Zaumlab – My Heads Up Poker Blog

This article will cover how to beat 2nl or 1c/2c as it’s sometimes called. 2nl is pretty much the lowest possible limit you can play online and it’s very beatable. Quite a few players bypass this limit completely but if you’re someone who’s looking to learn the game cheaply then it’s a good place to start building your bankroll. If you’re going to learn to beat 2nl first you’ll need to know what the general standard of play is like.

What is 2nl like online?

There are generally two types of players who dominate the 1c/2c tables online. The first are the really tight regular players. These guys won’t be re rasing you before the flop with anything shy of pocket kings and they’ll spend a lot of time trying to make sets with small paies against preflop raises.

The second type of player you’ll find at 2nl are loose passive. This means they are doing a lot of calling preflop but very little raising after the flop. They will call you down very light and usually display strength by check min raising or making small bets.

How To Beat These 2nl Players

Know we know what the main player types at 2nl are we can look at how to beat 2nl with a focus on beating the main player types in the game.

Firstly lets deal with the overtight regular players who infest the 1c/2c tables waiting for monster hands to get paid off with. Your best strategy against these players are to set mine when they make a preflop raise and get into pots cheaply against them. If they enter the pot preflop they’ll likely have a premium hand or a small pocket pair. If the flop comes low and you hold an overpair but are faced with a re raise or check raise it’s highly likly your hand is beaten. However on the flip side of the coin these guys will stack off with top pair top kicker and overpair type hands 100% of the time. If you can flop well against them you can break them over and over again.

It’s a lot easier to win money from the loose passive opponents you’ll face on the 1c/2c tables. These guys will be calling all your preflop raises and generally calling you down to the river with weak one pair type hands. You should be value betting these guys to death and trying to get as much cash as possible from them when you have a top pair type hand. Bet big, they won’t be folding after they’ve called the flop. Keep betting very close to the pot and they’ll be paying you off all day long. Alarm bells should start ringing if these guys raise you post flop but as long as they are calling you should continue betting!

In all honesty 2nl really is quite easy to beat online. You’ll find a mixture of bad players, very tight players and the odd complete maniac. If you can develop a good tight style and work out what kind of style your opponents are playing then you should have no problem sustaining a good winrate at 2nl and moving up to 5nl or 10nl pretty quickly.

If you want to know how to beat 2nl in one simple sentence then play good cards preflop, value bet big and don’t bluff at all.

Heads up poker at the lower limits is obviously easier to beat. The higher up the stakes you move the tougher your opponenets get. Some poker sites only offer 50nl as the lowest stakes heads up games but you can play smaller stakes if you find the right site.

On Betfair for instance you can play 25nl heads up.

The key to low stakes heads up matches is not to get overcome by the rake. Every hand is raked when playing heads up and as a result you can spend lots of time just trading blows the a player who’s on your same skill level. Try to avoid these players at all costs, if after say 30 minutes of play you’re locked in a low stakes battle and no one is winning then consider quitting and finding an easier opponenet to play against.

You should find lots of fish at low limits heads up.

How to find heads up poker fish at low stakes

There is one classic way to find fish at low stakes poker matches. Look for players who buy into the table with less than the maximum amount. These players are always under confident or can’t afford to buy in for the full amount. Virtually 100% of the time these players are weaker than the players who buy in for the full amount!

Look out for them and take their cash.