Online poker at the lower levels

There are certain advantages to playing low-stakes poker even for a successful pro. The problem with playing higher up is that the value gets thinner and thinner as the players get better. This is a problem for all poker players who play above and beyond certain levels of play. This also tells us that we cannot at any time take our success for granted.

But many serious players now play lower than what they normally would and online poker gives you the flexibility to do just that. The ability to be able to multi-table and getting rakeback and sign up bonuses all contribute towards playing lower than you normally would if you were playing live. I have played high-stakes poker both in limit and no-limit online but I would rather multi-table the lower stakes games if I had an option to do so.

This never used to be the case years ago when I single tabled higher up because I used to prefer to feel the players out. But the influx of new players into the game has also led to more weak players as well. At the lower levels like at NL100 and NL50 then the betting tends to do the talking more often than it does at say NL400 or NL600 where the players can get tricky far more often.

Let me quote an example of a typical NL50 player. The pot is limped by two players and the small blind completes and the big blind checks. The flop is J-8-4 rainbow and it gets checked around. The turn card is a deuce and it gets checked around to the button who makes a two thirds pot bet. This tends to be with a mediocre hand that they feel may be best but yet they are not sure and are merely making an exploratory stab at the pot.

Weak bets tend to mean weak hands in low stakes poker and also checks often can mean traps as well as many players like to trap at these lower levels. Then we have the check-raiser……in low stakes play then if this player has come out of a big field then you had better watch out because his bet is signalling a very powerful hand indeed.

Sometimes you may get a player who check-raise bluffs if you have been stealing a lot but at these levels then it isn’t the norm. A combination of players multi-tabling and players playing tightly to work off sign up bonuses leads to players playing far more straight forwardly than they would at higher levels of play. The flip side to having predictable players of course is that your overall poker earnings are seriously curtailed but then again that all comes down to what makes you happy.

I know several online pro’s who multi-table NL50 and NL100 who make 5k a month. These are amounts that put these players into very elite company and making 5k a month now with online poker is a serious achievement.

These days I much prefer the softer games and this is especially the case for me as I spend so much time writing and coaching these days that I don’t have the time to watch the highstakes games anywhere near what I used to.

I think that the players at the bottom end don’t take enough time to really learn the game and after a few coaching videos, they think in their own minds that they know NLHE. Then they end up playing like everyone else, taking what they think is easy money and not spending enough time on what is really important…..improving their game.

//Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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