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Cash Game Do players take micro stakes games seriously? (3 Viewers)

We play .05/.10 and I definitely have a love/hate relationship with the stakes. It's the most comfortable stakes for the group, but also senselessly loose. I'd say in a majority of pots I'm the only one that folds pre, if not me and one other. Regularly see 6-7 way flops with limps all around, and a couple players shipping it all in by the turn or river just to flip over bottom pair against ace high, or 35o with a flopped straight against AA (who limped in no doubt). And although the formula for success in this game is pretty simple it's still sort of annoying. I'd personally rather go .25/.25 but the group probably wouldn't be interested.
 
DanTheMan said:
Just a question for people that run or play in micro stakes games regularly ($.10 blinds). Do the people you play with play so loose that it ruins the game, because it's so cheap to just play every hand/call any bet? I ask because I want to start a regular game and it would be easier to convince some of my cheaper friends to join in if it were smaller stakes.
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Live - micros stakes is a joke IMHO. The guys I play .25/.50 with in a home game dont really take it seriously. I mean $60 is cheap for a night out with the guys and having fun - people have expressed this concept. It is a game played for fun, which it should be IMHO. If we moved the game to $1/$2 it wouldnt be as fun anymore. We're not rich.

However - play online ACR Blitz 10NL and you will be battling Russian and Eastern European regs and US players who I think take it seriously. @Legend5555 is playing this game as well so would be interested in his thoughts.
 
It really depends. My small stakes live friends are actually all pretty serious, though it's fun and casual and we do occasionally get goofy. A lot of people just don't care about the money though and just want to have fun. Nothing wrong with that, and it's why professional poker players and good recreational players can make money in the first place.

Comparing online micros with live micros is like comparing apples and dark matter. They are nothing alike and require vastly different skill sets to some extent.
 
DanTheMan said:
I think I'm going to give a $.10/.10 game a try. If it gets too sloppy at least it'll teach some of my non poker buddies that it's unwise to play every hand. Hopefully I can switch it up to a $.25/.25 game eventually.
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One bit of advice if you are planning to use dime chips. Dimes and quarters do not get along well.

1. They don't make change unless you trade in multiples of 5 dimes and 2 quarters.)
2. You will have "legal" bets that both end in 0 and 5, but the lowest value chip cannot form any bets that end in 5.

I recommend that you used denominations of 10¢/50¢/$1 for these stakes. (See the link to my "Free River Club" set in my signature.) This gets you around both issues above. You don't have to put that many 50¢ chips out there since 2 of them make a dollar. If doing $20 buy in, do starting stacks of something like 15/5/16 or 10/6/16.

10¢-10¢ may evolve into 10¢-20¢.

All that said, there's nothing wrong with starting at 5¢-10¢ either using a more standard nickel-quarter-dollar breakdown. No reason that can't grow into a 25¢-25¢ game either.
 
JustinInMN said:
One bit of advice if you are planning to use dime chips. Dimes and quarters do not get along well.

1. They don't make change unless you trade in multiples of 5 dimes and 2 quarters.)
2. You will have "legal" bets that both end in 0 and 5, but the lowest value chip cannot form any bets that end in 5.

I recommend that you used denominations of 10¢/50¢/$1 for these stakes. (See the link to my "Free River Club" set in my signature.) This gets you around both issues above. You don't have to put that many 50¢ chips out there since 2 of them make a dollar. If doing $20 buy in, do starting stacks of something like 15/5/16 or 10/6/16.

10¢-10¢ may evolve into 10¢-20¢.

All that said, there's nothing wrong with starting at 5¢-10¢ either using a more standard nickel-quarter-dollar breakdown. No reason that can't grow into a 25¢-25¢ game either.
Click to expand...

Has it been your experience that 0.5/0.10 stakes quickly morph into more like .25/0.25? I usually see the 3-bet of 0.25 in lieu of a 0.20 cent raise which kills the concept of .05/0.10 microstakes games, IMHO. I guess if you used 10-cent chips and not 25-cents chips, you would see more 0.20 and 0.30 raises. Is this logical???
 
Bacon Dad said:
Has it been your experience that 0.5/0.10 stakes quickly morph into more like .25/0.25? I usually see the 3-bet of 0.25 in lieu of a 0.20 cent raise which kills the concept of .05/0.10 microstakes games, IMHO. I guess if you used 10-cent chips and not 25-cents chips, you would see more 0.20 and 0.30 raises. Is this logical???
Click to expand...
The one micro game I keep with my family did jump from 5¢-10¢ before I received the free river club set, and then we switched to 10¢-10¢ out of necessity. It soon after jumped to 10¢-20¢. I don't think this group will make the jump to 50¢-50¢, though.
 
Bacon Dad said:
Has it been your experience that 0.5/0.10 stakes quickly morph into more like .25/0.25? I usually see the 3-bet of 0.25 in lieu of a 0.20 cent raise which kills the concept of .05/0.10 microstakes games, IMHO.
Click to expand...

How does a 25c 3-bet kill the concept of 5c/10c? In fact, how does it even happen in the first place??

Either way, 25c is a small raise in 5c/10c, and a limp in 25c/25c.

Bacon Dad said:
I guess if you used 10-cent chips and not 25-cents chips, you would see more 0.20 and 0.30 raises. Is this logical???
Click to expand...

It is logical to see bets in units of the denominations you have. But you can construct these bets with nickels and quarters too, along with in between amounts ending in 5.

I guess I don't understand what you're asking
 
Mojo1312 said:
Based on my experience, 6x is standard. 3x is seen as a pot sweetener.
Click to expand...
We play .10/.20 $20 initial (soon to be .20/.20 as part of a slow progression - I’m a keynote speaker at an upcoming “Down with the Small Blind!” seminar) and preflop limp pot raises range between 4-8x the BB.

After the flop it’s like any other game with plenty of $12-20 pots and several of $40+ through the night.

Ken - A home game host in MN
 
merkong said:
We play .10/.20 $20 initial (soon to be .20/.20 as part of a slow progression - I’m a keynote speaker at an upcoming “Down with the Small Blind!” seminar) and preflop limp pot raises range between 4-8x the BB.

After the flop it’s like any other game with plenty of $12-20 pots and several of $40+ through the night.

Ken - A home game host in MN
Click to expand...
Where is this seminar? I may have to check it out :P
 
JustinInMN said:
Where is this seminar? I may have to check it out :p
Click to expand...
I’m soon starting my waged war on the SB by eliminating its unique value.
1674609601159.gif
 
I take all poker serious. Life or death. The last meetup I was at, I ended up losing a hand, and tried to do “Get help” with @CraigT78 at the 2 people that split the hand.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t figure out who was tossing who and we both ended up with hernias. Good times had by all.
 
DanTheMan said:
Just a question for people that run or play in micro stakes games regularly ($.10 blinds). Do the people you play with play so loose that it ruins the game, because it's so cheap to just play every hand/call any bet? I ask because I want to start a regular game and it would be easier to convince some of my cheaper friends to join in if it were smaller stakes.
Click to expand...
Like I said, we’re currently a .10/.10 $20 initial buy-in game. With pre-flop sweeteners being between 2-3x the BB and player scattering bets ranging in the 4-8x the BB.

I think our players have found the ability to stick with anything for a sweetener but lay it down post to a substantive bet if they don’t hit. Our absolute loose cannon was removed from the game for a drunken nefarious action (search my threads) but I have to admit I miss his action.

I don’t think smaller stakes always play huge pre/post or whatever just because the blinds are micro. 100 BB buy-in is the sweet spot (see another reply).

I refer you to the Poker Constitution that explicitly states that “any player can play any two cards, any way they like as long as they’re not a dick about it.”

That said, I also refer you to The Universe’s Laws of Poker Physics which states “the patient and strategic player will always, sometimes in the short run but always in the long run, outperform the loose cannon.”

Ramen
 
JustinInMN said:
One bit of advice if you are planning to use dime chips. Dimes and quarters do not get along well.

1. They don't make change unless you trade in multiples of 5 dimes and 2 quarters.)
2. You will have "legal" bets that both end in 0 and 5, but the lowest value chip cannot form any bets that end in 5.

I recommend that you used denominations of 10¢/50¢/$1 for these stakes. (See the link to my "Free River Club" set in my signature.) This gets you around both issues above. You don't have to put that many 50¢ chips out there since 2 of them make a dollar. If doing $20 buy in, do starting stacks of something like 15/5/16 or 10/6/16.

10¢-10¢ may evolve into 10¢-20¢.

All that said, there's nothing wrong with starting at 5¢-10¢ either using a more standard nickel-quarter-dollar breakdown. No reason that can't grow into a 25¢-25¢ game either.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. I'm building a small set of .10/.50/1 and a couple $5 barrels to rebuy or colour up. And a couple $2.50s because I like saying snapper. I think with my buddies the .50 will see the most action.


Also, f*** the small blind!
 
merkong said:
We play .10/.20 $20 initial (soon to be .20/.20 as part of a slow progression - I’m a keynote speaker at an upcoming “Down with the Small Blind!” seminar) and preflop limp pot raises range between 4-8x the BB.

After the flop it’s like any other game with plenty of $12-20 pots and several of $40+ through the night.

Ken - A home game host in MN
Click to expand...


What is your normal chip stack for the initial $20 buy-in for your .10/.20 game?
 
sammydj said:
We play .05/.10 and I definitely have a love/hate relationship with the stakes. It's the most comfortable stakes for the group, but also senselessly loose. I'd say in a majority of pots I'm the only one that folds pre, if not me and one other. Regularly see 6-7 way flops with limps all around, and a couple players shipping it all in by the turn or river just to flip over bottom pair against ace high, or 35o with a flopped straight against AA (who limped in no doubt). And although the formula for success in this game is pretty simple it's still sort of annoying. I'd personally rather go .25/.25 but the group probably wouldn't be interested.
Click to expand...
How big is your group typically?
 
I play .05/.1 and the way people treat it baffles me. People are stingy about buy-ins, but within the game are very loose with their money. Someone RFIs to 75c? Sure I'll call along. An hour in and I lost my $10 buy in? Yeah I'm gonna just hang out on the couch for now. One of my players will complain that we should raise the blinds to 25c but has never bought in for more than $20 in a night. I'd love to spread .25/.25 and up, but I think there's a sense that once you start playing for more money it's really 'gambling' which is bad, but playing for $10 is just 'for fun'. I think only me and one of my friends have no re-buy cap and everyone else is in for 2 bullets at most.

I'd say about half take it fairly seriously and half don't. Generally no one is just torching off money for fun though (e.g. calling/going all-in with pre-flop trash for the gambol gambol)
 
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ChipWhisperer said:
How big is your group typically?
Click to expand...
Most weeks probably playing 6 or 7 handed. But we've made some changes since January and as we've learned the game better. Still playing .05/.10 usually but upped buy-in amounts and started an optional 25c straddle. Gave us a few ways to make the game play a bit bigger if anyone wanted it to, but still keeps it cheap to play in. Every now and then we'll up the blinds to .10/.25 later in the game if we're all sitting on bigger stacks, but still a .25/.25 game with $25-50 BIs would definitely deter some of our every-now-and-then players, girlfriends and the occasional mom or dad, and right now the group of regulars just isn't quite big enough or consistent enough.
 
My sister and I used to play .05/.10 NLHE with a group of physics grad students. We played in a conference room after the weekly colloquium. This was one of the most serious games I've ever played in. You want a serious game with micro stakes? Play with a bunch of physicists!
 
abby99 said:
My sister and I used to play .05/.10 NLHE with a group of physics grad students. We played in a conference room after the weekly colloquium. This was one of the most serious games I've ever played in. You want a serious game with micro stakes? Play with a bunch of physicists!
Click to expand...
Physical oceanography here, had to pause the goddamn game so a couple of mooks could work out the probability of an OESD. Wouldnt take my word for it, had to derive it lol.
 

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