Two Winning Micro Table Poker Strategies

Well I had a first last night while playing at the Party Poker $10 NLHE cash game tables. I was dealt pocket AA in 3 consecutive hands. I was astounded when I caught the hand for a second time, so you can imagine my disbelief when they came up for the third time. Each time I played them for a raise, although nothing too aggressive but the 2nd and 3rd times, the table folded to my raise which was a bit of a bummer.

* * * * * *

I have been neglecting this blog somewhat, but have continued on grinding away at the micro stakes tables with just as much enthusiasm as always. I have developed a couple of new strategies lately that I have found have accelerated my profits. I thought I’d talk about them here.

Small Stakes Poker Strategy – Starting Short Stacked

Many will strongly disagree with this tactic on numerous levels, but when dealing with the psychological profile of many micro stakes poker players it works very well. As a matter of fact, I would suggest that this sort of strategy will only work at the online micro-stakes poker tables.

I am presently playing on the $10 NLHE cash ring tables, which as the name suggests, allows you to start with a maximum stake of $10. There is also a minimum stake at these tables of $2 and this is what I sit down with, deliberately short stacking myself. To some players at the table this seems to send an automatic message of weakness, to others when involved in a hand, their confidence to call and bet seems to grow disproportionately to their hands.

To elaborate on this thought, what I’ve noticed is that there is more of a tendency for people to call a 3 x BB raise with a marginal hand if they see that they’ve got the original raiser well and truly covered. If I have only $1.70 left and bet 0.30, a player with the full $10 stack is invariably going to call me with a hand that they probably shouldn’t be playing. After all, if I push, the most they can lose (heads up) is a further $1.40. It seems to be a common weakness among a greater majority of small-stakes players and I’ve been exploiting it time and again over the last month. By the way, I have a tendency to only play premium hands and play them pretty aggressively. While they’re kicking the short stack, they usually have to kick him with a strong starting hand.

Multi-Tabling To Ensure Patience

When I play single table poker I find that the pace is slow enough to make me impatient while I’m waiting for a strong starting hand. My tendency is to loosen up way too much and I start playing hands that I should be folding. By multi-tabling a second table, I have found that it keeps me adequately occupied and I have no trouble overcoming the temptation to call what I should fold.

It has been all about discipline and understanding the nature of my opponents but in the past month I have taken my bankroll well over the $300 mark. I feel as though I am on track to move up to the next micro-stakes level sometime in the second quarter of next year.

Still Plugging Along

Not a lot to talk about at the moment with the bankroll swinging up and down with the net result finding it remarkably similar to about a month ago. Just closed down the Party Poker tables after a nicely profitable session with a run of nice pocket pairs that held up which is very rare. Thankfully, I was sitting at a table of flush/straight chasers who were happy to throw their money at me until the river before folding.

The WSOP Main Event has just begun airing here in Australia with the second lot of Day 1 starters about to be shown tomorrow (Tuesday) night. It's always must-watch TV with the best of the best and the worst of the worst mixing it up. Watched the humdinger of a hand at Ray Romano's table where an all-in showdown revealed a Royal Flush beating a quad Aces to put one poor guy out on day 1. Now there's a bad beat story to tell your friends about!

Hope everyone else is enjoying the poker, both playing and watching.

When Weak Is Strong

It has been around 2 weeks now since common sense overtook dumb poker and in that time I have won back all of the money I lost during May, June and half of July. There are two main factors that have contributed to my recent success, nothing surprising about them, really.

The first key to winning over the last 2 weeks has been the same important attribute that I have mentioned time and time again. Patience at the table has markedly stacked the odds in my favour. The second key is actually a flow-on effect that has directly stemmed from my patient game – and it’s something that I was unprepared for, to tell you the honest truth.

It’s the second factor that I find more interesting and certainly something that can be exploited at the micro table level.

As a result of being patient while waiting for the right hand, I have managed to project a weak image to the rest of the table. What I was viewing in myself as discipline when folding on the turn or when someone played back at me, others obviously took to be a sign of weakness. As my stay at a table lengthened, so did the number of times I was raised after betting. Initially the constant playing back of my bets was irritating. Short side note here: actually, what is most irritating is when you bet and someone immediately doubles the bet. At least put some thought into it, for crying out loud.

Nowadays, though I welcome it. Over the past two weeks I have sat quietly, looked weak, taken a few pots, done the disciplined thing and folded when I thought I was beaten, honoured the raise after the flop. That sort of thing.

Inevitably the cards have come. Last night my pocket J J connected on the flop to make a set and I was fortunate enough that my opponent, who had chased me out of pots earlier, held A J and aggressively allowed me to double up. A little later my pocket A’s connected again on the flop, another set and I was eventually All-In again (after checking the flop).

The bankroll is looking healthy again, but more importantly, my frame of mind is much more positive and I’m enjoying the sessions at Party Poker once again.

Poker Strategy Change - When To Leave A Table

I’m constantly trying to improve my approach to playing poker online and have been fortunate enough to have received some instructive and insightful comments here on a few of my posts. One of my strategies that I’ve mentioned in the past is leaving the table whenever I make a profit. I’m aware of the downside of doing this but it came down to a money management decision to arrest a long losing streak.

A recent comment by Epoh began a process of questioning this tactic and then I came across another piece on the subject using an example that has struck home with great force.

Essentially, the example asks you to imagine that you are multi-tabling 2 tables. At 1 table you are playing against complete poker novices and at the other one you are playing at the best poker players in the world. Now, using my strategy, I am more likely to play against the novices for a short time while I would be resigned to playing against the professionals for considerably longer (as long as it takes for me to lose my money, I’d suggest). The obvious question follows, why on earth would I choose to play against people I am more likely to win against for only a short time and against people I am more likely to lose against for a long time?

When I read this it made such perfect sense. Of course I would rather play my poker against the weaker players. The smart thing to do is remain at a table until the dynamics of the table changes.

Add this to Epoh’s advice where he cautions against leaving potential goldmines behind and building the small stack into a large stack and I am more determined than ever to turn those short, modest sessions into larger, more lucrative sessions that take advantage of the weaker poker players at the table.

And so this brings me to another related aspect to all of this. I have to identify and acknowledge the stronger poker players at a given table. Being able to recognise those players who are playing good poker should be easy to do, but often I let pride and frustration cloud my opinion of the play of others. Being able to recognise the really good players – and then trying to avoid them – will greatly enhance my chances of being profitable.

Adopting a strategy of chasing the big winning session leads me to muse over what point I decide to take my winnings and leave the table. It comes down to 2 factors: time and quality of opponents.

Time: These days I have less time available to devote to playing poker online with my average nightly session (on those nights I CAN play) only around an hour or so. So the first factor that will rule when I take my profit is giving myself a cut-off time and when the time is reached, I close down my session for the day.

Opponent: If I have identified a particularly weak player or a particularly soft table I need to remain at the table as long as they are still playing. If a table is playing soft I will remain at the table until the dynamic changes as others stand up and sit down.

I wouldn’t mind hearing how others decide that it’s time to move from a table. Do you set yourself a profit target? A time limit? A feel for the quality of your opponents? Something else?

Patient Poker = Winning Poker

Okay, like a reformed smoker or a recently converted Christian I'm going to sound a bit like a broken record by repeating the importance of patience when playing at the Micro Stakes cash poker tables. I’ve just completed my 5th straight winning day and it was the kind of grind that I was prepared to put in 6 months ago. Back then I won, a month ago I was impatient and lost – not a lot of math required there.

The only disclosure I should make here is that I had the Tour de France on in the background to watch how Cadel Evans went in defending his yellow on stage 15 up to Prato Nevoso.

It took me over 130 hands before I ground my way into a profitable position after coming close to losing the lot when my pocket aces were cracked. But rather than talk about me, I want to make an observation about another guy who was playing a couple of seats to my left.

I was at the $10 NLHE table and when I sat down this guy was sitting on around $16 so he had a winning night going. It didn’t take too many hands to work out that this guy liked to play a lot of hands and when he hit anything from bottom pair on up he would play it aggressively or call all bets. It seemed to be going sweetly for him as he proceeded to push others off their hands and moved smoothly up to around $18.

But as the game wore on, the inevitable happened and his stack was whittled away. It took over 100 hands and a roller coaster of a ride, but he eventually went broke as the same players who folded earlier in the session began calling and playing back to him. His problem, apart from his playing style which was the classic short-term winner, long-term loser style, was that he sat at the same table for way too long. Everyone at the table had him figured out after only a few rotations.

One of my strategies in playing at the micro-stakes poker tables is to change tables fairly frequently. Sometimes the playing style of others doesn’t suit my style, sometimes I just don’t feel comfortable at a particular table or, most importantly, I may feel that the other players are reading me too easily. I’m a fairly tight player and if I’ve been sitting at a table and folding often, the moment I call or raise may send my opponents running. I’m not a big bluffer on-line so I prefer to just get up and move to another table. Why not? There are plenty to choose from.

When I’m new to a table I’m an unknown quantity and I find that my opponents will be a little more wary in the first 10-15 hands I play. A new table often means a quick win and I can move on again.

My bankroll is up to $207.91.

Playing Poker with Patience

It 's a new beginning and I'm feeling like a new player at the Party Poker $10 NLHE tables with the attitude that I had when I began with only $30. Last post I explained that I was going back to basics and had set myself a short-term goal of building my bankroll back up to $200. Well, it turned out to be a far, far shorter-term goal than I expected with a couple of very profitable tables catapaulting me straight over the $200 mark.

This has made the 4th session in a row in which I have been profitable and the secret's not really a secret at all. I haven't done anything more than remained completely patient, which may also be equated to playing passive poker. I was careful to fold all but the strongest hands and then play them reasonably aggressively. Micro stakes poker tables are filled with over-aggressive players who believe middle or bottom pair is a strong enough hand to push other players off their hands.

By waiting until I hit sets, straights or even just TPTK I was able to put together a very profitable few days. A couple of good folds increased the confidence level - JJ & AK aren't the easiest hands to lay down, but I did so last night and was right to do so.

So it's more of the same for me in the foreseeable future as I try to keep my head together and not let the winning days go to my head.

I've reached my latest short-term goal so I will set myself a new short-term goal of reaching $210 in the next week.

Bankroll - $206.85

Starting Over - Pulling My Head In

After a bad run in May and June, not to mention a petulant rant here about it all, I have taken a couple of weeks to take a deep breath, reassess my play and generally decided to pull my head in. I'm going back to basics, in other words, back to a winning style of poker.

As was so rightly pointed out in the comments of my last post, I was letting my emotions affect the way I was playing and consequently was losing the plot as well as my money. In football parlance, I was playing the man and not the ball and this can be fatal.

So, what have I done to repair the damage. Well firstly I've taken a break. I needed to reassess what I was doing and go over how I won for so long before my losing streak. Once I had reconciled myself to the way I ought to be playing I have rejoined the Party Poker NLHE cash ring games, re-entering the $10 tables.

My bankroll had dipped to $192.90 so I was keen to turn things around and get myself back above $200 as soon as possible.

Since restarting I have played for 3 nights and have resolved to once again leave the table as soon as I have made a profit. So far so good, 3 nights of playing for 3 winning nights and I have built the bankroll up to $196.60. I am determined to do this slow and steady because it may seem as though the profits are small, they build up a damn sight more quickly than if you string together a bunch of losing sessions.

So in order to force some accountability upon myself I will be stating my progress once again (something else I was doing when I went on a winning run).

Short term goal is to reach $200.

Solid Poker v Loose Aggressive Donk

It has been a few weeks since I’ve added a post here and there are a couple of reasons for it. The first is that I didn’t want to be one of those bad beat whiners who fill their blogs with endless complaining about the rotten patch of bad luck they’ve been going through. At first I decided I would suffer in silence, take my hits and fight back. But the beats just kept coming so I decided my plan B would involve taking a brief break from poker and come back more refreshed and full of focus.

It was going to be back to basics, take my winnings and move on. Last night I played for the first time in over a week on the $10 NLHE tables at Party Poker. I wiped out courtesy of a guy who far, far outstripped any reasonable stretch of good fortune.

I closed down Party Poker in absolute disgust at the way this guy kept winning with the absolute worst of hands. However, in the cold light of day I realise that this guy could be the best thing to happen to me this year. He played virtually every hand, went completely cavalier with small pairs on multiple occasions and got away with it. This guy was flouting the odds time and again and still managed to win.

At some point the odds are going to rebalance themselves and I need to make sure I’m there when it happens.

So this month I’m going to make SmokingNow my special project. I’m going to hunt this guy down and make sure I play at whatever table he sits at. He took my money and he didn’t deserve it so I’m going to take it back, plus a commission for damages.

I’ll let you know if solid poker beats loose-aggressive donk.

Poker In May Is Proving Tough at Party

I have sort of lost my flow at the Micro Stakes No-Limit poker tables lately. I’ve taken my share of bad beats but then, who hasn’t? What I have noticed though is – and I thought this would be damn near impossible – the standard of the poker being played is actually falling.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for crap poker players coming and splashing their money around with their loose-aggressive style (for want of a better word). But it begins to wear you down when you’re on the end of some pretty horrendous hits.

The way things are going this month I’m going to record only my second losing month since I began my winning strategy that has so far taken my bankroll from $30 to over $200. The month started poorly, I clawed my way back to almost break even before I took another couple of nights’ worth of savaging. Now I’m once again slowly pulling it back but the complete noobs who chase flushes (and are hitting) are seriously starting to piss me off.

Playing Poker | Back on Track

Well it doesn't take long to have the feelings of self doubt washed away to be replaced by the contentment that regular winning sessions provides.

It was only a week ago that April was looking as if it was going to be a rare losing month for me with a series of bad beats threatening to completely devastate the bankroll. But since my last post, I have managed to string together 5 winning sessions. And it's not so much the fact that I've closed Party Poker down on the plus side, but the size of my winning sessions that have been significant.

I can put the turnaround, almost 100%, to the reflections I posted in my previous post. While I was highlighting the manner in which I was getting beaten, it occurred to me that the people who were taking my money were flouting the odds in a big way. Chasing inside straight draws and calling my bets while only holding second pair, etc. I knew that if my patience could hold, my fortune would change.

Sure enough, the callers kept calling, but the suck-outs dried up. We're fast approaching the end of April and my bankroll is heading up again. All very nice.

I've also put together a lengthy list of Party Poker regulars who play waaay too many hands and rarely raise pre-flop. This list, in my opinion, is almost as valuable as my bankroll.

Playing Poker | Stepping Back

An extended run of losing sessions starts off as an annoying anomaly that builds into a more worrying loss of confidence. It seems that the spectre of bad beats is following you from table to table and you can’t remember how to win let alone enjoy an extended winning streak.

If you’re a regular reader of poker blogs across the length and breadth of the web and if you’ve played for any decent period of time, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. It happens to everyone at some point or another.

Hardly surprisingly, I’m discussing this phenomenon because I’m presently on the border between Annoying Anomaly and Loss of Confidence. For the last 4 days I have been running up against an amazing series of opponents who have been willing to make calls with bugger all in their hands only to hit on the turn or the river or, in a frightening number of cases, the turn AND the river.

It’s time to take a step back and examine what I’ve done that may have resulted in my going from consistent winner to completely losing time after time. And the answer, as is so often the case, is a matter of only the most minor of adjustments to my attitude.

That’s the crazy thing. My poker play has been good. The problem has lain in my patience.

The key to winning poker at micro level NLHE cash games is to remain patient at all times. So many times I have sat in a hole of card dead funk, but through patience and a steadfast belief that “the cards will come” I’ve come out the other side with a handy profit to stash away in my bankroll. Over the last 4 nights, this hasn’t been the case.

Reckless twits come and go at the Party Poker micro stakes tables, they can be the objects of tremendous opportunities when played correctly, you just need to bide your time, wait for the cards and then pick up your pots. It sounds pretty simplistic but I’ve been using this basic framework for an extended period to great success. Right up until a week ago!

I loosened my starting hands and decided I would “teach some fish a lesson”. Turns out I was the fish, or at least, I played like one. It cost me and I deserved it.

So like I said, it’s back to basics for me. Identify the people who play too many hands and who play those hands passively…and cash in on them.

Playing Poker | Rogues Gallery and Choosing a Table

I’ve left posting go for a few days while I’ve been hard at work on Party Poker recovering the money I lost at the end of last month. I really can’t afford the luxury of too many brain explosions like the poker session I last talked about because, given my playing style, it takes so darn long to claw it all back.

Nevertheless, I’m nearly there now notwithstanding last night’s marathon session in which I was down over half my buy-in before I finally shut up shop well after midnight having fought back to finish up with the tiniest of profits to show for my hard work. Beats a loss!

What I have seen over the last week is some very ordinary poker being played on just about every table I’ve opened at Party Poker. It could be that we’ve just had another flurry of newcomers lured to NL Texas Hold ‘Em. After all, new players are going to start out on the .02/.04 tables, aren’t they. Watching some of my opponents I would swear that they have had their Fold key disabled until after the River card is dealt

Rogues Gallery

The way things have been going recently, I’ve half a mind to publish a rogues gallery post of Party Poker players from my PokerTracker software who have a “Voluntarily Put Money In the Pot” percentage higher than 85% over a significant number of hands. The list wouldn’t be a short one, believe you me.

Ethical or not, these kinds of poker players are obviously looking for a lot of action and I figure I might be able to send them all the action they can handle. Maybe I’ll save it up for the end of the month – stay tuned.

Choosing Which Micro Stakes Table to Sit At

Here’s an interesting little question that I wouldn’t mind some interaction with. It will certainly affect how much money you win and how quickly you win it. How do you select which table you sit at?

When you open the Party Poker $5 NLHE cash tables you’re confronted with a long list of tables to choose from. Assuming you don’t have PokerTracker or similar software to identify the fish and calling stations and you have no player notes, what are the criteria by which you decide to sit down?

Personally, I tend to gravitate to the tables in which only 5 of the 10 seats are taken. I prefer a table that doesn’t have someone sitting on a really big stack (more than 2 x buy in) and preferably that plays over 100 hands per hour.

My reasoning is: my strategy is to sit down at a table, make a quick, small profit and move on. A short-handed table reduces the number of possible players in the pot (remember, micro stakes poker typically features a high proportion of multi-way pots) if I can pick up a good early hand I can avoid the hands with 4 or 5 callers who sometimes catch lightning. The presence of someone with a very large stake could mean 1 of 2 things. Either they’re a very canny poker player or, they have been wildly aggressive and have gotten lucky. Neither player suits my strategy terribly well. I’ll avoid rather than engage.

By the way, I generally only go for the random option when none of the players I’ve flagged as likely to leak money come up in my Player Search.

Does anyone out there have a specific method of choosing which table to sit down at? What about which seat you prefer to sit at once you get to the table – do you have a “lucky chair” or do you identify the obvious weak player and sit on their left?

End-March Bad Beat Madness

It’s probably inevitable when constantly playing poker against people who have no idea what they’re doing that even though the odds are stacked overwhelmingly in your favour it can count for nothing. This was the case for me about a week ago.

After congratulating myself for finding a nice loose table at Party Poker’s $5 NLHE cash games, I settled down as usual to wait for the callers to hand over their money. But this night was not destined to run to plan. My first major hit came when my AQo was rolled by someone with J 6. It turns out my 4 x BB pre-flop raise and continuation bet when I hit my Q wasn’t enough to get the guy to fold because he hit his 6 on the flop. As we all know, a pair of 6s with Jack kicker is an absolute monster – particularly when you hang on to hit your J on the turn.

That hand set the trend for the night and I made the mistake of deluding myself into believing that at some point getting my money in as an 80% favourite was going to begin paying off. I rebought twice during the session, fell into the trap of playing a little more loosely than I usually do and, by the time I had closed down my Party Poker session, had severely eaten away at my hard-won March profits.

Fortunately I’ve clawed back a few dollars to finish March with a bankroll profit of 7.74%.

A Happy Easter Micro Story

I don't go in for gloating about wins at the poker table very much but there was one hand last night that was particularly satisfying.

It came towards the end of a very long session that I shared with another player who deserves to be outed. If you're planning on playing the micros at Party Poker, keep an eye out for this LAG for some easy money.

First of all some stats about him fom last night's play:
Played 79 hands
VP$IP - 62%
Pre-Flop Raise - 35.44%

This guy's MO was to raise big before the flop - as you can see he raised a massive 35% of the time. I've only come across 1 or 2 people who've raised more often over similar number of hands. He would then follow up with consistent betting at the pot. Basically you knew you were going to get action.


***** Hand History for Game 6895414830 *****
$5 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Friday, March 21, 08:59:30 ET 2008
Table Table 125805 (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 9: pizerule ( $4.66 USD )
Seat 3: Doctor789 ( $1.52 USD )
Seat 2: only4me111 ( $5.86 USD )
Seat 7: vollschiff ( $2.64 USD )
Seat 10: pux13 ( $4.70 USD )
Seat 5: AsXBlood ( $4.72 USD )
Seat 8: SchanzMaN ( $1.96 USD )
Seat 1: DustyDonk ( $6.99 USD )
Seat 4: jodenz ( $4.10 USD )
Seat 6: JamesBlond88 ( $4.96 USD )
jodenz posts small blind [$0.02 USD].
AsXBlood posts big blind [$0.04 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to pizerule [ Qs Qh ]
JamesBlond88 folds.
SchanzMaN folds.
vollschiff has left the table.
pizerule raises [$0.16 USD]
pux13 folds.
DustyDonk folds.
only4me111 calls [$0.16 USD]
Doctor789 folds.
jodenz folds.
AsXBlood folds.
** Dealing Flop ** [ 5h, Qc, Qd ]
pizerule checks.
only4me111 bets [$0.32 USD]
joske987 has joined the table.
pizerule calls [$0.32 USD]**
Dealing Turn ** [ 9s ]
pizerule checks.
only4me111 bets [$0.40 USD]
pizerule calls [$0.40 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 7d ]
pizerule bets [$0.12 USD]
only4me111 calls [$0.12 USD]
pizerule shows [ Qs, Qh ]four of a kind, Queens.
only4me111 doesn't show [ 8s, 8c ]
two pairs, Queens and Eights.
pizerule wins $1.96 USD from the main pot with four of a kind, Queens.
#Game No : 6895417682

My only regret is that I didn't push for more after the river.

A couple of hands later I ran my A Qo into K K and hit trips on the Turn, whereupon I shoved All-in and had the guy call for a very profitable end to my night.

An interesting little note about the players in my PokerTracker stats is that, of the people with Pre Flop Raises of over 34% only 1 of them are net winners. And they all have a Voluntary Put Money in the Pot of over 66%. Now there's your definition of the Loose Aggressive poker player.

Party Poker | Watch Your Opponents

Always make sure you’re paying attention to what’s going on at the poker table. The micro stakes cash ring games are an absolute treasure trove of money making opportunities if you’re alert and know what to look for.

I’ll give you an example of what I’m talking about by using a hand that took place last night while I was playing on a $5 NLHE cash ring table at Party Poker.

I had already folded out of this hand, by the way.

Pre-flop betting had seen 2 limpers enter the pot before the button min. raised and everyone called including the small blind. At this table we’re talking microscopic stakes - .04 to limp, .08 constitutes a minimum raise.

Anyway, there are 4 in the pot and the flop lands A A K.

SB immediately plonks down .24 which is enough to chase the 2 limpers away. The button then doubles the bet to .48 and the SB folds. So far, so boring. Then the button shows the table his cards – pocket A A.

My interest was immediately piqued. The guy on the button had just made the dumbest raise in poker, won himself the minimum pot possible and then was stupid enough to show us what he’d done.

Watching him further I noticed he was entering a lot of pots, so I checked my PokerTracker stats and sure enough, he’d Voluntarily Put Money in the Pot (VP$IP) over 80% of the time, but raised pre-flop (PFR) only 5%.

Regular as clockwork this guy would limp into a hand and then bet big after the flop or turn, invariably chasing off his opponents. He was taking a lot of small pots and there was some serious daylight robbery going on. It was bound to end badly for him and it did when he ran into someone who flopped an Ace-high flush. This particular person was a little more savvy and simply called every one of our friend's extravagant bets before raising after the river. With any luck he didn’t learn from it and he’ll be back tonight. (They usually don’t learn).

The point I’m labouring to make is this. Watch what’s going on even when you’re not in a hand. At the micro cash tables there are a huge number of inexperienced players who play far too many hands and are going to set themselves up as easy targets in the long term. PokerTracker is very useful for highlighting these people but if you don’t have any poker software, keep a notebook open in front of you and make note of the number of hands people are playing.

I’ve said it before and it’s worth repeating, there are endless opportunities for making money at the micro stakes poker table. You just have to know what to look for, exercise some patience and then strike.

Playing Poker | Beating Mr Poker

There’s no doubt about it, there’s always something to learn at this often times frustrating, sometimes rewarding game of No Limit Hold Em. I’m pleased to report that after my recent run of coming second to a bunch of Party Poker Micro Table fish that I have made a slight adjustment to my game and am back on the winners trail again.

Actually that’s probably not fair on the try-hards who are collectively boosting my bankroll at the .02/.04 level. In fact, what I’ve done for two nights in a row is carefully fold any suspiciously constructed raise which just about always signals someone has hit their two-outer.

Beating Mr Poker

Last night I was given a gift from the poker gods at a short-handed micro table. There was a guy who was cutting everyone up with aggressive pre- and post flop raises, basically dominating the table, catching asome lucky cards when he had to (he hit runner-runner 3’s to show down quads at one stage). Anyway, this guy obviously thought he was Mr Poker, taking down blinds with successive blind steals, pulling down tiny pots with continuation bets, you name it. His problem was, he was playing every single hand and it was obvious there was no way he was making the hands he was representing.

So I bided my time and waited for a hand. Finally, I picked up K K in the small blind and took a chance by only calling the limpers before me, indicating to Mr Poker that, once again, I was weak. He, of course, would be compelled to demonstrate what a Playah he is if he played the hand true to form. Sure enough, the uncoordinated flop had him betting post-flop and turn and then, he jammed All-in on the river. I’d seen him do this hand after hand, so his recent betting history had me very confident with my call and I was very pleased to see him turn over 9 9.

So, after acting the Big Man On Campus (to use a Brady Bunch quote) and winning lots of small pots, the guy lost it all on one over-aggressive play too many.

The big point to remember out of this is that it’s not the number of pots you win that’s important, it’s the size of the pot that matters.

Deviating From the Strategy

Don’t mind me, this is simply a reminder to myself that there’s a damn good reason why I devised a set of poker rules to follow…and when I follow them, I become a profitable poker player.

It seems that every time I stray from my carefully laid strategy I am reminded why I put the rules in place to start with. I think we humans are naturally prone to self-destruct even when we are aware of the consequences for breaking the rules. It’s all too easy to tell yourself, this time it’s different.

I’m in the middle of a 3 day losing stretch at the moment and I’m hoping it doesn’t stretch to four. The disappointing part of this is that 2 of those losing days would have been winning days if I had have adhered to the rule that underpins my entire profit stratgey – leave the table as soon as a profit is made.

I played only 3 hands at one $5 NLHE cash game, starting with an opening stake of $2 (as is my norm) and had just taken down a pot to take my stake at the table to $2.88. A handy little micro-table profit that I should have stashed away into my bankroll. My mistake – I allowed myself to be dealt into the next hand which happened to be J J. Well, I’m not folding those and naturally, by the time the hand was over, I was behind and chasing that profit for the session.

Within half an hour I had whittled my way down to broke and was more annoyed with myself than I was with the god-awful calls that were being made by fish who kept hitting on the river.

Lesson to self: When you have devised a winning strategy, stay with it to the letter. It’s called a “winning” strategy because it bloody WINS.

Should You Calculate Odds At Micro Stakes Level?

When you read all the poker books written by poker legends, professionals and mathematicians, you will inevitably come to a chapter or two devoted to calculating odds. Pot odds, implied odds, inferred odds, do I have the right odds to call, have I raised high enough to make calling on a draw the wrong play? It’s a very important part of playing poker – live poker or high stakes poker.

When you’re playing poker at the online micro stakes level, calculating odds and basing your game on those calculations is virtually pointless. *Gasp* Heresy in a poker blog. I did say “virtually” so keep reading and I’ll tell you why.

At the higher stakes levels of poker everyone’s pretty well playing by the same rules and those rules are dictated by the odds. If you’re sitting on a draw and the bet is half the pot, you work out the cost of calling and the amount you’d win if you hit and compare that with your chances of hitting. You make your play accordingly. Your opponent knows this and will be betting to try to make that decision difficult or easy depending on whether they think they’re in front or behind in a hand.

At the online micro stakes poker tables, there’s barely enough time to decide on an amount to bet, let alone figure out what the odds for the other guy might be. (And with the newly introduced Speed tables at Party Poker, there’s even less time). Now, I might be completely naive here, but micro limit poker players don’t calculate odds. At least judging by the betting/calling patterns they don’t. If they do it’s on a far greater plane of mathematics than I’ve ever visited. The majority of micro stakes genii play any two cards and if they hit a pair on the flop, they bet, if they’re on a draw, they call (no matter what the price some of them) and if they miss they check and fold.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that you should leave yourself languishing at the level of the majority of micro stakes poker players – and that’s why I stuck that “virtually” in there earlier. You want an edge when you play poker and the micro stakes level is no different.

Your edge will be gained by committing the basic odds you might come across to memory. It’s handy to know, for example, that the chances of hitting your flush draw is 19% and the chances of hitting your gut-shot straight draw is around 9%. Many micro stakes players chase their draws on a regular basis. Knowing that they’re an 80% dog when they do this should make you a more confident tiny stakes poker player – just don’t bother trying to calculate the odds to try to push them off their draw.

Party Poker Micro Tabling the Quiet Way

What with any number of work pressures on my plate, the Party Poker visits have been relatively few and far between, but that doesn’t mean I’ve given up on my profitability goals. Oh no! I’m still looking to be well ahead after a year of micro tabling at Party Poker.

My step up from the $5 NLHE tables to the $10 NLHE tables coincided with the new year, which also coincided with a bit of a holiday. But back to work meant less free time to sit and take apart the Party Poker novices.

When I actually did hit the tables I found that I wasn’t enjoying myself quite as much as at the smallest of micro stakes and experienced a few consecutive losing nights. So what I’ve done to reinvigorate myself is step it back a notch and revisit Party Poker’s $5 NLHE cash ring tables again. Almost instantly that winning feeling came back again.

The important point to playing on-line micro stakes poker is to enjoy the game because on thing is for sure, you’re going to have to grind your heart out if you’re going to see any money in terms of profit. The good news is that, with enough patience and perseverance you can show a profit even if the quality of poker may not be considered top class.

"Tonight's my first night playing with real money"

How's this for the chance of a lifetime. Someone comes and sits at the .02/.04 table tonight and, before being dealt a card announces to the table that it's her first night playing for real money. (You could almost hear the girlish giggle as she said it). Well naturally, I thought "just pass the money over here - save us all some time".



And then the fun began. She played 92o like it was pocket aces...until the river where she checked it down and lost in a showdown. 86o was played like there was no tomorrow before the flop with a 12xBB raise, then it was checked after the flop, called to the river before going down (surprisingly for such a powerhouse hand).



Boom, ka-boom, her first stake was gone and it was a laugh riot to watch the zany action. The rest of us were fighting over getting our money in. She didn't miss a hand and I don't even think she was issued a "Fold" button.

But she didn't stop at one stake. Click - *Rebuy* and round 2 was on for young and old until that too was gone. Cick - *Rebuy* OMG I thought I'd died and gone to hog heaven.



But then all too soon she was gone from our table...so I followed her to her next port of call. It wasn't all one way traffic, though. I watched her push, check and then call from UTG all the way to the river against one poor guy The board showed Td Th 3d (9s) (4c). He raised pre-flop, bet after the flop, bet after the turn and shoved All-In on the river only to find that she finally hit something on the river with her pocket 4s - a boat.



The betting was crazy and the starting hands were just ridiculous, but I tell you what, I have her name marked down and I'll be back for more fun and games tomorrow night. I hope she is too.