Style and stats for 0.02/0.04?

[maverickai]

I know some guys here dun even regard 0.02/0.04 as a level, but I'll be attempting to beat this level.

From what I see, the variance at this level is big, cos players routinely call with wild poc cards and river your top pair, top kicker. There are some regular players who always cap the flop whenever they have decent holdings like JT+ or suited connectors. This brings their stats to ~25+/20+/2.5+. I have touble playing against these LAGG players esp if I dun hit my overcards like AK or AQ. When going to showdown, they normally hit some ridiculous pair and cost all my pot.

Anyone has any experience beating this level comfortably? What are the recommended style, or PT stats that would be good to play for this level?

[RobMcB]

I'm assuming you're playing fullring. Anyway, with 7 players taking a flop, you're looking to make a straight or a flush by the river or a set on the flop. Proceed with this in mind.
TPGK or even 2PAIR is basically poo-poo in a loose passive $0.02/$0.04 full ring game. Try to reformulate your game to a style that builds big pots for the times you flop OESD's, FD's or sets (unless you're in a tight game which is probably never going to happen).
Go ahead and get aggressive preflop with speculative hands like KJs, JTs, 33, etc...
If your speculative hand hits the flop and you make a set or get a strong draw, bet it aggressively. If you get enough people calling when you bet your OESD+ backdoor flush, you make $$$.
Obviously you're still going to be raising PF with primo's like AK/QQ. Just don't get married to 1 or 2 pair or even trips.

[Harv72b]

It's been a looooong time since I played .02/.04, but I did start there once upon a time. From what I recall, and I doubt it's changed much, tighter is righter--against typical opponents you can win big in these games by going into total rock mode. The charts in SSH & other books will tell you to play a relatively loose style in these games, but honestly...until you build up a bit more experience & confidence in your postflop play, I don't think there's anything wrong with playing something along the lines of 12/10/3 poker. I'm sure you'll be a winner with those numbers.

One thing I noticed in your post...

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When going to showdown, they normally hit some ridiculous pair and cost all my pot.

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It's not your pot until it slides over to you after the showdown. Don't think of it that way--you do your best to get your chips into the pot with an equity edge, but as soon as they enter that pot they're up for grabs. Or put another way, AK is just another 3-out draw vs. when you're staring at a T72 rainbow flop & your opponent holds A2o, no matter how big your edge was on the prior street.

[RobMcB]

[ QUOTE ]
tighter is righter--against typical opponents you can win big in these games by going into total rock mode. The charts in SSH & other books will tell you to play a relatively loose style in these games, but honestly...until you build up a bit more experience & confidence in your postflop play, I don't think there's anything wrong with playing something along the lines of 12/10/3 poker. I'm sure you'll be a winner with those numbers.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is correct.
OP, you have to ask yourself this:
"Do I want to make 1.5BB/100 (about $0.03 an hour playing one fullring $0.02/$0.04 table) playing tight aggressive? Or do I want to study how to maximize my equity against loose passive calling stations to extract the maximum profit when my big draws and sets hit?"

I'm not advocating one approach over the other. Really OP, it boils down to your ability and willingness to put in the hard work and study time to learn the looser style which yields the higher return. If you don't want to do this, or aren't really that sure of your ability to do this at the moment, than don't!
There's really nothing wrong with grinding out 1.5BB/100 at $0.02/$0.04. Anyone who consistently wins any amount at any stakes in any poker game gets my respect.

[Harv72b]

[ QUOTE ]
There's really nothing wrong with grinding out 1.5BB/100 at $0.02/$0.04. Anyone who consistently wins any amount at any stakes in any poker game gets my respect.

[/ QUOTE ]

Just to clarify, I believe that a player can do much better than 1.5BB/100 by playing 12/10/3 in these games. And playing looser in a looser game is not a good idea at any rate--one of the most basic rules of hold'em is that you strive to play the opposite style of what the majority of your table is using. Tight on loose tables, loose on tight.

There'll be plenty of time to learn how to play Q9s on the button at higher stakes--.02/.04 is really primarily about learning patience, discipline, and how to fold or at least slow down when you're obviously beat. Or actually, it's mostly about learning not to coldcall preflop.

[maverickai]

[ QUOTE ]


OP, you have to ask yourself this:
"Do I want to make 1.5BB/100 (about $0.03 an hour playing one fullring $0.02/$0.04 table) playing tight aggressive? Or do I want to study how to maximize my equity against loose passive calling stations to extract the maximum profit when my big draws and sets hit?"

I'm not advocating one approach over the other. Really OP, it boils down to your ability and willingness to put in the hard work and study time to learn the looser style which yields the higher return. If you don't want to do this, or aren't really that sure of your ability to do this at the moment, than don't!
There's really nothing wrong with grinding out 1.5BB/100 at $0.02/$0.04. Anyone who consistently wins any amount at any stakes in any poker game gets my respect.

[/ QUOTE ]

I was playing at 0.25/0.50 orginally. But decided to drop all the way down to start from the nanos, just to learn the game better, and not let money influence my decision. I think after about 3700 hands, I'm getting a hang of those players who play damn loose. But it is very frustrating, to have them suck out on you.

[calidris]

[ QUOTE ]
playing looser in a looser game is not a good idea at any rate--one of the most basic rules of hold'em is that you strive to play the opposite style of what the majority of your table is using. Tight on loose tables, loose on tight.

[/ QUOTE ]

There's also something to be said in defence of seeing lots of flops against bad opponents. But as you mentioned earlier, that depends on how comfortable one is in post flop play.

[MoonOrb]

[ QUOTE ]
one of the most basic rules of hold'em is that you strive to play the opposite style of what the majority of your table is using.


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I've been thinking that this adage is a little too general when it comes to playing loose opponents. I don't agree with the philosophy of playing super-tight against super-loose opponents. Instead, I think you just want to play tighter than your loose opponents...which still could be somewhat loose overall. If you're up against opponents seeing 45% of the flops, then if you play as much as 22%, you're still playing only half their range.

My issue with the "when they're loose play tight" thing is that it suggests that you should tighten up quite a bit when the game is loose.

Also, their play post-flop will be so bad that you might want to start thinking about different opportunities to get into hands with some of these players rather playing an ultra-tight game.

On the topic of poor post-flop play, I'm also not convinced that you won't collect heaps of chips with TPTK. If you're constantly going up against players who call when they shouldn't be calling, your TPTK pots will be bigger when you win them. This should more than compensate for the times when you're sucked out on.

My only suggestion would be to pay attention to table conditions, and if the tables are in fact loose and passive, play suited aces, suited connectors and pocket pairs in early position even if these are hands that you might muck in the same position at higher levels. I'd also probably be willing to coldcall with PPs if I felt other people would be coldcalling, too.

[OziBattler]

just play 16-18/8-10/2-3 ABC poker and learn to value bet...when I played 2c/4c it worked for me to the tune of 9BB/100 in stars rakefree games. not a brag....just saying that you should be able to crush these games to the tune of AT LEAST 4BB/100 with straightforward poker

[Smurph64]

FR 18/8/2 6 max 28/24/2.5. Be patient and laugh at all the suckouts. Value bet your ass off. Never bluff. Don't bite on stop and go's. (which I notice happen a lot at 1/2, haven't seen them in the levels between much)