Hi guys, short question. I just don't understand this and while I try to be a better player I put myself in difficult situations.

What is better for micros in general? there are 2 options for a normal session.

1- Play conservative and wait people to pay when we are in good % spots. Lets say 15 spots.
2- Fight with odds, like raising in 3b pots semibluffing, pushing spots where we are 51%, etc. 50 spots

I know I am losing EV+ spots if I play like option 1, but is a less variance way. I ussualy play option 2, but there are those days where everything goes awful and you loose 4 o 5 all ins pre in coolers, and 4 o 5 3b spots fighting and you find yourself -100 in nl10 y 2 hours xd

I am looking for excuses to stop playing like option 2 and star playing like option 1.

There are spots I find horrible, like when some aggro-maniac with 12/13 3b, 3bets your 99/TT and he will ALWAYS shot 2 barrels and he can have OP or overcard or 56o randomly.

I think I will have a better life if I just fold those spots by the turn if no set.

As you know, I am at an horrible downswing with 50% of it being EV owning me and other 30% being hands that EV doesn't show but you where bad beated by the river anyway.

Maybe if I stop fighting every spot possible, and start being conservative it would be better. I just don't know

Hand example: I know its a 4b, I wasn't focused at the moment. I usually fight guys like this one. The hand was easy because I had AK and he was a maniac. But what about when I have AQ/AJ or TT in a 228 flop.

I think I understand why is ev+ to float or raise or whatever, but if I do it every time in my 5k hands session every day it ends being random/luck dependant

In the micros 3 things are important.

1. Table selection. Play the weakest players. When you ID fish/maniacs/bad TAGs/whales etc then tag them. Then look for tables with the bad players you have tagged. It takes time but it’s worth the effort. Something like over 90% of players are long term losers/breakeven and these are the players you want to play. There are more bad regs than good regs. Before you have a bunch of players tagged you can find tables with bigger pots and higher VPIPs (30+). It’s a good sign of fish because they love action and hate folding.

2. Learn TAG exploitative poker. In the hand vs the maniac there, I’m calling down with any A or K there. I’ll call down lighter than that. You want to know how to play fish (make the most calling mistakes), nits (make more folding mistakes), maniacs (make more betting mistakes), etc. vs these bad players you can play optimally very easily.

3. You’re playing the poker room because of the rake and the other players. You don’t want to be playing LAG like RFI 87s from MP for example because you aren’t just playing your opponents. The more hands you play the more rake you’ll pay. That’s why I highly recommend focusing on TAG poker vs LAG. LAG is cooler and more exciting but it’s -EV in the micros.

Focus on value. Don’t worry about balance or any other stuff that isn’t straightforward ABC poker. Most of your opponents are going to be losing players if you take the time and effort to table select.

People will tell you that the micros aren’t that easy anymore and the competition is better and that is true but there are still plenty of fish and beginning players. It just takes more effort to play vs them but they are there. The person that makes the most effort to play them will have the best winrate (assuming they are a winning poker player).

^ good post
I think with good table selection (having a 40/0 to your direct right on all your tables) anyone can build their bankroll ( at least at the lowest stakes 2nl-10nl or smth).
Though i stopped doing that as i dont think you improve nearly as much by playing "tight, fat valuebet fish, repeat" as when you have to battle other regs, and exploit to their individual leaks like in zoom (where theres still a lot of fish in my experience, you just wont play against them as often)

(I still play 2nl zoom and learning/improving a lot, even at this financially meaningless stake)

Or belive in your self and battle em russian regs on ps giving you opportunatie to become better player. You wont get rich at micros anyway.

Great posts, thanks a lot guys.

So, I need to learn playing explotative vs player types. I think I kinda ok at this in general (I'm still a fish but have no stupid/big-constant mistakes) but my leaks is being a call station against maniacs. I probably need to study this a lot more.

There are sessions when this goes great and en up in a big up, but others are awful. As I am not able to understand where I play right or wrong, I feel like scaping the spots xD.

I played almost 2M hands since december. I am these days studing regs leaks out of the tables. Maybe I can do so much more here but I look for size tells and ranges.

Sometimes I realy feel like playing conservative and avoid all the stress, at least for some time periods, but everyone I ask says is not the way. So I will have to believe xD

Those hands where maniacs 3bets you in Btn vs Co, you call him with 88, you know he will 80% barrels at least 2 big barrels. Board is 225 with FD, you have FD backdoor. He cbet's pot...... and I know I must call at least 1, probably 2, or raise ..... and I just feel like folding flop and wait for a better spot.

Maybe I just need a week off.

5K hands a day? holy jeebz i only played 15k hands in my life!

Lozgod's post is good but really #2 is what matters. TAG play crushes really bad loose play that you can encounter at the micros. I agree with your assessment at the start of the post that it is basically like getting paid to be patient and you will only get a handful of spots where you make all your profit.

#1 can make a difference but it is the micros. There are lots of good tables. Still you are learning so if you can play at a table with lots of worse players then all the better for you.

#3 is usually misrepresented as if you can only be always TAG or always LAG. In fact you sort of presented it that way in your first post. You can even play the same hand and situation in a LAGgy way sometimes and a TAGgy way the rest of the time. I would encourage you to keep experimenting with it some especially when you think you are against a favorable player type. Great players can do both and will switch between them if appropriate.

That being said, if you want low stress profits at the micros put on your TAG game and go get 'em.

I agree. Table dynamics matter. If you are in a FR game with a bunch of NITs it is probably +EV to play LAG.

When I play in a Nitfest my range gets really loose from LJ on and the closer to the button the looser. When everyone is folding you can steal from anywhere at the table except UTG, UTG+1 usually (Full ring). Also when you consider players will miss the flop 60% of the time you can go maniac post flop with cbetting flops and turns.

Another example is against TAGFish (good stats weak players) I will play loose and isolate them with a wide range 3betting from LP.

Wait a second. 2 millions hands? like, 2.000.000 hands?

8 months
240 days

With no days off, that's an average 8,333 hands per day.

Not unheard of...but that doesn't leave much time at all to study the previous night's action. Terrible way to "get ahead" imo.

OP wouldn’t it be better to only play 1 or 2 tables, only play 200 hands a day, but really think about the spots deeply, and try and play your best in every single spot.

^^

What he said.

I’d also try to stop focusing on running bad when battling through your downswing. Look at spots where you’re either not making enough money by not betting enough, or stationing off money calling etc

GL