Skill Level at Micro Stakes vs Small Stakes Online Tables

Some people will suggest the limit you should play is dependant on the size of your bankroll. If you are a beginning player who is not playing to have some fun but to make a nice side income and to get a better understanding of the game, then I think you should take that piece of advice with a grain of salt.

Regardless of how big your bankroll is, its important to understand how different the average skill levels of the players are at the different limits at online card tables. It’s even worth mentioning that some sites will be softer then others.
For example, a common scenario for new players is they have a big enough bankroll to skip the micro stakes and go straight to small stakes. For the puposes of the article, we will say that micro stakes is 2NL to 25NL and small stakes games are 50NL to 200NL. If you have a $1.5k bankroll for online poker, theoretically you could start playing  50NL because you would have 30 buy ins.

Even though small stakes games are still very low in the scheme of things compared to some limits you can play, don’t be fooled by the small stakes games. Yes, recreational players do play at the small stakes games, you should not mistake online small stakes tables for the small stakes games which you can play live at the casino. (ie the lowest limit tables you can play at the casino). Although you can still find some fish at the table when playing at small stakes, its rare to find more then one fish at the table. Many of the regs and grinders play in the small stakes game because they can still make some decent money even at these stakes, especially when multi-tabling.

If you are a beginner and don’t want to burn through your bankroll fast, we strongly urge you to start playing at the micro stakes online tables. Notice how I didn’t suggest play money tables or freerolls? That’s because you are not really improving your game when you don’t pay for realy money. Once you bring real money into the equation, its natural that players will take the game more seriously and think about their actions.

The skill level in the micro stakes games is very low – they are really easy games to beat. In addition to the novice players, its possible that you may encounter a few experienced players at the micro stakes tables, but even the more experienced players at these limits are still pretty bad. Even the more experienced players at micro stakes would have played for 6-months or less, whilst as soon as you move up in limits to small stakes, most of the regulars have grinded for many years and become descentisized to big pots so dont allow emotions to affect their game.

Your favorite players to encounter at the online cash game tables are the type of players who don’t really care if they win or lose money. They play online poker for entertainment purposes and to have some fune. But these recreational players become increasily more scarce as you move up in limits.

Although playing micro stakes poker is not the equivalent of taking candy from a baby – they are really easy games to beat if you play a solid game. Most novice players make the mistake of playing too many hands so you can just exploit that at micro stakes, and even small stakes to a certain degree. Playing micro stakes is also a great way to gain a better understanding of the game. If you were to jump straight to small stakes games and get dominated by more experienced players, it potentially could affect your confidence even if you were to move down in limits, so be smart at start at the micro stakes, even if some players suggest otherwise.

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