How valauble are Micro stakes for learning?

so most micro stake players will call you down with 2/2 and a A/K/Q flot to try to hit,,so,,ive been grinding these stakes out for a while now just trying to get a lot of hands under my belt and see what I can learn,,im finding out a bit about my style of play,,locating where i need to be more aggressive,,places i need to be more passive,,learning how to bully a table when i hit good and have a large stack,,but..since most players dont play position,,dont play the odds,,dont really do much but call and raise with any paint intheir hand?? can playing micro levels create bad habits that could be taken to higher levels with detrimental effect?,,does the large number of hands i play help me,,or due to the general level of play can it hurt me???

Micro stakes are a great place to sharpen your game. There are bad players at every level. Micros teach you patience, variance, BRM, bet sizing, pot odds, etc... Great learning ground for when you move up.

Well it depends, at $.01/$.02 the level of play is so horrendous that you won't really learn much. I suppose it would be good for developing patience but other than that you can't effectively use most of the stuff you know because 80% of the people at this level play like its the lottery, making it difficult for you to know if you are using what you have learned correctly. If you have enough of a bankroll I suggest you play the $.05/$.10 level. At $.05/$.10 the players aren't that good but most have a good grasp on basic to intermediate strategy so you can practice what you know more effectively.

its a big step up from play money..... you learn things at every level.. obv when starting out, lower is better, and gradually move up when you beat those games easily

I have played with some play money players at high stakes (play money) that seem just as serious about the game (if not more so) than some of the 01/02 cent players I have seen.

I'm a pro and I can tell you that the micro stakes are ridiculously invaluable for learning. If you can't beat micro stakes, you don't have a prayer of beating people playing higher. Every player needs to develop a strong fundamental base before adding tricks to their game. Again, if you can't beat those people who are truly giving their money away, you won't be able to beat anyone else.

I'm doing ok out of micro levels. I found i have tighten my way of playing and how to be aggressive to keep them fish off the pots! And how to chip up a pot correctly!! I think there a brilliant place to start!

That about says it all.

I am not a pro player, but I tend to disagree with this statement. Sure micro's teah alot about position, patience and seeing alot of hands cheap, but as far as actually benefitting your game beyond that point, I think not. Here's my graph for my buy-in level and ROI. This is based on tourneys as I do not play cash, but the same basic fundamentals apply between the two (micro cash and micro tourney.) Just food for thought.

I played a few hundred hands at the micro-level. I played LAG (played around 48% of hands dealt) and yes I was profitable. Great break from the turbo's and tournaments and much more fun!!!!!! This is about as soft as it gets folks. The level of play wasn't too far from the play money tables.

There are fish at every level. Don't believe me? Check out these fish:

http://www.pokertableratings.com/ipo...earch/nawtstr8
http://www.pokertableratings.com/ful...h/mr%20cup

Found those two in a quick second, both of them are down hundreds of thousands and play your typical fish/retard game.

Exploiting fish is how you make most of your money at this game, and there are plenty of opportunities to exploit fish in microstakes cash games. Anyone who says you can't learn anything from microstakes is likely a losing player.

Micro limits are proberbly one of the most important grinds you will face, you learn so mutch, like some one said earlyer they praticley give you there money so you should learn how to take it from them the right way before you jump in teh deep end and lose ALOT of money

Im an advanced SNG player and crush the micro/low limits everyday, the single most important lesson i did learn from micro limits is learning to lose, to accept that i will lose and wont win every game, to accept i will have losing streaks due to variance, yes micro limits test you in all areas

You learn you basic strategy from micro limits, if you went up to the midstakes with just the knologe of hand strength you will be killed, simple!

I use to constantly grind my way through the micro limits untill i rolled for the $11+1 Turbo SNG's then start again from $50, just for more experiance

Micro Limits= VERY IMPORTANT

Being a good poker player is all about being well rounded. I would advocate for starting at the bottom absolutly. You can learn a lot about fundamental play, and how to exploit donkeys and make people stack off light, but beyond all that it enables experimentation a bit too. You can mess around and make some calls out of curiosity just for the learning experience once you've found a style that works.

I strongly advocate for the PS deep .01/.02 tables and .02/.05 tables that are all deep stacked. Learning which hands to play or not preflop is a week's work, learning to play postflop is where difficulty comes in for most players playing with full/deep stacks. You can learn to exploit people at these levels, and practice getting reads on them. I recommend playing loose passive preflop and then work on your extracting value postflop to crush those levels, something like 25/5/1(or less).

Once you've got yourself earning solidly, mix things up and learn about various things. It'll probably cost you some money, but you'll know all the better what your opponent is doing and thinking when you try on their style for a bit. Once you're earning anyway you can afford to leak out a buy in here and there for lessons that will equate to hundreds of them in the long term.