Philthy's Guide to Beating 2nl

This was inspired by a recent 2nl CC game. Shortly discussed between AG, D'willius, and myself. Since I pretty much dominted the table with my playing style, I decided to write this guide for everyone else. Enjoy.

How to beat 2nl HE

Most players think that winning poker is all about making money and taking down pots. Well, it is, but it’s also about not losing money. If you win a big pot only to lose it all in the course of 20 hands, you haven’t really won anything. In this guide, I will teach you how to beat 2nl full ring by minimizing your losses and still make a decent profit. This guide will cover the following:

-Playing Styles
-Minimize Loss/Make Profit
-Playing Hands in EP, MP, and LP

How should I play 2nl?
This is a pretty common question and the correct answer is Tight/Passive. This might sound like a surprise to a lot of you, but this is the key to minimizing your losses. Usually 2nl is a very, very loose game with lots of call stations and people who chase their draw. The best way to counter loose players is to play much tighter and when you do have a hand, you will beat them majority of the time for a decent sized pot. You might be asking why you should play passively. The answer is: You want to minimize losses. You could play aggressively, but what if they call and hit their hand to beat you? Well, you've just lost more money than you would if you just called their bets or took the free check.

Minimizing Losses:
When you play 2nl, you really need to get into the habit of check/calling or check/folding a lot. By doing so, you will be able to make money if you do have a hand and losing the minimum if you don’t. You do not ever want to raise a hand pre-and need to get into the habit of limping in. You will be playing tight, so you won’t be limping into a pot very often. Let’s look at a hand example:

Stacks are at $2 and you’re in MP with JdJh. It’s folded to you, you limp in and it’s folded to the BB who checks it.

The flop is 4c 5c 9d.
What do you do? Well, you might think you should bet out and take the pot right? Wrong. You should check it here and try to go to showdown without ever having to bet. Let’s look at possible scenarios:

-You bet .02 and the opponent calls. If a club or any A, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8 hits your hand might be beat. We’ll, you’ve just lost .04 if there is no more betting and your opponent hit. -.04

-You and your opponents check it down to the river and you have the best hand. You’ve just made .03 in profits (SB + BB). +.03

-You bet .02 and your opponent raises .04, you call .02. If a club or any A, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8 hits your hand might be beat. If there is no more betting and you have the worst hand at the river, you just lost. -.06

-You check and your opponent bets .02. You call and you both check down to the river. You have the best hand and you’ve just won +.05

-You check, your opponent bets .02, you raise to .04, and your opponent calls. The turn is a scare card and you both check to the river and you lose. You just lost -.06 when, if you had just called the raise, you would've only lost less. -06

So, it’s really easy to see how you can quickly lose more in profits if you bet out or raise than if you just check and call. I know this is limit, but the micro betting is just to prove my point. How much more could you have lost if you were betting and raising pot and had the worst hand? It can quickly eat into your profits. You might be asking, ‘Wouldn’t I want to protect my hand with a raise?’ The answer is yes, you do but you don’t want to be doing it here at 2nl. Remember, most players are call stations and like to chase their draws. So, by raising, you’re just making the pot bigger for them if they do hit it. If you just call with your big hands and you lose, you’re just losing the minimum and allowing them to win the minimum.

What hands should you play in Early, Mid, and Late position?
This is pretty easy and straight-forward because you will play the same hands exactly the same way in every position. You will limp in any position with the following hands:

-Any pocket pair
-Any suited connector/Ax suited

With any pocket pair, you goal is to try and hit a set because it’s a very powerful hand, especially if you’re calling with a small-mid pair and there are over cards to the board. If there are over-cards on the board and you don’t hit the set, you can easily fold. However, if you do hit the set with small pair with over-cards and your opponent is betting, you can confidently call him down to the river.

Suited connectors are a bit tricky to play because in order to win, you want to flop the straight flush. If you only flop the draw, try and see if you can check it down to the river and see a free turn and river. If you hit it, you can call a bet with probably the best hand. However, if your opponent bets, you can easily fold your hand. The same thing is said for Ax suited. You don’t want to establish yourself as a player who chases their draws, other wise your opponents will keep betting into you and you’ll have to fold your draws. You only want to call if have a strong hand.

In conclusion, this guide is very easy to follow. You're either check/folding with the worst hand or you're check/calling with a strong hand. You don't ever want to check/raise because of the chance that your opponent calling and making a better hand on the turn or river. By playing this way, you are only losing maybe .02-.04 at a time, but can potentially make much, much more.

Special thanks to all of CC and its members who have guied me through-out the years. With out you, I would not have the confidence to post this. Shout-outs to Zachvac, ChuckTs, AG, and all of the other members who join me and make the CC 2nl games enjoyable and a great learning experience.

This is basically the style I play, if I limp 10% hands and play my blinds (not to a raise) I'm only losing about .50/hr...until I hit the nuts and I get most of that back. I also shortstack so I don't lose too much in 2nd nut v. nut situations.

That is a very good point, D'willius. You also minimize your losses by short buying into a game. 50BBs or $1 buy-in a .01/.02 is more than enough to play with.

yay a philthy guide!!

really though, I think this is a really good start for 2nl, I mean I am the aggressive/loose player about 98% of the time in 2nl lol. But for those who have 20-50$ and are following correct brm for ring games, then this is an awesome read....kudos philthy!

Wat?

Did you write this guide with your eyes closed? Were you drunk + high + experiencing brain trauma?

I built my roll playing 2$ NL, and I've gotta say I played nothing like this at all.

Well, you were one of the better aggressive players. That's a more difficult style to learn, CC games feature some LAG play and its easy to get bluffed out of big pots. Philthy's guide is a way to avoid this by keeping the pots smaller.

This has to be a joke

You have the best hand, you want to get money from it. You don't want to just let people draw for free, you want to charge them for their draw. Thats how you make money, when your opponents make mistakes. You don't have to pay them off once the draw hits.

Hmm. I play a bunch of penny poker currently as I am on a rags to riches run.

I don't see this idea as a joke at all. I think this is a very viable style down there. It wont work well at a table with more than one more advanced player but it is great when you are at a table full of angry piranha.

Now poker is always situational, and you should know who you are playing well enough after a couple dozen hands to know when it will be wise to go with more conventional play like protecting your hands, using c-bets and the like.

I think using a tight passive playstyle ONLY might not win a whole lot unless you are lucky. But using it as a base of play down there at the appropriate table can work quite well.

02 != 50,
cAPS

p.s. if it IS a joke.. then hahahaha! I swear I get it!

I will talk with D'wilius and see if he would be interested in making a video of this 2nl winning strategy with me. On paper, it doesn't look like much. A video of me/us dominating the table with our check/call or fold style might be a bit more convincing.

WTF, this is FUBAR...

Cardschat is an excellent forum because people like Philthy take the time and effort to contribute their thoughts for discussion.

Places like 2+2 are cesspits because people post purely to stroke their own egos and belittle others. It would be a real shame if it ever happened here.

Cheers Phil.

Thanks, Rex. This means a lot to me.

No problem mate, you carry on carrying on.

I'm sure you are more than open to discussion about your post. But there's a difference between critical discussion and being offensive.

Of course I'm open to discussion about my post. Not only am I looking to learn from others, but to teach as well. I know I'm not the best and I have a lot to learn.

Same strategy works just as well at $200nl imo.

This is interesting. Since I only play 2nl and sometimes 5nl, I was wondering how this strategy would work out in the higher limits.

Do you take a similar approach to the game and if so, how has that been going for you?

Why are u all picking on Philthy?
He didnt say this was the only way to beat 2NL,he said it was his way to beat 2NL!

Nice post Phil

I do have a question here, do you advocate checking when you have a hand that isn't likely to improve but think your opponent is on a draw on the turn, river or both?

example - you have top two pair AK on a board of AsKs2d. Do you check it down to limit your losses in this spot or bet out as your hand is very likely best but very vulnerable?


Edit: So if I am understanding your strategy correctly you are basically just allowing them to hang themselves while at the same time preventing yourself from getting over committed to scary boards, is that right?

I think it's a good read. I'm having trouble on these tables and have pretty much quit playing them. I do well on small SnG's, so that's where I pretty much stay. But I might try this out for the next couple of days and give you a report on how it worked for me. Thanks, philthy!

Nice post as a low stakes sng player and once in 3 month ring gamer, I have to say this is the way I have to play it aswell. More often I find myself having to limp good hands because more often than not I get nearly everyone calling with tosh anyway whatever raise I make.

Im sure this post was meant to show how to build a solid bankroll for a beginner and on that count it has a lot to offer.

Start by winning some money then improve other skills. Also if your playing tight chances are no-one will call raises.

well done OP

Anyone who has ever sat at a table with Philthy knows him as a very patient grinder. This style has been successful for him. If you have patience and a lot of it then follow his advice to make money.

I see where Philthy is coming from with his strategy. Minimize your losses. Its something I need to learn.. I play 4 tables at a time and its not uncommon for me to be up in all 4 of them and 5 mins later to have busted out in 3. Usually when I bet heavy and someone calls with a flush / straight draw and hits.

Yes, I agree that you need to make it expensive for people to see their draw cards. But in 2nl, you can't do this. No matter what their BR, people will look at your raise as nothing and will call. They will always call, always, and sometimes even when the don't have a draw they will call. Call call call (etc etc etc... ).. At this level you cannot expect to bet people out of a pot if they are determind to see a showdown.

The only times you should bet is when you have the nuts after the river (you will get called)

Nice input Philthy,

Is this a general guide? Or a guide for how to beat the 2$ NL cards chat donkfests?

Let me give another quick stab.

I KNOW this style works at 2nl. Because I often use it.

I Do stress that, for me, I am more profitable when I adjust to the players. There are times when turning on some more aggression at certain isolated players works better than letting them draw out.

In fact it works well against a person trying to play this tight passive style frequently.

I look forward to testing this soon enough

cAPS

This is pretty much it in a nutshell.No problem. Good luck with it.Thanks for the kind words. Im just hear to help everyone who is starting out at the micro-limits.Yeah, Im a very tight-patient player most of the time. I've used this method to build my BR time and time again.Very good points made in bold and this is exactly what I am getting at. Why risk it against such loose players without the absolute nuts? For players with big BRs, its easy but for those who start of with FRs and only have $3 to play with-we cant take those swings.Its a general guide that was inspired by the CC 2nl donkfest. CC games are loose in general since we're all having fun and incorporate games like 27.

CC games are an example of better aggressive play, and is the only time I play FR. This style works for me at 6max, I'm not killing it like better players are...but I steadily profit rated as passive/passive. Its not best way to play with a larger bankroll but a big downswing for me is 2 buyins...so its a viable option for players who haven't mastered aggressive play (beginners will make huge mistakes trying to play aggro).

I'm sure there are a dozen viable strategies to profit at 2NL, and I'm willing to bet this is one of them.

Personally, I turned a nice profit there playing ABC poker. No bluffs, no steals, just lots and lots of value bets.

I am beyond confused....

Exactly. Im not saying this is the best strategy. ABC poker is a great way to start if you're playing 2nl.

But you must make like what 10c/hr doing this? Micro stakes are all about value betting. If somebody is willing to call off half their stack on a gutshot, why the hell are you trying to check the pot down with an overpair because they *might* hit their hand?

Absolutely poker is about minimizing your losses, but every bit as important as that is maximizing your profits, aka not trying to check down a super strong hand because there is a draw out there. That is probably the biggest mistake micro stake donkeys make...they call off far too much of their stack when they have far too little equity in the hand.

If 2nl was filled with total maniacs, then i could understand why c/cing all day long might make sense to let them hang themselves with bluffs, but from what i've heard 2nl is mainly filled with a whole lot of passive calling stations who are willing to call off their stack on very marginal hands/draws.

Anyways, i was definitely thinking this was a joke, but i don't want to be rude if it isn't.

LOL. Darn you, Debi...

OK...so, this is a somewhat of a joke thread that I typed up in a about 20 minutes inspired by a joking conversation that went on during a 2nl game.

This is not a 100% joke thread and there is some decent information hidden in between the lines. Things like not stealing or bluffing as often in 2nl, but value betting more with the nuts for example. However, there is a bunch of BS and bad plays that I just polished up too look good. Some of it is pretty obvious like 'In order to win with suited connectors, you have to flop the straight flush'.

I was actually hoping CC would tear it up and quickly realize that its so silly and stupid that it had to be a joke, but too many people started taking it seriously. I think...or maybe I'm being re-leveled.

The biggest joke is that if you really think about the strategy, all you are really doing is minimizing losses, but eliminating your profits overall.

Anyway, this pretty much was a joke thread for laughs and fun. I apologize to those who actually took it seriously/thought I was serious. Thanks for the kind words.

I doubt anybody really took it serious, but seeing all the "work" you went to it is a little hard (that's what she said) to belittle you if you were in fact stoned out of your mind when you wrote it. I did like the bit about flopping the st8 flush.

LOL...I hope no one took it seriously. Except Irexes, I know he did.

Am i rite, Rex?

And no, I wasn't stoned when I wrote. Just had some free time and nothing to do.

bah deleted

...I think I created a monster.

Have class, will check on this later.