Fishyak had challenged us to post our stats, but unfortunately at the time, I had only a few hours under my belt when I had started keeping track of my progress.
It's been a few months, and I have a few more hours logged now, and so I'd like to post my results.
Below is a chart of my progress at $3/6 and $4/8 games:
207 hours and 40 minutes of play, and I have won $3644 during that time (includes deductions from buying food and tipping), so that's about $17.55/hr. At $3/6, my rate is $12.48/hr at 89 hours and 50 minutes of play, and at $4/8, my rate is $20.01/hr at 117 hours and 50 minutes of play.
I know it looks really suspicious that my progress so closely follows a straight line, but I think I've just been really lucky in that regard. Looking back on it, I realize now that I could have had a lot wilder up and down ride had a few nights and a few big pots gone the other way.
But I do think big returns are certainly possible at these low stakes. You just need to be very disciplined and very observant. And playing against horrible players certainly doesn't hurt either. The reason I don't think a lot of people have a lot of hours logged at these low limits is because anyone who can earn 2+BB/hr probably has aspirations of playing much higher than $3/6 and $4/8. In fact, I'm getting ready to take a stab at $8/16 and $10/20 games myself, and if I do well there, I doubt I'll ever play the lower games again.
But besides being disciplined and employing sound strategy, I think that knowing your opponents can be extremely profitable and really contributed to my high win rates.
Some players will never check raise and only bet strong hands. Some players only raise pre-flop with pocket pairs. Some players will never fold two pair or better no matter how scary the board is. Some players will never fold to a double raise on the flop if they initially bet, even when it's painfully obvious that they are nearly drawing dead. Some players only raise with the nuts or the near nuts.
You gain the most by recognizing and exploiting these weak tendencies, which is a strategy that I use at these games. It has served me well so far. Don't just develop a cookie cutter strategy that generates a modest profit against a generic $3/6 or $4/8 player. You're really missing out on a lot of profit. I see no reason why other skilled players shouldn't be able to do as well as I have at these levels.