What Stakes Should I Play Online Poker

  

After that I have factored in your bankroll level, and how the natural variance in online poker affects what stakes you should play at. Cash Game Buy-in Levels #1 Micro-Stakes. Micro stakes have blinds from 1c / 2c ($2 max buy-in) through to 10c / 25c ($25 max buy-in). This is where most players that are new to the games will head. Developing online micro stakes strategy for poker means pulling together an idea for how to proceed in the game. Some people think that it is not necessary because each hand costs so little. So they hop online and just slide in at any particular stakes that meet their fancy, and they play.

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

What Stakes Should I Play Online Poker Tonight

-Bankroll

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.

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.

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.

Nathan Williams

Often these days we spend too much time trying to figure out how to achieve a small win rate in tight, aggressive low stakes cash games. I personally try to avoid these games at all costs.

I don’t know about you, but I didn’t get involved in poker to battle for small amounts of money with people who take the game seriously. I got involved with poker to go get the easy money from recreational players. The truth is most live low stakes games and even low stakes cash games on smaller online sites still have plenty of loose action.

However, many people today make a few key errors which hurt their win rate in these games. In this article I am going to discuss three rules for maximizing your success in loose low stakes cash games.

1. Play a Lot of Hands Versus the Recreational Players

Many people do not maximize their win rate versus the bad players because they simply fold too much preflop. You should be going out of your way to get involved in pots with them. If you have position on the rec player, I would suggest playing as much as the top 50% of hands against them.

How To Win Low Stakes Online Poker

This means that when they do their limp thing, you raise it up with a huge range of hands in order to try and get heads up against them going to the flop. This is also known as “isolating.”

A lot of people are afraid that if they don’t have a good hand themselves, they won’t know what to do after the flop. The truth is that these recreational players are playing a huge amount of hands as well. And since you have a position on a player who often will make colossal mistakes after the flop, you could very easily win a big pot with a hand like -suited or even -suited.

The bottom line is that you can’t win big against these players if you don’t get involved against them. There is also a process at work here of getting in their head and developing a dynamic with them. This will pay off later when you finally have the big hand.

Stakes

2. Don’t Slow Play Versus Loose-Passive Players

Another rule for success against this category of players is never to slow play versus them. A lot of people make the mistake of not wanting to scare their opponent off by betting too much. But the truth is we call these players “passive” for a reason. They are not going to build the pot for you. If you choose to try and trap them with your big hands, then you can often look forward to winning a tiny pot.

You have to build the pot versus passive players. It is true that they will fold sometimes, but that is just because they didn’t have anything. You can’t force somebody to call you if they have nothing.

How To Win At Small Stakes Online Poker

The vast majority of the time a big pot gets played in hold’em, it is because both players involved have good hands. This is just a simple fact of the game and it is not something that is under your control.

However, making them pay when they do happen to have something is under your control. Save the trapping for the aggressive regulars who might actually help build the pot for you.

3. Don’t Bluff the Bad Players (Most of the Time)

Another common piece of advice for low stakes cash games is never to bluff the bad players. Again, this isn’t quite optimal. I certainly agree that running big bluffs against them is often a recipe for disaster. However, you definitely should be betting frequently with nothing against them, especially on the flop.

As I said before, you should be isolating these recreational players with a wide range preflop. And you should also be following this up with a continuation bet on the flop most of the time. This is how you start building that dynamic with them I was talking about before.

They are only going to have a pair on the flop about one-third of the time when they do their limp/call thing. Therefore, more often than not they will have to face another bet when they have nothing.

When you are constantly isolating them with a wide range and sticking the c-bet in their face each time, they will start to view you as abusing them. This will pay big dividends for you in the future when you finally make your big hand and they have some piece of the board as well.

The great thing about this strategy is that it doesn’t cost you much either. If they call you on the flop and you still have ten-high on the turn, then yes, you should give up. But most of the time, under normal conditions, you will be taking down a majority of these pots on an earlier street. You are also prepping them for the big blow-up hand where they give you their entire stack.

Final Thoughts

The biggest keys to success for loose low stakes cash games all have to do with keeping things simple — and I mean brutally simple. Do not get tricky in any way. When you make a big hand, you need to bet big on every street for value.

But furthermore, make sure that you are constantly playing this annoying style of “small ball” (as some might call it) against the recreational players. Try to get involved in as many hands as possible versus them and be aggressive consistently on the flop no matter what you have.

You have to remember that sometimes it simply won’t be your day. You won’t be able to make a hand to save your life and they will seem to hit the flop every time in some way. It is really important not to lose your cool during these sessions and simply trust in the process.

What Stakes Should I Play Online Poker Game

This is because on most days this loose-aggressive style of play in position versus the recreational players will pay off in a big way. This approach also tilts them very easily if you are running good or even just normally. This can lead to a windfall situation where they are just handing you stack after stack.

Nathan “BlackRain79” Williams is the author of the popular micro stakes strategy books, Crushing the Microstakes and Modern Small Stakes. He also blogs regularly about all things related to the micros over at www.blackrain79.com.

What Stakes Should I Play Online Poker Quiz

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What Stakes Should I Play Online Poker

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