How To Beat 50NL 6Max Part 1

I promised a while ago to write a post sharing my thoughts on how I have recently beat 50nl. I have played approx 44k hands at this level and have a win rate of 7.5bb/100. Most of this will be basic poker to a lot of readers. This is aimed at the 25nl looking to move up or the losing/breakeven player at 50nl. These are the areas I will cover.

Pokertracker

Bankroll Management

Multitabling

Table Selection

Taking Notes

Position and starting hand selection

Avoiding Second Best Hands

Bet Sizing

Neutral ev/marginal situations

Avoiding the Regs for now

Stealing Blinds

Session Review


PokerTracker and HUD

For those not using Pokertracker I say you are at a fair disadvantage to other players using this tool. This becomes more evident if you play 3 or more tables. I would not be able to comfortably remember who is playing tight aggro, tight passive, loose aggro and loose passive let alone the more interesting numbers that can add to your win rate.

I am still using Pokertracker 2 and use the following information

$VPIP - Voluntarily put money in pot

PFR% - Pre flop raise %

AF - Aggression factor

Cbet% - Continuation bet %

Fold to Cbet%

Reraise Cbet %

Folds SB to steal %

Folds BB to steal %

Aggression on flop, turn and river


PT3 does this in real time. I have both PT2 and PT3 but the site I am playing is not supported by PT3 at present. PT3 also has 3bet% and fold to 3bet% which comes in handy.


Bankroll Management (BRM)

This is where a lot of players fall down. I have yet to go broke with my BRM but you have to be a winning player for this to work. I start with 20 buyins for a level and move up when i have between 20-25 buyins for the next level. If I fall down below 20 buyins for the new level I wont play it.


Example $25nl
Bankroll start $500
Move up to $50nl between $1000 - $1250
Move back to $25nl at $1000


This may seem passive to some but it allows you to really see if you are beating the current level and allows you to ride any variance that you will run into. In the example above you need to make $500 at 25nl. That is 2000 big blinds to make.


Below shows winrate vs hands needed to play.


5bb/100 = 40,000 hands
7.5bb/100 = 26,666 hands
10bb/100 = 20,000 hands


If you are playing on average 3 tables at 7.5bb/100 and putting in around 90 hands per hour per table then that will equal approx 100 hours of play to be able to comfortably move up a level.

You have to be able to put your pride to oneside and step down when necessary. Moving down is part of the game, moving down controls tilt and slows down losses. Managing your bankroll is a fundamental part of climbing the ranks.

I also find that when moving up its easier for me if I dont just dive straight in and fire up 2-4 tables of the new level, but gradually transition through by replacing one of my tables with the new level and replace more as I feel comfortable.

Multitabling

With the idea of playing a semi tight aggressive style, you can comfortably play more than 1 table. The amount of tables you can play will be down to personal preference. I find that I can comfortably play 4 tables and feel in full control, not rushed. I have friends that can only play 1 table and ones that can play 12+. Start with 1 or 2, play until you are comfortable and then add another. Repeat this until you are in your comfort zone.

Multitabling helps with the boredom factor of single tabling. This will keep you playing tight and help steer clear of what I will call boredom hands like KJo, A6o etc.


Table Selection

Hunt down bad players. You should as you are playing, be adding bad players to your friends/buddy list. When you next log in open up this list and add your name to the waiting list of all bad players if they are still at your current level. When a seat appears evaluate the position you have got. Where are the loose players, where are the tight players. You should be looking for optimal seats with the loose bad players to your right and the tightish players to your left. If the seat has villains the wrong sides, up and move. There is always a better seat at these levels and dont by shy to sit out and move. This also means when the fish up and moves and the table dynaics change.

With there are no fish to chase the obvious statistic in the table selection screen in most lobby's is the % of players seeing flops (%psf). The higher the better, dont waste your time with the low %psf tables, you want to be actively hunting the bad players and the tighter bad players dont return the same profit as the loose bad players. The problem here is that every other player sees this information in the lobby so you will see many tables with high %psf with waiting lists.

Another idea I had a while back is spotting fish by donkey stacks. Look for those tables with players sitting with 1/2 stacks, 40-70 big blinds. These could be potential unspotted fish.

I say again, dont be stuck on a table when the fish leave. I see so many players sitting at tables with 3-4 regs where there are so many other fishy tables to play. The main bulk of your money will not come from the regs. Sit out, stand up and fnd another table. This is not bad etiquette, this is bankroll building.

Part 2 soon.....