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Microstakes Revelations |
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After getting back into the online scene (thx Carbon lol), I've done a lot of work on my game. I have a good friend who has played professionally across multiple sites as high as 10/20 (as far as I know) who has sort of become my "mentor," and it's made me look at the game a lot differently.
If you're a struggling microstakes player, I might have some useful advice.
In regards to "range"...stop thinking poker stove wise, and use your head. Observe your opponents and see how you can use both your image and your position to open a wider range of hands. Force yourself into strange postflop decisions because of opening marginal hands; this will force you all around to have a better game sense.
Related, forget about the money. Nothing you can lose at microstakes is anything that you can't make back working at McDonald's for a few weeks, so the money factor shouldn't bother you at all. Try bluffs in spots you wouldn't normally. If you get snapped off, then you know you probably shouldn't have bluffed there and you can make note for next time.
Range in regards to position...so you want to play XX hand on the button, but it's not normally in your "range." So...3bet it! Fuck it, why not right? This gives you the betting lead in position on someone you probably can out-think or out-play, which is never, ever a bad thing.
On the whole, I guess what I'm trying to say is to stop playing ABC once you understand how to play ABC. Of course there are times when you're going to have to show down top set, but you can't rely on coolering people to make all your profits. Force yourself to understand the game better. In no way am I saying that I'm "good" compared to a lot of people who play, but I wanted to share some things I feel I've learned recently with those who are in the same position I was 8 months ago.
Not a huge sample, but this is my results graph since moving to Merge so I'm not COMPLETELY talking out of my ass (note the sick 10bi swing where I ran 7bi below EV D .
Few hands that would not have happened if I was playing the same way I was playing 8 months ago:
Submitted by : superfashion
MERGE_GAME #4218872900408: Texas Holdem NL $0.10/$0.25 10/19/2011 23:12:22
Table Tijuana 42188729
Seat 1: newbling $25.00 in chips
Seat 2: duncan107 $83.45 in chips
Seat 3: Ughtoiletclog $25.00 in chips
Seat 4: SubZeroWINS $49.46 in chips DEALER
Seat 5: Hero $42.83 in chips
Seat 6: masterhopkins $21.29 in chips
Hero: Post SB $0.10
masterhopkins: Post BB $0.25
Holecards(Odds)
Dealt to Hero 
newbling: Fold
duncan107: Fold
Ughtoiletclog: Fold
SubZeroWINS: Fold
Hero: Raise $0.75
masterhopkins: Call $0.50
Flop(Odds) (Pot : $1.50)
  
Hero: Bet $1.00
masterhopkins: Raise $2.75
Hero: Call $1.75
Turn (Pot : $7.00)
Hero: Check
masterhopkins: Bet $5.00
Hero: Call $5.00
River (Pot : $17.00)
Hero: Check
masterhopkins: Allin $12.79
Hero: Call $12.79
Summary
masterhopkins: Shows 
Hero: wins $40.46
Submitted by : superfashion
MERGE_GAME #4219786100362: Texas Holdem NL $0.10/$0.25 10/20/2011 00:29:33
Table Tijuana 42197861
Seat 3: thx4cheeseburger $32.81 in chips
Seat 4: Hero $35.98 in chips
Seat 5: Wysses $50.92 in chips DEALER
thx4cheeseburger: Post SB $0.10
Hero: Post BB $0.25
Holecards(Odds)
Dealt to Hero 
Wysses: Fold
thx4cheeseburger: Raise $0.75
Hero: Raise $2.75
thx4cheeseburger: Raise $5.50
Hero: Call $2.75
Flop(Odds) (Pot : $11.00)
 
thx4cheeseburger: Bet $4.25
Hero: Call $4.25
Turn (Pot : $19.50)
thx4cheeseburger: Check
Hero: Bet $11.00
thx4cheeseburger: Call $11.00
River (Pot : $41.50)
thx4cheeseburger: Check
Hero: Allin $15.23
thx4cheeseburger: Fold
Summary
Hero: wins $55.73
Obviously there were some wacky dynamics going on that led to these hands, but that's exactly what I'm trying to talk about. If I snapped off the K4 and he showed me 77 on the river...Oh well, maybe I'm an idiot. What if I get snapped off by jacks in the Q8 hand considering he was getting almost 4:1 on his money? In that case, I metagamed the shit out of myself and consider making the same play deeper, or folding to the 4bet preflop. Don't give up the chance to analyze your options in weird hands like this, and don't pat yourself on the back for your line being the best thing possible just because you won the hand. Keep thinking!
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| shoving here as a bluff at 50NL is like explaning calcalus to a 6 month old cat wtf are you thinking - TalentedTom | |
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Raidern Brasil. Oct 22 2011 12:37. Posts 4243 | | |
nice post. its funny how as a micro player its easy to tilt when you lose a few all ins in a row, even if your total loss is $8 T_T |
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eestwood United Kingdom. Oct 22 2011 13:11. Posts 698 | | |
I think if you are struggling micros player, you have to work on your ABC game, not trying to get into more marginal spots. my 2c. You don't have to just cooler people, there is always somebody waiting to spew his stack when you hold some solid hand |
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K40Cheddar United States. Oct 22 2011 15:30. Posts 2202 | | |
you had better had some sick reads cause both hands looked hella spewy to me. Maybe I'm just bad? |
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Tensai176 Canada. Oct 22 2011 16:35. Posts 1018 | | |
^ I thought so too...
But what do I know, I never had a graph like that =[ |
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barbieman Sweden. Oct 22 2011 18:28. Posts 2132 | | |
I much more prefer a re-raise in hand one, and I agree that both hands look spewy, especially hand 2.
But I think going through spewy phases are helpful, necessary and a natural route to take in order to evolve.
edit: oops, thought you had A5cc, xD. hand 1 is fine imo |
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| | Last edit: 22/10/2011 18:30 |
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Oly United Kingdom. Oct 22 2011 19:42. Posts 3585 | | |
If you get out of microstakes via the up exit with this outlook (non-abc), I will be very surprised. I'm totally with the experimenting to learn thing since almost all small stakes players think they are playing abc, but are actually not and are way too weak and passive to have any hope, so it's really good to make some mistakes to find out where those standard aggro spots are. Best wishes that it carries on working for you...
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| Researchers used brain scans to show that when straight men looked at pictures of women in bikinis, areas of the brain that normally light up in anticipation of using tools, like spanners and screwdrivers, were activated. | |
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Stroggoz New Zealand. Oct 22 2011 22:10. Posts 5296 | | |
what does ABC poker mean? |
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| One of 3 non decent human beings on a site of 5 people with between 2-3 decent human beings | Last edit: 22/10/2011 22:58 |
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hhse Australia. Oct 23 2011 00:43. Posts 213 | | |
| | On October 22 2011 21:10 Stroggoz wrote:
what does ABC poker mean? |
Basics in poker. |
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chiam_ace Malaysia. Oct 23 2011 01:52. Posts 30 | | |
I might not know better but those lines look extremely -EV to me
especially in microstakes |
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| | Last edit: 23/10/2011 01:52 |
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Maybe they are, but that's what the whole post is about: trying new things. Of course they're not standard lines and they could easily be terrible, but 4.63 ptbb isn't anything to joke about imo. I was a breakeven/marginal winner until I started thinking more and trying weird things like this. |
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| shoving here as a bluff at 50NL is like explaning calcalus to a 6 month old cat wtf are you thinking - TalentedTom | |
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| | On October 22 2011 23:43 hhse wrote:
Basics in poker.
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LOL |
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waga United Kingdom. Oct 23 2011 09:26. Posts 2375 | | |
Hand 1 is fine , hand 2 is a huge spew.
edit: 17k hands is irrelevant
but yeah experimenting can't be bad. |
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| | Last edit: 23/10/2011 09:28 |
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