Hey everyone,

Been incredibly busy and it's been a very long time since I've made a new blog post. In fact, I haven't even made a new video in over a month I believe despite wanting to finish my important theory concepts series and donking series. School has kept me very busy (as well as a few other various projects/activities), but now that finals have ended I'm ready to start making videos/blogging/etc. Look for a post about me summarizing 2011 and where I want to go with poker videos/theory in 2012 pretty soon.

Today I want to write briefly about how I would approach climbing up the limits if I were to start poker now, and how I would recommend others approach poker if they are still playing very low stakes. This is especially important due to a big project CardRunners plans on releasing in 2012 which I'm say I'll be able be a part of and be able to discuss breifly at the end of the post.

Lastly, I want to explicitly mention that I think no one really has a great idea of how all stakes play. I don't even play poker anymore, but I played a reasonable amount the last few years and have coached a lot of people since Black Friday accross a huge spread of stakes. That's probably one of the neat things about being a theory coach, that I have actually coached and gotten to discuss spots with micro stakes players, small stake players, medium stakes players, and even limit and HU SNG players all at the same time. I learn a lot from them and get to see how games play at different stakes and how different players approach different situations. While I haven't played 500,000 hands at every single stake in the last year and I am sure games have changed since I remember playing lower limits, hopefully I can still provide some good input for what you should be focusing on as you climb up limits. One mistake I know a lot of older MSNL/HSNL players make is they remember games like NL$100 and NL$200 being an absolute joke where you had donks donating full stacks non-stop, and while games did play that way 6 years ago they don't now so thinking NL$200 is incredibly soft and you can easily stake a smart guy who will quickly make $75+/hr is rediculous. All these limits focus mainly on 6-max but I imagine most of the concepts apply to full ring as well.

No Limit $25

This is the first limit where you start seeing a lot of people play for actual "real" money, and I remember grinding around $15-$20 an hour while learning at this limit several years ago. In general, this limit is Here is what I'd want from someone I was staking (I do not stake people at this time) before I'd allow him to move up, even if he was doing well.

#1) Have every preflop opening range memorized.

#2) Be able to 3-bet bluff with the right types of hands (AXs/KXs in position, suited connectors and pocket pairs too weak to call OOP).

#3) Understand what board textures can be continuation bet and will get too many folds, and what board textures we should avoid continuation betting.

#4) Be able to calculate basic pot odds, both the odds he lays to his opponent when he bets as well as how often he needs to be good when facing a river bet to make a call +EV.

#5) Understand the value of position and how ranges should change both preflop and postflop based on whether or not we have position.

#6) Very trivial understanding of how the remaining streets left to act change value betting to bluffing ratios. Bluff a lot on the flop, a medium amount on the turn, and a little on the river is fine, I don't expect him to know the actual frequencies well.

#7) Understand how to check is you have mutually contradicting thoughts. In other words, understand why it can't make sense to say "I think my opponent folds to a PSB river bet 60% of the time, but I don't think I can profitably bluff." I do not expect a NL$25 player to be good at recognizing contradicting thoughts at all, but I expect him to understand that concept before moving up so he can slowly start realizing when his lines don't make sense. He should also understand why things which look like contradicting thoughts are not. "If you think it's bad to bluff raise here, then it must be good to value raise here!" for example is a very common one.

So that's a pretty big list, and I'll add more if I think of more. Notice again how rediculous this list probably sounds to someone who played many years ago when the smallest stakes were NL$50 or NL$100. People have gotten better, and it's important a player knows what he's doing as he approaches NL$50 and isn't completely clueless. Variance is a bitch and most people who want to move up very fast have run very well, and it's best you learn what you're doing now before moving up before you *gasp* lose 15 BI at NL$50 (which is 30BI at NL$25!) and get emo.


No Limit $50
Now we come to the limit where we actually start seeing professional players. Good NL$50 players can make $25-$30 an hour after rakeback, which is a really good salary for most people in most countries, and even a very respectable salary for most young people in America now as times have gotten tough. At this limit you will be playing against players who make their living playing many tables at once hoping to grind a reasonable winrate and get rakeback, and while they are not very good players they do at least have a basic understanding of the game and try to minimize how many "big" mistakes they make. Here is what I want from a NL$50 player before I allow him to move up to NL$100 if he's playing on my stake.

#1) Every 3-bet defending range, 3-betting range, and cold calling range memorized. I do not want you thinking "Wait, what am I supposed to do with AJo in the CO when a good SB player 3-bets?" You should know what to do there as your "default" plan and be able to adjust it as necessary. I don't care if you can't write down all your ranges to the exact combo, but it should be pretty damn close just like you should know your PFR opening ranges and be able to adjust them as needed at NL$25.

#2) Knowledge of how to play in 3-bet pots. I don't expect you to be good at them, but you should know why you should CB smaller on the flop, why you should consider small turn bets on boards where your opponent is likely to jam or fold.

#3) A real understanding of equity, and why equity does not imply expected value. Why does 9h8h work well as a float on a Kh 7c 4d board despite having garbage equity, yet 88 sucks despite having a lot more equity? You should be aware of what variables alter the expected value of a hand other than equity (streets left to act, position, stack depth, and many more) even if you do not have an excellent understanding of them.

#4) Be able to tell me the common sense way to exploit any player who has a huge leak. If someone 3-bets the top 20% of his range against a button open rather than polarizes his 3-bets, how does that affect our opening range? What about our defending frequency? What about an opponent who 4-bets very aggressively? If you see an obvious leak your opponent has, you should be able to exploit it pretty easily.

#5) Be able to defend an adequate amount when facing bets in position. If your opponent CB on the flop, what hands should you be defending with? What hands work best as calls and what hands work best as raises? You don't need to be incredibly accurate, but you should have a reasonable idea for how strong a hand needs to be to call, at least when in position for heads up pots.

#6) Understanding of your opponent's felting range in various spots. If your opponent CB in MP on a AT4r board, what is the worst hand you expect him to call down with. If a player CB in MP vs our button flat on a AT4r board, what is the worst hand that calls down with on most turn and river cards? What does that say about our raising range? If we continuation bet in the CO vs button on a Qh Th 5c board, what is the worst hand he's realistically going to call down with?

#7) Know your HUD stats incredibly well, and know what frequencies you use so you can compare them to your opponnent's. It's hard to pick out your opponents leaks if you don't have any point of reference.

#8) Understand how the ability to bet only two streets is more or less lost on the flop when OOP (since going bet, bet, check with a marginal hand doesn't accomplish much). Realize how betting ranges change on the flop based on whether you're in or out of position.

No Limit $100

No limit $100 holds a special place in my heart as I always ran really well at this stake and I think it's the stake where you see the most nits. Usually, if you run pretty well you can play an extremely tight/nitty game at NL$25/NL$50 and win enough money from the total fish/spewtards and lose only a little bit to better regs and still move up in stakes. People are used to playing very tight to win at NL$25 and NL$50 (though not winning as much as they could), and expect to cointinue the same ABC "Well, I should always fold TPTK here because no one ever bluffs" style that you can exploit. Playing extremely tight and making hero folds won't let you win at NL$100.
It's also the stake where you start winning big money in real life terms. Very few people in the real world make over $50/hr, and this is possible at NL$100. It might not seem like much in poker where you can win or lose so much in a day and higher stakes players are winning so much more, but it's definitely a very respectable amount of money. It's enough money that most people who are beating NL$100 strongly consider going "pro" because the money is so often much better than the other options. Here is how I'd approach NL$100.

#1) Be able to start pulling big bluffs. People are used to regulars NEVER bluffing at lower stakes, so it's time to start spoon feeding people folds. You need to be willing to randomize bluffs with the right types of hands vs the right types of players even if that involves you occassionally bluffing away 200-300BB in a session where they don't work.

#2) Exploit and understand general trends of the limit. Since regulars don't bluff raise enough, people aren't going to slowplay strong hands against you when you raise. For example, if I raise the turn on a Qh Th 7c 5d board and my opponent calls, he's almost NEVER nutted on a river blank. If he was strong, he'd jam the turn thinking "I better jam here so the river doesn't scare him, and I don't want to get outdrawn." This thought process even makes sense for the opponent, but it will be awful against good players who can actually bluff (by raising the turn we're insanely polarized and him 3-betting usually accomplishes nothing. Why do I care if you jam if my range is sets/two pair or air?)

#3) Be more accurate with frequencies. If you bluff raise a flop CB, what fraction of the time should you bet following through on a blank turn? What fraction of your turn raises should be bluffs?

#4) Stop caring about initiative. Be able to start donk betting in the right spots and stop automatically betting when you're the preflop raiser.



No Limit $200

This is the limit a lot of good players get stuck on because the money is very good and it's extremely hard for some players to swallow downswings at higher limits (I ran over $10,000 below in my first 60k hands at NL$400 for example). The best regulars will win over $100/hr at this limit and it's the last limit where it's easy to play as many tables as you'd like, as NL$400+ doesn't always run a bunch of tables on many sites and sometimes the tables are quite bad.
If you're a reasonable winner at NL$200, it's extremely unlikely you have other opportunities in life nearly as profitable as just grinding. Many if not most of the regulars you encounter at this limit will be playing professionally, and since upswings and downswings can hit almost five figures you should be willing to work hard to beat this limit even if getting better may not always be fun (paying money for a coach, studying your own play, grinding flopzilla, etc). This is what I'd want you to know if I were staking you for NL$200 before you move up to NL$400.
1) Understand how big of a deal polarizing a range is. Be willing to take lines which are slightly more +EV but make the hand much, much more difficult to play. Don't be afraid to make a small raise on the turn even though it may put you in a very tough river situation on some turn cards if the small turn raise is more +EV than just jamming.

2) Acknowledge the entire spectrum of bet sizes. Stop thinking every spot has one specific bet size. If your thought process is "Would I rather bet 60% here, or would I rather check" you're almost certainly doing it wrong. It's possible to balance multiple ranges with multiple bet sizes in the same spot, and even if you're not balanced it usually won't matter. Take the obvious line with the obvious hand if you can get away with it and only balance it if you need to.
3) Able to constantly check to make sure you're not contradicting yourself with your thought process. Can you overbet bluff the river with the nuts for 1.5 PSB? No? Ok, that means the opponnet must call your river bet at least 40% of the time, so the EV of overbetting must be at least 1.5 x 0.4 = 0.6 PSB. Now why are you betting 0.5 PSB on the river then? Do you think the EV of a 0.5 PSB river bet is greater than 0.6 PSB? If so, your opponent better be raising that river bet a LOT!

4) Extremely comfortable in 3-bet pots. Stack depth is much lower in 3-bet pots so they should be easier after all, and they occur very frequently at NL$200+ and you should be very comfortable in how to play them.

5) Defend from the blinds like a boss. Three bet aggressively, flat aggressively, donk bet aggressively, etc. The blind defending ranges are usually much stronger than the button opening ranges, so the button can go get a real job if he thinks he's going to keep getting to open 50%+ when you're in the blinds. Take that shit back to NL$100 where everyone folds.

6) Be able to mix in check-raises and check-calls after betting the previous street or on the flop as the PFR when the situation calls for it, and be able to balance both ranges when the situation calls for it. Understand the significance of a check-raise vs a bet and how each line affects the opponents felting range.


No Limit $400+

I don't have enough experience at these limits to feel comfortable providing advice. I do think to be a good NL$400 player it requires most of the concepts we've already talked about, as well as being able to really exploit specific opponents very well since you play against the same players so much (keep in mind I'm not talking about someone with a 0.5 PTBB winrate at NL$400, I mean someone who wins $150+/hr. Any good NL$200 can still win a bit at NL$400, he just wins less than at NL$200). Chances are if you're at this point, you aren't reading forums/watching too many videos and already have a good enough sense of your game to know what you need to be doing without needing to get advice from someone else.

Cardrunners Series for 2012
The reason why I wrote that super long post is twofold. Firstly, I hadn't written a poker related post in a while so I wanted to write a useful poker related post before I start using this blog for mostly non-poker stuff and talking about other issues that people who come here just for poker aren't going to be as interested in. The other reason is Cardrunners is planning on launching a more complete and very large series that deals a wide range of NLHE concepts next year.
One thing I dislike quite a lot about the way I released my old videos is they are not incredibly structured. Granted, when I started making them I was a lot, lot worse at theory than I am now so I wasn't able to plan the series out as well as I'd now be able to, but I constantly get questions like "Where should I go to learn about ______" in the threads regarding my new videos. It'd be great if rather than having 8 or so 3 part series (for 24 videos total) I instead had 24 videos which could be watched in order and get points accross much more clearly. This way I spend less time rehashing old ideas an can more quickly move onto new concepts which are much harder to discuss.
This is what CardRunners is going to try to do next year. We're going to try to connect series and videos together in a better way than we've done in the past, so you can see how videos and series are connected rather than having all series independent from one another. Granted, the current plans for right now is just to have one big "giant hold em package" of 30 or so videos at the beginning of the year, but there's no reason why this couldn't be done more frequently if this is successful. I wanted to write out I think each player should learn at each limit so it gives some guidance to new players so they're not completely lost in how they should go about learning. Connecting so many videos is without a doubt going to be a huge challenge since we don't have one person making them all, but methodically approaching certain concepts so we touch upon more aspects of poker with less repetition I think is a huge step in the right direction.