by a tight player holding 22 and the 22 made trips and won all your money, it's not a bad beat, you got outplayed. Here's how we're going to avoid this. If there is a raise and a reraise before it gets to you, simply go all in. You'll get called enough to make this worhtwhile. The thing with this play is if it happens four times and you get called once, then it's pretty close to playing perfectly, and you won't ever make the mistake of putting money in when you're beat on the flop. If there is only a raise before the flop and you have AA or KK I want you to raise to 1/3 of your stack (or your opponents, whichever is smallest). So if you have 30 and someone with more money raises it 2 to you, raise it to 10. Then whatever the flop comes, go all in. The pot at this point will be the size of your stack. Be careful doing this play with KK when an ace flops, you may fold if a tight player goes all in, or if there are several players in the pot.

Real quick before I close, I'd like to talk about the overbet. The overbet is such a big moneymaker in small stakes nl hold em. You should never feel that bad about putting in a big bet (probably all in) with a good hand. Players will make the mistake at this level of calling too much. Don't focus on 'milking hands' for the most part. Play your hands strongly and don't be afraid to throw it all in if you feel like your hand is best and you feel confident you'll get called. Play this way, and watch the money pour in.

[Riposte]

Thanks for these! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Pokerho]

Do you have a similar guide for $50 NL 6-max? I'm finding a much tougher go of it there.

Hey,

Good guide for preflop play.

Have you written anything for post-flop play? I think that's where I'm struggling the most.

Thank you for this...very good.

Same question as guy above....50NL for 6 max? Very similar?

Thanks.

[AthenianStranger]

[ QUOTE ]
Bad beats are good.

[/ QUOTE ]

No, they stink. That's no way to rear a player.

[Malachii]

[ QUOTE ]
Socrates once wrote, I think therefore I am.

[/ QUOTE ]
Pretty sure that was Descartes. Otherwise, nice post.

I'd reccomend limping suited aces only on the cutoff or button behind other limpers. I'd muck QJ-T9s from EP.

[PokerFink]

Nice post.

But don't you think your raising and re-raising standards are a bit too loose for a beginning player? I think having beginners re-raising with 88, even IP against a LAG, could lead to some ugly results.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Socrates once wrote, I think therefore I am.

[/ QUOTE ]
Pretty sure that was Descartes. Otherwise, nice post.

I'd reccomend limping suited aces only on the cutoff or button behind other limpers. I'd muck QJ-T9s from EP.

[/ QUOTE ]

It was Descartes who said that. There are no known writings of Socrates.

[PokerFink]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Socrates once wrote, I think therefore I am.

[/ QUOTE ]
Pretty sure that was Descartes. Otherwise, nice post.

I'd reccomend limping suited aces only on the cutoff or button behind other limpers. I'd muck QJ-T9s from EP.

[/ QUOTE ]

It was Descartes who said that. There are no known writings of Socrates.

[/ QUOTE ]

Everything we know about Socrates and his preachings was written by his pupils, mainly Plato.

[/Philosophy Lesson]
[/Hijack]