They must be mad! Or are they?

I marvel at people who play ring NL games. One bad beat and your whole table stake is gone. I have a few ideas on how to play ring NL successfully, but I'd like to hear from others who have actually done it and been good at it. What are the keys to successful ring NL play?

Mike

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In the land of the blind, the one-eyed King flops a boat.

Eat, breathe, and sleep poker, but pee and poo something else.

I prefer the turbo ring NL. it is amazing how when the stakes hit 100/200 the desperation hits the table. If you haven't hit before the blinds reach this point sit still and wait for your hand. let the others make their mistakes. That will leave fewer players when your hand comes in.

Mike, we seem to keep agreeing, we must stop! The only point I can see in ring games is clearing bonuses. Far too dangerous for a mere mortal at my level of play.

If the sites I play were bigger so there was more variety of games running, I would be happier playing a PL game. Sometimes a game does get started, and I always feel easier there, not that you can't rapidly lose the lot at PL mind you!

First, the blinds dont increase in a ring game. For this reason you can afford to wait for a monster before risking your whole stack. Otherwise you need to play small ball poker picking up smallish pots to maintain your stack until you catch a big hand. This means a lot of checking and calling small bets with hands like two pair. These are the types of hands that have potential to win a big pot but have greater potential for a big loss. I choose to proceed with caution when facing an aggressive bettor and settle for winning or losing a small pot.

Fold to big bets in marginal situations and wait for better spots to get your money in. Reload your stack often to keep it at the max for when you hit your big hands. Dont attempt a lot of bluffing or moves like continuation bets at the lower limits. Normally the weaker players at low limits are content to check it with you and will usually only call or raise when they have a hand that can beat you. Dont burn a lot of money chasing open end straight draws and flushes. Youll see greater long run profitablility by folding to larger bets in these situations.

Accept that you will take some bad beats at any limit and that you will hand out very few of your own. However, your correct play will easily turn a profit even in the face of bad beats. Also, good bankroll management is a must. You need to be playing at limits that have little effect on your overall roll should you hit a negative swing. Most people consider 50 buy-ins to be conservative, but I like to build my roll to 100 buyi-ins at the next limit up before I move up. Negative swings will happen and you dont want them to affect your play at the tables when they do. You want to have a big enough roll that most any loss is insignificant. Just last week I had my worst downswing of my last 260,000 hands. I finished the day down 4-1/2 buyins.

Ring game play requires a lot of discipline to be able to fold in marginal situations to big bets but also to control tilt when you take a couple bad beats. If you have trouble controlling your emotions, go ahead and make it a rule that you will quit playing for a predetermined period of time when you take a beat. If you find yourself focusing on 1 or 2 people at your table hoping to get some "revenge", leave the table. This is only leads to bad play.

Also, I have to agree with dog, try to be clearing a reload or deposit bonus anytime you can. Play at many different sites and rotate your play so the players cant get a read on you. Try to play at the larger sites with lots of games going. Look for tables with high seen flop %. I recommend Stars, Absolute, Bodog, P4E, FullTilt, UltimateBet, and for non americans, Party, Paradise, Pacific, and any of the Pokerroom skins.

GL at the tables.

Thanks for all the replies, but especially Wicked. That's very informative. I especially like the advice for emotional players.

Three questions:

(1) Most tables have a minimum, recommended, and maximum table stack you can bring to a game. Which do you recommend?

(2) If you're taking losses, at what % of your original stack do you reload so that you're back where you started?

(3) How do you decide when it's time to leave the table?

Mike

__________________
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed King flops a boat.

Eat, breathe, and sleep poker, but pee and poo something else.

1- always sit with the maximum. remember, youre looking to build slowly except when you have a monster hand. therefore, youre not going to be risking your entire stack on less than near nut hands. the only players you see at the tables with min stacks are the ones who like to go all in with less than premium hands and draws hoping for a quick double up. more often than not they usually end up losing a couple of min buyins and even if they double up they usually lose it eventually because they lack the discipline to fold mediocre hands and wait for monsters. also, the players at the table with larger stacks will have little respect for your bets. your small stack poses little risk to them and they will be more willing to call your all ins and suck out. mostly though, how bad will it be when youre holding the nuts on the river and someone goes all in and all you have to call with is a min buy in?

2- i like to keep no less than 85% of the max buy in

3- leave the table anytime-
youre in a bad frame of mind
youre focusing on 1 or 2 players to get your money back from
there are more good players than fish
there are better tables you could be playing
you build your stack to a level that you are uncomfortable having at risk
you find yourself bored with the game
the table becomes shorthanded
you find yourself playing less than your A game

when selecting a table to play, avoid tables that have players you see often sitting with big stacks. always try to sit to the left of big stacks and/or the right of small stacks.