[2026 BEGINNER'S GUIDE]Simple modern strategies to beat the lowest stakes online

I have a question about the "Step 2.2.2: You've called preflop (Raised Pot) and are playing Out Of Position!" section. I don't see the first action we take with a made hand. Or do we always check first and only react on the action villain takes?

Flop vs 1 Opponent with a Made Hand
Against a 1/3 PSB and 3/4 PSB Cbet we call all made hands.
Against bets larger than 3/4 PSB we fold all our hands except for Monsters that are raised to 3x the bet and put All In against any further re-raises.
If the opponent bets 1/3 PSB or less, we raise strong draws and monsters to 4x the bet.
If the opponent continues to re-raise, we call our strong draws to up to a min-raise.
We raise our monsters to 3x the bet and go All In against any further re-raises.

Originally posted by MeanGreen
I have a question about the "Step 2.2.2: You've called preflop (Raised Pot) and are playing Out Of Position!" section. I don't see the first action we take with a made hand. Or do we always check first and only react on the action villain takes?

Flop vs 1 Opponent with a Made Hand
Against a 1/3 PSB and 3/4 PSB Cbet we call all made hands.
Against bets larger than 3/4 PSB we fold all our hands except for Monsters that are raised to 3x the bet and put All In against any further re-raises.
If the opponent bets 1/3 PSB or less, we raise strong draws and monsters to 4x the bet.
If the opponent continues to re-raise, we call our strong draws to up to a min-raise.
We raise our monsters to 3x the bet and go All In against any further re-raises.

Yes, we check to the preflop raiser(s) oop unless stated otherwise - good question, adding this to FAQ!

Hey Lemon,
This is not the complete hand but i am finding myself again and again in this position where u have AK oop and flop nothing. I cant find it in this course but should u lead AK here. Its not a madehand and the flop is hitting the range of an BB call very hard.

GG Poker - $0.05 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 3 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 107.4 BB (VPIP: 36.11, PFR: 11.11, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 38)
Hero (SB): 274 BB
BB: 165.4 BB (VPIP: 28.57, PFR: 20.41, 3Bet Preflop: 8.11, Hands: 101)

Hero posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has K:diamond: A:club:

fold, Hero raises to 3 BB, BB calls 2 BB

Flop: (6 BB, 2 players) 2:diamond: 8:diamond: 6:spade:
Hero checks, BB checks

Yes, preflop is played according to the guide, flop is as well - we don't have a top pair or better, so we would Check and fold here according to the guide:

Step 2.1.2: You raised before the flop (Raised Pot) and are playing Out Of Position (OOP)!
Flop vs 1 opponent
If we are OOP and have only one opponent, we bet with every Made Hand for 2/3 PSB. If the opponent raises to double the bet (min-raised), we call with every Made Hand except for monsters. If the opponent's raise is bigger than a min-raise, we fold every hand except for our monsters. We continue to re-raise our monsters to 3x the raise and go all-in against any further raises. On favourable flops for us, we will also bluff with worthless hands for 2/3 PSB. By favourable flops we mean those that contain at least one or . Without them on the board, we will Check/Fold with the worthless hands.

People will overall be too passive and let you get to showdown too much at nl2 and nl5 with AK so you can get away with checking and folding. When you move beyond the guide to NL10+ you can start mostly check calling in this spot and take it from there

hi nice job:

I have a question for the pre flop table in co and btn, if I raise in co and I have ATs Kjs Kts Qjs that are blue and light blue and I receive a 3 bet from a small blind, can I call or make a 4 bet with those cards? The same question is for the button because there are no cards with a double color of blue and light blue, they are all light blue, it is assumed that with those I can 3 bet, but if I open and they 3bet me in that position that is played more, I could bet 4 with the blue ones. ?

Originally posted by perrolocorichi
hi nice job:

I have a question for the pre flop table in co and btn, if I raise in co and I have ATs Kjs Kts Qjs that are blue and light blue and I receive a 3 bet from a small blind, can I call or make a 4 bet with those cards? The same question is for the button because there are no cards with a double color of blue and light blue, they are all light blue, it is assumed that with those I can 3 bet, but if I open and they 3bet me in that position that is played more, I could bet 4 with the blue ones. ?

CO
ATs Kjs Kts Qjs would be called vs the 3Bet from the Small blind, In Positon we only 4bet QQ+AK, other dark and light blue are called IP.

BU
Button has two charts - consult the (Call vs 3Bet) and you will see we call all those hands against a 3bet - button 4bets only QQ+AK AKA monsters

I'm a little short of the adviced bankroll management to move up limits right now, but I'm making very solid progress on NL5 to the point where NL10 will be possible soon. I'm still learning the strategy and improving my play, but how should I prepare to move up? What spots should I focus on? Should parts of the strategy be avoided beyond NL5? Are there plans for an advanced guide?

Originally posted by MeanGreen
I'm a little short of the adviced bankroll management to move up limits right now, but I'm making very solid progress on NL5 to the point where NL10 will be possible soon. I'm still learning the strategy and improving my play, but how should I prepare to move up? What spots should I focus on? Should parts of the strategy be avoided beyond NL5? Are there plans for an advanced guide?

We will have one more lesson on the first adjustments away from the guide coming in a few week (s). The first adjustments are things we will cover - odds and implied odds for when to play draws beyond the "fold if more than 2X" in most guide spots, relative hand strength where 2 pair sometimes isn't a monster etc.

If you want really advanced advice on how to crush NL10 this will be the best thing we (or any site) have to offer, the production value isn't quite on my level but the content is top tier:
https://www.pokerstrategy.com/video/53194/
https://www.pokerstrategy.com/video/53118/

If you want to see how a NL10 Crusher studies the same way NL500 winners do read this one:
https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?postid=3468192#post3468192

Beyond the basic adjustments, you will want to focus on the most common spots - the first one I'd say is how to play Big Blind vs the Button against 1 opponent and Blind vs Blind against 1 opponent as those will be both played much looser beyond the guide and occur very frequently

Just a small success story: playing this strategy to the best of my ability resulted in $61 profit on NL5 in just under 10k hands. I'm looking at 12bb/100.
Greatly appreciated LemOn36 and Paxis and Fallout86

Originally posted by MeanGreen
Just a small success story: playing this strategy to the best of my ability resulted in $61 profit on NL5 in just under 10k hands. I'm looking at 12bb/100.
Greatly appreciated LemOn36 and Paxis and Fallout86
Awesome, well done putting the work in!

Hi Lem0n36. How many bb/100 i must have to consider beaten the NL5?

Originally posted by gabrykkstar
Hi Lem0n36. How many BB/100 i must have to consider beaten the NL5?

I got the answer from the godfather of the guide Paxis himself

I always say that on NL 2 and NL 5 the win rate shouldn't play a role in going higher, but rather the bankroll.
As a beginner, the learning curve is still very steep and therefore it is a waste of time to play on the first two limits until you have reached win rate X.

If you play with a BRM of 30 stacks, then you simply move up to NL 10 as soon as you have $300.

From NL 10 onwards I recommend looking at the win rate before moving up further.

Thanks for creating the guide.

In the Big Blind - (Raise & 3-Bet) chart is says the following:
→ AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AKo, AKs & AQs are to be "Isoraised & 3-Bet vs all position" (shown in orange color)

Does that mean if two people raised before us, and we're on the BB, we don't 4-Bet AA, AK, or KK for example?

Thanks this is nice!!! super!

I have a question: You say in the intro post this is more suitable for regular tables than for fastfold tables. Why is that? I play fastfold.

Originally posted by nuxia
Thanks for creating the guide.

In the Big Blind - (Raise & 3-Bet) chart is says the following:
→ AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AKo, AKs & AQs are to be "Isoraised & 3-Bet vs all position" (shown in orange color)

Does that mean if two people raised before us, and we're on the BB, we don't 4-Bet AA, AK, or KK for example?

For that, the special rule for preflop monsters plays:

Preflop monsters
We didn't mark the monsters in the charts, but every preflop monster will be played aggressively, raised and re-raised until we go All-in. Preflop monsters are AKo, AKs, QQ, KK, AA - In every position, these hands are raised, 3Bet, 4Bet, and shoved All-in.

Originally posted by Stackoffski
Thanks this is nice!!! super!

I have a question: You say in the intro post this is more suitable for regular tables than for fast-fold tables. Why is that? I play fastfold.

1) You have more time for your decisions and apply the guide
2) On aggregate players on fast-fold tables are tighter and win rates of top players are lower in return on average across stakes.
Fun players will play more hands-on on regular tables, they will play looser and pay us off more often with our strategy that relies on value bets and never bluffs rivers besides a couple of exceptions.
It will still work on fast-forward tables, but you might not see yourself doing as well

Originally posted by LemOn36

Originally posted by Stackoffski
Thanks this is nice!!! super!

I have a question: You say in the intro post this is more suitable for regular tables than for fast-fold tables. Why is that? I play fastfold.

1) You have more time for your decisions and apply the guide
2) On aggregate players on fast-fold tables are tighter and win rates of top players are lower in return on average across stakes.
Fun players will play more hands-on on regular tables, they will play looser and pay us off more often with our strategy that relies on value bets and never bluffs rivers besides a couple of exceptions.
It will still work on fast-forward tables, but you might not see yourself doing as well

Would you still recommend cbetting 1/3rd pot 100% of the time at fastfold tables?

Usually I 3bet a bit larger, and not 100% (only 62 or so). I know I can get away with cbetting more often (through looking at stats), I am already cbetting more then I used to. I am thinking about trying the cbet 1/3rd 100% as a standard, but the problem I have with this before trying it, is that the counter-action to the small cbet bet does not really provide information about opponent's handstrength (people calling with backdoors oop etc). At fast-fold there already is more lack of information. In other words, I am not really comfortable doing it haha. Maybe I'm chicken. But could you convince me to adapt this play?

!Couple added rules are coming over next few days
- monster draws played like monsters on flop
- how deep should we play

Originally posted by Stackoffski

Originally posted by LemOn36

Originally posted by Stackoffski
Thanks this is nice!!! super!

I have a question: You say in the intro post this is more suitable for regular tables than for fast-fold tables. Why is that? I play fastfold.

1) You have more time for your decisions and apply the guide
2) On aggregate players on fast-fold tables are tighter and win rates of top players are lower in return on average across stakes.
Fun players will play more hands-on on regular tables, they will play looser and pay us off more often with our strategy that relies on value bets and never bluffs rivers besides a couple of exceptions.
It will still work on fast-forward tables, but you might not see yourself doing as well

Would you still recommend cbetting 1/3rd pot 100% of the time at fastfold tables?

Usually I 3bet a bit larger, and not 100% (only 62 or so). I know I can get away with cbetting more often (through looking at stats), I am already cbetting more then I used to. I am thinking about trying the cbet 1/3rd 100% as a standard, but the problem I have with this before trying it, is that the counter-action to the small cbet bet does not really provide information about opponent's handstrength (people calling with backdoors oop etc). At fast-fold there already is more lack of information. In other words, I am not really comfortable doing it haha. Maybe I'm chicken. But could you convince me to adapt this play?

If your opponents are not check-raising and floating enough, which they won't even at fast forward tables, you can just stick with it - remember - you are doing it only in position

New section added to Bankroll Management that is now renamed to BANKROLL MANAGEMENT and WHEN TO CHANGE TABLES

When do we change the table
This guide is designed to work optimally with a 100 big blind (bb)effective stack size. Effective stack size is the smaller of the stack sizes between the opponents. If you have 200bb and your opponent 100bb, your effective stack size is 100bb and your strategy remains unchanged. As your effective stack size significantly increases, the strategy may work less effectively in certain situations. For example, with a preflop all-in with 150bb+ if we hold AK or QQ. Because the opponents themselves are often only willing to get all in with AA/KK for such large stacks. Postflop All-In situations change too, when it comes to 150bb+.

Everyone has to decide for themselves whether they change a table because they have significantly more than 100bb against one or more players. If the opponents at the table are very bad and you expect to continue making easy wins, then it's better to stay. But if you feel uncomfortable, then you should change tables, regardless of stack size.

Monster Draw rule added

Monster draws on the flop: A Monster draw is a flush draw and OESD at the same time. We always play a monster draw aggressively on the flop and are ready to go all in. For example, if the strategy on the flop says that we would play a monster check/call, then we will play the monster draw check/raise to 3x. In any situation on the flop where we get raised, we continue to re-raise for 3 times the opponents raise or go all in. This rule only applies to the flop, from the turn onwards we only hold the “Strong Draw” category even with a flush draw and OESD