I have been learning and playing Poker for over two months now and I started playing Micro level MTTs at PokerStars and 888. Every poker material I read suggested tight aggressive play for beginners. But I find it impossible to make any decent winnings at the tables. No matter how tight and aggressive I play, I get called by douchebags who dont consider minimum starting hand requirements. Even with strong hands and after 3 betting, I get called by idiots who play almost any suited and\or connected cards. Pokerstars MTT tables are heavily infested with these kind of bugs(from particularly two countries ). They always bluff, play almost any hand right from start, raise with just any Ace card etc.. This is affecting my learning experience, I cannot apply what I learn at the tables. Is this how Poker is played at low, medium stake levels?. I dont have the finances to play at higher stakes. Should I move from tight aggressive style?

If they play any hand and bluff, just starting raising/betting bigger for value and bluffcatching more. If your opponents play crazy loose style, you will have range advantage and win long-term.
Easy profit imo.

Don't think you can't learn because other players are bad, the move up where they respect your raises mentality is completely wrong.

Just play a solid ABC game. Value bet your strong holdings. bluff catch your medium hands. If you finds it impossible to make any winnings at this level you aren't gonna win when you move up. In micro mtt's its very easy to build stacks without risks. and yes sometimes you bust because a monkey sucks out. part of the game open a new mtt and start again.

Playins mtt's means huge variance and you need a high volume to know if you are a winning player. and if you are so good as you say. grind through it and prove yourself.

Also, don't make the assumption that this type of play is just due to the stakes, or due to online play. Some very successful pros, and most of the younger generation of players, will play very aggressively with a WIDE range of cards. Not as spewily as you describe. The concept of set starting hands is somewhat outdated and exploitable.

Of course, the guys who play this style, but do it poorly, are very numerous and are always welcome anywhere I am playing.

haha Always fun with one or two spewy aggro fishes on the table

post hands and let the forum help you!

Yeah, these are the softest tournaments around. However, it's somewhat likely that your expectations are too high. Even the best players in really soft tournaments very rarely have more than 100% ROI (meaning if you're playing an 11c tournament, on average you can expect to win 11c as one of the best players in the field).

I am not saying I am good player. But beaten by ridiculous hands like the one below, makes me sick of playing in these tournaments.


PokerStars Hand #156697012885: Tournament #1624743136, $0.52+$0.03 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level V (50/100) - 2016/07/31 22:48:32 CET [2016/07/31 16:48:32 ET]
Table '1624743136 70' 6-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: Shendr233 (3900 in chips)
Seat 2: serjones78 (3000 in chips)
Seat 3: Nakwe (5075 in chips)
Seat 4: r.ram1117 (3573 in chips)
Seat 5: r0o_ (2713 in chips)
Seat 6: tiago.saulo (3155 in chips)
Shendr233: posts the ante 25
serjones78: posts the ante 25
Nakwe: posts the ante 25
r.ram1117: posts the ante 25
r0o_: posts the ante 25
tiago.saulo: posts the ante 25
r0o_: posts small blind 50
tiago.saulo: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to r.ram1117 [As Ac]
Shendr233: folds
serjones78: raises 100 to 200
Nakwe: folds
r.ram1117: raises 100 to 300
r0o_: folds
tiago.saulo: folds
serjones78: calls 100
*** FLOP *** [Jd Ts 9c]
serjones78: checks
r.ram1117: bets 100
serjones78: calls 100
*** TURN *** [Jd Ts 9c] [Ad]
serjones78: checks
r.ram1117: bets 200
serjones78: raises 400 to 600
r.ram1117: raises 2548 to 3148 and is all-in
serjones78: calls 1975 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (573) returned to r.ram1117
*** RIVER *** [Jd Ts 9c Ad] [8c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
serjones78: shows [8s Qd] (a straight, Eight to Queen)
r.ram1117: shows [As Ac] (three of a kind, Aces)
serjones78 collected 6250 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 6250 | Rake 0
Board [Jd Ts 9c Ad 8c]
Seat 1: Shendr233 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: serjones78 showed [8s Qd] and won (6250) with a straight, Eight to Queen
Seat 3: Nakwe folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: r.ram1117 (button) showed [As Ac] and lost with three of a kind, Aces
Seat 5: r0o_ (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: tiago.saulo (big blind) folded before Flop

Hand you posted offer two looks into your thought process.

1. Please Please Please study all you can on bet sizing. This is a No Limit tourney!

2. "But beaten by ridiculous hands like the one below"..... and your pre-flop sizing allowed him to play. His Q8o is not a ridiculous hand other than a loose min-raise open....not even remotely close to ridiculous after you min-raise.

Okay, first things first. You say you play tight and aggressive, but the hand you posted is anything but. You have the best starting hand in poker and you min raise. That's not very aggressive. It's not necessarily a bad play, but it's not aggressive.

Now, with the flop, you go from betting 300 to going all-in with your 3000+ chips. Let's stop and take a minute to think about this. Forget that he called you with a slightly trash hand. Let's imagine for a second he's playing a bit tighter. He could have legitimately called with JJ, 1010, 99, J10, 910, QK, 78. All of those hands would crush your AA. So if you're playing tight, why would you assume your overpair is good? You go all-in against a check-raise, taking the pot from 600 to 3148. What do you think he's going to call with?

So, you're not aggressive enough pre-flop when you have the best possible hand, and you're not tight enough on the flop, when your hand strength has been diminished.

The player being most reckless is you, and you can't see it. Honestly, you have to take a step back and think about what is going wrong objectively. If you were legitimately playing clean poker and going up against a bunch of idiots, you would be raking in the cash. So, your premise is wrong.

King Spew and the_glaive already said everything.