Beating Micro Stakes Zoom Poker On Stars

[TheGenera1]

I have a gut feeling that you are just bad.

Stop calling shoves with TPTK I bet that is your single biggest contributor to losing. If you get raised on the flop then seriously think about folding, especially if they just flatted behind you preflop.

 

[Jurn8]

To get action with big hands stop being nits and folding KK lol!

In the interest of newbies reading this as some solid advice for zoom, there is some good stuff, but there is also some terrible advice. Granted you can beat these stakes being a weak passive player but learning some bad habits are just costing money and gonna cost even more when people move up.

The whole having no reads in zoom so playing a 1 size fits all strategy is just ridiculous really, its alright if you wanna grind out 2nl zoom for 3BB/100 but learning to play properly and not just make up rules like not going all in with KK is just lolbad and stopping you beat the games for the winrates that are achieveable.

pretty much this, 3BB at 2nl is not good

 

[JCgrind]

Anyone who can't beat 2nl zoom needs to L2P, period. It's the easiest most mind numbing form of poker there is.
Fletch summed it perfectly; "steal steal steal steal, BB called cbet tid" EZ game. Open up pre, nit up post. Implement blind defense 500% harder than usual. 3b small so you're always called, cbet flop, get folds all the time.
If anyone's seen my 2nl crushgraph you'll notice all my profit comes from SD and my nonSD monies gradually decline- just the opposite however for zoom.
Adjust, exploit, crush.

Steal steal steal, resteal, steal steal steal

EDIT: infact, cos I'm having a horror run at 10/25nl so far this month I'll put in a ton of 2nl zoom over the next few days and post results which I can almost guarantee will be over 30k hands and 10BB/100 just for all you "I suck so it must be rigged" guys

 

[JCgrind]

discovery from the 1k or so hands ive played... due to how hit or miss these games are, lots of people seem to be donking into me after they call my open and the flop comes raggy. most of these bets are air- make a small raise, like 60% or so w/ overs. gets lots of folds, if they flat, give up and hope you hit while youre checking down, fold to a 3b shove cos its always a set.

i feel people are far too wary when raised due to the whole lack of aggression with less than a set thing, so ive found so far that calling w/ sets to the river gets the most value. if texture allows, then raise

 

[JCgrind]

2hrs play, didnt run well (minus that one nice upswing where my KK>AA), 10BB/100

 

[TheGenera1]

Capital stuff! I totally agree with your 2nl strategy, it's exactly what I do. stealllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

 

[Jagsti]

Dazzam are you just being stupid for novelty value here or are you actually stupid irl? I mean I could pick holes in all your statements... but the most telling statement to me that convinces me you are actually stupid irl is that your convinced the game is rigged yet you still play it!

 

[TheGenera1]

True dat!

 

[ThatsNasssty]

LOL totally agree

 

[colepure]

I've decided to post in this thread after lurking for a while and coincidentally I've been playing quite a bit of (6max) 2nl zoom this month (~20k hands so far).

I was surprised by Jchoop's assumptions that this game is "easiest most mind numbing form of poker there is." I find that this form of poker differs quite radically from standard 2NL (not sure about the other stakes). I just wanted to see if there is any update from Jchoop that I could compare with my own stats from 2nl zoom.

I started playing this after discussion with a friend who was doing quite well in zoom - so I decided to take a break from my regular SNG grind to see how well I could do.

Here are my stats so far.. pretty pathetic by my own standards.

 

[JCgrind]

I was surprised by Jchoop's assumptions that this game is "easiest most mind numbing form of poker there is." I find that this form of poker differs quite radically from standard 2NL (not sure about the other stakes). I just wanted to see if there is any update from Jchoop that I could compare with my own stats from 2nl zoom.

ye sorry i got bored real fast and just stopped playing it lol. started playing MTTs instead to fill my 25NL cash break . what stats did you want?

hands: 4764
time: 4.25hrs
$= 8.99
EV= 9.13
bb/100= 9.44

i agree that its very different. cos its a nit fest. hard to get paid when you have a hand, therefore imo dont wait for a hand, play sososo wide preflop and fire only a single Cbet, and watch as you pick up 90% of pots

 

[colepure]

Thanks for the fast reply .

You seemed to have thrashed it as I did in the first ~5k hands, but as you see I had a quite harsh down swing. I tightened up after that and as you can see it got me absolutely nowhere. I found that my game improved dramatically after a few beers and I got aggro.. I'm going to attribute the ol' Victoria Bitter to your success .

Keen for a challenge?

 

[JCgrind]

Thanks for the fast reply .

You seemed to have thrashed it as I did in the first ~5k hands, but as you see I had a quite harsh down swing. I tightened up after that and as you can see it got me absolutely nowhere. I found that my game improved dramatically after a few beers and I got aggro.. I'm going to attribute the ol' Victoria Bitter to your success .

Keen for a challenge?

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH what kind of challenge? lol ye youre lucky i couldnt sleep, so my tranquilliser option was to read 2NL HA posts. they make me wanna snooze lol.
ye i agree, aggro is the way to go. everyone puts you on the nuts in 2nl zoom imo, every....flippen......hand lol

i was on my way down too lol (not that thats why i stopped), i peaked at $17 up at about 3k hands

 

[colepure]

Oh ya know just a standard AUS V NZ challenge. Just 2nl Zoom since that's what we're talking about.

You couldn't sleep? Its 5:30am here so don't complain about not being able to sleep lol.

 

[JCgrind]

Oh ya know just a standard AUS V NZ challenge. Just 2nl Zoom since that's what we're talking about.

You couldn't sleep? Its 5:30am here so don't complain about not being able to sleep lol.

3.30am here and ive been awake since 7.30 :|
its real hard to sleep when all you do literally everrrrrry day between 8.30-6 is play online poker lol, girlfriend gets home from work at 6, is passed out by 10 and so im bored from like 10-4 til i go to bed. lol
ima go watching something in bed and try nod off. inbox me challenge deets so i see em in the morning haha

 

[colepure]

Oh poor you :'(. How can I compare with my modest 7:00am wakeup and 3 hour poker session before my 11:30 to 2:30 lunch shift at work, then my 3:00 to 4:30 poker session before my 5:00pm to 10pm dinner shift at work then my 11pm to 5am epic poker grind session?

I guess your life is quite difficult.. must be the heat in aus yeah?

I'll PM you about the challenge.

Sleep tight .

 

[JCgrind]

oi its stressful! when i run bad i end up chainsmoking to try and calm down (it works lol), therefore poker is giving me cancer.

toughlife

 

[colepure]

hahaha, I chainsmoke whilst playing, thus I never run bad . I'm more worried about the liver damage from the beer I drink while playing :S. I don't have a girl at the moment to worry about so I guess that's a slight advantage for me.

 

[TheGenera1]

Went on a massive tilt because I've been running so bad lately. Put all of my roll into a HU match and won. Now have double my roll and feeling good.

 

[The Messiah]

Went on a massive tilt because I've been running so bad lately. Put all of my roll into a HU match and won. Now have double my roll and feeling good.

lol'd

 

[JCgrind]

Went on a massive tilt because I've been running so bad lately. Put all of my roll into a HU match and won. Now have double my roll and feeling good.

Lmao wp

 

[TheGenera1]

Cheers. Silly move which shouldn't ever be copied haha.

 

[Ahurazor]

Was playing around in google today and stumbled accross this thread, apologies for ressurecting a thread from the grave. No offence but OP advice is mostly quite bad. There are so many factors left out that are key and important towards making ones decision. Firstly ill mention people saying u dont have reads is fairly inaccurate, I Run Holdem manager and anyone who doesnt is losing money. I built valuable history with alot of regs, and although the table swapping can have some info at times off a little.

I think its definitely enough to get an idea about a specific players tendencies. It will obviously take some time building a database but it will definitely be worth it, I see a lot of the same faces around and have built alot of history with specific people..

Folding KK to 5bets? this is such a vague statement and too simplified. I 3b and 4b air and i have people who know i do this, i run KK into ak,aq,smaller pairs in these spots often enough for it to be profitable over a large sample. I also dont believe that you should always feel u have to 3b kk whenever u have it thus capping an opponents range for eg utg vs utg+1 or 4betting from utg vs utg+1, Flatting can disguise your hand and also gain you extra value... Whilst on the other hand it can also minimize losses time to time vs the dreaded AA postflop.... I am a tournament grinder who use to grind $200 max on fulltilt Rush. I also have recently taken some time off tournaments and am back grinding $50 max zoom and tweaking my game a little bit before i move back up. Here is what i would consider a small 100k hand sample that ive accumulated in my first 3 weeks back. I would say ive ran quite bad early on but now am running well... Zoom is a very swingy format of poker. The Key is minimizing ur losses when your running bad from factors such as run bad and tilt and on the other hand u wanna maximise ur value when ur hitting hands, some thin value bets time to time, and definitely not folding KK to every 5bet... In your defence i can see where your coming from, and i have folded KK pre before in the past, but only when stacks r insanely deep and I feel my opponent wouldnt get out of line, I usually wont be looking to get KK allin pre super deep unless vs specific villains.. ok rant over.

 

[TheGenera1]

That's a nice post, thanks. Shame no one has responded to it as it probably took a while to write I have pokertracker, but unfortunately it's on my gaming PC which is not where I am anymore. The crappy laptop I'm using doesn't work with PT I've tried many times.

Zoom has gotten a lot harder than when I posted my guide. People are much wiser to sets, and people don't as often bet big without the nuts or close now. My profits are seeing a much slower increase as of late.

 

[TheGenera1]

I'm surprised 2 years later this is still on page one of google, I was looking to refresh my poker zoom skills as I've got a bit of time off from work and this crappy guide is still all that's available hehe.