Need some help with 50NL

Alright everyone. I tried this once before but didn't have any stats to go with it. I have been playing at 50NL for a decent amount of time now and have 70k hands, but since the first 40k hands I have changed my game a bit. I've decided to show the 31k hands since 4/1/09 so that it more accurately reflects my recent play.

As you can see, I'm pretty much a breakeven player (Lost $200 in the last 2 days playing on some deepstack tables). I've really been trying to get my PFR closer to my VPIP, but I know I still have some work to do in that aspect. Other than that, is there any holes any of you can see in my game? I play mostly on FT (thats where all these stats are from). I used to play on UB, but didn't fair too well on there and have learned a LOT since those days. Also I find myself recently playing some tables on bodog. BUT for the purpose of this, everything is 50NL or 50PL at FT. With rakeback I am up about $900, but I'd like to be profitable without having to rely on rakeback.

If theres anything else I need to post or more information I need to give, please let me know. I am VERY willing to accept criticism and to try to work on my holes. THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!!!!!

First thing to note is that you fold WAY too much. W$SD is way too high and WTSD is too low. Additionally, your W$WSF is too low, but this is probably explained by you constantly folding. There is just no way you should have a WTSD of 22 when you play so nitty (ie. you are playing w/ good hands, so you hit good hands more often, so you should be seeing showdown more than if you play loose).

Your ats% is also WAY too low. Get that up around 30% or more and your vpip will increase, which is probably good coz 12/8 is too tight imo. You also fold your blinds too much to steals - you should be 3Bing some more from the blinds which will get your 3B% up over 4%, as 2.5% is too low. If you want more detailed info then probably post cbet% and double barrell %, fold% on each street, etc.

But basically, stop folding all the time you are obviously way too weak tight and completely overestimate villains' ranges. If you posted your SD winnings and NSD winnings i suspect you are absolutely bleeding to death in NSD pots.

Alright so what I gather from this is that I need to call raises more often post-flop, because I am probably being bluffed out of pots? And that I need to raise more when folded to me in Cutoff or Button? Should I also be opening up my range? If theres a pre flop raise and I've got say JQs on the button, should I be playing that?

Anyone else have any input? I'm sure theres tons of holes that a lot of you solid players out there can see.

What feitr said. And that's most likely related to the fact you play too many hands out of position and too few in position. You have to adapt your preflop ranges a lot more to position. For instance, my vpip on the BTN is about 3.5 times larger than my vpip UTG.

That means you need to work on stealing and on iso-raising. Read this thread: https://www.cardschat.com/forum/cash-game-hand-analysis-50/100nl-fr-bread-butter-139654/

I'm kinda confused as to how you can only be opening 8% of hands and still be folding to 3-bets 80% of the time?

Wes747 said:

Should I also be opening up my range? .

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Like belgo said, your vpip should be graded from btn to UTG. For example, one player might play like 20-25% from the btn, 17-22% from co, 13-18% from HJ, etc. and only playing like 5-10% from utg. Just random numbers i made up and no idea what vpip that would work out to overall, but yea you don't play in position near enough (low ats% tends to indicate this).

That doesn't mean you have to flat with QJs in the btn, but it means if some fit or fold fish limps in MP and you are on the btn with JT, you may want to start raising to isolate.

And dsvw brings up a good point - if you fold 80% to 3Bs and are only opening 8% of hands, you are only willing to play <2% of your hands to a 3B which is way too tight.

When i played 50nl FR, i think i was like 16/13 or something, but i stole close to 40% and it is very effective (i was like 8BB/100 over 20k hands...prob ran real good but you can definitely play "exploitable" at 50nl because nobody actually knows how to exploit you).

It just feels like whenever I try to steal a lot I get re-raised, and then if I call and I miss the flop I usually get bet into and have to fold. I guess I fold to 3Bs all the time, because if I open up with something like AQos for $1.50 and then get re-raised to $6 I just don't feel comfortable with that hand. Say I do call, then the flop comes 2 9 K....then what? They bet into me and I fold.

Do any of you guys have any good 50NL FR videos you've done? Or do you have any to suggest? I understand the concepts and the advice, but it just seems that when I put these tactics into play I get out-played and I lose a lot of money. Should I be raising things like 79s on the button with a limper or two in the pot? Should I be re-raising when i'm button/co with hands like A10os or pocket 7's?

Wes747 said:

It just feels like whenever I try to steal a lot I get re-raised, and then if I call and I miss the flop I usually get bet into and have to fold. I guess I fold to 3Bs all the time, because if I open up with something like AQos for $1.50 and then get re-raised to $6 I just don't feel comfortable with that hand. Say I do call, then the flop comes 2 9 K....then what? They bet into me and I fold.

Do any of you guys have any good 50NL FR videos you've done? Or do you have any to suggest? I understand the concepts and the advice, but it just seems that when I put these tactics into play I get out-played and I lose a lot of money. Should I be raising things like 79s on the button with a limper or two in the pot? Should I be re-raising when i'm button/co with hands like A10os or pocket 7's?

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Well you can raise cbets/float flops on occasion if you miss. Personally, i'd be inclined to isoloate with a hand like 79s on the button vs limpers, but if you want to keep it simple you can still do it with a fairly wide range (although better than a hand like 79s). And no there wouldn't be much poitn in 3Bing AT or 77 from the button as they tend to be pretty easy to play in position in a single raised pot and if you 3B them you are almost always going to be playing vs a 3B flatting range that crushes your hand (ie. the value mainly comes from villain's tendencies to fold to 3Bs not from the value of your hand).

I wouldn't worry too much about the fold to 3B stat at 50nl unless you are getting 3B alot, as i doubt there is too much light 3Bing going on at those stakes/full ring.

Hey Everyone: First off I would like to say thank you so much Belgo and Feitr!!!! You two really helped my game. I haven't put in the volume this month that I would have liked, but over the last few thousand hands I've been doing fairly well.

I feel I have improved my game quite a bit, but does anyone see anything else that needs to be fixed?

Wow! Nice job! You made the changes look so easy.

I have the exact same problems as you had. I've found my leaks and fixed them, but the fix usually only lasts a day or 2. Then I slip back into weak-tight-passive mode. I'll have to refer back to this thread regularly and see if I can make the changes in my game more permanent.

Again, congrats! You have given us weak sucks some hope.

Well I'm glad I can give at least one person hope. A few key things that I feel I did was to steal more, check/call more often, and play better positionally. During the course of this I also turned into more of a LAG, but it seems to be working for me. Now the question will be if I can keep this up or if I was just running really good.