Making money in the micros

How much money can someone expect to make playing for just a few hours a day? Also, what game is the most profitable? 6max, full table, heads up, or tournament play? My bankroll allows me to play .02/.05 limits.

It depends.

The answer will be different for different people. Which do you enjoy playing, and which are you good at?

MTT's are by far most profitable just because most people hemorrhage chips. Cash games have too many nits for my liking. HU is by far the most fun and at hypers if you play a few at SnGs at once you can get a fair bit of money and you can more or less finish eith 5 mins notice.

I have found 2nl cash games to be far more profitable than MTTs. The level of play ( especially at weekends) is unbelievably bad. You can also leave whenever you want.

Loathe HU incidentally

I just struggle to stay motivated playing with $2 whereas when you can win $100+ in one tourney for a BI of $2.50 it keeps you're more motivated to making the correct decision on every hand and not getting bored and 4-betting something like 87s or limp/raising 7/2o.

Also HU is the purest form of poker. Mano a mano.

HU games -- I think it's the toughest to master because there are a lot of concepts that beginning players probably won't get. That said, low-limit HU players are ridiculously bad.

mtts - grueling, high-variance poker. most rewarding and highest payouts when you win. devastating when you grind for hours and play well, lose a monster flip or get bad beat and make like $15 for 6 hours. also the form where you are more likely to benefit from "beginner's luck" and start profiting instantly.

cash games -- steadiest, requires more skill than MTTs. good if you want to just play an hour or two and call it a day, also the best game besides (HU cash) if you really want to delve into poker theory and whatnot.

SNGs -- good if you just want to play Satan's poker for an hour or two while folding good hands and shoving bad ones and squeaking out a minimal profit.

Yes, that sounds like a sensible and well-balanced summary of the main differences to me

I think in regards to micros, heads up is the most profitable but MTT's also have so many fish in them in's unreal but you have to run good at points too.

I think cash along with SnG's have more "regs" even if they are bad, they are looking to learn and most grinders will have read something and be part of a forum.

EDIT: Just read baudib1 post, sums everything up. Good post.

Thanks guys, your a lot of help.
I enjoy playing HU...so usually Ill play a HU SNG or small SNG games. I find that the most profitable for me so far. I've only been playing cash tables online for 3 days now. So Ill play different games to see what I like best.
Thanks for the tips

You'd be best off by sticking to one format & staying with it for awhile. HU Sng's would probably be your worst choice possible (HU cash game would be worse obv.)

One's motivation to make the correct decision should be to make the correct decision.

On a little side note, from "Rounders" which states at the very beginning "the goal is to win one big pot an hour" or along those lines. How about online games? would you consider it 3 big pots an hour? Cash games of course and I don't think the stakes really matter though you should be able to do better at micro.

This is really an individual thing. It depends on your winrate and how many hands you play on average per day. Play which game you like the most. You are going to be doing a lot of this poker thing. No point in making it miserable for yourself if FR bores you to death for instance. They are all equally profitable.

What counts as a "big pot" in limit holdem? The most I've ever made in one hand is 18 BB. The most I've lost is 11 BB.

The big pot thing is arbitrary nonsense. You play as well as you can making the best decisions you can. Results follow. Some people are better and win at different rates and you can go 10k hands losing at 3bb/100 then win for 5k at 15bb/100. Results and money don't matter until you're rubbing it on your titties.

i think they all have pluses and minuses ... it's like somebody else said .. what you enjoy playing is very important along with the obvious, what you are good at or best at ... generally you enjoy what you are good it, but not always

all games have their downside ... being the bubble boy is one of the worst poker feelings there is ... all that work and boom and we've all been there ... also the great variance at MTT can make BRM trickier

cash seems to be such a momentum thing, which can be very fun, but when you have a bad run at cash, you really start questioning yourself ... you start thinking .. "am i actually good at this or did i just think i was" ... nice to be able to play for 10 minutes or 10 hours though ... if it's not your nite, you get up and leave ... if it is, you try to grind out as much as you can

SnGs - probably the middle ground ... i find they are very strategic, you really have to understand the structure along with being a solid player ... i don't know how others feel, but i think the competition is generally the best at SnGs ... in fact, this is where doing some research can help ... don't sit at a table with 3 or 4 SnG sharks ... look for SnGs fish tables ... of course for the US, you kinda have to sit wherever now .. .you just don't have the volume of players that you had on pokerstars, so u can't pick and choose

i've been doing pretty well at the bounty SnGs on Carbon, but too small amount of data to say ... hey that's my game! ... maybe i just like the table graphics

I don't have any goal of that nature, I just want to play every hand to the best of my ability, but how many big pots I win an hour is in the hands of the gods so is not something I will worry about too much.

This depends on the luck of your cards, your opponents and how well you play your hand. Obviously you can't alter luck so you can't get an accurate answer, opponents can be lined up online but not with great accuracy therefore forget about how much per hour etc just concentrate on correct decisions. Correct decisions = more monies.

I think playing Rummy Card Game will be worth to make money.

I would probably choose cash games as the most profitable, less time consuming. Know the game you are playing, and you can expect to double to triple up in a few hours. You can also multi table once you get used to the games for added profit.