I'm playing NL10 for quite a while now and can't advance to NL25. When I first started out on NL10 using SSS, I was amazed at how successful I was. People went all-in and called my raises with trash so often that I started to think one can really earn some serious money just by playing against the poor micro-limit players. I almost advanced through NL10 in just ONE day. Now, I don't know if that was luck or what, but seriously, ever since that first time I've been doing so much worse.
If there is anything strange I have observed during the last few days it is my opponents. They have become so much tighter that I almost always win only the blinds with my good hands or end up in an all-in against stronger cards or a coin-flip card set-up at best. Is this supposed to be so on NL10? I have recently added some occasional improvised blind steal technique which seems to have helped a little, but doesn't bring in any money. I also play a tiny little bit more loosely against tables where poker seems to have become a little too tight. Are the SSS players really supposed to win money only by doing great reads and stealing blinds or gambling? On the higher limits perhaps, but surely not NL10?