The year after I got married.

Originally Posted by Keith

which site are you playing on

Pokerstars for now, will consider moving for bonuses once roll is large enough to make better use of them. My bonus choices are kind of limited because I have accounts registered at a decent number of poker rooms already.

Today's session brought me up to a total of 20,000 hands at 2nl, and since today ended with a big swing up I now have enough $$ to start with a shot at 5nl next time I sit down to play cards. Good progress I guess. Many thanks to the fellow who paid my quad kings today in a 500bb pot.

Results so far.

10,000 hands into 5NL.

Started on a massive heater the last couple of days, today had a fairly brutal session that started with a 6+ buyin downer, and some crappy beats along the way back up. Made it back in the black for today though which was a massive test of my mental dicipline.

5nl results
Hands : 10105
Profit : $42.75
Winrate : 8.44bb/100

Overall results
Hands : 30204
Profit : $79.34
Winrate : 8.89bb/100

My bankroll is now sitting at $140. Considering taking a shot at 10nl, once anywhere between 150 and 200 - though likely will drop back if I burn anymore than 1 stack.

Observations about 5nl comparitively to 2nl (note I'm playing zoom FR)
Most significantly, 5nl is hyper aggressive preflop. Villains with a 3bet % between 10 and 20 are not unusual at all. These guys are doing all that 3betting almost exclusively out of the blinds when button/cutoff are raising unopened pots.

To go with that more or less no one 4bet bluffs, in addition, PR raises to 3bb will be 3bet bluffed almost religiously, where as raises to 4bb recieve far more respect. Villains seem to be unwilling to 3bet bluff to more than 10bb. Whether right or wrong, once I figured this out I adjusted by tightening up my LP opening range to almost exclusively value hands, and made 4bb my standard raise at all times. I very rarely got 3bet after that, so i was able to widen a little and make steal attempts in the right places. I'm not sure if this is really the right thing to do, its just that I don't have the balls to 4bet bluff it seems - and i was being 3bet on probably 80% of button raises.

I also widened my MP opening range, except where there is a 3bet maniac in BTN or CO. This often acted as a steal, or I would recieve a call from the blinds and be able to play the flop in position against them.

After much observation I decided to start making a 3bet out of the blinds to BTN raises my default play with nearly any 2 cards - dependent on raise size from the BTN. While I made the adjustment of increasing my standard raise when in in position, most villains don't and consistently give off bet sizing tells if they are attempting to steal - which they almost always are. This play is also dependent on my having some stats to show that villain likes to steal, and can fold to 3bet. Since zoom constantly swaps you around you run into a lot of different guys all making this error. I keep a close eye on my own 3bet% to avoid it rising too high, and me becoming exploitable on that basis.