P
ph_il
...
Silver Level
I main $ MTTs so I know, first hand, how bad player quality can be at the microstakes. I, also, think it's silly for me to talk about bad players when I'm not that great of a player myself, but there are a lot more worse players than I at the $1 MTTs. This is also focused only on MTTs because that's what I play. I guess it might work for microstakes cash games, but the main focus is on MTTs
I understand where so many complaints about bad micro-stakes players are coming from on here, but I also think it's really bad to be complaining about bad players at the micro-stakes. Just to clarify, I'm not saying anyone isn't justified in feeling upset when playing against bad players and losing, I just think they're focusing too much on the negative and not seeing the positive in the situation.
So, what is the positive with playing against so many bad players: you are getting so much value for you big hands against these players, so many times. Let's say we're in an situation with AA vs J5o all-in pre and, for simplicity, we'll say preflop equity is 85/15. (I'm using AA vs J5o as an example, but this bascially for any situation where have a ton of equity preflop.) In a $100 MTT, you aren't going to find yourself in a situation where it's your AA vs J5o, all-in pre very often. Maybe 1/10 games you might find a crazy player that wants to get it in pre with J5o. But, in a $1 MTT, you might find yourself in a similar situation at least once per game you play.
To understand how this helps you in the micro-stakes, you have to understand how much expected value your big hands have. It's a bit easier to explain using cash value instead of MTT stacks, so we'll say that in the AA vs J5o hand, you both go all-in pre for $10 each. Again, AA has 85% equity pre.
So, what does that mean and how does it help you in the microstakes MTTs? It means these players are willing to give you so much value for your big hands that to complain about it is like complaining about getting free money. When bad players are willing to call off with 15% equity pre, they're basically saying "Take my chips, I don't want it. Use it to run deep in the MTT."
Going back to being in a situation where a bad player is paying you off at least once per game you play, we can say you're in this situation 10x/10 games. And using the same EV of $15.50 in an 85/15 equity spot, that's like complaining about someone giving you $15.50 every single day, for 10 days straight. Obviously, being in an MTT is different as you still risk losing in this spot. So, we'll say 2/10 days, that person steals back the $15.50...but you're still getting $15.50 the 8 other days. Why would you complain about getting $124 for free every 10 days? I don't know, but that's practically what you're complaining about when you complain about bad players playing bad hands when you're a huge favorite. You're winning so many times and you're going to be in similar situation so many times, that you they're giving you so much value.
Of course, MTTs are a lot different than just someone giving you money everyday. Variance in MTTs is a huge factor and even more so the bigger the field. You can easily find yourself in a situation where you have to flip for your MTT life 10x in a single game and you have to win 10/10x in order to make it to the final table but just losing 1/10x will bust you. You're going to go on downswings and bad runs. Going back to variance, you might be an 85% favorite pre, but there will be times where you're losing 30-40% of the time over 100 MTTs. So, while you're getting paid off more often against bad players, you also risk getting busted a lot more often against bad players. That's the give and take. So, it's very important that you're playing for max value with your big hands against bad players who are willing pay you off with much worse because that's how you offset your bad runs against these players. It saddens me when I see CC members talk about how they'd rather just raise small with AA or not risk it all preflop because they might lose. Or how they completely undervalue hands like AK that completely crushes a bad players preflop range. How are you going to make up for your downswings if you aren't willing to allow yourself max value for your big hands? You simply just can't.
I've been on very lengthy downswings without a significant cash. I was recently on a 23 game downswing and as long as a 32 game downswing since I've started playing again, but all my downswings have something in common: they all end with a significant cash and I think a majority of them are a final table cash. Downswings in MTTs are inevitable, but by focusing on maximizing my value against bad players, I turn an easy profit when my big hands hold.
So, how do bad players in the microstakes help you? By giving you a lot more value for your big hands more often than you'll find at much higher buy-ins. How do you beat them? By playing for max value every time to allow yourself the best chance of building big stacks and making deep MTT runs. It's definitely not easy and you're in more risky situations for your MTT life a lot more often than in bigger buy-in games, but it is beatable if you set yourself up to do so. Remember, with MTTs, you don't need to beat every game for profit. Again, it's impossible to do so, so just focus on making those big cashes every time you play and your profit will show.
It's also important to mention that I play pretty small fields, usually 50-300 players and as high as 1.2K for big GTD MTTs. There is definitely a lot more variance the bigger the field, so my results would not be the same playing against 3K vs 300. So, beating those big field games for profit is doable and the payout is much bigger when you make final table runs, it's just a lot harder to do so.
I understand where so many complaints about bad micro-stakes players are coming from on here, but I also think it's really bad to be complaining about bad players at the micro-stakes. Just to clarify, I'm not saying anyone isn't justified in feeling upset when playing against bad players and losing, I just think they're focusing too much on the negative and not seeing the positive in the situation.
So, what is the positive with playing against so many bad players: you are getting so much value for you big hands against these players, so many times. Let's say we're in an situation with AA vs J5o all-in pre and, for simplicity, we'll say preflop equity is 85/15. (I'm using AA vs J5o as an example, but this bascially for any situation where have a ton of equity preflop.) In a $100 MTT, you aren't going to find yourself in a situation where it's your AA vs J5o, all-in pre very often. Maybe 1/10 games you might find a crazy player that wants to get it in pre with J5o. But, in a $1 MTT, you might find yourself in a similar situation at least once per game you play.
To understand how this helps you in the micro-stakes, you have to understand how much expected value your big hands have. It's a bit easier to explain using cash value instead of MTT stacks, so we'll say that in the AA vs J5o hand, you both go all-in pre for $10 each. Again, AA has 85% equity pre.
- EV = [$20*.85] - [$10*.15]
- EV = [$17] - [$1.5]
- EV = $15.50
So, what does that mean and how does it help you in the microstakes MTTs? It means these players are willing to give you so much value for your big hands that to complain about it is like complaining about getting free money. When bad players are willing to call off with 15% equity pre, they're basically saying "Take my chips, I don't want it. Use it to run deep in the MTT."
Going back to being in a situation where a bad player is paying you off at least once per game you play, we can say you're in this situation 10x/10 games. And using the same EV of $15.50 in an 85/15 equity spot, that's like complaining about someone giving you $15.50 every single day, for 10 days straight. Obviously, being in an MTT is different as you still risk losing in this spot. So, we'll say 2/10 days, that person steals back the $15.50...but you're still getting $15.50 the 8 other days. Why would you complain about getting $124 for free every 10 days? I don't know, but that's practically what you're complaining about when you complain about bad players playing bad hands when you're a huge favorite. You're winning so many times and you're going to be in similar situation so many times, that you they're giving you so much value.
Of course, MTTs are a lot different than just someone giving you money everyday. Variance in MTTs is a huge factor and even more so the bigger the field. You can easily find yourself in a situation where you have to flip for your MTT life 10x in a single game and you have to win 10/10x in order to make it to the final table but just losing 1/10x will bust you. You're going to go on downswings and bad runs. Going back to variance, you might be an 85% favorite pre, but there will be times where you're losing 30-40% of the time over 100 MTTs. So, while you're getting paid off more often against bad players, you also risk getting busted a lot more often against bad players. That's the give and take. So, it's very important that you're playing for max value with your big hands against bad players who are willing pay you off with much worse because that's how you offset your bad runs against these players. It saddens me when I see CC members talk about how they'd rather just raise small with AA or not risk it all preflop because they might lose. Or how they completely undervalue hands like AK that completely crushes a bad players preflop range. How are you going to make up for your downswings if you aren't willing to allow yourself max value for your big hands? You simply just can't.
I've been on very lengthy downswings without a significant cash. I was recently on a 23 game downswing and as long as a 32 game downswing since I've started playing again, but all my downswings have something in common: they all end with a significant cash and I think a majority of them are a final table cash. Downswings in MTTs are inevitable, but by focusing on maximizing my value against bad players, I turn an easy profit when my big hands hold.
So, how do bad players in the microstakes help you? By giving you a lot more value for your big hands more often than you'll find at much higher buy-ins. How do you beat them? By playing for max value every time to allow yourself the best chance of building big stacks and making deep MTT runs. It's definitely not easy and you're in more risky situations for your MTT life a lot more often than in bigger buy-in games, but it is beatable if you set yourself up to do so. Remember, with MTTs, you don't need to beat every game for profit. Again, it's impossible to do so, so just focus on making those big cashes every time you play and your profit will show.
It's also important to mention that I play pretty small fields, usually 50-300 players and as high as 1.2K for big GTD MTTs. There is definitely a lot more variance the bigger the field, so my results would not be the same playing against 3K vs 300. So, beating those big field games for profit is doable and the payout is much bigger when you make final table runs, it's just a lot harder to do so.
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