Without any real knowledge about their game there is no way that I can pinpoint exactly where the problems are either. In fact I know from coaching a lot of people at these stakes in the past that it can often take several sessions of rigorous database review and sweats to really zero in on the main issues.
However, I think that there are several "quick fixes" that apply almost universally at the micros, especially at the lowest stakes. So much so that if a struggling NL2, NL5 or NL10 player was to make these changes right now, it would likely improve their bottom line in a significant way. They probably won't all apply to you.
And they aren't going to address any major underlying issues that may exist in your game such as tilt or fundamental errors. There is no quick fix solution for these. However, hopefully a few of the suggestions below can help yield a noticeable improvement in your results in these games.
And they aren't going to address any major underlying issues that may exist in your game such as tilt or fundamental errors. There is no quick fix solution for these. However, hopefully a few of the suggestions below can help yield a noticeable improvement in your results in these games.
Let's get started.
1) Make Big Bets With Big Hands Against Bad Players.
When you have a big hand (top pair or better) and you are up against a recreational player you need to be betting at least 75% of the pot on every single street.
If they have a better hand, believe me, they will let you know. I will get to that in a sec. Don't make half pot bets or slowplay versus these players with a big hand anymore. This is damaging your winrate more than you know.
2) Make Big Folds With Big Hands Versus Passive Players.
When you have a big hand (top pair or even a big overpair) you need to be finding the fold button when a passive player raises you on the turn or the river. What is a passive player? Most players at the micros, especially at the lower end, are passive.
Just use a good free poker HUD to easily check this by the way.
They will typically have a low aggression factor of 1 or 2. The will have a low raise flop Cbet and raise turn CBet (often it will be a single digit). And the passive stats will usually show up in all other areas of their game as well such as 3Bet, 4Bet, attempt to steal and so on.
Most regs and recreational players at these stakes will simply be incapable of raising you on the turn or the river without a monster. And I am assuming here by the way that you raised preflop and then double or triple barreled them.
Most regs and recreational players at these stakes will simply be incapable of raising you on the turn or the river without a monster. And I am assuming here by the way that you raised preflop and then double or triple barreled them.
When a reg raises you for instance after you raised preflop, bet the flop and the turn you should view this as extreme strength almost all of the time at the micros. And yes this includes when they only mini-raise you.
Many people get fooled by this. It's ok to flat with your top pair/overpair on the flop if you get raised. Sometimes they will get bold and raise on this street with a draw, decent made hand or even air.
Many people get fooled by this. It's ok to flat with your top pair/overpair on the flop if you get raised. Sometimes they will get bold and raise on this street with a draw, decent made hand or even air.
On the big money streets though (turn and river) where a raise commits a significant portion of their stack, it is literally always the nuts. Take a deep breath, hit the fold button and move on.
By the way, for my entire strategy on exactly which hands to play, see my free poker cheat sheet.
3) Stop Limping.
There is literally no scenario where it makes any sense at all to limp. Imagine for instance that you have 87s on the button and three people have limped in front of you.
Should you just join the limp party like everybody else and hope to hit a cheap flop? Negative. Raise them up and take control of the situation! Now you have given yourself more ways to win the pot (CBet as well as making a hand).
I don't limp. Ever.
And also, if you actually do manage to hit something good you are much more likely to get paid off now.
This is because when you force somebody to put something in the middle before seeing the flop they are much more likely to give action if they catch a piece themselves. Nobody is going to pay you off in a limped pot unless you happen to cooler the crap out of them.
Check out this hand with A8 offsuit from the small blind to see what I mean:
I don't limp. Ever.
And also, if you actually do manage to hit something good you are much more likely to get paid off now.
This is because when you force somebody to put something in the middle before seeing the flop they are much more likely to give action if they catch a piece themselves. Nobody is going to pay you off in a limped pot unless you happen to cooler the crap out of them.
Check out this hand with A8 offsuit from the small blind to see what I mean:
4) Stop Calling So Many 3Bets.
At the lower end of the micros (NL2 and NL5 in particular) you would do just fine if you only called 3Bets with something like 88+ and AQ/AK. In fact in my first book, which is aimed directly at these stakes, this is the exact range that I suggest. Why? Because calling 3Bets with hands like 55, ATs or 98s, especially when out of position, is often only going to lead to more problems down the road.
This is especially the case for a lot of newer poker players who do not possess a very strong postflop skillset yet. Often they will make a decent 2nd best hand and end up calling down without realizing that they actually only beat a bluff.
Just do yourself a favor and fold these hands most of the time to a 3Bet at these stakes for now. Often the players at these limits aren't 3Betting you nearly as wide as you might think they are and you don't need to create any kind of image anyways.
Always keep things as simple as possible at NL2 and NL5 in particular and avoid putting yourself in unnecessary marginal spots. You have much more important things to focus your attention on such as finding and slaying the fish.
5) Use a HUD and Use it Correctly.
A question that I get asked a lot is this: "Can I win without using a HUD at the micros?" The answer is clearly yes. I have actually played a significant amount of my online hands without using one, although this was many years ago. Back then you could easily get away with it because everybody was terrible and ABC poker was all that you needed to know in order to win big.
In today's games you can still win at the micros without using a HUD but it might be like playing a round of golf with only one club against a bad golfer like me. If you have any kind of skills on the golf course you would probably still beat me even with that one club. However, most golfers carry around 9 or 10 of them at a time for a reason. Even if they only use one or two clubs with any degree of regularity it is just nice to have all of those other options.
The same thing applies to using a HUD in online poker. Even if you only have the most basic stats on your display having this extra information available can only be a good thing. Why would you not want that? The Coke and Pepsi of online poker HUDs are Pokertracker and Hold'em Manager. I personally use PokerTracker but both companies make good programs.
Both have free 30 day trials so there is really no reason at all to not at least test drive one. Unlike many other poker products a HUD is pretty much guaranteed to pay for itself over time. If you are at all serious about online poker then do yourself a favor and get one. You can go check out my article on custom HUD setup for additional help getting started and understanding what all of the stats mean.
6) Don't Look at Your Results During a Session.
This is a quick fix that is almost guaranteed to make you start playing better right now. The reason why is that when most people start losing their level of play begins to deteriorate and they often don't even notice it happening until they are on full blown tilt and making numerous costly mistakes. If you don't actually know whether you are winning or losing though then this is much less likely to happen.
You may currently be in the habit of spamming the cashier button every 5 minutes. Don't worry I used to do the same thing. It is not easy to break this habit at first. But what you need to remember is that poker is all about the long run.
I don't bother paying attention to my day to day poker results.
You have to remember that it is basically impossible for you to ever play a meaningful sample size of hands in a single session.
In fact I think the world record may still belong to Chicago Joey and his legendary prop bet from a few years back to play 50k hands in 24 hours at NL25 with a positive winrate. But even 50k hands is still not really a rock solid sample.
As I always say, I believe that 100k hands is the minimum amount that you must have before you can say anything with absolute certainty about your winrate in a particular game.
So those 500 or even 5000 hands that you will play in your next session are actually pretty meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Try resisting the urge to look at your cashier for just one session and see how it works out for you.
7) Always Play With Fish!
Set a new rule for yourself starting from today. Anytime you are at a poker table there must be somebody there who is playing 40% or more of their hands or else you leave. No ifs, ands or buts. If you have just joined the table and there is nobody who you have previously tagged as a recreational player but there are a few unknowns then that is fine, take a seat. However, it only takes about 20 hands at the most to know the basic player type of every single person at the table (VPIP/PFR/AF).
Therefore if after 2 orbits in full ring (3 in 6max) you do not spot anyone with a VPIP that is 40% or above, it's time to leave. Same thing applies after you do find the mark. If they leave the table, so do you. It just cannot be overstated how huge this is for your winrate in today's games. If you really want to crush then you will go the extra mile and always do this.
If you play Zoom this can be quite a bit more difficult of course and this is a huge part of the reason why I do not really suggest playing Zoom unless you are a prolific rakeback grinder. It is very difficult to assess the quality of the pool unless you have extensive data and tags on a lot of the people playing.
With that said, there are still fish everywhere at least at NL2 and NL5 these days so it should not be too big of a problem at these stakes. However, you still need to make sure that 40%+ VPIPs are regularly showing up at your tables. If they are not, then it's time to leave. But better yet do yourself a favor and just play the regular tables if crushing is really a priority for you.
For much more on finding the rec players go check out my ultimate guide to table selection.
8) Stop Open Raising From the SB so Much.
Most people these days know that it is a good idea to steal the blinds a lot against the passive nits who populate the micros in large numbers. And I totally agree if you are on the button or the cutoff. But a lot of people take this too far and raise nearly any two when it is folded to them in the SB as well.
After all there is only one person to beat here right? Even better! Correct, but there is a fundamental difference between these two situations. When we are on the button or the cutoff we are in position. When we are in the SB we are not.
If the BB happens to be a totally clueless mass tabling nit then go ahead and steal his blinds all day long. But if he looks even remotely competent chances are you are going to be spewing money by raising with a really wide range here.
If the BB happens to be a totally clueless mass tabling nit then go ahead and steal his blinds all day long. But if he looks even remotely competent chances are you are going to be spewing money by raising with a really wide range here.
This is because even most mediocre regs at the micros these days know that many people raise too much in this spot and therefore they should increase their 3Betting range.
I personally 3Bet the crap out of people who do this a lot especially when I see that they don't fight back very often (which is most of them).
I personally 3Bet the crap out of people who do this a lot especially when I see that they don't fight back very often (which is most of them).
Don't raise any two when it is folded to you in the SB. Any decent reg at the micros these days will make you pay for it.
For much more on this, check out my latest book The Micro Stakes Playbook.
There are plenty of regs at the lower end of the micros who will fold everything but the nuts when they get 3Bet. Frequently 3Bet these players with hands that you would normally just call with and even a few that you would normally fold.
These players are easy to spot because they will have a Fold to 3Bet of 70%, 80% or even higher. Be sure to only 3Bet them light when they open somewhere close to the button. Do not 3Bet their early position open with weak holdings because they will often have an extremely strong range in these spots.
I hope that this list of "quick fixes" will be useful to you at the micro stakes cash tables. The one thing that all of these suggestions have in common is that they are fairly easy to apply immediately.
9) 3Bet Light Against the Right Opponents.
There are plenty of regs at the lower end of the micros who will fold everything but the nuts when they get 3Bet. Frequently 3Bet these players with hands that you would normally just call with and even a few that you would normally fold.
These players are easy to spot because they will have a Fold to 3Bet of 70%, 80% or even higher. Be sure to only 3Bet them light when they open somewhere close to the button. Do not 3Bet their early position open with weak holdings because they will often have an extremely strong range in these spots.
I hope that this list of "quick fixes" will be useful to you at the micro stakes cash tables. The one thing that all of these suggestions have in common is that they are fairly easy to apply immediately.
And believe me, from years and years of experience at the micros, and especially the lowest stakes, (NL2 and NL5) I know that they all still work exceedingly well.
Commit to taking action on a few of these in your very next session and I promise you that better results will follow. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
Commit to taking action on a few of these in your very next session and I promise you that better results will follow. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
Lastly, for my entire poker strategy for crushing small and mid stakes games, make sure you grab a copy of my free poker cheat sheet.
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