Micro Stakes Holdem

Ok, I’m only posting this in uFR. I think a lot of players want a clear guide regarding moving up in limits. The uSH forum has a lot of great threads on this topic already. I’ll link to them throughout this. This is my second micro stakes article. Hopefully they are helpful. As before, this is cross posted from my blog. Sorry about the length, I guess I like my own voice. Read the rest of this entry »

mtrip from 2+2 asks:

What are the criteria to keep in mind when deciding whether you’re willing to build a big pot with TPTK?

Specifically, what factors/information lead to a strong line vs a ‘pot control’ line? When do you get away from the hand and when do you commit? Read the rest of this entry »

No HH to discuss but maybe someone has some helpful advice. My typical session lasts an hour and ends with me winning about one buy in. After I achieve the buy in goal I tighten up a ton and play scared to lose my winnings. Conversely if I have a bad session I can play until Im unstuck and play fine. Anyone conquer something similar? Any advice? Thanks

steve1238 from 2+2

venice10 says:

Mike Caro wrote about this a long time ago. What is happening is that you are measuring winning sessions, not winning $. You are defining success as having 80%, 90%, or even 100% winning sessions. This approach loses you money. Think of it this way. You approach two tables and have a choice of how much time you can play at each, but you have to play at least a 1/2 hour at both. Table one consists of complete noobs, who will stack off with jack high. Table two consists of the best cash game players on the planet. The way you are playing, you’re more likely to spend a minimal amount of time at the noob table and a long time at the best player table. Of course, you want to do the reverse. You want to spend as much time as possible at a table where you are winning and the least amount of time at the tables when you are stuck.

David Sklansky suggested thinking of playing as one long session. That’s good advice. Barry Greenstein has also said that he is a losing player at 40% of his sessions. Try to stop worrying about ending with a winning session. Unless there is a good reason to stop (table is shutting down, the donors have left, etc.), you should never leave or change your game when you are winning.

So you’ve got bottom set on a three-flush board and your opponent just check-raised you all-in. What do you do? Well, the first thing you do is you put your opponent on a hand.

Hand reading is simultaneously the most important and the most difficult thing that a poker player does. Some of the best poker players in the world ignore many (or all!) of those other “rules” in poker, have deadly-accurate hand reading skills, and make mountains of cash for their troubles. Other players are exquisitely good at all the fundamentals but stink at hand reading and therefore struggle to consistently beat $50NL. Read the rest of this entry »

Previously, in this thread, I went over the easier EV calculations that go on when facing an all-in bet. This post will deal with (in much shorter order) the math behind making big all-in “bluffs” with drawing hands. These can be very profitable plays, but they are very easy to do poorly. Read the rest of this entry »

A lot of you are posting hands where you are facing turn and river decisions where it is very likely you are beaten but still must call. Hopefully this will help you all analyze such situations in the future and make sense of some of your easier decisions.
Read the rest of this entry »

TL; DR; and a lot of these concepts are stolen directly from Green Plastic videos and other good posters on these boards (True, Debitel, Orange, Epdaws, others I am shamefully forgetting).

I’d greatly appreciate if we can get some discussion on these topics going. To be honest, I almost think each of these 6 points could deserve its own thread Read the rest of this entry »

It’s fantastic post from 2+2 forum. I usually play nl cash games using short stack strategy. And this post is very usefull for me! Now I know how poker pros will play against me. Full thread by Cry Me A River is here: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthread.php?t=17011&

I should hit 5K posts sometime in the next couple weeks. Consider this an early Pooh-Bah post.

Like the weather, everyone talks about short stackers but nobody does anything about them. This is the thread where you learn not only how to deal with them, but how to crush them.

There are a couple things you need to keep in mind. Dealing with short stacks is higher variance than dealing with big stacks. What would normally be small pots become medium sized pots. Short stacks generally only play, at most, 2 streets. These two factors mean you tactics against short stacks may be radically different from your tactics against full stacks. If you do not have the bankroll or the stomach to deal with this you need to find another game. All the whining in the world is not going to change a structure that is VERY profitable to the poker sites. Read the rest of this entry »

This post is the part of the very useful thread from 2+2 forum about bankroll management in microstakes no limit texas holdem. You can find original thread here: story advice and br managment for microstakes Read the rest of this entry »

RJ78 from 2+2 forum asks:

I only have 17 hands on villain (UTG+1,) but they are running 76.5/12. The only hand of significance happened a few hands ago in a BvB battle:

Villain was in SB and min-raised first-in with KQs. BB Called. Flop was AQA. Villain min-bet…BB Called. Turn was a 4. Villain checked, BB bet 16BB into the 6BB pot…villain min-C/R’d to 32BB, BB min-3-bet to 48BB, villain min-4-bet which put him AI. BB called. BB of course had trips. Read the rest of this entry »