Hi!

What should beginners/micro-stakes players be mainly studying?

I know this is different for everyone since everyone is at a different level of understanding/skill. But what aspect will do my winrate the most good when mastered? Or are there several aspects that especially at the micro's will be very beneficial for our winrate? Also does this differ for Cash-games and for tourneys?

This has been asked several times in here over the last few weeks.
Made a post about it on my Patreon:


8 Steps to studying poker as a beginner.

This post is going to explain how to go from a complete beginner in poker, to a player who's capable of beating the games.

Poker is a hard game. Most players are losing, but you won't hear them admit that.

If you want to win, you must work for it! Not just in poker.


1) Ask yourself why you want to play poker.

I love poker, I know why I love it.

Do you love poker? Or are you just looking for a way to make easy money?

Poker is not easy, it's actually very hard and takes a lot of time.
There are a lot of faster and easier ways out there to make more money.



2) Focus on the things you need to know before even sitting down at a table.

These are things like, bankroll management, game selection, knowing what tilt is and how to deal with it, ...

All of these will have a huge impact on everything you do after you sit down at the table, so start here!

If you sit down at a table with your last $100, do you think you're going to play well?

You'll be so scared to lose that last $100 that you couldn't possibly play your best game.



3) Be prepared to lose when you're just starting.

You will lose money when you're just starting.

Poker is too hard to just start playing and win.
Yes you may get lucky and win.
If you study a lot, you might even become good enough before you start losing.



4) Learn how to study effectively first.

Take some time to learn how to study.

If you're just sitting there, passively watching a video, you're not learning much.

Active studying has proven to be much more effective.

Pause that video, take notes.
Use those notes the next time you're playing, to actively work on what you've studied!



5) Start by studying these key pre-flop concepts.

Start with pre-flop ranges.
Everything you do pre-flop impacts what happens post-flop.

If you make huge mistakes pre-flop, no matter how good you play post-flop, you won't be able to win.

Begin with the BTN, this is where most of your profit will come from.
After that, continue with the CO and BB.

You will be stealing and c-betting a lot from the BTN and CO.

You will be calling and 3-betting a lot from the BB, your goal in the BB is not to make a profit, but to minimize losses.

Then continue with the SB, stop calling and implement a 3-bet or fold strategy here.

Finally, study the earlier positions, basically just play very tight ranges.

Learn how to defend yourself from 3-bets and learn how to exploit other players by 3-betting yourself.

Spend some time on 4-bet ranges, but don't worry about it too much for now.



6) Work on your flop game.

Again, everything you do on the flop will impact what happens on the turn and river.

Study c-betting, a lot.

You want to know which flop textures you should be c-betting on and on which textures you shouldn't be c-betting.

You want to learn how to size your c-bets depending on position and flop texture.

You want to be c-betting a very high percentage (70-80%) while you're in position.
You want to be c-betting less often when you're out of position, depending on how your opponents play.

Study check/call and check/raise spots.

Study how to deal with donk bets and research why you shouldn't be donking yourself.



7) Continue studying some turn and river concepts.

Don't spend too much time here.

Focus on pre-flop and flop concepts first and spend a lot of your time there.

Turn and river play is important, but it builds on correct pre-flop and flop play.



8) Repeat

Once you think you have a solid strategy, go back to the first steps and start all over.

You will learn new things and improve your knowledge on the concepts you already understand.

There is always something new to study and learn in poker.

Some may have noticed that I’m a math guy, particularly EV math.

Yeah, things like bankroll management, villain characterization, importance of position, tactical and strategic concepts, etc., which are not particularly amenable to quantification, are important. But, if you are playing to make some money, the prime metric for cash games is expected value, EV, (or equivalently, ROI for tournaments). EV then translates to Win Rate and that defines how well you are doing.

Therefore, I believe that early in your poker career, you should understand EV and learn how pot odds and card equity determine EV. That will be a good foundation to become a winning player.

Find a game that you enjoy and sit down and study it. I enjoy studying mtt spots and I enjoy flipping a coin or two while playing them late in the mtt. If you don't study you won't work out if your in a coinflip situation.

For example

AK vs QQ is pretty much a 50/50 flip. Using a equity calculator you can work out QQ has about a 56% chance of winning. AK about 44%.

If you don't enjoy working this stuff out go and do something else. Enjoyment comes first.

Somewhat. There's different spots to study.

In a mtt you might hold QQ 20BB deep on the button against a player who has shoved 15BB deep UTG 7 handed. This is almost always a call unless it's a satellite MTT. Some might argue they would fold this on the bubble but I wouldn't. I don't care if I lose or win after I put the chips in. Same goes I don't care if I lose or win once I paid my tournament buy-in. I'm just out there to play my best and enjoy the game.

Thanks for the responses everyone!

This might sound counter intuitive, but studying things other than pot odds, while studying pot odds is actually good.

That spreadsheet, that was replied earlier is amazing, its similar to what I use. One ting that I might recommend, is sitting down, and asking yourself, "okay what times am I often tempted to call?" For example, flush draw, with an over card, on the turn. Then writing it down on a queue card, and quizzing yourself every now and then.

Looking at hand histories, through Holdem manager 2, and poker tracker four, they even show the pot odds you get, and then you can compare it to the equity of the hand you were against.

Ive found a lot of value in sitting down, and going, " Okay I 4bet IP against a guy with AKss, flop was Ts,6h4s, and he donk bet 50% pot, so the pot odds im getting are 50/100+50+50, whats my equity vs TT,JJ,QQ? his likely range?".

Put yourself in situations, where you'll feel tempted to call, and then work on the odds, and you'll find yourself maybe making folds you wouldn't have once the math comes through. Like, the previous example, with a brick turn (lets say 3h) and he jams for an entire stack. (its extreme but happens).

Its all about creating realistic hypotheticals, and then quizzing yourself about the findings later.

I think as Statmanhal stated the math is important, I would say math should be foundational. I also recommend looking for some micro stakes fixed limit games to play while you learn the basics.

In fixed limit you will see a lot of hands that go to show down and you can see/learn how hands play out.

Start keeping track of the pot size. Practice reading both your cards and the board. If your drawing : How many outs do you have , how big does the pot have to be to call the bet size ( pot odds ) . Pay attention to the board composition, for example , is the board paired, is there a flush possible etc.. there is so much more to learn but if you don't get this down, the rest does not matter , you will lose money.

Find a good starting hand chart that considers position, number of players at the table and how loose or tight the game is... at first follow it..... after a while you will develop a feel for how and when to deviate...

Read, Study, Play, Repeat....

After your have the basics down start at the lower stakes of No-Limit and tourney.. Keep stats. don't guess on your win rate. be honest with yourself...

Learn to be happy with making the right decision regardless of the outcome. If your decisions are right you are already a winning player.

I'd go for studying maths and hand reading. Being able to work out what your opponent is likely to have provides important context for the maths you're studying. Working out the odds you need to call to draw to a flush isn't helpful if your opponent mostly has full houses in their range.

How do you study hand reading in particular? Do you do this purely with range analysis?

Look through hands and try and write out a range at each stage.

This question depends too much depending on what you want to play. Given you post mainly in mtt I’m guessing you are leaning towards playing tournaments. For that I’d suggest:
#1 - preflop. Find a site/book/friend who has decent preflop ranges. You’ll probably have to spend a bit of money here. I’d also invest in either icmizer or HRC (basically do same thing so pick whichever you prefer - I use icmizer). Get a really good solid preflop game
#2 - work on 0-30bb stacks. Forget playing with pio and solvers for now, Learning about super thin river triple barrel bluffs that win you 0.2bb isn’t that useful. In tournaments you’ll have a bunch of decisions late/at FT worth thousands that play out preflop- study these spots!
#3 - work on Postflop play. Post hands here, join study groups, join discord channels, join training sites (I can highly recommend rye but it is expensive.)
#4 - only when you have these areas sorted and you are doing well consider looking into solvers/GTO work.

You can get away just playing super basic/tight poker early in tournaments while you are deep and still learning and just get really good at 0-30bb. Then you can start learning how to play deeper. Most tournaments you’ll end up short anyway due to their structure esp at lower stakes so it’s going to very beneficial. You could even just late reg everything and avoid playing deep altogether if you really want to focus on the 0-30bb play (lots of research showing how +ev it is to buyin late especially if you aren’t especially great deep and able to exploit the fish)

Oh I will say that studying/learning is good and will help you improve but just playing lots is great too. The more often you face spots the more likely you’ll see what sort of hands opponents have, what works and what doesn’t etc. Some people just seem scared to try stuff out and figured out what works

Wow thanks for the concise answer! Do you generate your opening ranges by using icmizer?

Yeah I really don't see the need for solvers yet. I think just reviewing what actions we want to take with what hands is enough for now. And then of course looking at the exploitative adjustments we should make.

Also I'm winning at the stakes a play now, but went on a downswing taking a (in a hindshight a little too large) shot. So now I'm just rebuilding my bankroll to try and take a new shot, but I was just wondering what to focus on while I'm doing this.

No, acevedo book has GTO ranges for cash and tournaments and RYE has charts. Icmizer can do specific spots and I use that to check over HH or recently bounty tournaments as they require ranges to adjust far more

Ah alright, well when I analyze a hand I analyze each street and the first question I ask myself is: What should our preflop range be here? Given all these pre-flop factors like stack-sizes, our opponents, etc.

I have some preflop ranges defined for myself for each position and I try to use them as a benchmark in game.

If you get Modern Poker Theory that has 100bb range (for cash) and then 15/25/40/60 for most positions for opening/3bet/response to 3bet. These are all from solvers.

For anything more detailed than that you'll need to spend more money.

Edit: This is a SS from a recent jonathan little training on twich showing a couple of examples of charts from the Acevedo book.

Do you think this is a good investment for a beginner? Also why?

I think its a really cheap investment (its only a book!) for something really useful. I think it isn't a beginners book and has some pretty complex concepts and ideas but for a beginner I think seeing what GTO ranges for preflop look like is probably a really good idea - and playing something similar to them (maybe a bit tighter) would be extremely profitable long-term.

It is also unlikely you'll find that information elsewhere at that price.

I would also suggest anything you are unsure about you ask in his discord or post a thread here somewhere (mtt forum/books section if there is one for his book).

I wish i'd had access to something like that when I was first starting to play seriously rather than just guessing!

Alright thanks for the help! Also are you maybe in a discord group that I would benefit from?

I don't recognise the name TwistedEcho but that is some very good advice imo.

This is also going to be always good advice.

Hey Guys

I have created a discord group for poker learning for beginners and low-mid stakes grinders. We have a community of 400 active members at the moment, where we promote poker growth for all levels of players.

If you would like to join in and participate actively, feel free to DM me for more details and I can get you added.

Cheers

Your only going to cash about 15% in tournaments. So don't be disappointed when you don't cash when you play 5 tournaments.

Play 50 tournaments with 200 players and a 30% roi and your going to lose money overall about 40% the time. Up it to a 50% roi and your going to lose about 30% of the time. At 100% Roi it looks a bit better at 13% of the time losing money.

Good luck having a 100% roi long term with 200 players in the tournament though.

Probably best to have a job to make money long term. Even being in business has it's risks and has upsides if you can run well.

Every man and woman and their dog are working out how to beat these games at least online. Your probably better off working to make money having a second job than grinding 2nl online. Maybe things will go back to normal live and once it does you might have the roll to play live poker by then. Live is a totally different game with 4 players limping in and calling 6x raises pre while online its 2x-2.5x open bet and 3 bet then fold pre. omaha is even more crazy live and learning online micros at omaha doesn't really apply much to live games.

Playing play money games on pokerstars anywhere in the world will teach you how to play against a lot of live players rather than playing against the GTO bots at every level in the real money online games.

If you do decide to have a go online at real money and can afford to play a bit higher playing on the apps or game selecting hard out on main sites at micros would be a important way to have a higher winrate.

Game selection. Finding good games.
Understanding Variance.

If you can find good games and not play against good players you might find you will win.
If you understand you can lose over a long time period especially in tournaments you might not quit before you bink 2 mtt's to put you in the green.

Alright cool! I'll check it out.