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jjpregler · Forum Pro Joined: 17 May 2006 Posts: 1449

I play mainly micros and I have seen some bad advice and misonceptions floating around here about playing in the micros. There are people who say it only cost you .10 to call, or they're all fish he could have anything, or you can never bluff in the micros. Some good players complained that they have troubles winning in the micros after posting a HHN with an advanced play, wondering "How could he call this, I represented the nuts?" I wanted to give some of my thoughts and ideas to win in the micros and clear up misconceptions that I've seen from my experience in the micros.

Hand selection

I basically use a typical TAG hand selection when I first join a new table. One of the mistakes you will see at the micros is players playing too many hands all the way to showdown. So to ensure that you will win, you need to choose hands that are likely to win at showdown. I was going to list my basic hand selection, but there are so many books and links on this, I didn't think I should waste the space or time.

As the game progresses, I will either loosen up or tighten up my starting hand selection based on the climate of the game. If the game is passive, I like to play implied odds hands if I can limp in and see a cheap flop. These are hands that have made a difference in my game in the micros as you have to fold them often, but you can get paid off big in the micros against players who can't fold bottom pair. These are any PP (I will even call one normal raise with any PP hoping to flop a set, if and only if, the raiser and/or callers have at least 10x the bet which I have to call left in their stack to warrant playing a hand that is 7.5:1 to hit). I also will limp with Axs and suited connectors. But I only do this once I've been playing for a while and am pretty certain that I can see a cheap flop.

One thing I never expected to see in the micros but once in a while I do find is people who play too tight. If I am just before players who play too tight, I will play any two cards from late position for a raise. Often you will win the pot right there, and even after they get tired of you stealing the blinds, they'll call then fold on the flop if they miss. I was once at a table where the three players after me were tight passive. I raised and raised against them for about 4 rounds straight before I even got called pre-flop, then I took the pot down with a c-bet almost 90% of the time when they started calling. If they bet into me out of position, I just gave them credit, folded and tried again next time when I was on the button or in the cutoff.

Value betting

Value betting can be one of the most important skill in the micros since so many hands go to showdown. Many players will chase draws or call you down with bottom pair or even under pairs to the board, so when I flop a hand that I am likely to be ahead I like to bet at least 2/3 of the pot. Once in a while you can even get chasers to call a slight overbet of the pot. You should identify these people and use this to your advantage as your better hand will hold up more often.

I do not advocate blowing people off of a pot. You really want people to call bets against without having the proper odds to do so. If they will call a 2/3 pot bet, but fold to a pot sized bet, I will choose the lesser of the two bets, wanting my opponents to make the bad call. You will get outdrawn at times, but this really is the most profitable way to play poker.

Observing players and taking notes

One skill that can separate you form your opponents is the ability to observe and take notes. I don't think many micro level players even pay attention to the game if they are not in the hand. They might be watching TV, surfing the net, or whatever else they are distracted by while playing.

The first which is easiest to identify are the players who play too many hands. I usually run Pokertracker in the background and launch the external game tracker and have timed imports set for every 3 minutes. within 10 minutes I can identify players who play too many hands, but just glancing at the VP$IP stat in the window. I also occasionally check a players aggression factor in the ring game window and keep track of who's aggressive or even over aggressive.

Next, I watch every hand and take notes on every hand shown down. Sometimes, I have to use the hand history if I can't remember every detail of the hand, but I like to know who makes c-bets, who calls c-bets routinely, who bets into the preflop raiser and what kind of hand do they have when they do so.

I like to identify the flush chasers. If you are in a hand with one of them and they are playing like they are on a draw, and the flush card comes, don't pay it off. Their chasing with the wrong odds can be quickly corrected when they get paid to justify their implied odds.

Keep track of the hands that people raise with. Do they see any two face cards in any position and raise? Do they raise 22 UTG? Do they only raise high PPs. One mistake that I keep track of that people will make is they overbet medium PPs because they would rather take the hand down now instead of trying to play after the flop. They will make a 15BB raise with 88.

One misconception that people make is that they assume that all micro players are donkeys. Wrong! There are some very solid players at this level. There are some very good players who just don't have the money to invest in the bigger games, but still would like to play and pass the time without playing for play chips. there are plenty of fish in the micros, you should avoid any strong players that you happen to run into unless you have a solid hand. You don't have to beat everyone at the table, just find about 3 players to target to make a profit.

Bluffing in the micros

One major misconception is that you can never bluff in the micros. This is wrong. You just have to be very selective with the hands and the targets that you try to bluff. My most typical and successful bluff is the c-bet. However, this has to be done with caution as well as some people like to get fancy and check raise a c-bettor. I never make a c-bet in a multi-way pot and I don't like to make it against 2 players, unless I have position and it's been checked to me. For me to try a c-bet against 2 players out of position, they have to be passive players who are likely to fold if they got nothing on the flop.

You cannot bluff someone off a hand. If someone catches part of the flop, it is hard to get them to fold. The only time I try a bluff later in the hand is if they show weakness, and sometimes this is useless as they may call you down with 22. You have to identify these players and only value bet them. However, if you find someone willing to fold fire a bet if they show weakness.

Don't get fancy

There are two plays that can go seriously wrong in the micros, check raising and the chip sandwich play. First when you try to check-raise, it is possible that the round will be checked out and you will never get the chance to raise. I would only check raise on rare occasions when I know someone will bet and I flopped such a monster that they are drawing extremely thin.

The chip sandwich play is useless. People do not understand that a re-raise indicates much more strength than the first raise and will still call you with 97o just because they like to see a flop with this hand.

For the most part ABC poker works extremely well in the micros. As you move up in levels, you need to mix up your game more to keep the other players off balance, but the players here are not that well versed with the game to worry about keeping them off balance.

Play on level two

Finally, you should play on level two thinking. You only have to play one level above your opponents to outplay them. Most on the micro level only play their cards with complete disregard for what you may be holding. If you try to play on level 3 and make a play based on that, it can go seriously wrong, because they are not even considering what cards you re holding, so how can you make a play based on their thinking of what cards you were representing so far in the hand.

Remoth · Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 3:28 pm Post subject:

your 1001st post, my first first reply to a 1001 post..lol

Good post, That should help some of the people who come in here

ps- congrats on the 1000 posts!!!

UFO1947 · Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 4:32 pm Post subject:

Congrats, nice post. you might want to think about sendng it into the blog

jjpregler · Forum Pro Joined: 17 May 2006 Posts: 1449

Bruce10 · Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 7:22 pm Post subject:

Great post JJ. A couple questions if you don't mind. What do you define as micros, up to what blinds? Also, when you talk about taking notes on every showdown, are you talking about putting that in the notes that Full-Tilt provides? Does that amount of information get overwhelming, unusable? How do you access it and make it usable?

jjpregler · Forum Pro Joined: 17 May 2006 Posts: 1449

cubbies760 · Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 8:31 pm Post subject:

i only read bits and pieces of this post, and am not particularly interested in it cause i don't play there, BUT.........it seems like what i read makes a whole lot of sense and you have a well thought out plan of attack.

Ive read a few of your posts in the past, and it seems like you do well at this level. regardless of your br, I think you would do very well staying at this level and play 4 to 6 tables....i just wonder if not having your attention on every table at the same time will affect your play and ability to read the players at the tables that you arent watching at any particular moment

good luck

jjpregler · Forum Pro Joined: 17 May 2006 Posts: 1449

Ssastronaut · Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 7:42 pm Post subject:

after reading this, my play has improved dramatically.... thanks..

fixing tires · Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2007 11:16 am Post subject:

I just had a chance to read this. It's a good post, with great ideas. Thanks!

x3b1indmice · Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2007 5:16 pm Post subject:

I've only just come across this post and I must say i was impressed.

I've only recently started playing at the micros seriously but it was posts like this on another forum that really gave me a solid base to work upon. Although it doesn't cover everything needed to be sucessful at the micros it definately covers a lot of common leaks new players have (i know it covered some of mine!).

I'd like to thank you for taking the time to make a post like this solely to give a little back.

Also if any of the mods thinks this warrants a sticky i think that would be more than justified. That way new users coming on to the forum ready to learn and try their "luck" (wrong word?) at poker will come across a useful well thought out post which should help them in their game and as they grow as a player hopefully they can one day give something back to the forum community themselves.

jjpregler · Forum Pro Joined: 17 May 2006 Posts: 1449

Thank you for your kind words.

This wasn't meant to be all inclusive for playing in the micros. I mean really that would need hundrends of pages to write as well as someone with more experience than I have. This is only ideas that I've picked up from my own play and experience in the micros and some tips that have helped me maintain positive numbers. Since starting to play poker, I've learned by reading these boards (and 2+2) and actualy playing, that different levels require different strategies to win. What works in high stakes games does not work in micros and there really is no literature that I've found to help with NL micro tables. There is an excellent book by Ed Miller on Low Limit Holdem, but nothing to explain NL.

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