Microstakes strategy

Ok I've done alot of reading before joining this board..but nowhere have I found strategy for the micro stakes tables. I've only invested $50 into this, so I'm playing the .10 NL tables and I've found alot of the strategies simply don't work here because people play everything, and people bluff far too often. Even when I get a good hand like KK, if I raise too high preflop, everyone folds, if i raise medium or small, everyone limps in because what's 50 cents anyway. Then I have 5 players against me which is 5 times the odds my KK will get busted... well you get the picture.

So if anyone has some microstakes table strategy I'd love to hear it. Keep in mind I don't want to develop bad habits, but when I'm playing tables where people come and go every 5 minutes and everyone is bluffing, it's really tough to lay down AA to an allin.

EDIT: As I am new if you wouldn't mind typing out the acroynms so I can become acclimated to what they mean I would appreciate it Thanks.

Originally Posted by RevolverX

Ok I've done alot of reading before joining this board..but nowhere have I found strategy for the micro stakes tables. I've only invested $50 into this, so I'm playing the .10 NL tables and I've found alot of the strategies simply don't work here because people play everything, and people bluff far too often. Even when I get a good hand like KK, if I raise too high preflop, everyone folds, if i raise medium or small, everyone limps in because what's 50 cents anyway. Then I have 5 players against me which is 5 times the odds my KK will get busted... well you get the picture.

So if anyone has some microstakes table strategy I'd love to hear it. Keep in mind I don't want to develop bad habits, but when I'm playing tables where people come and go every 5 minutes and everyone is bluffing, it's really tough to lay down AA to an allin.

EDIT: As I am new if you wouldn't mind typing out the acroynms so I can become acclimated to what they mean I would appreciate it Thanks.

It's been awhile, but micro stakes are all about ABC poker. Standard TAG (tight aggressive) works great. DO NOT BLUFF!!!! VALUE BET! Bet when you have a good hand (even marginal against calling stations) and fold when you don't.

As far as your KK goes, I think you have the wrong idea. You aren't raising to narrow down the field, although a big pair is easier to play 1 or 2 handed. You most likely have the best hand (ie. your equity is highest), your bet is for value. Let them call and play smart post flop.

.df

Pretty much camp for sets(pocket pairs making three of a kind on the flop) you can make a lot of money doing that.

You can usually make a lot of money from people falling in love with AA-QQ preflop. Like at 10NL I liked to see a flop with suited connectors even with a raise. So like a have 67 suited they raise 50 cents I call because I know if I mkae my str8 or flush or two pair someone holding AA-QQ will give me thier stack enough to make it profitable.

The thing is I'm dying post flop in micro stakes. What are the strategies for betting and calling here? With so many players bluffing, if I have an extremely good hand, that can only be beat by a slightly better hand, and some guy raisees ridiculous... how do I know to lay down... or how do I know if he's not bluffing. That's the question I hope you guys can tell I suffered many bad beats today hehe.

I guess another problem I have is I hate being a TAG player in microstakes.. I tend to limp into the pot with hands like Ax, K(7-10)o, Q(7-10)o, etc. Reason is, even playing 2-3 tables at a time as a TAG player can take months to increase my bankroll. Usually when I play tight I come out flat at the end of the day.

umm, you should NEVER be playing hands like K7-10o at ANY levels, let alone your stakes. hands like 56s are way more valuable than Axo, Kx, Qx.

This is confusing to me because looking at poker tracker:

I lost AKs to Q7o
I lost JJ to 83o
I lost KQ to J6o
I lost AQ to 45o
I lost QJ to 74s

and on and so forth. Like I said, at microstakes players will play any hand. Is this just bad luck?

thats obviously going to happen, if the best hand always won then there would be no game. your job is to consistently have a better hand, so you will consistently win more than you lose. if you play out JJ vs 83o a billion times JJ is obviously going to win a hell of a lot more than 83o...so why would you play 83o? just because it won a few times? you need to learn how to take advantage of people who play this crap, and you need to learn to know when you are beat and make proper laydowns.

anyways to better clarify why you shouldnt be playing hands like K9o...in a raised pot, even usually in a limped pot, there will almost always be someone else in the hand with you outkicked. whats the point in playing k9o when someone else has kq? the reason 56s is better than k9 is because 56 (aside from the straight and flush possibilities) are almost always live cards, meaning no one else at the table is playing them. playing broadway-rag hands only leads to getting top pair-decent kicker hands, which is where the majority of players lose their money.

also when you look at poker tracker, you shouldnt be saying "oh i lost with AA to 27o blah blah" you should be looking at how you played the hand, and what you could have done to prevent this (if anything). you should definitely start posting hand histories in the other forum, everyone is more than happy to help.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, the chances of you having the best hand given the flop consistently is pretty slim. Even if you have a great hand, there's always a chance someone could have something better, no matter how small that chance is. Problem is, it's hard to tell. In micro, players will bet big, even on crappy hands. A few days ago I had AK and AA 7 8 10 hit the flop. We both raised big, but I caved in and folded only to find out he had a pair of 7s.

I suppose this is something you learn from experience.. but if you have a monster hand, and only ONE hand can beat that monster hand (liek say a royal flush haa) and hes reraisng you at the river, do you cave, or call?

thats why you raise preflop...you raise preflop to limit the field of players you are against. if you have AK, you need to raise whatever only allows 1-2 callers. for instance, i pick up AKs, raise 5x the big blind (assuming thats the type of raise that is respected at my particular table), get 1 caller. flop comes 479, i can safely assume i still have the best hand, barring an overpair. so i bet, (a player only gets a piece of the flop around 35% of the time or something like that) and he will probably fold. if he calls, then you must reevaluate your situation based on reads. you must learn to raise to limit the field, then put your opponent on a range of hands, and decide where you stand in the hand.

2. well it depends on what the nuts is and what the board looks like...if the board is KQJT all suited and i have the 9 and he pushes for 1000BB then im probably going to fold...but if its KKQT2 3 suited and i have KK then im going to call.

3. and regarding the AA hand, you should be posting hands like this in the forum to find out what you did wrong, how you could have picked up on this bluff, etc...

I have played a significant amount of microstakes stuff, normally 1c-2c NL at CD poker. I play extremely tight preflop and play almost exclusively from late position. Hands like AKs almost play better than a hand like KK so I try and raise significantly preflop anytime i enter a pot. For example, if the blinds are 1c-2c and there are 3 or 4 limpers and I am in a back position I will raise to ~16-18c. This gets most of the rabble out although i will still get 1 or 2 loose callers which is great when you have KK. If too many people call your raises with your big pocket pairs (like 6 or so) you have to be extremely careful if you do not make your set. Also, I don't like to bring the maximum to the table. It is much more profitable to bring half the maximum or even the minimum to reduce your variance when the bad players inevitably suck out on you. Also, it makes calling easier because they can't put you to the test for all of yur money.

It is much more profitable to bring half the maximum or even the minimum to reduce your variance when the bad players inevitably suck out on you.

OMG this is SO wrong. It is MUCH more profitable to have a full stack because when you DO succeed in stacking another player, you'll make more money. The only time playing with less than a full stack can be a good idea is when you are a worse than average player (a lot of beginners are, for obvious reasons), in which case you might expect to lose and therefore want to minimise your losses.

And to bang on a bit more - there is an enormous paradox in that sentence - bad players may suck out on you a lot but BY DEFINITION you will win the majority of these hands against them! A suckout is a by-definition unlikely event - the likely alternative is that you will win, and when you win, you want to win as much as possible.

final note - if the original poster meant that the guy was holding 77 versus his AK on an AA78T board, then he should be aware that he was actually beaten by a full house (7s full of aces)!

I found a couple thing I wrote, and a couple things written by others....

This level is about seeing flops and taking stacks with winning showdowns. Preflop raises are more pot builders than anything else. Much like Omaha. You raise AK here because it's likely the best hand. You punish the callers who have less. You then must avoid rewarding the hands that outflop you by hanging around too long with bad odds. You can't justify their bad calls before the flop, by handing over implied odds like candy.

If you raise into a villain with a better hand, and then he outflops you, you hit him on the short end, and must deny him value on the long end to effectively "win" the hand even though he won the pot.

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If the stakes are low, then simple is the way to go. Make a hand and bet it. Win a lot. No need to get fancy against poor players. Play tight tight. When you make a hand bet heavy. Very simple and straight forward. Image is not a factor. No one cares since they're not paying attention.

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Originally Posted by spoonitnow

I'm playing 10NL now on Bodog, and I'm pretty much a fish. So much for introductions. Here's what my current thought process is like for these stakes, and I hope people will discuss and tell me where I'm right/wrong and stuff like that. Anyway, here we go.

I. Preflop

EP: I'm raising AA, KK, QQ like 5x-10x depending on whether I think guys at that table will call or not. I'm raising AK, AQ, JJ suited or unsuited usually between 3x-5x again depending on the table. I limp other broadway combinations and TT and lower PPs.

MP: Here I'm open raising KQ, KJ and TT usually 5x, and I call raises < 10x with AK, AQ, JJ. I'll usually reraise a weak raise with AK/AQ. If there's just limpers before me, I'll also raise with KQ, KJ, TT, all those other hands mentioned, but I'll raise more with AK/AQ than if there were no limpers.

LP: Late and especially on the button, if it's limped around to me, I'm limping with a lot of hands. Suited connectors down to 45-56, connectors down to 78-89 or so, Axs, Kxs, Qxs, and any PP obviously. I'll raise 7x-10x with AK/AQ and bigger PP if it's been limped around. Pretty much I'm limping hands with good implied odds if there's a lot of limpers, and raising my better hands hard if it's limped around. If there's a raise before me, I'll call anything 5x or less with any broadway usually, and I'm reraising with AK/AQ.

II. On the Flop

With the broadway combinations, I'm looking to hit top pair, a flush draw, or a oesd. I mean, if I hit something like middle pair, a gutshot straight draw, and a runner runner flush draw, I'll see a cheap turn, but other than that I'm usually out of the hand. I'll bet with top pair middle kicker or better, raise with top pair 2nd kicker or better, and reraise with bottom two pair or better. I'm willing to go all in with top/bottom pair or better on the flop because of how many players are willing to go all in with TPMK or worse.

I really don't think bluffing is worth it very much at all at this level of play, and I've heard the same from a lot of players on the forum and IRC, but there is one situation that happens kinda often that I do make a move on. If I'm on a flop with a single opponent -and- I have position -and- the opponent checks -and- the pot is kinda big, like 10BB or more -and- the flop looks like something that would of hit me/missed my opponent based on preflop action, then if it seems right I'll throw out a 3/4th pot-sized or so continuation bet. If I run into resistance, I'm out of the hand unless I stumble into a monster.

III. After the Flop

If I feel I've got a made hand vs. a draw, and even if the villian calls something like a pot-sized bet on the flop then the turn completes a flush or oesd draw, I'll be very careful and will often lay down to an oversized bet/raise unless I have a redraw -and- I think there's a good chance the guy doesn't have the hand he's representing.

I look forward to reading feedback. I think.

Originally Posted by aokrongly

WHOA,
Alot of advice going out on how to play the hand, when the hand is irrelevent.

Fade, the fact of the matter is that you haven't had enough Repetitions to learn Patterns. That's the main fact here. Listen carefully, because I'm a poker genius - lol. No really... I'm going to lay this out for you.

The key to poker is PATTERN RECOGNITION. Start thinking about poker that way. "If I do this it means...". Sooo, if someone else does it then it means about the same - give or take. Right? "If I raise preflop with AK then I normally raise THIS much... And if someone raises me back then I'll generally CALL THEM and see if I get an Ace or King on the flop." Do you do that? Most people do... It's a Pattern.

The alternate would be "If I have AA or KK then I raise preflop, and if someone reraises me then I'll reraise them back." Do people do that 100% of the time. Nothing is 100% - but generally.

Anyway, the point is that you have to see the patterns. And to see the patterns you have to play alot more than at the weekly home game with the boys. I know you played against the computer but you need to play microstakes No limit on Poker Stars. That way you'll get a feel for patterns. Play 10,000 hands - and watch every hand play out whether you're in it or not. Start looking for patterns.

That guy min raised preflop, what does that mean? (AJ, ATs, maybe KQs is what it means... but you need to learn). Pay attention to the betting, make notes and watch what cards get turned over. You'll start to see patterns.

Now you're playing NL Tournament style (or essentially a big SNG) so you may want to study SNG tactics. BTW your AQ raise getting pushed against - either laying it down OR calling it was the right move. It was 50/50 either way. So why worry about it? Here's why it's getting to you... you haven't played enough hands.

I can tell by your post that you're getting knotted up over your performance at the home game. There's lots of reasons why you might be losing. At least AQ is a quality holding. But god knows what else you're playing, how you're playing them etc. Get some experience. Read some books. Look for patterns. When you learn to recognize patterns and how to react to different patterns as they develop, then you'll start getting comfortable with knowing what to do in given situations. Don't think of it as MATH like odds and all that shit. Think of it as patterns.

BTW, I'm pretty good but there's a guy I play with at my home games.. a buddy who played at the US Poker Championship. Anyway, I've only ever beat this guy IN ONE HAND in 3 years. He always knows what I have. He always beats me or gets out before I can hurt him. Always. Except one time when I really slowplayed KK on him. But there are people who can read you. My advice - go play people who can't (I made 3x what my buddy made in poker in 2005 playing other people) or change so your buddy reads you wrong AND YOU LEARN HOW TO READ HIM.

good luck

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ.

That is how I would play micro-limits.