Developing a Successful Micro Table Strategy

The good news is that it’s possible to develop a strategy for playing online poker at the micro stakes level. In fact, I’ve been doing it night after night at Party Poker, consistently finishing the night profitably and have been relentlessly increasing my bankroll.

Now for the news that won’t thrill you so much. We’re not talking outlandishly huge profits, in fact, they’re quite small on a daily basis. Progress is extremely slow and a lot of patience is required if you’re going to be a long-term winner. I concentrate on the smallest of the micro stakes games which are the $5 NLHE cash games at Party Poker. At these tables the blinds are .02/.04 so you can see that you’re not going to win huge chunks of cash no matter how well you play or how lucky you get.

At the micro stakes tables you come across a wide range of poker ability and yes, there are a few players out there who are quite good at detecting and exploiting the weaknesses of the inexperienced players. Naturally though, the number of these inexperienced players far outweigh the better players, that’s exactly why they’re playing on the micro stakes tables in the first place. Consequently there’s plenty of money available for the taking.

Money Management

Firstly a word on money management because the poker player who is savvy when it comes to protecting his bankroll is going to be more likely to come out ahead. Different strategies work for different people so I’m going to tell you the strategy that works for me.

Although the maximum buy-in is $5 I rarely, if ever, start with this amount. Instead I will buy-in with only $2. Now some people will be screaming at me here saying that I’m limiting my upside potential with such a small stack and that’s true. But I’m also achieving two goals by implementing a small buy-in strategy. First, I am limiting losses to only $2 – and when you’ve encountered some of the wild micro stakes play that I have you’ll appreciate my motives here – and second, I am sending a message to other players that I am a little on the passive side and may be prone to being pushed around. That’s exactly what I want them to think.

Table Presence

I rarely simply open up a table and immediately sit down and play the next hand dealt. Before starting to play I like to watch at least a couple of orbits to get an idea of the playing styles of my opponents. With products such as PokerTracker this process can be sped up by checking out your opponents past play but it’s unlikely that you’ve played against everyone at the table before so it’s still best to sit and watch. Pick out the guy who likes to push other players around and the guy who regularly calls his way to the river only to fold when his draw didn’t materialise. This knowledge could prove invaluable as you aim to make your profit from the table.

Now, what I’m about to say may seem a little counter-productive, but again there is some method to my madness. Within the first few hands I’m dealt I like to enter a pot with a small bet (limp or min raise). I’ll play the hand passively and, assuming I’m not sitting on the nuts, if I’m raised I will fold my hand. Gnerally, I’m trying to send the message that I can be pushed around by someone prepared to raise aggressively. This will serve me well later when I call or raise a bet.

What Works For Me

Every time I take an online seat at a micro stakes table my aim is to leave the table with a profit – I don’t care what the size of that profit is as long asI’m in positive territory. Consequently I have devised my own personal rule that the moment my stack climbs into profit, I leave the table. It doesn’t matter if it takes 2 hands or 200, or if the size of the profit is 0.10 or $2, I still consider it a profitable night. With enough time left I can always move on to another table and start the process over again. My aim is to keep the bankroll trending north and I’ve found that this is the most effective strategy, at least for me, to make that happen on the micro tables.