Karpundir
Rising Star
Bronze Level
I decided to get serious about improving my poker game back in August and started playing NL2 full ring tables in 888 Poker. I was using Nathan "Blackrain79" Williams' education to "Crush the Microstakes", which is perfect if you want to stay at that limit. He understands the way that pool behaves, but it doesn't translate well at higher stakes above NL5.
However, I planned to up my game to higher stakes instead of grinding for pennies (I am gainfully employed, so winning a couple of bucks in a night wasn't really a great use of my time). To get better at "proper" poker, I signed up for some other online courses such as From The Ground Up by Peter Clarke on Run It Once and Evan Jarvis' (aka Gripsed) free content on YouTube and Udemy. It is great material! I started applying this in some tournament play where I managed to cash in 2 final tables and 2 more final 15 spots in the past 2 weeks. That education just doesn't work in NL2, since the players don't react to the "proper" poker strategy. It's, dare say, TOO fishy and looser than a !
I decided to play NL5 for a bit and saw much better results, so I am sticking with this because I can see that my learning is more effective here than it was at NL2 (or maybe I am just improving and was already able to move up from there, hard to say). There are more regs, yes, but there are still fish and you can still make more money from those fish than you can in NL2. They seem to back down from big bets after calling you all the way to the river, since more all-in money is on the line than NL2.
I would dare say that learning to play at NL2 (other than for developing good ranges via playing hands) could possibly be detrimental, since you are playing a different metagame from almost all other stakes thanks to the erratic behaviour from the bottom of the barrel fish. In my opinion, I look at NL5 as the starting point for anyone looking to build experience and improve out of microstakes. If you think you are doing well, take a stab at NL8 (pokerstars has a small NL8 field) or NL10. I have yet to try it, since I know it's a big jump in skill level with less fishy goodness.
Personally, I like playing 6-Max over full ring, as it feels easier for my style of play and I have a better win rate with aggressive play on 6-Max, but full ring prepares you more for MTTs like freerolls and micro tournaments.
I'm curious to hear what are your thoughts and experiences. What about you coaches and more experienced players who have been at this for years now: any thoughts on what should be the ideal stakes to apply and practice any poker training and coaching?
However, I planned to up my game to higher stakes instead of grinding for pennies (I am gainfully employed, so winning a couple of bucks in a night wasn't really a great use of my time). To get better at "proper" poker, I signed up for some other online courses such as From The Ground Up by Peter Clarke on Run It Once and Evan Jarvis' (aka Gripsed) free content on YouTube and Udemy. It is great material! I started applying this in some tournament play where I managed to cash in 2 final tables and 2 more final 15 spots in the past 2 weeks. That education just doesn't work in NL2, since the players don't react to the "proper" poker strategy. It's, dare say, TOO fishy and looser than a !
I decided to play NL5 for a bit and saw much better results, so I am sticking with this because I can see that my learning is more effective here than it was at NL2 (or maybe I am just improving and was already able to move up from there, hard to say). There are more regs, yes, but there are still fish and you can still make more money from those fish than you can in NL2. They seem to back down from big bets after calling you all the way to the river, since more all-in money is on the line than NL2.
I would dare say that learning to play at NL2 (other than for developing good ranges via playing hands) could possibly be detrimental, since you are playing a different metagame from almost all other stakes thanks to the erratic behaviour from the bottom of the barrel fish. In my opinion, I look at NL5 as the starting point for anyone looking to build experience and improve out of microstakes. If you think you are doing well, take a stab at NL8 (pokerstars has a small NL8 field) or NL10. I have yet to try it, since I know it's a big jump in skill level with less fishy goodness.
Personally, I like playing 6-Max over full ring, as it feels easier for my style of play and I have a better win rate with aggressive play on 6-Max, but full ring prepares you more for MTTs like freerolls and micro tournaments.
I'm curious to hear what are your thoughts and experiences. What about you coaches and more experienced players who have been at this for years now: any thoughts on what should be the ideal stakes to apply and practice any poker training and coaching?
