micro stakes help

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evangelos_christodoulou

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Hello all, i really need some help with how to play strong hands in micro stakes tournaments. The problem i face, and i believe many ppl have it too, when i get AA, AK, KK, QQ, and i raise preflop 10-15BB, always I get called by ppl with connectors suited or even no suited, but whats even more strange i get called with just any random suited cards, funny thing is that i get connection and on my flop bets, everybody follow, and get whatever they search for. What should i do it those situations? Should i just never raise preflop? but that would bring my good hand against many players. Or i should just raise and pray i dont get called by something strange again, or even if i get called just the oponent to not hit the flop?
 
radek

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Try register to those tournament a bit later, when you get like 20-30 bigs. Then their range should be much smaller. But if you just started tournament then shove AA, KK, QQ if they limp up to you in late position.
 
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Gabriel Pinho

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When I have short stacks, only play very strong hands or bluff after the flop , implying that have good cards to the flop
 
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Gabriel Pinho

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Summing up, AA, KK, QQ, AK, AQ and JJ. Maybe TT. In this case, dependind the situation.
 
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evangelos_christodoulou

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the problem sums up to the fact, that always they hit something good with their agression, to make a really stupid call, and always i loose a good part of my stack from those calls. I mean who calls a raise of 15BB with 8-10 and hits on the frop two pairs? Other example? Somebody call with K5 and hit a straight with the 5? I admit that luck is a factor on the game, but those situations that i describe appear all the time
 
radek

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Keep calm and play your game. In long time it will be + for sure. Propably you got bad days or even mounth wchich happens to us all.
 
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BigBloom

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Learn and read up on table position would be my first suggestion. Waiting for hands like AA KK ect is what everyone does and thats why there break even or small profit

The cards you are dealt are may look good or bad its how you play the hand that matters the cards dont always matter


Learn table position and proper betting and then dont be afraid to stick suited connectors in a 4-5 way all in

Most time you crack the people holding aa kk qq with youre suited 56 78 ect

If you want help pm me or find me at the table MybiGrow on acr
 
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jerohit

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A good oppening raise is 3-4 BB.. If sombody already raised then reraise it 3times of his raise.. If you have AA then on post flop if have 2 or more opponent pot raise.. and then go all in on turn cards are on board are not looking beating you.
 
SBEP

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Can i take a wild guess on which platform this happens? :D Jokestaaaaaars where players are most scared to push allin preflop with AA, and try to remember this, when u shove AA ull will almost lose every time to a str8, u sit tight the entire time, and all of a sudden shove, that enough should raise the hair on back of their neck`s of other players, but instead some Ahole donk with a big chip stack from playin bingo not poker decides to call with Q2, why, coz its a smart play? coz its the right move? nahhh, he just knows he will get there somehow, and voila, he gets there with str8 A to 5, how very convenient, on any other software ull get laugh at by your own cards and every player on the table, but not on Jokestars, there the worst starting hand always gets rewarded, why, donno buddy, why they babysit those donks i dont know, and when u start to play cash games ull see even weirder hands, but i guess nothing will stop them at generating rake, no matter how faking obvious it is, they should rename their "RANDOM CARD GENERATOR" to "RAKE GENERATOR" coz its all it does.
 
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Onkorunkus

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Can someone move this to the rigtard thread please :D
 
PershingSt

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A couple things I think are important here . The first being that you want players to play bad vs you , you want them calling your raises with random garbage . Now how to play strong hands at micros is pretty simple imo . You raise and bet aggresively with them and force your opponents to make mistakes . Deciding on what to stack off with will depend on how deep you are , as well as your opponents tendencies . As you get shorter you should be more willing to stack off with good 1 pair hands , and the deeper you are the more you more than 1 pair .
 
CRStals

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A couple things I think are important here . The first being that you want players to play bad vs you , you want them calling your raises with random garbage . Now how to play strong hands at micros is pretty simple imo . You raise and bet aggresively with them and force your opponents to make mistakes . Deciding on what to stack off with will depend on how deep you are , as well as your opponents tendencies . As you get shorter you should be more willing to stack off with good 1 pair hands , and the deeper you are the more you more than 1 pair .

Great post I think. Sums up what you need to do at the micro stakes. Look at your game as a whole, remove what you can't control, and after the hand ask "When my chips went in, did I make the right read and the right call?" If the answer is yes...then you played correctly. Let the morons call with anything and catch - again, any hand pre-flop is live, regardless of what it is.
 
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freestocks

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Great hands win most of the time.
 
jscales

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Variance

These are examples of the variance in poker. These things are going to happen, but that's ok. You will win more of those than you will lose. Another thing to keep in mind is the texture of the board as you are playing. You may flop the nuts or have AA pre-flop but just because you are ahead on one street doesn't mean that will hold up. If the nuts are no longer the nuts after the turn then slow down a little, try to get an idea of what your opponent is representing and see if that story adds up. If so tread lightly.
 
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ph_il

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All you can do is to play your hands big hands for value. If it's early in the tournament and stacks are deep or over 100+ BBs, then you will get a number of callers calling your raise PF with a wide range of hands, looking to hit big and take a big pot. In the early stages of an MTT, you'll find either players opt for a loose/wide call range when blinds are deep or for more a tight, survivalist approach to the game. Both have their pros/cons.

I think of your problems is your opening raise size. Raising it 10-15x BB isn't screaming "fold, I have a big hand." It's saying "I have a big hand, come and crack it!" You're really polarizing your range if you're raising huge with your monster hands and limping/standard raising with your other hands. If your opponents know that you have QQ+ when you make it 15x BB, they can call with a lot of hands and probably feel confident they'll get paid off when they do hit.

Another problem is that you're building this huge pot preflop, which is great when you do win the pot, but it makes it a bit harder to continue betting without committing yourself to the pot. The bigger the PF raise and the more callers you get, the bigger your future bets will be compared to if you had raised 4-5x BB.

To give an example, lets say stacks are 100 BBs deep. If you make it 15x BB with AdAc preflop and get 4 callers. The pot is now 60 BBs and the flop is 7s 8s Jh. You all have 85 BBs behind and you're first to act? How do you continue here? You could very well still have the best hand, but there are a lot of other hands your opponents could hold that can outdraw you. Also, hands like 77, 88, and 910s are also in your opponents range and have you crushed.

You can either check it down and maybe get to a cheap showdown. Or maybe bet out and hope to pick it up, but how much can you bet out without committing yourself to the pot, but is also enough to maybe make the weaker hands like 55, 66, KQ to fold? The pots already 60BBs, so if you bet out 40BBs, you leave yourself with 45BB behind. Almost half of your stack is in the middle. What's the plan if you get 2 callers and the turn is a brick? With over 50% of your stack in a pot of 140 BBs and 45 BB behind, are you check-folding the turn? Or do you commit the rest of your stack is you check and someone shoves? You can fold and still have 45 BBs which is still plenty, but it can be hard to let it go when you have 50% of your stack in the middle.

In my example above, the bet sizing might be terrible, but i just wanted to illustrate how pots can get really big when you're opening for large raises preflop and getting multiple callers.

Now, lets say its the same scenario as above but this time you make it 4x BB. The pot is now 16 BBs and flop is 7s 8s Js. Now your the pot size is much smaller and you don't commit as many of your chips when you're betting. If we made the same 2/3rds pot size bet as above, or bet out 11 BBs on the flop and get 2 callers, we still have a lot of BB behind. So, we can easily opt to check the turn card and maybe call a smaller bet, then re-evaluate on the river. Or, if an opponent decides to make a huge bet after our turn check, we might decide our hand could be beat on that board and with hands like 77 or 88 and we can fold and still have 80+ BBs behind.

So, as far as your raise sizing should be, if you're in early position and during the early stages, make it between 3-4x the BB. And in the mid-to-late positions, make 3-4x +1 BB for every limper. So, if you're in late position and there are 3 limpers before you. You might raise it 3.5x BB + 3 BBs (limpers) for a total of 6.5 BBs.

I want to add that making your opening raises a bit smaller allows your opponents to come over the top of you with their big hands. So, if you're raising 4x BB in early position with a range of 88+, your opponents might 3bet you preflop with wider range, which is great if you have QQ, KK, or AA as you can 4 bet them and build a big pot if they have a big hand. Whereas, if you were raising 15x BB with hands like QQ+, your opponents have no reason to ever 3bet you preflop knowing you have a monster. So, they don't have to commit a ton of chips preflop. Just call your 15x raise and fold if they miss.

Now, for post flop play. There are way too many things to consider, but as a general rule that I follow when I play, the more coordinated a board is, the more I proceed with caution against multiple opponents.

So, against 4 players, I might not want to get too involved with a hand like KhKd on a board of 4s 5s 8s because it possible it hit a couple of my opponents very strong. Compared to a flop of 7s 2h Qd, this is a flop that I'm more comfortable getting involved with. It's a pretty dry board with no immediate straight or flush draws and I have an over pair. So, I might get action from KQ, AQ hands that i beat a lot of the time. Not saying that I wont lose with KK on that board, but it's a board I'm more comfortable getting my money in compared to the other one.
 
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Stevan

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I played on PS, FT, 888 for couple months and didn't make any money. I joined BC freeroll and took 2nd place. Day after i played mtt for 1.10$ and took first place (49$) . Every day after that i was good 15-20 $ per day with certain way of play. What i want to tell you is that every time i played on other rooms i always got a suck out. I'm not that kind of guy who will shove with 5/9 or something.
Now i avoid play on other rooms.
 
dino

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did you try cash out option on BC yet??
Does it work for you?
Or anyone else??

I played on PS, FT, 888 for couple months and didn't make any money. I joined BC freeroll and took 2nd place. Day after i played mtt for 1.10$ and took first place (49$) . Every day after that i was good 15-20 $ per day with certain way of play. What i want to tell you is that every time i played on other rooms i always got a suck out. I'm not that kind of guy who will shove with 5/9 or something.
Now i avoid play on other rooms.
 
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BigBloom

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did you try cash out option on BC yet??
Does it work for you?
Or anyone else??

Yeah there cash out times are like 2-3 weeks but if you use bicoin 2-3 hours

I won a free roll turned it into 4800 made a 10$ deposit and then cashed out several times
 
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BigBloom

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did you try cash out option on BC yet??
Does it work for you?
Or anyone else??

Yeah there cash out times are like 2-3 weeks but if you use bicoin 2-3 hours

I won a free roll turned it into 4800 made a 10$ deposit and then cashed out several times without issue
 
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evangelos_christodoulou

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When i make this thread i wasnt expecting to get so many answers :d thank you all, your comments are high value to me. Thank you for speading your time to help me and other people who propably have same problem. I play less agresive those hands, i dont get pot commited and i can even fold them more easily if i have to, or if I call to the end, its more small pot and if I loose, I loose less of my stack. I look to play with much more patience, and win small pots more often
 
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MakeUcryalot

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You should always raise x3 big blinds for any hand to not allow your opponent to learn your range. You're basically telling them your hand.
 
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Benman120

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I've seen premium hands like aces played oddly recently. I saw a player limp with aces in a micro tournament and another min raise as well. Not sure if this is a new philosophy in poker or what?
 
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