Today was a good day ($2/$4 NL)...

[Talking Poker]

I've hardly played any non-league poker lately, for a variety of reasons. With the WSOP coming up soon though, I decided to see if my mostly sucky ass 2006 luck had taken a turn for the better now that we are in the second half of the year.

I'm happy to report that things are looking good! See below.

The funny thing is, this was mostly a number of small and medium pots that I won, and not just a few giant hands, like you might expect. I still took my share of beats, but probably a bit less than the expected amount, which amounts to about 1/3 as many as I usually take (I was running above average, in other words).

I was trying out a new theory today, and it worked REALLY well. I have no idea why I've never done this before. You know how we always yell at people for sitting with significantly less than a full buy in? Well, I decided that those guys are probably all a bunch of eejits, so I decided to seek them out. I joined tables that had at least 2 (and preferably 3 or 4) players sitting with less than half a buy in (< $200). And I killed them.

Believe me, I'm the last person you need to tell about short term variance and small sample sizes, etc, but I think I may be on to something here. This is a way to do NL table selection that I hadn't previously tried, and I quite like it.

This was three tabling, btw.

Last thing: For you cash game NL gurus out there, how do these numbers look? It wouldn't surprise me for you to say I play looser than you think I should, but I'm ok with that. In general though, are any numbers way out of whack?

BTW, note how I sorted the Known Hands list. Gotta love 54s!!! And look at KK in the green for a change!

[Boobie Lover]

Yeah, a little too loose for my liking (especially from the SB). Do you open-limp a lot? I almost never do.

[Talking Poker]

Only from EP with what I consider drawing hands or small pairs.

I'm telling you right now (despite today's lovely results), you are most likely a better NL cash player than me. That's not to say that I'm BAD, but it's not my strongest game.... which is one of the reasons I'd like to work on it.

The SB numbers are high (I assume) because my donkey tables were fairly passive for the most part, and I found myself completing a LOT. I almost never fold the SB when there is at least 1 limper in the pot, and give me two or more and I'll complete with just about any two cards.

My long term numbers are lower, albeit not much - VPIP in the high 30s and 60 from the SB.

Also, remember that this is 6 max - in case you missed that.

[Boobie Lover]

I used to have relatively high VP$IP from the SB, but I believe such a high # is a leak for me personally. It often lead to me flopping a very marginal hand and me being out of position for the rest of the hand. This proceeded to what I think were a lot of mistakes by me. Although it is tempting for the small price, I do think that there are a lot of hands that are not profitable even for the reduced price.

BTW, I usually run at a tight 26/16.

[Talking Poker]

Thanks for the comparison numbers. Are those for 6 max? Overall, I'd say the "good players" I encounter typically play tighter than me, but I'm not convinced that I need to tighten up much just yet.

The thing about NL is, it's hard to compare, because two very different styles can both be profitable. In limit, I can glance at someone's VPIP and PFR and almost instantly tell you if they are a winner or a loser, and know how to play against them too. But with NL, SO MUCH of the game has to do with post flop play, implied odds, etc, you can get away with playing significantly looser preflop if your postflop play is strong. I'd say my postflop play is decent, but I'm no JD.

Speaking of JD, I'd love to see a screen shot of his 2006 $2/$4 6 max numbers. What do you say, kid?

[Talking Poker]

One other comment about those short stacked guys - A lot of them seem to be playing cash games like they are tourneys. And that fact is, they aren't. Cash games are a completely different animal...

Personally, I'm much more comfortable with tourneys, but I am at least aware of some of the adjustments I need to make, where I'd say at least 50% of these short stacked guys are not.

[JDMcNugent7]

how bout 5/10 instead of 2/4. i moved from 1/2 to 3/6 very quickly, basically skipping over 2/4... i never liked that limit much.

5/10 is my new thing tho... so heres some screenshots. remember my #'s could be diff. b/c i play HU and 3 handed a pretty decent amount of the time, but 6 max is most common im sure.
even the non 6 max stats, are usually shorthanded - but not always.


Far left is all time 5/10 NL.

Middle is stats from 6/29 - when i decided i was gonna play 5/10 for a long time - and feel about 3x better at the game now then i used to.

Far right is a graph with hands and $$$ won, in thousands...

gotta click on each one seperately, i dn how to do um all at once.

[PShabi]

400 hands isn't even a raindrop in the ocean!!!! 43% VPIP!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah, you had a good session.

[Talking Poker]

I'm telling you though, I'm "normally" in the high 30s. Yes, this was definitely a good session, but my numbers aren't THAT far off from where they usually are.

So far, it sounds like I need to tighten up a bit and speculate less...

BTW, this session was made up of 8 different tables, and I left each one a winner. And I didn't get stacked with an overpair once (that's usually what kills me the most).

[New Guy]

Where are you guys getting those screen shots with all the info like that? Those are great and I could definatly use them to help with my MM and analize my on-line play. Please let me know.Thanks

[Boobie Lover]

PokerTracker + "Print Screen" button on the keyboard.

[JDMcNugent7]

heres some 200nl and 400nl stats...

[Ibonic]

Hi there, nice forum you have here by the way. Do you ever get tired playing three tables at once, and do you ever feel under the gun and miss a good hand on one because your concentrating on another, I personally have played two at a time and find that challenging enough, ive read where people play up to six, Im impressed. I like your strategy of looking for the small stacks, its definitely a good approach, have done it myself in the past

[Boobie Lover]

Three tables. Yawn. It's all about 6-8 tables of 6max goodness.

[Talking Poker]

This is a topic for another thread (and one that has been discussed before), but I can keep up with three 6 max tables easily. I can do 4, but then I can't do "other things" too.... and I'm a big time multi-tasker, so I usually stick to a max of 3.

[Talking Poker]

I just had another nice session tonight. Here's my screenshot for all non-tourney poker that I've played since July 1 - the day that I decided my luck was going to turn for the better. 1200 hands is still a tiny sample (for the $ part anyway), but it's getting there. This is really only about 4 sessions of play.

You'll notice all I have played is one game, and it's the game that I historically considered one of my weakest. You'll also notice that AA and AKs are LOSERS for me... so, while I admit I've been running better than average, it's not like the cards are always hitting me or anything.

I'm still playing a bit looser than optimal (if there is such a thing in NL), but I'm happy with these numbers. It's been so long since I've had a nice run, that I don't mind posting these one bit.