Poker at the micro stakes is where most of us start our cash game journey. It is important to start creating good habits now that will carry over once you move on to higher stakes. While the micros can be beaten without too much effort, there are a few pitfalls that you need to look out for if you want to maximize your chance of success at the lowest stakes.

The purpose of this article is to give beginners and intermediate players the top 10 keys to beating the micro-stakes. Each item on my list has been gleaned from personal experience having played millions of hands at 25NL and below. My hope is that I give you the best chance possible of crushing the games and gaining invaluable experience that will serve you well as you move up through the micros and beyond.

The micro-stakes aren't limits where you want to outplay your opponents. They aren't about finding every +EV situation. They’re actually quite the opposite. Your goal isn't to outplay your opponent but get maximum value from the right opponents. And instead of seeking every +EV situation, you only choose the situations that offer the most value. Micro-limit games are different to other forms of poker. The tactics that apply in deep-stacked, potential freezeout situations aren’t going to work when the stakes are small and players can top up quite easily. Most importantly, there’s no time to second-guess. Even though it’s only $20, I’m very high on the instant part of Party Poker’s bonus. It allows even micro-stakes players to see a bonus while still giving the 100% play-based offer for bigger players. Shaun's Review $10nl Fast Forward on Party Poker - Duration: 1:10:01. RegiTime Poker 805 views. Crush Micro Stakes Tight Aggressive Poker Series - Episode 1 - Duration: 48:51.

1. Avoid Complicated Spots

When playing for nickels and dimes online at the micro stakes, it’s not the time to try and impress your poker buddies with fancy plays made in marginal spots. This is a recipe for slower than necessary progress when trying to beat a bunch of beginners and recreational players. There will be plenty of opportunities to push small edges after you move up to mid-stakes, and beyond, where the games are tougher and easy money is much harder to find.

Instead, at the micro-stakes, you should be looking to make your money by overwhelming your opponents with a precise following of the fundamentals. By avoiding complicated spots, you can be assured that you are making money from the collective mistakes of the other players. Just grind out an exploitative ABC game by playing lots of pots in position and profit will flow into your bankroll. As a rule, relentlessly value bet your big hands and don’t overplay your marginal ones.

2. Play Exploitative Poker

One of the concepts that you must master to win at poker is to understand that poker is a people game. At the micro-stakes, there is a large variety of player types that can be exploited in one way or another. Learning to profile your opponents and label them is a key skill to learn and will allow you to make quick and targeted adjustments while you play.

Beyond your core strategy, forget about game theory optimal play. Save that kind of thinking for when you are playing high stakes. When the vast majority of your opponents are playing sub-optimally, you instead want to take advantage of those leaks in order to maximize profit. While “GTO” play would certainly win versus bad players, it simply isn’t going to let you maximize your win-rate.

3. Don’t Battle Micro-Stakes Regs

I recommend that you learn a bit about the various levels of thinking, but don’t get too caught up in trying to battle the best players at each stake. Instead, as a rule, avoid complicated spots against them and just look for their leaks the same way you do against the fish. In general, you want to make sure you play on your terms when involved in a hand with them. In other words, always play to your strengths and make the regs be at a disadvantage when involved in a hand with you.

I know, I know…. easier said than done, right? Even so, the fact that you are even thinking about such things right now gives you an inherent advantage. The best place to start is with good note-taking. Beyond that, just focus on your decision-making process and you will be fine.

4. Bet The Strength Of Your Hand

Once you are playing small stakes, 50NL to 100NL, there will be a need to start considering balance as part of your overall strategy. There will be regulars who will hone in on any weaknesses in your game and exploit you relentlessly. However, for the most part, you don’t have to worry about getting exploited at the micro-stakes. Even the “better” players at the table will mostly be playing a level one strategy that is based mostly on their own cards.

In general, you can get away with just making big bets with big hands and small bets with marginal hands. It really doesn’t take an acute understanding of post-flop equity to beat your typical micro-stakes table. Most of your opponents won’t be paying much attention to what anyone else is doing and, even if they are, won’t often know how to use that information effectively.

5. Follow Charts While You Learn

All top players know exactly what they will do in 99% of the situations they face. They then adjust their lines based on the table dynamic and game flow considerations. You need to get to the point where most of the game becomes automatic for you. It really helps you have a core strategy to fall back on.

While you are learning, you will often become lost and have no clue what to do. As a temporary learning tool, it’s a good idea to make a chart that includes all of your “vacuum” ranges and lines that you use when you are completely readless. It’s not as hard as you think, here is a downloadable template (shown below) for you to fill in the blanks. Also, if you want to know how it works, I created a free basic strategy that uses similar charts which will give you a good starting point.

Pre-Flop and Post-Flop Charts Template

6. Set a Bankroll Management Plan and Stick to It

This might be the most important tip of all since it’s hard to play poker without any money. Beginners will have goals that are much different than experienced players who are just trying to rebuild a bankroll fast. However, no matter your level, if you don’t follow good bankroll management principles you are in for a lot of frustration. I recommend that you have at least 30 buy-ins for a cash game stake and 100 buy-ins for tournaments.

It will be really tempting to try to chase losses if you happen to run bad for an extended period of time, especially if you are playing for what may seem like “insignificant” amounts of money. Even so, at the micros, you are going to be building habits that will last for your entire poker career. If you tempt fate with your risk of ruin now, you will probably do so later on when you are playing pots that are hundreds or thousands of dollars.

7. More Volume, Less Study at the Micro-Stakes

Once you have a basic understanding of poker strategy, I recommend practicing what you have learned for thousands of hands before shifting your focus back to learning. Besides, just knowing the fundamentals and having a rudimentary understanding of how commitment works should allow you to beat up through 25NL on most poker sites. This will give you time to develop some personality in your game and force you to solve situations that will seem very complicated at first.

You will make mistakes along the way, no doubt. Therefore, the only type of study that I recommend at the micros is that you take notes or keep a journal as you play. Write down anything that you are unclear on and save hand histories where you had major problems or were completely lost. Post those questions on one of the major poker forums and get into discussions on how to navigate those situations for a couple of hours each week. Don’t substitute playing time to post, only do it outside of your playing schedule.

Other than that, I advocate that you wait until you get to 50NL before you start putting in more significant study time. At that point, you will probably want to play and study at a 50/50 ratio or and maybe even get some coaching. But for now, your goal for the 25NL and below should be to get out of 25NL and below.

8. No Slow Playing at the Micros

This is one of the things that I see all of the time in my students, and it drives me crazy. They are involved in a pot with your typical micro-stakes calling station and flop a huge hand. Instead of betting and/or raising, they check and call, hoping that their opponent will “catch up” a bit and commit to the pot on the turn or river. While this will definitely work in winning pots, it is also a great way to ensure that you win the least amount possible.

No matter what stake you play, one of the biggest sins is to not get enough value with the top of your range when playing in a loose poker dynamic. As a rule, you should always err on the side of betting on the larger side when unsure how to proceed. Unless you have a really good reason, throw out the call button when you flop a strong hand. Bet or raise relentlessly until the money is all-in. Your win-rate will thank you.

9. Do Not Play Tight, Small Ball For The Win

One of the things that most people teach beginners or intermediate players is that “tight is right” and that you should just play very few hands and let weak players make mistakes against your strong range. While this does make the game easier initially and might even work, the advice is actually pretty horrible. Eventually, if you want to compete at mid-stakes or high stakes, you will have to loosen up and learn to play a lot of hands.

The micro-stakes is actually a great place to start developing a loose-aggressive (LAG) strategy. You are playing for less money, so now is the time to get creative and face as many spots as the fundamentals will reasonably allow for. It’s much better to learn when the cost is cheap rather than when the pots are huge, relatively speaking.

Why play as a LAG? The idea is to see a lot of pots against weaker players, in position. Also, when involved in games that see lots of multi-way pots, you want to learn to play hands that can make the nuts (with the right price) and get as much value as possible when you connect. In my opinion, if your VPIP at the micro-stakes is not at least 25% for 6-max or 18% for full ring, you are playing too tight. Below is a screenshot of my positional stats back when I built my cash game bankroll in 2011.

I ran 33/30 against tables of bad regulars and fish. I learned A LOT by playing this many hands.

10. Stick to the Fundamentals

I’ve mentioned this one briefly before but the importance of sticking to the fundamentals against players with bad fundamentals cannot be overstated. Strive to play as many hands as you can with position and initiative. This will allow you to keep constant pressure on opponents who are generally really bad at dealing with pressure

The way to do this is to get good at playing the cutoff through the blinds by having a reasonably strong blind stealing and blind defense strategy. Since most micro-stakes players play badly in the blinds and generally don’t steal or defend enough, there is a lot of profit to be had from recognizing the players who play late position poorly. Your entire pre-flop strategy should be based on setting up profitable post-flop spots for yourself.

After the flop, your main focus should be on optimizing your c-bet frequencies based on your opponents and the board texture. Figure out which players are fit or fold and which ones are calling stations. Once you do that, the only thing left to do is adjust and execute.

Summary

Beating the micro-stakes is easy if you just understand the object of the game, stick to the fundamentals, and play solid aggressive poker. By following the tips in this article, you will be well on your way toward cruising through to 50NL and beyond.

If you are looking for information to get you on the right path toward beating the games, I wrote a comprehensive poker tutorial designed to prepare anyone to play winning poker. Thanks for stopping by, and good luck at the tables!

A complete guide to beating the low stakes no limit hold'em games

'Although poker is not an easy game to fully master, beating the low stakes poker games from 2nl up to 25nl is not hard at all.'

Now, the above statement is by no means meant to be disparaging to those micro stakes no limit players who are struggling to make a profit in online poker. It is actually supposed to be an encouragement to read this lengthy poker strategy guide instead.

Because playing winning poker is all about making fewer mistakes than your opponents and because the majority of players at the low limits make an awful lot of mistakes, you don't have to be a very talented player to beat the micro stakes consistently. All it takes is some knowledge of the basic poker strategy fundamentals and a recipe that makes the pieces of the puzzle fall into place. A lot of the poker strategy fundamentals have been explained in other articles on First Time Poker Player, which will be linked to throughout this article, and this micro stakes poker strategy guide is meant to be that recipe for beating the low limit poker games.

Ingredients of this micro stakes poker strategy guide:

The basic poker strategy fundamentals

If you are unfamiliar with the basic poker strategy fundamentals and the basics of proper starting hand selection, betting and folding, then I would like to recommend you to read the poker strategy guides on First Time Poker Player listed below. Otherwise, by all means feel free to skip them. I know it is a lot of reading, but I wouldn't recommend them if I didn't honestly think they could be very helpful in grasping this guide and eventually could lead to some serious micro stakes ownage (although I understand I'm slightly biased here :-)).

The dynamics of micro stakes online poker games

The poker strategy guides above provide you with the knowledge needed to understand why a certain play would be better or worse than another. This should help you to not only make fewer mistakes yourself, but also to recognise mistakes of other micro stakes players at the table. And it's these mistakes of your opponents to which you have to adapt your poker strategy in order to beat the low stakes games.

The majority of your opponents at the micro stakes have a pretty poor understanding of the basic poker strategy fundamentals. They don't pay attention to their and your position; most low stakes poker players are way too passive and love to slow play; they often don't read the board very well and they don't pay attention to pot odds. And if these players try to pay attention to anything of the above, then there's a great chance they're doing it wrong.

As a consequence many of your opponents at the micro stakes:

• are too loose:
  they limp/call with easily dominated hands in early position; they call raises and reraises with hands that are too weak; they call too much with their draws and low stakes poker players tend to overvalue top pairs with a weak kicker any pair.

• don't get enough value for their strong hands:
  they don't have a betting plan during the hand and by being too passive and slow playing too much with their strong hands you can often get away very cheap where you could have actually been stacked.

• give great (implied) odds:
  you can see cheap flops (in position) with drawing hands like suited connectors, because your opponents raise too little and too small; you can often draw very cheap post-flop and when you hit your draw, you will often get paid more than enough to justify your call on an earlier street.

• don't pay attention to what you are doing...
  ...when they are not in a hand with you: they don't notice the mistakes of others and therefore your 'table-image' is not something you will have to worry about and adjust your play for. And if they do happen to notice some mistakes in your play, then they probably don't know how to exploit that and punish you for it anyway.

• are weak:
  they don't bluff very often at all when they are facing a bet. Therefore a raise often means what it looks like: a strong hand. However, this does not necessarily mean that micro stakes players don't bluff much at all. There are also plenty who like to bluff in the worst possible spots when they are given the chance to do so (for example when you 'show weakness' yourself by checking to them).

• often have a very unpredictable range of hands:
  there is no logic in the hands they play from whichever position nor with what hands they continue after the flop. Note that having an unpredictable range of hands does not mean that your opponents at the micro stakes are therefore unpredictable themselves. When they start raising then it is still very likely that you are up against a strong holding. Whether that is a slow played set or a flopped bottom pair rivering trips does not matter!

Of course, this list of characteristics of the majority of the micro stakes players is quite a generalisation. You will encounter players who are very (too) tight, but play their good hands aggressively. You will also encounter players who actually know what they are doing and have a nice win rate, but don't feel the need to move up. The point is though, that you will encounter many more bad players than good ones, and the list above should immediately give you an idea of how to win enough from those bad players (which, by the way, also includes the too tight/aggressive ones) that you don't have to worry about the other micro stakes players.

Beating the micro stakes

Now you know how a lot of the bad low stakes players play poker we can take a look at how to take advantage of their mistakes. Because micro stakes players play too many hands and often call too much with them it should not come as a surprise that a successful micro stakes strategy can completely revolve around the following two key aspects:

• Getting the most value from hands in which you know you have a great edge
• Avoiding marginal and unprofitable situations

Although this is really what beating the micro stakes is all about, I suspect that the above two lines did not cause you to have that 'aha moment' we're after yet. Therefore we will take a closer look at the following aspects and tactics:

• Starting hand selection
• Value betting
• Slow playing
• Folding
• Bluffing

Starting hand selection at the micro stakes

Proper starting hand selection is a crucial aspect of the micro stakes poker strategy mentioned above, especially when you still need to improve your post flop play. You can create a big edge on your opponents and avoid a lot of marginal situations just by playing tight. Certainly with all the loose opponents at the micro stakes it isn't difficult to consistently see the flop with better hands and create situations in which you are generally way ahead of the range of hands of your opponents. This highly reduces the risk of you making a costly mistake. If you are unsure about what starting hands to play in which positions and/or situations and you haven't read the starting hands guide yet (especially the parts about factors to consider for proper starting hand selection and groups of playable Texas hold´em starting hands), then I really recommend you to do so.

Some important take home messages regarding starting hand selection at the micro stakes:

• Play extremely tight in the blinds and in early position.
• If there's a raise in front of you, be very reluctant to call with easily dominated hands like QJ, AT, KJ etc.. This is especially true when it's an early position raise, because hands like AK, AQ and high pocket pairs will be a great part of the range you're up against and those hands all have you dominated. When in doubt with these kinds of starting hands: just fold.
• Make sure you know how to set mine correctly and don't spew away your chips by just going to the flop every time you hold a pocket pair.
• If you want to play more speculative hands like suited connectors, suited ace-low or so called 'one-gappers' (like J9) than do so in late position either by raising when you are first to act (mainly to steal the blinds) or by calling with multiple players in the pot already to see a cheap flop. Know what you should be looking for when playing these hands: be able to easily let go of your one pair hands and play your big (combo) draws and pair + draw type of hands very strong.
• Going all-in pre-flop with AK is generally not a good idea at the micro stakes.
• Proper starting hand selection is only the beginning of a winning micro stakes poker strategy. You can be great at selecting your starting hands, but if you don't play them right you're probably not going to get very far. If you regularly find yourself in situations post-flop where you don't know what to do, try to play a little tighter and only start opening up your starting hand range when you feel your post flop play is getting better.
• Try not to rely on starting hand charts too much.

Value betting at the micro stakes

So, with a tight starting hand selection you can manoeuvre yourself in situations where you know you have a great edge on the range of hands of your opponents. Step two in your poker strategy should be to get as much value in these situations as possible and for that, you have to value bet. You are value betting when you think that you are ahead of the range of hands of your opponent. As long as that is the case then you are value betting, even if your opponent happens to have a hand that beats yours. You should especially be looking to value bet in situations where you expect to be way ahead of your opponent's range of hands. If you think you might be ahead, but only slightly so, then you don't have to value bet thin. Just check and see what happens.

Example 1:

Hole cards

Board

You have raised in late position with AJ, the big blind calls and you flop top pair-top kicker (TPTK). This is an excellent situation in which a bet is clearly a value bet. Your opponent could very well be calling your flop bet with weaker top pairs like TJ, JQ and JK, with a 7 or medium pocket pairs. If the turn brings a Q or K, then a bet can still be a value bet, but it would be a lot thinner. Your opponent is now unlikely to call with the medium pocket pairs or a 7 and his top pair could very well have turned into two pair. So unless you know you are dealing with a typical calling station, a check with the plan to call a reasonable bet on the river (or make a value bet yourself when a low card comes and you are checked to again) is probably a better option. Example 2:

Hole cards

Board

You opened the pot in middle position and get three callers. You're way ahead with your set and when you bet you are very likely to get called by someone holding an ace, some sort of a straight draw or a flush draw. So you should bet and you shouldn't be shy in doing so either (just bet close to the size of the pot). If you get raised you should not just call and let any draw see another card, just try to get it all-in right there on the flop. Example 3:

Hole cards

Board

The value of a great starting hand like AA or KK drops dramatically when a flop like TJQ comes, especially in a reraised (3-bet) pot. Now the majority of the hands in your opponent's range (TT-QQ, AA, AK) have you beat and a bet would not be a value bet anymore. Be able to slow down in these kinds of situations and try to go to showdown without investing your whole stack.

By the way, you can also value bet pre-flop. Every time you raise or reraise your opponents with a great starting hand, then you are essentially value betting.

Remember that the majority of your opponents at the micro stakes are too loose. They'll call too much and too often, so don't be afraid to value bet three streets after the flop with a hand like TPTK. As long as you start slowing/shutting down when you actually get raised, then you'll get a tremendous amount of value from some of the most bizarre holdings. Also, make sure you always buy-in for at least 100 big blinds and re-load when you fall below that to be able to take full advantage of your good hands.

Slow playing at the micro stakes

Because you'll often get called when betting for value, there's very little need for slow playing at the micro stakes. Often slow playing a strong hand will only result in missing out on a lot of value from draws or strong second best hands which became worthless when scary cards (or scare cards so you will) hit the board. Therefore you should not slow play a big hand when:

• Your opponent is likely to have hit a pair
• The board is wet and potential draws are out there

Example 2 from the previous section about value betting would be illustrative for both these conditions.

This doesn't mean that slow playing should not be part of your micro stakes poker strategy at all, however. Sometimes you flop a hand that is just so big that it will be the nuts on the river regardless of the cards that come and your opponent is unlikely to have hit anything at all. In such a situation slow playing could let your opponent 'catch up' to a second best hand with which he (or she) will donate some money, or it can induce a bluff from your opponent. This is also a reason to be more inclined to slow play versus very aggressive opponents who like to bluff you off of your QQ or KK on an A-high flop, when in fact you're calling with top set and a big smile on your face instead.

Example 4:

Hole cards

Board

Great… You flopped quad aces. Unless your opponent has a decent pocket pair or a very rare 5th ace a bet will probably only get your opponent to fold. Slow playing here is fine. Note that with only one ace on the flop (top set) the situation would already be a little bit different, since your opponent could hold the last ace for a top pair and value betting might be better than slow playing. If you would hold AK on the flop from this example, then you should clearly not slow play and just value bet instead. Pocket pairs will only give you a lot of action when they improve to a full house and thus have you beat and you would get a lot of value from any ace by just value betting in that situation anyway.

Don't think that, when you flop a monster like in the example above, slowplaying will be too suspicious, because you would have made a continuation bet otherwise (in other words: that you need to 'balance your play' so that you're not only slow playing monsters and c-betting all other non-monster hands). Most of your opponents at the micro stakes just don't pay attention to your playing style enough for that to be an issue.

Folding at the micro stakes

Contrary to slow playing, folding is an essential part of a successful micro stakes poker strategy (or of any poker strategy for that matter). You can only avoid marginal and unprofitable situations by folding enough. We have already seen this when discussing starting hand selection and post flop it's essentially the same.

A lot of players at the micro stakes don't play back at you and don't bluff when they raise you, they simply have it. Do you have 77 on a 6-high flop and your c-bet/value bet gets check-raised? Just fold. There's just too little value in continuing with the hand unless you know you're up against a total clown. The same goes for top pairs with a medium kicker, top pair on a paired board etc.. Those are all marginal situations at best when you have to start making decisions for a big part of your stack. Sure, you'll sometimes be folding the best hand, and this weak approach is probably not the optimal strategy. But it'll save you money more often than not, and the real profit should come from the hands where you know you have a big advantage anyway.

Bluffing at the micro stakes

If you have already read some other poker strategy guides or tips for beating the micro stakes, then you have undoubtedly read that you should not bluff at the lower limits at all. But not bluffing at all at low stakes = not good. In fact, you should be bluffing at the micro stakes all the time. However, before you start shoving those chips in the pot with all your no-pairs and missed draws, it might be advisable to first keep on reading.

Firstly, continuation betting sensibly is an important part of playing winning poker, also at the micro stakes. And since c-betting with your missed hands to take advantage of your initiative will often enough be a bluff, you should be bluffing a lot. Continuation betting sensibly does not mean that you should be firing away on the flop by default when you were the pre-flop raiser, however. You have to look at the board, the number of opponents you're up against and the playing style of your opponent. Be less inclined to c-bet when you completely missed against more than 2 opponents, very loose opponents or on very wet boards (9hJcTh, for example) which have very likely hit your opponent's range. Also, when your c-bet gets called, just shut down. Don't keep on firing in the hopes of getting a fold, that's just a waste of chips. Very rarely you could try a second barrel when an ace or king hits on the turn, but your default play should be to shut down.

Secondly, there will be plenty occasions at the micro stakes where you can semi-bluff with draws, especially on the flop where you have the most equity to win the hand. It is important to realise that most draws, even big combo draws, lose a lot of their value when the turn card is a blank (does not complete the draw). Therefore it is advisable to try to see the river as cheap as possible once the turn did not help your hand, either by check/calling a reasonable bet or by checking behind.

Thirdly, there will be a lot of situations where you are up against an obviously weak hand, but you are unlikely to win when going to showdown. Then a little 'stab at the pot' might be effective.

Example 5:

Hole cards

Board

You are in the big blind (bb) with a trashy hand and the small blind (sb) just calls and checks the flop. Obviously the sb is very weak here and you are unlikely to win when going to showdown. Here you can try to take a small stab and pick up the pot. It might not be a big pot, but if you do this often enough, all those small pots will add up and could significantly increase your win rate. If you do get called however, just shut down unless you improve to a great hand. Example 6:

Hole cards

Board

You called a tight early position raiser pre-flop with suited connectors and called his flop c-bet with a straight draw. He checks the turn and the river, which indicates he has a very weak hand like missed high cards. Now you can take a little stab at the pot on the river to either represent a pair or the flush draw that hit. You don't have to bet that much at all: around half the pot will be more than enough. Note that some players at the micro stakes are so loose, that they would even call with any ace high in this spot. If you happen to have such a read, just let it go (you probably should not have called with the suited connectors pre-flop then either).

You might have noticed that most of the bluffs are not 'big and ballsy bluffs'. Those are really unnecessary at the micro stakes and will probably get called too often to be really profitable.

Example 7:

Hole cards

Board

Find yourself on the river with a missed draw after calling two decent bets on the flop and the turn and now you get checked to? Just let it go. Don't get fancy and start pushing your stack in the middle, your opponent has something decent and probably won't let it go. Besides, your push on the river after just calling two streets has a sign 'missed draw' in neon letters to go with it anyway and maybe your opponent was just giving you the opportunity to bluff in the first place. Don't do it, it's a total spew! Example 8:

Hole cards

Board

Your reraise pre-flop with QQ got reraised (which is bad news), but this 4-bet was small, so you decided to call. J-high flop, you call his c-bet in case he has AK. Another J on the turn, he checks, you bet the turn and go all-in on the river because you figure you might either be ahead (right…) or you can bluff your opponent off of KK or AA otherwise. Sigh… Of course your opponent calls and shows you the KK for the winner.

There are plenty of occasions where bluffing at the micro stakes is okay. You can take advantage of your initiative when c-betting a missed hand, you can semi-bluff and have your draw as a back-up for when you do get called, or you can take small stabs at the pot when it is very likely your opponent is weak and willing to give up anyway. Don't ever try to take away bigger pots by bluffing your opponent off of a real hand. This is what is pointless and unprofitable at the micro stakes. Sure, sometimes it'll work when you are dealing with a weak/tight opponent, but more often than not you'll get called and have to smack yourself against the head again for doing such a stupid thing.

Beating the micro stakes consistently: discipline and self-control

Hopefully all of the above will already help you to beat the micro stakes cash games. However, playing winning poker consistently for a lot of players will not only be about knowing what decisions are best in certain situations, but also about having the discipline and self control to actually make those decisions and about not putting too much of their bankroll on the line for a single decision. We're talking about controlling tilt and bankroll management here.

Low stakes poker and tilt

Tilt, in poker, has the unpleasant side effect that it can make an otherwise nice win rate completely evaporate. And if you're not careful, it can even do the same with your whole bankroll. Especially at the micro stakes the unexpected hand ranges and 'unorthodox' plays of your opponents can make for some unpleasant surprises, which can be the last straw after some coolers to make you go on monkey tilt. And for many poker players this could very well be the most difficult aspect in poker to deal with. Of coarse I could now preach that you simply should not tilt, ever, but that isn't going to work. Therefore we'll take a look at some general tips, which may or may not help if you have tilt issues:

• Be honest about tilt issues to yourself.
  If you regularly have to replace some of your computer accessories (especially mouse, keyboard or monitor) or anything else you can break or disrupt during or after a poker session, then you know you have tilt issues and your win rate is most likely suffering from it too.
• Read 'The Poker Mindset' written by Matthew Hilger and Ian Taylor.
• Never start berating or educating the fish in chat.
  First of all because you don't want to be pathetic and second of all because you should not scare off the fish and with that lose the opportunity to win your money back easily. If you really can't help yourself, just disable the chat function (this also helps if you are easily tilted by chitchat of your opponents).
• Stop looking at your bankroll during sessions.
• Always remember that poker is all about making correct decisions.
  If you made the right decisions than THAT is what should please you, regardless of the outcome of the hand. Don't be result oriented. There will always be an element of chance in poker you simply can't control but that can completely determine your results in the short term. Don't let it determine your state of mind as well.
• Prevent falling into bad habits due to boredom.
  Try to play another poker format like Omaha hi for a change or try switching from full ring to shorthanded or heads-up games to prevent boredom. Maybe multi-tabling will be a good cure against boredom for you, but don't start multi-tabling until you feel you can comfortably beat your limit at one table.
• Try to play a lower variance game when times are tough.
  If low stakes shorthanded games are your main game and things are going rough for awhile, try to play some full ring where the variance tends to be lower. Similarly you could adjust your playing style to a tighter, lower variance strategy.
• When you are tilting: stop playing.
  Take a deep breath; go do something completely different to empty your mind, whatever. But don't start shoving your stack in the middle like a donkey.
• Don't seriously consider 'moving up where they respect your raises'.
  If you read this guide completely up until this point, then it should be evident why moving up from the micro stakes to where they respect your raises is not very smart (kind of an understatement there). Where your raises will be respected, your opponents will also pay close attention to what you are doing and punish you for every mistake you make. Your opponents won't pay you that easily when you finally hold a strong hand and when you know you have a big edge and therefore, your profit has to come more and more from marginal situations. This means that you will experience more variance and, likely, more tilt issues. Your opponents will still have unpredictable ranges, but now because they are trying to be deceptive themselves and not because they play bad. Your opponents won't be so weak and passive, they will raise your standard c-bet, bluff you off your hand in tough spots and make sure they will get the most value from your second best hands. So, if you prefer all that above fish who happily donate you some of their stack with the most bizarre hands and suck out on you once in awhile, then by all means, move up to where they respect your raises. But at least follow proper bankroll management guidelines when doing so :-).

Bankroll management

Proper bankroll management should prevent you from losing your entire bankroll when results don't match up to how well you are playing due to variance. Bankroll management is therefore a very important aspect of any long term poker strategy. A couple of coolers followed by some bad beats can easily set you back a couple of buy-ins. Therefore, in no limit hold'em, you should have at least 20 buy-ins before you start playing at a certain level and you should especially move down in time when things aren't going so well (when you have around 14 buy-ins left). Also take a look at the article specifically about bankroll management for more detailed information about bankroll management and a helpful nano and micro stakes bankroll management scheme.

Party Poker Micro Stakes Poker

Other helpful tools for beating the micro stakes

Poker tracking software

Tracking software like Holdem Manager (HEM) will be very important, mainly for tracking your own play and improving your own game. Such software will be quite an investment for a nano or micro stakes player, but you can take a 15 day free trial period.

At the micro stakes you don't really need to track your opponents and make all your decisions at the table based on their calling and raising statistics in order to be a winner. It is important however, that you know your own statistics to be able to assess correctly whether you are playing too loose or too tight and what might be some other leaks to plug. Also playing back and reviewing hands that gave you trouble (or better: posting them on poker forums) will tremendously help you to improve your game.

If you decide to get Holdem Manager for free by playing and accumulating player points at a certain poker room (see the site of HEM for info on that), make sure you don't spoil your chances of getting rakeback at a poker room you might want to continue playing at for a long time!

An alternative for Holdem Manager would be PokerTracker3 (PT3).

Micro stakes rakeback

If you don't know what rake is or don't know what the impact of not having a rakeback deal at the micro stakes is when you could have when playing at a certain online poker room, then you can find more information by following the links.

In short: the rake you pay at an online poker room can add up to about 25-30 big blinds per 100 hands (bb/100), which is about twice that of a healthy win rate. If you would break even without rakeback at, for example, Full Tilt Poker, then with a 27% rakeback deal you would all of a sudden have a reasonable win rate. Not all poker rooms offer rakeback though, but that does not mean that you should not play at such a room. PokerStars for example does not offer rakeback. However, they take a lower amount of rake from the pot in the first place and that, in combination with their rewards program, makes PokerStars still cheaper to play at for 2nl, 5nl and 10nl players than Full Tilt Poker. (In other words: go play at PokerStars or make sure you get rakeback at mostly any other room).

Micro stakes poker strategy guide - conclusion

Beating the micro stakes, or preferably beating the majority of the micro stakes players, will be a matter of following a somewhat weak/tight poker strategy which revolves around getting great value from your biggest hands and slowing down in or even avoiding marginal situations. Such a micro stakes strategy leaves little room for slow playing and fancy plays. A tight starting hand selection, value betting and respecting raises are the key aspects, where your starting hand selection can become wider as you develop your post flop play. Bluffing also plays a role significant enough that the advice to not bluff at all would be misplaced. It has to be done well thought out, however, and will be mainly backed up by your momentum from an earlier street, a draw or the read that your opponent is ready to muck his hand at the slightest reach for chips (or the bet button for that matter) and should never have the intention to let your opponent fold a substantial hand.

Party Poker Micro Stakes Games

If you are able to apply all the above consistently by preventing tilt from having a great negative influence on your game then you will eventually beat the micro stakes. If you keep improving your game with the help of tracking software and by reading a lot, if you protect your bankroll wisely and make sure you're paying as little rake as possible at your poker room of choice, then you might even be crushing the lower stakes before you know it.

Oh, and don't forget to let me know how it is at the nosebleed stakes if when you happen to eventually get to play there.

Further reading at First Time Poker Player:

Further reading across the internet:

• TwoPlusTwo - A complete guide to beating the micros
• TwoPlusTwo - How to beat the micros (2nl - 50nl)