Build a Poker Fortune with the Help of Micro-Stakes Poker
People who play micro-stakes poker often do it just for the fun of it, without any serious expectations. For many, it’s simply an enjoyable pastime, not something they’d ever expect to make serious money from.
Experienced players, however, often look down on micro stakes games, which really isn’t that much of a surprise. After all, they’ve spent so much time honing their skills and knowledge of the game that they mightn’t remember what it was like to be a beginner. These professionals and semi-pros believe high-stakes games are the only way to win real money. They think low-stakes poker is a waste of their time.
However, one man has managed to prove all of the doubters wrong and bring micro-stakes poker firmly into the conversation. Let’s take a look at who he is, what micro-stakes poker involves, and how you can potentially make money from it.
What Is Micro-Stakes Poker?
If you haven’t really played poker before – or at least not with much enthusiasm – you might be asking yourself the obvious question: What is low-stakes poker, and how is it different from micro-stakes poker?
Simply put, low-stakes or small-stakes poker is a term that encompasses poker games with stakes of $0.25/$0.50 and $0.50/$1.00. In cases where the stakes go from $0.01/$0.02 up to $0.10/$.25, we’re talking about micro-stakes poker.
Other than the difference in the value of the stake, these two forms of poker also differ in terms of the people who usually play them. When playing micro-stakes poker, you’ll mostly be up against recreational players, with the occasional ambitious beginner who dreams of one day joining the professional ranks. This is a great opportunity for them to develop their micro-stakes poker strategy and then move on to more profitable games.
On the other hand, in small-stakes games, you can see more pros and semi-pros who actually make a living through regularly playing cash games online, although not usually an above-average one. Some of them even get into their comfort zone and keep playing low-stakes poker for many years.
Another factor that can affect your chance of winning these games is the site you choose, since different sites offer different stakes for the same type of poker. Strategy books and blogs with advice from professionals can be of great help here. Many expert players have risen through these “starter levels” of online poker and have earned plenty of money in the process. Nathan “BlackRain79” Williams is one such player.
The Story Behind the Man
In 2004, Nathan Williams was a college graduate living in Vancouver, Canada. He was in his mid-20s and went to a party where a friend introduced him to Texas hold’em. That night, he had a lot of fun playing and he kept winning, which led him to find a website and start playing online poker the following day.
At first he only played with pretend money. This is how he started developing his low-stakes poker strategy. After about a year, Nathan “BlackRain79” Williams was doing well, winning noticeably more often than losing. He was stacking millions of play chips during that period, so he did his best to sell them all for no more than $60.
However, it’s exactly that $60 that made all the difference for his career, since that was his first real-money bankroll.
At that point he switched to another poker site and started playing there. He chose to play at the lowest possible stakes, which meant 1c/2c tables. One would say that there’s nothing special about that. Nevertheless, he found a way to make the best of his own strategy, which seemed to work well for him.
In order to improve his strategy, grow as a poker player, and earn as much as he possibly could, he bought some books and read everything he found useful on various poker forums, where he learned more and more about the game.
He played as many games as he physically could with an abundance of multi-tabling, which allowed him to move forward and find out exactly how to make money playing poker without actually investing a lot. He decided to quit his regular job and try his luck playing online poker on a daily basis. This was in 2007.
What he understood is that, if he didn’t want to risk losing huge amounts of cash while opening himself up to the opportunity of winning a significant amount of it, he was best off sticking to low stakes. And even though it was impossible to win every time, he didn’t give up.
Eventually, his exploitative strategy got so advanced that his winnings were large enough for him to live comfortably. In fact, he had some of the highest win rates out there, even by today’s standards.
Although he was amazingly successful at micro-stakes poker, not many people had actually noticed him, let alone shown any interest in him or his tactics, until PTR came out. PTR (PokerTableRatings) is an online database of hand histories, among other information, that’s available to all online poker players.
It allows them to keep track of their own hand history but also gives them vital information on their opponents. Once this came out, people finally took notice of Nathan “BlackRain79” Williams and his online poker strategy, which he decided to use to his advantage.
So, What Did He Do?
Around 2009, when BlackRain79’s PTR caught people’s attention, what they could see is that he had won about $250 at $0.25/$0.50 stakes, or $53 at $3/$6 stakes. They could also clearly see that he was down $3,000 at $2/$4 stakes. Again, nothing unusual there. However, there was one thing that stood out, and that’s precisely what everybody got curious about. BlackRain79 had over $13,000 in winnings at $0.02/$0.05 stakes.
$13,000 is definitely a desirable amount of money when it comes to online poker winnings, no matter what your level of expertise is, and especially so if you consider the stakes. For this reason, it’s no wonder that not only beginners wanted to know all about how he did it, but so did some experienced poker players.
Some professionals don’t like sharing their knowledge with the world, so it must have been a surprise for many when BlackRain79 started writing blogs and coaching others. He even published a book in which he explained what a player should do to be as successful as he is.
He knew that, by letting his secret out, he was actually making things harder on himself, as he was creating fiercer competition at the small-stakes online poker tables he frequented. What he counted on were the recreational players, who aren’t going to get too deep into poker theory and who aren’t that worried about losing money, since they only play occasionally or for fun.
So, as far as BlackRain79 is concerned, not only is he still making money by playing cash games online, he’s also selling his book for a fine-looking profit. In the meantime Williams moved to Thailand, where he now lives and plays micro-stakes poker instead of holding a more traditional job. With his blogs, vlogs, coaching, and book providing income, he has now moved on to playing higher-stakes games, too.
But Can Playing Micro Stakes Be Lucrative Enough on its Own?
This is a question many ask nowadays. Although it may seem that low stakes only lead to low profit, Nathan Williams showed us all otherwise. The answer is in a player’s devotion to the game. If you don’t put time and hard work into it, chances are that you won’t really get to that point where you can enjoy playing micro-stakes online poker and benefit from it.
Sure, you can win more with higher stakes, but don’t forget that you can also lose more. Furthermore, you’re more likely to face some more relentless, aggressive, and accomplished players at those tables, whereas it’s more probable to play against beginner online players and recreational players if you start with micro stakes, then move on to low stakes after a while.
Tips for Getting Started
Once you enter the world of online poker, take some time to develop your skills. Gather as much useful information as you can to help you advance and master micro-stakes poker. Once you feel comfortable enough playing and it becomes easier to focus and keep up with your own actions, as well as those of your opponents, you’ll be able to do some multi-tabling.
While multi-tabling can improve your chances of winning more, you should still be careful. Your goal should be to find tables where you have bad players – at least one of them – so you know you have the upper hand there.
That’s why multi-tabling can be problematic, even at micro stakes; although you can expect to find some amateurs at these tables, when you open more of them than you can handle at the same time, you yourself might get overwhelmed and start losing. This is why you should only start multi-tabling when you feel confident enough with the game.
The next good tip for beating the micro stakes is to have a set bankroll and play within it. A bankroll is the amount of money you are willing or able to set aside for playing poker. It should be separate from the money you budget for your regular expenses. The bankroll is tightly connected with the buy-in, which is the minimum amount of money you need to have in order to sit down in a game, whether it’s a table or a tournament.
Your bankroll should be at least 25 times the amount of your buy-in; this is a recommendation from some of the biggest micro-stakes winners. Problems arise when things get out of hand and you start playing outside your bankroll, which means that you’re spending the money you need for your rent, bills, or food. If you start creating debt just to keep playing, you should stop and reconsider your moves.
Another good piece of advice would be not to stick around at these micro-stake tables for too long. They are a nice stepping stone for improving your game, but the money you can make at those tables isn’t exactly enough to make you a professional or to build the fortune you want. If you can play successfully at the lowest stakes, by all means do so, but make sure you’re aware that this is only your practice ground, the phase through which you should prepare yourself for some more advanced and more profitable tables.
There are some players who want to be safe and simply continue playing the micro stakes, but those are mostly players who live in countries where the cost of living is much lower than in the USA, or players who have other jobs and don’t rely on their winnings as their primary income. When your living expenses are much lower than those in the Western world, it’s possible to earn your living playing micro-stakes poker and actually live decently.
Our next tip would be not to get too focused on a single player. Don’t forget that your goal is to earn money. If there’s a bad player at your table who manages to get lucky against you, and especially if it happens more than just once, you might get unnerved and make it your mission to win against them specifically. This could distract you from what really matters.
Whether you get your money back from that player or anybody else at the table doesn’t matter. Concentrate on what hands to play and don’t base your decisions on getting back at anybody, no matter who it is. If your emotions and your nerves get the better of you, you’re setting yourself up for failure from the start.
One more piece of advice is to not let the chaos of the game distract you. Before you even start playing, you should be aware that playing micro or lower stakes won’t be a smooth road.
There will be bumps and you will be beaten plenty of times. Even in situations when you think you have the best poker hands and there’s no way anybody can do better, there’s still a chance you’ll get deeply disappointed and simply lose.
You need to embrace these moments as opportunities for learning – situations that teach you what playing online poker is actually like. At those times, try to remember that this is exactly why you’re still at the micro-stake tables, so you can prepare yourself well for when you move on to something bigger and better.
When Is it Smart to Move on to Low-Stakes Poker?
Once you’ve developed your micro-stakes poker strategy to a level you’re satisfied with and you’re certain you can do better, you should consider moving up stakes. You’ll know you’ve reached this point when you’re regularly winning the stakes you’re playing at the moment and you’ve gathered enough confidence in your poker-playing skills. In addition to this, you need to have a sufficient bankroll.
Another important thing to remember is that, when you’re moving up stakes, you’re actually starting from the beginning in a sense. Playing small-stakes poker might look a lot like micro-stakes poker, but you’re entering a new category and you can expect to feel precisely the way you did when you started playing micro stakes.
There are more regular players at these tables, as opposed to the micro-limit games where there are more beginners. This also means that you’ll lose sometimes – probably more often than you hope or expect – but that’s something you can attribute to several factors. The most important of these is probably short-term variance, particularly when you’re playing as many hands as you need in order to make some money and improve your skills.
When you’re playing lower stakes, it’s not unusual to play thousands of hands, which can lead to a situation where you multiply your bankroll before you know it. The flipside is you could also lose much more money than you ever had before. This is something you need to be prepared for, both psychologically and financially.
So, before you move up, perhaps it would be a good idea to consult some books or online tutorials and learn from those with more experience. Look for a quality poker strategy guide and you may get some extremely helpful insights and tips there.
Final Thoughts
In short, if you want to play poker professionally and build a fortune doing it, you should start small and make gradual progress towards the level you’re aspiring to. Give it some time and patience, learn what you can from internet resources or books written on the subject, and study your opponents.
When you’re starting with one-cent games, be open-minded and optimistic. Learn to recognize when to raise and when to fold. Finally, have as much fun as you can, but also be prepared to work hard in order to achieve your goals.
FAQ
How much money can you make playing micro-stakes poker?
After thoroughly researching players and games, we’ve learned that the best players can make about $20 an hour playing micro stakes. However, this is only true for some players, as others make far less. Most dedicated players only make about $8 an hour. So, while in 2020 micro-stakes poker games are more popular than ever – mostly due to the success of Nathan “BlackRain79” Williams – for most people this is merely a starting point on a journey towards becoming a professional player.
What is micro-stakes poker?
This is an umbrella term for games in which you play at very low stakes, from $0.01/$0.02 to $0.10/$.25. Micro-stakes poker is most commonly played by either recreational players or complete amateurs who want to build their skills and move up in the shortest amount of time. These games are good for learning the basics, such as when to bet and when not to. If you play them well, you might even be able to collect enough money to have a nice bankroll when you decide to advance.
How do you crush micro stakes in poker?
According to Nathan “BlackRain79” Williams, there are several things you should do if you want to win at micro-stakes poker. For instance, you shouldn’t make any overly advanced moves on the players there, since they probably don’t really know what’s going on. Indeed, many high-rollers have ended up being beaten by their opponents’ inexperience.
Next, you should realize when you have the best hand and when to bet, and that should be as frequently as possible. However, you also need to recognize tight players who don’t bluff often; against them, it’s not worth taking as many risks. Other tips include being aware of who the mark at the table is, choosing the right seat, and knowing how and when to bluff.
Don’t forget to do some homework; that’s the only way you’ll ever consistently crush the micro-stakes. Review your biggest hands and take a look back at your steps during games so that you can learn from your successes, your mistakes, and the way your opponents play.
Can poker make you rich?
This is a hard question to answer. The truth is that poker actually can make you rich, but it can also make you very poor if you don’t do it right. If you want to make money playing poker, you have to start from the bottom and move upwards. You should employ good strategies, find the game that suits you, the right people to play against, and the style of play that suits your personality. Again, to reach that level of expertise, you should start with micro-stakes poker and move up from that, step by step.
Can online poker be rigged?
In general, poker sites aren’t rigged. Although there are some smaller and less popular sites that, in theory, could be rigged, bigger poker sites are highly aware of how important it is for them to maintain their integrity. If you strongly believe that an online poker site is rigged, withdraw all the money you have on it and never play there again.