Fear and Loathing at the Micros

When I first started this blog in Feb 2011 I was messing about at 10NL. And now I'm back. But what I've found about moving up is that it is this kind of weird experience where you expect to keep crushing and things just stay the same as they were. What I think it actually is, is like a  boxer stepping up in class. You know where a boxer or MMA guy is good and has put in decent results and had some decent fights and then they have that next big fight. Where they move up to fight a better class of opponent. Doesn't mean that our fighter is worse, it means our fighter faces a better challenge. And that is what moving up a limit in poker is like. Don't change your game when you move up a limit. Yes for sure. 100% agree. But also don't expect your opponents to be just like they were at the previous limit. They will do things that are different. They will do things that other opponents at other limits have not. Whether they do them correctly or not is kinda not the point as you move up. It's about you adjusting to these new moves and understanding why they are happening. So when I moved from 5NL to 10NL - I'm getting 3bet pre flop a lot more, not a super amount, but more than at 5NL. I'm getting called a lot more on the flop and also raised a ton more on the turn. What does this mean? Well this mean we need to tighten up a little more pre flop OOP when facing a 3bet and also mean that we can be a little looser IP when facing a 3bet. We need to make sure we are not just c betting 100% of the time like we did at 5NL, cos we need to understand that our opponents pre flop hand ranges are better at 10NL than at 5NL therefore on certain board they will hit when you miss. We cannot just bet flop and turn and force folds. We need to really start to hand read better on the flop and work out whether the turn is a good card for us to barrel against our opponents perceived range. 

I think I wrote a similar post about moving up from 2NL to 5NL. I am starting to feel that 10NL is resembling poker a little bit. Where we can 3 bet Q9s or A10os on the BTN and get folds or calls from worse. You can never do that at 5NL.

Also though I have realized this and this I think is massively important. When our fighter steps up in class against his better opponent, he is gonna get hit more. He is gonna take more hits than he has in previous fights, cos the oppo is better and will be able to get to him more. And this will happen to our bankroll. For sure. I am positive for the first 1 - 3K hands perhaps at a new limit you might be a losing or break even player. You might lose the first 1/3 of the fight. But if you adjust, if find away to make your game win, tweak it here and there, then you win the rest of the fight and you make your bankroll go up again as it has previously. Thats what I believe. So that is what I will do!

We are @22BI's for 10NL