$5NL retrospective
So, how do the players @ $5NL differ from those @ $2NL? When I first made the jump, I got off to a slow start. I was mentally prepared to move back down and I remember thinking early on, "Cmon', $5NL cannot be that much different than $2NL" and just like that the tide turned quickly and abruptly in my favor. I think I may have just gotten a little unlucky not having a few pots pay me off like I planned or a few implied odd pots not draw my way. Or maybe I was just adjusting to new stack, pot, and blind sizes. I remember early on seeing a couple of villains slow play pocket aces not even raising pre-flop and little things like that confused me. But, once I got going, I settled into a groove and I found the play to be not too much different than $2NL. Everything seems just slightly more exaggerated. The tight players seem a little tighter and the loose players seem a little looser. It's the latter, looser players that I think allowed me to move up a tad quicker than the last level. I'm always surprised by what players will stack off with. One of the biggest keys to success I think @ any stakes is the ability to find and exploit fish or at least players you can consistently outplay and I'd argue there's plenty of those @ $5NL.

As always, I'll be interested to see how the play changes @ the next level. @ $5NL, you can buy-in for $10, so I suspect there may be some cross over in terms of similar play @ $10NL. This will be the first level where players can't buy-in for more than 100BB, which I am looking forward to since I like to buy-in for 100BB and also like to have other players covered. I started playing $10NL for the first time last night and my snapshot, initial thoughts are that it seems much tighter and the good games seem harder to find or fill up quicker.

@ $2NL, I mainly wanted to get back into poker form and focus on the fundamentals like good starting hands, the importance of position, pot odds, implied odds, and the like. @ $5NL, I tried to maintain that and put more focus on hand reading and bet sizing. @ $10NL, I'm going to aim to continue all those things and focus on doing a better job nailing down villain ranges, using PokerStove as an aid, targeting optimal Stack to Pot ratios for myself after the flop, and creating bad Stack to Pot ratios for my opponents after the flop.

If I am able to move up to $25NL before I have to move back down $5NL, it could be a while, so away I go.