Lots of poker players begin their careers by taking on micro stakes competition since the games are so cheap. Unfortunately, most players end up losing lots of loose change at the micro limits because they have no idea who they’re playing against. Furthermore, they write poker off as stupid and quit the game altogether after realizing that they can’t even beat the micro stakes and must really suck at poker.
The first thing to remember is that your average micro stakes player is not too complex….in the best case scenario they’re only a two dimensional player. What this means is that they will spend the majority of time thinking about THEIR hand, THEIR outs, and everything that goes on in THEIR brain. They won’t think a whole lot about what you could be holding and probably will not spend too much time trying to decipher anybody else’s play.
What this means for you is that you’ll be able to conceal good hands much easier. For instance, if other players haven’t been paying attention to you, there is a small chance that they will know when you’re raising pre-flop with pocket kings as opposed to say pocket 6’s. In this same thought, they will also rarely consider the possibility that they are beat when flush and straight possibilities are on they board when they have a two-pair or set. So in a sense, these are your advantages.
On the other hand, micro stakes poker is like a minefield of bad beats waiting to happen since so many players are two dimensional. Many players who get top pair will play this hand like it’s the nuts meaning you can’t knock them off it no matter how many raises you throw out. Likewise, there are plenty of players who don’t know how to play aggressively so they mistakenly bet on every turn and throw out huge raises (for micro stakes anyways).
This odd mix of players makes micro stakes somewhat hard to beat in the end. However, once you have a better idea of the people you’re up against and know how to read them, you should be able to profit at the micro limits.
