I admit its a little silly to talk about micro-limit poker. The play is so atrocious. The money is so small. But with no bankroll to speak of, Its a cheap way to learn how to play the game. And that has been my goal from the beginning – learn the game on the cheap.
Lately, I’ve been learning to play tighter and (slightly) more aggressive.
I’ve caught up with all the weekly davidross posts on 2+2. He’s the Canadian software consultant that found himself between contracts and decided to give full-time online poker a shot. He posted his results, thoughts, questions, etc. on the 2+2 forums every week. He is extremely honest about his ‘experiment’ and its effect on his family life. Very interesting reading. His weekly installments have gathered quite a following. This past week he wrapped up one year of play and treated readers to a long recap of the year. To catch up with all his posts, use the search page with ‘davidross’ in the search terms and ‘display name’ in the search options.
Following him around the forums led to tangential threads that, I think, have helped me in my game lately. One such thread was about flop percentages. Paradise is kind enough to provide this stat in realtime and I’ve started paying more attention to it. At this early stage of my learning, I know what to do with KK. I know how to play TT from late postion. I know to muck 97o from the button. Those are obvious. The trouble comes from the marginal hands. KJs with a raise in front, ATs from mp, 77 in ep, etc. When to play them? When not to? This is where I’m starting to make some better decisions (which means playing less of these, not more). That realtime flop percentage is a good place to see if I’m playing too many hands preflop.
With some success at the smallest limit on Paradise, I’ve also been looking at the relationship between bankroll and moving up limits. Again, this is silly, because we’re talking about the tiniest of bankrolls and smallest baby-step up in limits. But, in the interest of developing solid habits
regardless of limit, I’m taking these ideas seriously. I decided that once i got to 1000bb ($40)**, I’d move up to the next limit, which I did last week.
One issue I have not worried too much about is a jump in the level of play that usually accompanies a jump in limits. moving between .02/.04 and .05/.10, this is just not a concern.
** I’ve never deposited cash into Paradise. I placed 18th in a freeroll and won $2.60. I started playing with that money at the .02/.04 limit tables.
