Micro Stakes Poker Online
The micro stakes and the small stakes might seem distinctive, but the truth is that they are one of, if not the most immense jumps in online poker. Next to going from mid stakes to high stakes games, this is the biggest transition that almost any player will face. At 100NL (.50/1) is upon where the micro stakes end and the small stakes begin.
The best micro stakes poker tournament strategy involves using a tight and aggressive play style in the early and middle stages and then a loose and aggressive approach in key spots around the bubble. Grinding Out a Profit in the Micro Stakes. Grinding out a profit in the micro stakes is not nearly as easy as it might seem. While beating the smallest online poker games used to be a cake walk, today it will take. Online Poker HUD, Database & Statistics. DriveHUD is a poker database and HUD (heads-up display) for your online poker play. It will overlay a HUD on your online poker tables, and display vital stats about each of the opponents on your table.
The most indisputable difference between these two limits is the number of regulars at each table. The density of regulars vs. fish starts to shrink more and more as you move up in limits. Along with this, the average skill level will rise tremendously. You are going to be facing a lot smarter and a lot more aggressive players in the small stakes arena. If you aren’t comfortable with some increased variance in your bankroll, the small stakes are not for you. The games truly do end once you step out of the micro stakes.
There is no denying that playing styles between micro stakes and small stakes games vary greatly. With that in mind, however, you should not be anticipating a complete shifty in your strategy when you move up a limit. One of the worst things that you can do is attempt to revamp your game completely, whether you are moving up or down in limits. The chances are that a winning skill set in the micro stakes will also do just fine in the small stakes. Plus, who knows, maybe you will do even better. Players know that the odds are that they will need to make some tweaks to their game before they find success at the small stakes, but you shouldn’t make changes until they are proven necessary.
Pre-Flop Differences
The pre-flop differences between the highest micro stakes games and the lowest small stakes games are not incredibly noticeable. The one thing that you will notice, at least over time, is an increased amount of aggression. There will be very few players who limp into pots and fewer still who will make min raises. You may also notice that the opening raises and re-raises will be a bit smaller than you were accustomed to in the micro stakes. While this is not going to always hold true at 200NL (1/2), you will certainly notice it in the 2/4 and 3/6 games.
The real increase in aggression levels at the small stakes is evidenced by the increase in players who are ready and willing to 3 bet at every opportunity. Position becomes one of the biggest advantages imaginable in these games as it means that players can steal, re-steal, and re-re-steal pots over and over again. You shouldn’t be all that shocked to see some players get all of their money in the middle with very random hands from time to time. Players will attempt to make moves that fail and will have no choice but to call off the remainder of their stack. This is where the variance begins to come into play, but that is discussed in further detail below.
In addition to increased overall aggression pre-flop, you are also going to find that the general play can seem somewhat illogical. Players are going to get involved with hands that you would not ever see at the micro stakes tables. The true profitability of most all winning poker players comes from an ability to manipulate the opponent post-flop. As a result, players in the mid stakes can get away with playing weak hands as an instrument to take down pots after the flop. Be careful, though, there is much more to this than may meet the eye. A skilled small stakes player will know exactly what they are doing when they re-raise with 3h Kh. If you don’t have a specific game plan for post-flop execution, it would be a mistake to jump into pots with seemingly random hands just because you see other people doing it.
Post-Flop Differences
Post-flop differences fall in line with the same general differences that you will notice pre-flop. Aggression as a whole is on the rise and odd lines are almost the regular. Players in these games know when to check raise for value, check raise as a bluff, or how to make money off of middle pair. To put it into context, there are plenty of small stakes online players who are better than the lower tier “pros” that you see on shows like High Stakes Poker on TV.
Do not underestimate the ability of a small stakes player to sniff out your bluff with nothing more than bottom pair, ace high, or even king high. Players in these games are very good at hand reading. If you are showing up with nothing, there is a good chance that they will make you pay for it. On that same note, winning small stakes players will ensure that they have earned every penny possible from you when they have a made hand. These games, particularly post-flop, are not for the type of player who is even remotely inexperienced. You should have a beyond complete understanding of pre and post-flop dynamics if you want any shot at posting a win rate in the small stakes.
Variance
Variance is one of the unfortunate realities that comes along with higher limit games. As you move higher and higher up in limits, the competition becomes more and more fierce. The product of this competition is a clash in skill levels. In other words, players are so evenly matched that often times there won’t be anyone at the table who has a significant advantage. In these games, players tend to trade more money around than they actually make. The best way to reduce your variance as you move up to small stakes games is to table select very well. The players who can find the best games will have the fewest tough opponents to deal with.
Regulars
Regulars, also known as regs, are another common staple of the small stakes online games. If you open up four tables of $3/$6 in the middle of a week day at any given poker site, the odds are that you will see each table is occupied with the same sets of names. The only time that you can really see who the “fish” are is at nights and on the weekends. A lot of players will try to take advantage of this by playing exclusively at night and/or on the weekends. If you are not looking to make poker a full time job, or anything close to it, playing at these times of the day and week will be the closest thing to great table selecting in the small stakes.
The reality is that the games are just so flooded with professionals and winning players that it can be quite tough to find anything that would be considered a “good” game One good line to remember, especially when you are new to small stakes games, is that “If you can’t spot the fish, you probably are the fish.”
Grinding out a profit in the micro stakes is not nearly as easy as it might seem. While beating the smallest online poker games used to be a cake walk, today it will take a lot of time and practice. Many micro stakes players are among the most consistent and biggest winners in the online poker world today. It is very hard to compete with players who have hundreds of thousands, if not millions of hands worth of experience.
Think about how many hands you get in per hour when playing one table, online or live. If you are lucky, you might get 90-100 hands in per hour when playing online, depending on whether you are playing full ring or 6-max tables. In live games, 30 hands per hour is the most you could ever hope for. Now, compare those numbers to a 12 tabling player who plays for 8 hours per day. At that rate, this player would have roughly 9,000 hands played every single day. Of course, few people have this exact work ethic, but it is not out of the realm of possibilities when it comes to the micro stakes.
What It Takes
-Bankroll
Micro Stakes Poker Online Real Money
Micro stakes poker takes a few different skills and attributes if you want to be successful. First, you will need to have an ample bankroll. While the variance is not going to be nearly as dramatic in these games as it is in small stakes or higher games, you will run into the occasional 10+ buy-in swing. For this reason, you should always be playing with roughly 30 or so buy-ins. If you are playing 25NL, the number of ideal buy-ins is not as high as it would be if you were playing 100NL. The higher limit the game, the more variance you should be prepared for.
-Emotional Control
Bankrolls are hardly the only thing needed for success in micro stakes poker. You will also need an awful lot of emotional control at the tables. Most poker strategy books and guides neglect to teach perhaps the most important skill that any player could have, a tilt-free approach to the game. No one is perfect, and everyone tilts a little bit from time to time, but it is vital that your emotions are kept in check. If you are playing six tables at a time, blowing off three buy-ins due to tilt can be a lot easier than it might seem. Players who are on tilt tend to forget everything they learned, like this very article, though, so this is something that is best accomplished through practice and implementation.
-Multi-Tabling Skills
The ability to multi-table and multi-task should never be understated for micro stakes players. There just isn’t any good money to be made playing one or two tables at a time in the micro stakes games. Even the biggest winners at 100NL (the highest micro stakes limit) would be lucky to win $15/hour playing two tables of 6-max at a time. It can be a difficult transition, especially for new online players, to learn how to play four, six, or ten tables at a time. The fact of the matter is, however, that all serious micro stakes players have a solid skill set when it comes to multi-tabling. This isn’t to say that you need to play 20 tables at a time, but being able to 8 or 10 table would certainly be beneficial.
-Poker Tracking Software
HUDs and other poker tracking software are an absolute must for multi-tabling, serious micro stakes players. A HUD (heads up display) will be a tremendous benefit when you are trying to concentrate on a number of different decisions at once. Instead of forming your own reads on opponents, a HUD will allow you to have a quick summary available for anyone you face. It will be much easier to shove all in pre-flop with pocket queens if you know that the original raiser plays 90% of their hands. Now, imagine if you had no information on that same player; you would have to decide whether queens are ever ahead. Some old school players feel that software and HUDs are nothing more than cheating, but that makes no sense since most poker rooms are perfectly OK with it.
Aside from allowing you to make more precise reads at the table, poker software like PokerTracker also provides in-depth statistics on your own play. You can easily analyze all of the hands that you played in your last session, no matter how big or small. Beyond this, poker software can tell you how often you raise, what hands you win with, if you fold to re-raises too frequently, and much more. Plus, who doesn’t like to see a graph of their winnings? For an investment of $100 or less, any micro stakes player would be making a big mistake if they played without some sort of software.
-Work Ethic
Last but not least is the need for a sound work ethic. If you want to beat the micro stakes for any significant amount of money, you will need to put in a whole lot of work. People who don’t know poker tend to scoff at the idea of poker being a lot of work, but it certainly is. Today there are infinite resources available for players who want to improve their game. From books to training sites, there is something out there for players of all skill levels and all limits.
Small Stakes Poker
Books are the most outdated method of learning how to play winning online poker. The flaw with most books is that they are old and generally teach concepts that are quite basic. Books would have been a great way to aptly learn the game back in 2002, but the competition is way beyond that at this point in time. There are a select number of books that concentrate on winning online play and teach more modern concepts, but they are far and few between. Be sure to read a number of up to date reviews before you lean on any written book as your poker bible (especially if Hellmuth wrote it!).
Online resources are the best way to improve your skill set for tough micro stakes games. There are innumerable online sites with strategy guides of varying quality, but the video training sites have taken over in popularity. There are a handful of different poker training sites that offer video tutorials for aspiring players. These videos consist of a winning player recording their play and relaying it to the viewers. The players record themselves during play, explain their thought processes, and viewers soak in the information. As was the case with books, you should carefully analyze who is making the video and whether they are a reliable source of information.
Crush Micro Stakes Online Poker
Going hand in hand with poker training videos are poker coaches. Coaches are people who will watch you play over the internet (known as sweating) and offer their input and advice as you play. These coaches vary in quality and rates, but some can be had for very affordable rates. Shop around at the video training sites for your choice of coach if this seems like an attractive way to learn the game for you. It is not for everyone, and it could be costly, but many people have transitioned from losing or break even players into big winners with the help of a solid coach.