Crushing 2NL

Just increase your Cbet on the turn, but be careful because it will put some variance in your game.

If you want tell me your ID at PokerStars. I will search my database to see if we have any history and I will tell you if I have any notes on you.

I think that the best style of play depends on what kind of player you are. Play very tight and almost never bluff if that is the style you feel comfortable with.

Originally posted by lando1
I think that the best style of play depends on what kind of player you are. Play very tight and almost never bluff if that is the style you feel comfortable with.

I have to disagree with that. I think that if someone wants to become a better player he has to test his limits and get out of his comfort zone.
Also there is no way to win at poker if you never bluff, if you want a safe way to win then I advice you to try another sport, not poker!

As expected a LAG style has very big variance and today I want to speak about that based on two sessions I had a couple days ago at 5NL.
I started really bad and I finished that session by losing 37,21 bb/100 hands at a total of 1611 hands (-$31,29).

I had some coolers early on the session (set vs set, 2 pairs vs set on the flop, big full vs quads) and when bad situations like those happen you really start to question your style and that makes you to deviate from your A-game and you'll lose more.
One of the worst hands was that one.
I have lost about $58 and after 1400 hands I decided to make a short break for a few minutes to eat something, then I played again and I started to win but I was still a bit of frustrated so I decided to quit the entire session.

A few hours later I played again and my results were far more better than before. I won $33,76 at 939 hands and my winrate was 65.39 bb/100 hands.

At that particular session I had one bad beat, I think it was a preflop all-in with KK vs AQ. Except that one everything else were at my side... as you can see at both graphs the non showdown is the easy part and most of the time is positive, the difficult part is the showdown because most of the time I'm involved in a hand I have the worst of it.
A LAG style has huge variance and you have to be ready to handle the emotional pressure of a bad session and stay focused. If you play TAG and you lose your consentration for a while you might lose but you can still win at many cases, this is not true if you play LAG because you face much more difficult situations and more often.
If you play 6 tables with 40% VPIP (like I do) you have to be there all the time or else you just burn your money!

Good to hear from you again, MaNiaC86 (think you should turn this into a blog.)

40% VPIP is indeed very high, especially at FR tables
Care to share a picture or your HM2 stats by position? (the usual VPIP, PFR, RFI etc)

Ironically, I think it might be easier to apply your very LAGgy style at FR where typical player tendencies might make them less equipped to deal with it compared to SH players. What are your thoughts?

Keep crushing.
MD

Sorry but I don't know all the terms, so please explain to me what is...
1. FR tables ?
2. SH players ?
3. MD ?

Originally posted by MaNiaC86
Sorry but I don't know all the terms, so please explain to me what is...
1. FR tables ?
2. SH players ?
3. MD ?

1. Full ring tables, which means 9 people per table
2. Short Hand tables, 6 people per table
3. his sn on PS initials

ATB

Haha ok, now explain 3 and "ATB" again

So, usually I prefer to play SH tables and the reason is that my opponents are forced to play more hands against me, if they don't then they make a mistake and if they do they have to do it well. They swim in my waters when they play 6-max!!!
Believe it or not I see too many Nits (15% or less VPIP) at 6-max, 5NL and I have history with them from 2NL so it's easy to adupt to them.

I play FR tables, HU and a little of everything... at FR my VPIP drops a little to about 35%, and HU I play nearly 100%

I will share later some stats by position...

Originally posted by MaNiaC86
Haha ok, now explain 3 and "ATB" again
MD = MasochisticDesire (my pokerstrategy name.)
ATB = All the best

So, usually I prefer to play SH tables and the reason is that my opponents are forced to play more hands against me, if they don't then they make a mistake and if they do they have to do it well. They swim in my waters when they play 6-max!!!
Believe it or not I see too many Nits (15% or less VPIP) at 6-max, 5NL and I have history with them from 2NL so it's easy to adupt to them.

Oh, ok, I mistakenly thought you said you played fullring tables. I have just started playing again and have just started at NL5; if you play at Stars then I'll probably see you about. I would especially like to see your NL5 stats and graph if you are happy to share them. I have a very small hand sample at the moment but would be interested to see a developing comparison in play style. I am playing without a HUD at the moment but have poker tracking software (PT4) to keep half an eye on my results and stats.

MD

Most of the hands at 2NL are FR, nklow that I play 5BL I prefer 6-max.

What's your name at PokerStars ? Maybe we have played together.

<------ Same picture on Stars but my name is too cheesy (embarasing) to share
I have only played 2.5k hands @ NL5 so far (Sunday and Monday evenings) so we might not have crossed paths yet. Will be playing 10k hands there this week though so cya at the tables

Hey MaNiaC86,

Nice graph(though this post is pretty old). I just want to ask, what id your WR over a 100k hands at NL2 with that style now? I saw 35k which looks pretty small..

Thanks,

My winrate is 18bb/100 for more than 250K hands.

Oh this is 6-max?

This is everything, include zoom.

Good job, thank you for the guide

I also generally adapt the same old strategy of being very tight, not bluffing, etc. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but this is a very well made guide in case I want to switch gears every once in a while