hello

of course there're a lot of other things to take into consideration, but I believe this basic guide summarize 25nl winning strategies (but surely some instinct is necessary on many occasions)...

1) raise at least 4 or 5x BB with AA, KK, AK and AQ on early/middle position
on late position, 3 or 4x BB is ok, unless there's a calling station after you and get too tied to those hands

add something like 1xBB for each calls before you on a raise
reraising for 3xPot is usually ok, no need to get way higher than that

never try to slowplay it if you can't get away from them easily (a board having KT, QT, or anything like that may mean you're beat)

if the table has those 80-100% callers, I'd change the raises to up to 10xBB (and expecting to get called often)
i'd rather win $0.75 than be lost after flop and have to fold a $4 pot or lose a $50 pot against a Q5 or 33 player

2) call suited connectors or raise 3xBB on late position against tight players after... might as well raise K6+ and A6+ on late position against tight players, but almost consider you lost if you get called
you might consider calling some 3 or 4xBB raises from very tight player with drawing hands (don't even think about calling with AJ, AQ) if the player had a good stack and you think you can get it with the right flop

3) very few players are good enough to pretend they're bluffing, so
a) calling shoves or big raises on missed draws board is usually ok after bet/call, bet/call, even if you put the player on a straight and them 2 flush cards come on turn/raise (ie [3c Ts Jd] [5c] [7c] - he's probably drawing if he doesn't make a big reraise on turn holding a quality hand)

b) if you miss your draw, it's usually better to let it go
good players will consider you missed it... and bad players are calling stations
a 80% pot bet may be ok if a very convincing card comesg and your opponent doesn't have a very good hand

c) shove if you have full-house, triples or decent hands on a drawing board if the draw doesn't come and you played pretending you're drawing (that's usually ok with the full-house, but not really recomended with triples)... don't try go just for value here, unless your opponent gave way his hand as weak

4) reraise bluffs are very rare, respect them

5) learn time reading... players usually give away they hand range by how fast/slow they call your bets

6) try not to play big pots after flops against very agressive loose players
they usually don't care losing they entire stack, and it's very hard to know where you're at... but play very agressive pre-flop

7) never uses minraise preflop... your minraise is 3xPot
and your drawing flop raise is pot sized if you have a big pair
on turn if may be around 80% pot

8) checking turn after betting flop usually means a big bet comming...
if you can't put player on any hand, just be prepared to fold your middle pair or low kicker

9) position importance is 50%

10) just 9 strategies didn't seem good... "10 sounds official"

any ideas/comments/critics?

a) calling shoves or big raises on missed draws board is usually ok after bet/call, bet/call, even if you put the player on a straight and them 2 flush cards come on turn/raise (ie [3c Ts Jd] [5c] [7c] - he's probably drawing if he doesn't make a big reraise on turn holding a quality hand)

In my experiance at NL25FR these are more often the nuts than busted draws.

I do not remember writing this at all, it sounds really strange and why does it start with a)...

I have no idea what this is about.

Originally Posted by MJPerry

I have no idea what this is about.

+1

Originally Posted by StraightotheAce

I think this is either pretty standard with a mix of pretty dribble....

...which just shows how easy 25NL is to beat. My own comments:

1) For every time your AQ gets stacked by Q5 on a board of Q95, you're going to stack Q5 half a dozen times on a board of Q98. If they're that stupid preflop, they're that stupid on the flop.

2) If you want to raise light with position, you want to raise small pairs and suited connectors, which have a chance to flop huge, undetectable monsters, and can fold easily when they miss. Small kings and small aces are the *worst* hands to raise with, because your reverse implied odds are so bad. That's assuming your opponent is a standard donk who's calling with mostly paint. If he's a smarter player, calling with his own suited connectors, then small aces are okay to raise with position, with the caveat that you're going to play them sneakily post-flop if you hit, as making your TPWK obvious leaves you vulnerable against a good player with an unknown hand.

3) What he's saying is that if you go bet-bet-check on a draw-heavy board when the river blanks, and the opponent, who has just checked and called up to here suddenly bets 1.5x the pot, he probably missed his draw, and you should call with TPGK. I agree, assuming you've seen this kind of behaviour from him before in earlier hands. Board texture is important, though... on other boards, this play is likely a slowplay.

4) True at 25NL.

5) Controversial. I agree, however, and use time reading a lot Heads Up. However, you have to understand that it means something different for different people. Also, very long and very short waits usually don't mean much... the most significant tell is just waiting like one second longer than usual before making a call - when you get attuned to it, you'll feel it the same way you'd notice hesitation in someone at a live game. That often means something, but what it means depends on the player and the situation. Sometimes it means they have a marginal hand and were contemplating a fold, but for other people it means they were about to raise but then thought better of it and decided to slowplay instead. I tend to play subsequent streets more cautiously when I sense that hesitation, as I don't want to push the weak hand off (assuming I have anything myself), and don't want to go broke to a monster.

6) You're leaving a lot of chips on the table giving these guys their way. However, what you want to do against a maniac, as I've said in another thread, is play passively. If you're 90% sure they're going to do all the betting for you, you can check TPTK-type hands to them and just check-call the whole way down. For every time you're giving a free card to a draw, you're stringing along TPWK, MP or a stone cold bluff and inducing another bet from it. After you call three barrels and bust them with top pair once, they tend to quiet down and play like good little TAGs.

7) Yes.

8) Only if you're playing against me.

9) If what you mean is that position is as important as your cards, yes.

10) Allow me to fill it in for you. Observe what each player has whenever there's an all-in. Keep track of whatever the worst made hand was that each person was willing to felt with. Be willing to go to the felt with that player with any hand equal to that + 1. So if he felts with TPGK, you felt against him with TPTK. If he felts only with TPTK, you felt only with an overpair. If he felts only with an overpair, then you felt only with two pair, and so on. The reason your range only needs to be one stop better than his is that each of these hands is exponentially less likely than the previous... so if he felts with TPGK, that's more than half of his range, so your TPTK is ahead, even if he'll have two-pair, set, etc. some of the time.

11) Play your straight draws passively on flush boards and pretend they're flush draws against tight opponents. People are paranoid of flushes... if you check-call the flop, they put you on a flush draw. Then if you hit your straight, you stack them, but if a flush card comes out, you can bluff them 75% of the time.