Can any book really help you in micro stakes limit poker?

[Adman]

At very low limits just play tight aggressive straightforward poker. Don't try any fancy bluffs. Protecting your hand is vital in these games and you have to be very aggressive against these types- never allow them to draw to their weak hands cheaply. When you raise AK and the flop comes down AK3 don't even think about slow playing, QJ and JT will be trying to hit their 4 outers all the way to the river regardless of the odds they are getting so punish them and make them play. Small pocket pairs will also hang around. Almost NEVER slowplay at low limits, just value bet like crazy. Make sure you are not cold calling much if at all. New players tend to overvalue hands like QJ and start playing them against raises which is, in my opinion, probably one of the worst errors you can make in hold em. Of course if some idiot is raising with 40% of his hands then a hand like AT becomes a 3 betting hand but against normal opponents play very tightly behind a raiser. Pretty much 3 bet or fold. Also realize that in these very low stakes games you are going to have to show down a hand to win. You won't be able to just bully people into folding. You will encounter opponents who will call your river bets with nothing but king high.

When you get popped on the turn in these types of games you are beaten 99% of the time if all you have is a top pair type of hand. Calling down in these spots really adds up over time. If you think you are beaten (and you usually know deep down) be prepared to fold. When you raise AQ and the flop comes A22 and you get popped on the turn, even though you don't want to believe that someone called your raise with a hand containing a deuce, believe it. Now you can't just go folding all the time when you get raised or some of these fish notice it and start doing it all the time. The mistake these imbeciles make after they notice you are willing to fold is that they start trying it all the time. They find something that works and they start over abusing it. If you notice the same player has started raising you on the turn all the time chances are he's putting moves on you so be more apt to call down.

With regards to the "swings" you are taking- that is NOTHING. Losing 30 big bets is routine daily poker. Of course if its happening every single session thats another matter but don't think that because you lose sometimes you are necessarily doing anything wrong. Most winning limit players only win around 2/3rds of their sessions so don't be too hard on yourself just because you have some bad days! Despite what some people say, there is a large amount of luck in poker in the short term. I have had stretches where I just broke even for over 10 000 hands and started to wonder if I would ever win any money again!

I would also advise you to avoid full ring play and focus more on shorthanded poker as soon as you feel comfortable. It's more profitable and you can play more hands. Also, aggressive play is rewarded a lot more shorthanded than full ring. A hand like AJ is a 3 betting hand in a short game whereas in a full ring game it should be folded to a raise. Full ring you have to play so tightly that it becomes miserable just folding hand after hand after hand.

One other thing, you are hopelessly under bankrolled for the limit you are playing. To play .25/.50 you need at least $200. (Having said that, I started playing that exact same limit at Pacific Poker with a bankroll of $20 and I turned it into a five figure bankroll over the course of a year moving up very slowly through the limits! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]) If you are going to play shorthanded you need a very large bankroll. Believe me you can play great poker and still have 150 BB downswings in the short game which isn't fun and can be demoralizing if that is half your bankroll.

Don't be too hard on yourself, you are making the effort to improve which is more than can be said about half the idiots you play against. If it was that easy to become a winning player then everyone would just flip through a couple of books, quit their jobs, deposit their redundancy in an online poker room and start crushing 100/200 games- never having to work again!