Been playing and reading recently, honestly more confused than when I started.

I guess it's natural though because some of the material I've read is not intended for the 1c/2c crowd. Books by Harrington, John Little, etc. is all intended for other thinking players. After all Harrington won the WSOP he's not really thinking about 1c/2c.

But even though I feel that most 1c/2c players do the following:
--Call anything
--Only raise with the nuts

I also see these posts in the online forum (especially doodoopoker) which are going in to solvers, range counts, blockers, and all these technical aspects of GTO poker for 1c/2c and what in my opinion are opponents that aren't on that level.

And it's clear from some of the stuff I read that I do NOT understand some of the plays they're talking about. IMO people are playing some s--- cards but when 5-6 people all say the hand review is good it's almost certainly my understanding that is lacking.

I have a pretty reasonable understanding of statistics and have worked in gaming all my adult life. But I've always had a very poor understanding of psychology and have never tried to figure out why gamblers do the stupid s--- they do. (Makes my head hurt.)

So the question though is what is the best way to proceed?
--Take a poker and statistics-based approach (aka read a lot about GTO and maybe watch the high-limit tables on the website I play on as a viewer)
--Take a player and psychology based approach (aka spend more time playing and take really good notes on what other players do)
--Take an experience-based approach (just try and get the volume in and figure it out)

Google GTO vs Exploit Poker - I suggest starting with the exploitative strategy first (answer 2 in your list). You will make money faster on the micro stakes because GTO takes extremely long to study and as a beginner you will study it wrongly. Make money first by exploiting the micro stakes players since they do way too many mistakes.

I had no clue about GTO the first 2 years and managed to go from micro to high stakes. Now I am in the Poker business for 3 years and just know a bit about GTO.

Study routine for you (regardless if you choose GTO or Exploitative):

- Preflop charts and study what to open, what to fold against 3bet, what to 3bet, etc. Be 100% sure what you are doing preflop to avoid a lot of tough postflop mistakes.
- Proceed to the flop. What do you bet, what do you check?
- Same for turn. If you bet the flop, do you now bet the turn with your hand?
- Etc.

Ok so that’s a good example.

GTO is to never limp.

But if I do limp I can play way more hands and get more experience with postflop play, which I feel I’m really very weak at and more experience is enormously valuable.

So right now I’m choosing the experience route, but I have a hunch I’m learning how to play bad poker.

Don't you think that you will create bad habits by limping? Obviously, the exploitative move is to attack your limp by isolating a lot and you will face this quiet often. Also, by limping, you will often play with other limpers and come to the flop with 3-5 other people.

Not good.

I have given you my best advice and I suggested to study preflop first. Which hands do you open? What do you do against a 3bet preflop? Then proceed to the flop.

Actually the best way to state this might be is the way forward to read books / study and skip the micros or is the best way to move up to be a winner at the micros then move up?

Or in other words is play at the micro level so bad that it just doesn’t apply to 100NL?

3-5 people consistently limp in to pots where I play and people rarely exploit it.

You have said that you already read a lot of books and it seems that it did not work out for you. If you cannot beat the micros then you will also not beat the higher limits.

Why?

Because you make money in Poker by playing against people worse than you. People that limp are worse than you and now it is your job to figure out how to exploit them. Same goes for flop, turn and river. You obviously do not have an idea or an approach or a strategy to exploit these low-skill players, am I correct?

If you struggle figuring this out and cannot seem to find a solution then the next option is to hire a coach that will give you a basic good strategy that is easy to learn and to apply that will get you at least to low or mid stakes.

That is why my username is BasicConcept because using a basic strategy, basic approach and/or basic concept will make you a lot of money

solid posting from a 2021 account

I am not sure if it is ironic or not I just hope it helps him.

Well I'm guessing that the answer is that yes, learning to beat the micros is the best way forward.

There still is the issue of whether to focus on a more statistical or psychological approach though.

Make sure to use the study routine that I suggested you and use stats to exploit the guys on the table.

just saying that rarely are new accounts good posters unless it's a newer version of a banned account

you normally get teenagers who just started dipping their feet into the higher levels of the game and think they are amazing and want to start dropping knowledge that is usually pretty terrible advice

your response was legit and even-keeled and that took me by surprise

Oh, thank you for the compliment. It is a new account on this forum and I am new here but I have been in the Poker business for 3 years now and decided to help out a little bit

Loose micros are useless for NLH and PLO online learning; even many looser low limits are so. It is best to learn a solid technique, grind it in and on the side learn to adjust.