Frustration at microstakes

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noobydooby

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I'm somewhat upset about a hand that I just played in. Won't be too descriptive, because it's not important.

I raised from the SB to isolate a limp from the CO. He then called three streets of over 2/3 pot, and showed down K4o to take the pot with a pair of Kings. This was on a 4 to a straight and flush completed board.

I'm more interested in playing a GTO style than exploitative, but is that my only hope at the micros?
 
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FrothyGoodness

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Lol As usual and always It just depends on what tables you're at. I like to watch a table for at least 10-15 minutes before sitting to watch everyones action and see who's playing Poker and who's just playing "its only chump change" games. Some players just see a .15 Cent raise as just 15 cents rather than the meaning behind it. Not All tables will be like this not all players will donk call everything just got to dust it off and try again
 
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noobydooby

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Lol As usual and always It just depends on what tables you're at. I like to watch a table for at least 10-15 minutes before sitting to watch everyones action and see who's playing Poker and who's just playing "its only chump change" games. Some players just see a .15 Cent raise as just 15 cents rather than the meaning behind it. Not All tables will be like this not all players will donk call everything just got to dust it off and try again
That's good advice. To be honest, I usually just look for a table that's open and sit. Usually not right next to a 250bb stack, but I definitely don't sit there and watch the other players to get a feel for it. Thanks for the suggestion!
 
PaxMundi

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You need to be able to exploit your opponants which GTO doesnt account for. Making adjustments and deviating from GTO to exploit another player is what a good player will do.
 
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duson

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I'm confused. You're saying you want to play GTO but you're betting 2/3 on every street when theirs a flush and straight draw on the board and you lost to a pair. If you have nothing but you kept betting into that run out then I'd think that your play was as bad as the other player. He might've had a read on you and though you were too bluff heavy.
 
SirYivx

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Best to just play ABC poker at the micro stakes. Like others have said, watching the table for a few orbits can be beneficial, but most of these players are fish and do not understand what a raise means. "I have top pair I won't fold" mentality. Use this to your advantage when you do turn or river the nuts. Just DO NOT try to bluff these guys lol.
 
bbennie1

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Most poker software allow you to mark your opponents with a color or something else. That's a good option if you're not using a HUD. Then it becomes easier to recognize who the maniacs are who will call with pretty much anything. Like James said, they will call with almost anything at microstakes so it's a bad idea to bluff players who are very passive. Change up your game depending on what opponent you're playing.
 
thatguy6793

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GTO poker is great in practice but it's more advantageous to use when dealing with more skilled players where getting chips is a lot harder. GTO makes a basic assumption that the people you play against understand poker, but at the micros you get some of the craziest calls out there. When you apply a lot of the complex strategies that are out there to microstakes you usually end up doing worse not because you're doing it wrong but because the people you play against literally have no idea what they are doing. Try to resort back to ABC poker for a bit and you'll start to move up in no time and then you can start implementing GTO strategy again.
 
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CJWilliam

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I would have to say that exploitative at the micros is more important than GTO. Most (but not all) players in the micros just like to have fun. Color coding and taking notes is the key to winning. You have to have the awareness of who is tight or who is aggro,etc.
This will help you out not only in the micros, but also after you build a BR it will help you while playing GTO in the larger stakes.
 
Jon Poker

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Best to just play ABC poker at the micro stakes. Like others have said, watching the table for a few orbits can be beneficial, but most of these players are fish and do not understand what a raise means. "I have top pair I won't fold" mentality. Use this to your advantage when you do turn or river the nuts. Just DO NOT try to bluff these guys lol.

This x2 - i cannot give any better advicr myself. These people are the worst players on any site...remember that.

Play WPT or the wsop App on your phone...once you start beating those players consistently, then you are ready for micro stakes poker :)
 
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eutot

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You can't bluf someone who can only lose $1 in a pot. Microstakes is gambler's playground, some will even pay with inside draw. For protection you can use all in or overpot, but 2/3 is just too tempting to not pay.
 
WiredKs

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GTO kind of needs to be used against someone who is also playing GTO. Balanced play against average opponents and against poor players showdown the best hand.

Be patient then punish.
 
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James24543

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You can't bluf someone who can only lose $1 in a pot. Microstakes is gambler's playground, some will even pay with inside draw. For protection you can use all in or overpot, but 2/3 is just too tempting to not pay.


This is correct. There is insignificant amounts of money at stake. You will have a better game at high stakes.
 
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Darth_Moola

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Position

Lots of factors involved. Sounds like your opponents wasn't someone to triple barrel. Also, playing out of position puts you at a disadvantage. If you had nothing, then why bluff out of position when its certainly possible that someone would call a raise with a weird K. Obviously, you wouldn't expect K4o, but if you couldn't beat any pair of Kings then you were just in a bad position.
 
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619Leafs

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When you are playing microstakes its more luck than skill and tons more bad beats since there are a lot of loose players.
 
playinggameswithu

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GTO does not apply if your opponets are bad.
 
WiredKs

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When you are playing microstakes its more luck than skill and tons more bad beats since there are a lot of loose players.


I'll agree with the half of this. Bad beats are more common, but saying luck takes over feels like an overstatement. The variance may be higher, but with discipline and proper bankroll management, the negative factors can be mitigated. In fact, there's a case to be made that if you play ABC and have the correct bankroll you should be able to take advantage of the generally weaker holdings.
 
shinedown.45

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Most micro-stakes players can't count to ten, how are they suppose to understand GTO or even ABC poker.
Most just see pretty colors and letters preflop and think that bottom pair or a backdoor draw on the flop is worth calling down to the river oblivious to the math involved.
 
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chronical

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1."Some players just see a .15 Cent raise as just 15 cents rather than the meaning behind it." - 100%!!!
2.do try to be fancy and just valubet and exploit fold at mictors
 
JJP

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Adjusting to your opponents tendencies is important at every level of poker. If you can't beat micros, it is highly unlikely that you will be able to beat any higher limits. I suggest you learn some discipline and learn to adjust to the best way to exploit your opponents.


Hint: bluff less, and bet for value more and bigger
 
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eutot

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Adjusting to your opponents tendencies is important at every level of poker. If you can't beat micros, it is highly unlikely that you will be able to beat any higher limits. I suggest you learn some discipline and learn to adjust to the best way to exploit your opponents.


Hint: bluff less, and bet for value more and bigger

Good hint, but in my experience (talking about zoom@ps) is really hard to talk about tendencies at microstakes where players just play chaotically, sometimes pay with everything, otherwise they are tight.. and most of them are gambling.
 
eberetta1

eberetta1

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At microstakes, players like to gamble. They have 10 or 20 minutes and off they go.

If I can't beat a 4 kicker, I shouldn't be in the hand, unless I am gambling.
 
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