Help with micro table problems

[rethuglican]

I've been playing micro ($.01/$.02 6max) NLHE on PokerStars for the past week. It's not going terribly, but to be completely honest I'm pretty disgusted with my play at the micro level.

I've found raises to be almost pointless. I have to raise too much to get cut down on the number of callers and those larger raises when the flop misses me completely. As a result I'm limping now more than I ever did in SNGs. Small-med pocket pairs... limp. Qs-As, raise. It makes me sick doing it, but I know if I raise my Ts that I'll get busted by one of the three folks who call that raise with K4 or A2.

Should I be raising these properly and just accepting the losses that come with people making bad calls?

Play seems very passive to the point where I am having a helluva time trying to figure out what these guys are playing. I have AK, flop comes Q9A, bet out down the hand to find out he's holding Q9. Same guy gave me most of that back a little later when he was calling my bets with MPGK the whole way down. I never seem to know where I stand in the hand at a given time. This has lead to me either losing more than I should on a hand, or not maximizing my profits on a hand.

Is there anything I can do to adapt to such erratic playing?

The last one is quite likely variance. But I'll throw it out there... I've lost about $12 calling idiots who come to a table with $1.xx (max buyin $5) and just start going all in till someone calls and they either double up or bust out. I've had AK beat by A3 (a bad move calling an all in with it, I'm sure, but I had just a few hours earlier been beat by the following, AA beat by 25(SOOOTED), QQ beat by QT... just relentless. this has probably happened to me about 8-10 times so far. Not once have I won one of those idiotic all-ins and every time I've had, by far, the best hand going in.

Should I just stop feeding the fish? Or call if I'm holding a powerful hand and leave it to chance that I get paid?

[swiggidy]

If they are calling your pre-flop raise with Q9, good for them you'll be fine.

You may be over-playing TP (especially if you're used to SnGs). With TP after a caller in a multi-way pot check instead of bet. It'll keep the pot size manageable. If you have top-two pair or better just keep betting and you're happy they called.

If you're getting tons of callers all the time limp away with your small pps, and those suited connectors. If they are also playing passive post-flop limp away (with decent position) with suited one-gappers and unsuited connectors.

If you're getting too many callers when raising pre-flop after limpers, raise more. A $0.1 raise (5xBB) isn't going to elict many folds. Try 0.15, or 0.20 until you find that happy place with one to two callers. This will also shrink the effective stack size so postflop will play more like an early round SnG.

As for the shorties, gamble away. Even if they double up, they're still at the table ready to give the stack right back.

[Ash256]

Just raise more preflop, find the right amount that means that you're heads up postflop. Watch the table a bit, I found at those stakes that the good preflop raise amount was 12c on one table and 24c on the next. Use bankroll management.

Do this, you'll be fine.

[rethuglican]

Thanks much. Good advice.

You may be over-playing TP (especially if you're used to SnGs). With TP after a caller in a multi-way pot check instead of bet. It'll keep the pot size manageable. If you have top-two pair or better just keep betting and you're happy they called.

You're probably right there. I checked PokerOffice and pairs are where I've lost the most money regularly. Everything else (high card aside) is showing profit thus far. Mind you, I currently only have 2K hands recorded in PO.

If you're getting too many callers when raising pre-flop after limpers, raise more. A $0.1 raise (5xBB) isn't going to elict many folds. Try 0.15, or 0.20 until you find that happy place with one to two callers. This will also shrink the effective stack size so postflop will play more like an early round SnG.

This is one thing I haven't been able to bring myself to do unless it's a result of 5xbb + 1bb/limper. I worry that the same people who call with garbage for .10 will call with garbage for .20. Perhaps I'm worried about monsters under the bed there. I will give it a shot and see how it pans out.

Thanks again.