Success in $0.02/$0.04 General Strategy Help

Hi there,

So I have played a lot of play money poker and watched lots of TV and read quite a far bit and finally decided to make the plunge, I'm an intelligent person with a good grasp of maths and odds and believe I'll be able to make a little bit of money at least from all the calling stations you tend to find at lower limits.

I deposited $25 to play at $0.02/$0.04 (the lowest on empire poker). Have played 325 hands and am currently losing 22 bb/hour!!!! This is due to a few pots I have arsed up and lost a few dollars in. I know this isnt enough hands to make a true representation of my play yet but I'm interested in how to improve my game.

I think a few times I tried to be too clever, and I need to remind myself this isnt the WSOP and I should only be playing premium hands against calling stations and take the profit thats there, and should be folding anything where I think I haven't got the best hand.

Looking at the summary on poker tracker, looks like 38% are winners 61% losers, I'm pretty sure I should be good enough to get in the top 25% at least when you consider the bad play regularly seen on these tables.

Also, I barely find raising at the flop for information worth while on these tables when you are not confident about your hand, it seems often you get a blind call and it does not help you instead of a fold or a raise to tell you where you stand. Am I being arrogant and not giving these players as much respect as they deserve? Or the opposite, would love to hear from some of you experienced low stakes players.

I tend to be posting quite a lot of these forums for advice and such on my play. Please give your thoughts on my strategy and any general advice anyone has for these low limits, thank you.

Welcome to the forum.

Don't overdo aggression; they won't understand what it represents, and even if they do, they may not care because of the stakes. If you've got a hand, value bet to death, but don't expect just because you've raise preflop that J3s has folded. And if a 3 comes on the flop, they probably aren't going anywhere. Which is good if you have better, but bad if you try to continuation bet them off.

I tend to play loose/passive and then aggressive when I have something at this kind of level. Just my 0.02.

At the small stakes the best advice I have is to value bet frequently, particularly with pocket pairs and try to keep your bluffing frequency to an absolute minimum. You will get looked up.

OK I thought I was doing well today, then I lost all my money at the table in two hands!!! (this was after going from buying in at $2.50 and winning $2.50 more) bit of a nightmare, seems I win a few medium sized pots, then lose massive ones, anyone got any tips on this.

The two hands I am talking about can be found below, I would really appreciate your thoughts either here or in the appropriate threads below thanks.

http://www.cardschat.com/f50/0-02-0-...raight-105935/ (http://www.cardschat.com/f50/0-02-0-04-qq-loses-straight-105935/)

http://www.cardschat.com/f50/0-02-0-...es-set-105933/ (http://www.cardschat.com/f50/0-02-0-04-aq-loses-set-105933/)

I'm far from an expert, but hately have been doing pretty well at the low limit tables. I play an extremely tight aggressive game only calling or raising with premium hands. Another thing that has helped my game immensely is learning the value of position. As far as I can tell learning to consider my position os the single most important aspect of my game. It has turned me from a consistant loser to a consistant winner at these low levels. Additionally, I agree with the above post about keeping bluffs to an absolute minimum. People will call with damn near anything. Good luck!

is limping in with low and medium pairs acceptable in late position? and high suited connectors to try and hit a cheap flop?

I dont find myself playing the low limit games very often, but when I do I find that after sitting at the table for a few minutes you can guage the people there and I find that knowledge to be quite useful. I sometimes call mediocre cards when I see that some of the stronger players of the table have folded and I hope to cath something or push out some other weaker players. Im not saying to do this all the time but sometimes you go long streaks without any "good" cards.

Since reading all the advice in this thread I have played another 200 hands and made around $4.50, obviously down to just 1 big hand but overall play has been way better, with 3 consecutive winning sessions. Thanks for the advice, I know theres plenty of bad swings to come but I hope I'm a bit closer to being on the winning 40%.

Yes call in late position with any pair if cheap enough, raise with medium pairs and up, dump them if u dont hit to any raise post flop.