Mar 8, 2009 - PROLOGUE The goal of this guide is to provide anyone with the skill-set and knowledge needed to beat the micro limits online. A lot of people. Intermediate, Poker Strategy Articles. 6-Max Pre-Flop Ranges. 6-Max Pre-Flop Ranges. October 14, 2015. But strong and aggressive ranges for mainly beginning and struggling 6-max micro stakes poker players. So after lots of work putting these together, trying to make them as simple as possible to follow, I am here to share them with you.
Every micro stakes player should have one goal: make enough money to move up in stakes. Some people would have you believe this requires some sort of super unique approach– a strategy meant for the micros and no where else –but that’s overthinking it. All it takes to break out of the micros is a solid strategy with a few adjustments. In this article, we’ll review 4 concepts demonstrated by Doug Polk in a session recorded for at 25NL on America’s Cardroom. This is Dissecting The Lab, an article series that shows off what’s inside the Upswing Poker Lab training course. Micro Stakes Tip 1. Open-Raise a Wide Range Pre-flop, But Consider the Rake The rake at is notoriously high, so much so that you need to factor it in to your pre-flop strategy.
Doug adjusts to the relatively high rake by reducing his open-raise size to a min-raise. This poker site takes $0.01 in rake for every $0.20 put into the pot at the micro stakes. By min-raising, Doug reduces the pot size going into the flop and pays less rake as a result.
Let’s compare the difference in rake taken between min-raising and 3x-ing:. If Doug 3x raised to 75c and the big blind called, the pot would be $1.60 with 8c rake taken. When Doug min-raised to 50c and the big blind called, the pot is $1.10 with only 5c rake taken This 3c difference may seem like an inconsequential amount of money, but rake adds up over time and any means of improving your win-rate is worth taking! Keep in mind, Doug doesn’t use a min-raise strategy from the small blind as this would give his opponent too good of a price to see a flop. He prefers a 3x or fold strategy from the small blind.
There are a couple more benefits of min-raising that are particularly notable at micro stakes:. Min-raising gives you a better price on your raise Your pot odds to steal the blinds are best when you use a min-raise, thus you can profitably open-raise a wider range of hands. Playing more hands post-flop against inexperienced opponents is exactly what we want. Micro stakes players don’t 3-bet much anyway One downside to min-raising is that it invites 3-bets because it gives your opponents a better price to do so.
At micro stakes, however, you rarely have to worry about your min-raise being attacked by an aggressive 3-bettor because such players are few and far between. If you are an inexperienced player yourself, you may want to take the opposite approach and tighten up your pre-flop ranges to avoid relatively tough post-flop spots (see: ). Tighten Your Pre-Flop Calling Ranges The increased rake and lower 3-bet frequencies mentioned above also call for narrower calling ranges, especially when out of position. In the hand below, we see Doug open 8 ♦6 ♦ from UTG and make a disciplined fold despite getting better than 2.3-to-1 odds on a call. Making the call here would be fine in a game with lower rake, but that extra premium pushes it over the edge here. ( Note: Want to improve your poker game, move up in stakes and make more money?
Check out The Poker Lab, a poker training course that will take your game to the next level.) Tip 3. Don’t Buy Into Micro Stakes Assumptions Many players assume that balance goes out the window at micro stakes because “NO ONE EVER FOLDS IN THE MICROS!!!!111!!!shift+1!!” That simply isn’t true. Keeping our ranges somewhat balanced(or at least considering it) is always important, even at the micros. You may see some unorthodox plays below 25NL, but that doesn’t mean you should never bluff or play passively with a strong hand. In The Poker Lab, we categorize hands post-flop in the following way:. Category 1– Strong hands to bet for value.
Category 2 – Medium-strength hands with which to check/call. Category 3 – Effective bluff hands (usually draws or overcards). Category 4– Hands that are giving up This doesn’t mean you should bet every time you have a somewhat strong hand. If you always bet with your strong hands and checked with your medium-strength ones, your opponent can exploit you by applying a lot of pressure whenever you check.
To prevent this from happening, you can keep some relatively strong hands in your Category 2 check range. In the hand below, Doug flops top pair and open-ended straight-draw– a very strong hand in a button vs big blind scenario –and chooses to check it back. By making this play, Doug ensures that his checking range contains some hands that can call down when facing pressure on most turns and rivers. Shifting some of your borderline Category 1 hands to Category 2 is an effective strategy to prevent yourself from getting exploited by aggressive opponents. Bluffing with Backdoor Draws It’s usually best to bluff on the flop with hands that have some way of improving on the next street– usually by hitting draws or overcards. On some board textures, however, you simply will not have enough bluffs in your range if you follow this logic. In the following hand, Doug raised pre-flop and c-bet the flop with a hand that has only backdoor draw potential.
Doug open-raised from the HiJack in this hand, so let’s take a look at The Poker Lab recommended opening range from that position: There just are not many hands that qualify as perfect Category 3 bluffs here (just 65s and a few flush draws). There are a plethora of value hands that we can have on this board though(AA, 77, 44, A7s, A4s, AK/AQ/AJ), so we need to work in some more creative bluffs. How do we select these bluffs? Consider their backdoor draws.
Adding in some hands with backdoor potential is a good way to balance out your value/bluff betting ratio on the flop. With Q ♣J ♥ on an A ♥-7 ♠-4 ♥ flop, we pick up equity on any heart, K or T and can continue betting when one of these cards come. Follow the Pot Odds, Even in Precarious Spots Even in precarious spots against seemingly strong ranges, it is important to objectively consider your pot odds. Micro stakes players are usually terrible at sizing their raises and will often provide you with great pot odds as a result. Doug ends up in one these spots after 4-betting A♠5♠ from the CO versus a 3-bet from the player in the big blind. He is met by an unexpectedly small 5-bet.
Running into a 5-bet after 4-bet bluffing is not fun, but in this spot, Doug is simply getting the right price on a call. Doug has to call $5.50 to win $16.10, which comes out to about 25.5% equity needed. Even if we assume the big blind can only have AA or KK(a big assumption), Doug is still getting the correct odds on a call: This is an extreme example, and making a tight fold with A♠5♠ would not be the end of the world, but it illustrates the point well: don’t forget to factor in your pot odds.
Always consider the price you are getting when faced with a bet, particularly against 3-bets and 4-bets. The result of your calculation may surprise you. Note: Are you ready to improve your poker skills and increase your earnings? The Poker Lab is a comprehensive training course designed to teach you the strategies behind the world’s best players’ success.
Take a closer look inside The Lab and learn while you do it with these articles:. – featuring one of the hottest topics in poker: overbetting!. If you want more micro stakes specific info, check out. Learn to tailor your tight-aggressive strategy for modern day games with. Go back to the top of this.
Top Rated Micro Stakes Poker Sites Reviewed by Experts, 100% Safe and Secure Sites Micro Stakes poker is one of the most played types of online poker, mainly because the bulk of the new online poker players out there jump into the Micro Stakes to get a feel for the game, and also because many people feel that the Micro Stakes are the easiest limits to beat. Typically you aren't going to play against the poker pros in the game, which means that you are playing against players who are likely to make mistakes that you can take advantage of while playing. Here at MicroStakesPoker.com, we are going to help you out with anything and everything relating to playing Micro Stakes poker online. Turbo Championship of Online Poker The beginning of 2014 Poker Star announcing the third annual TCOOP or Turbo Championship of Poker One of the first things that we are going to cover is an in-depth look at some of the best Micro Stakes online poker sites out there. Specifically we'll cover the top five best rooms to play at the Micro Stakes, and break them down to help make your decision about which site to play at just a bit easier. Obviously there are a ton of sites out there today, and they will pretty much all offer Micro Stakes games, which means that the decision isn't simply as easy as 'just choosing one'.
This site is a complete guide for Micro Stakes poker players out there, which means that we not only cover the rooms, but also give an in-depth look at the strategy behind playing Micro Stakes poker as well. Playing at the Micro Stakes will have some different strategy than playing up at the higher limits, but it all depends on what you are playing and the style of player that you are as well. Obviously we'll take a full look at the strategy behind playing Micro Stakes poker, but overall just help to put you in the best spot possible to bring in a consistent profit when playing at the lower limits at some of the top online poker sites out there today. So take a look around the site and be sure to check out each page before getting in on the action, and if you have any in-game action to check back and read up on the strategy behind the play to avoid making any of those mistakes that we all make from time to time!
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