Losing to very loose players in micro limits

Hello Johnberry256,

It's pretty normal for any player, even very good players, to lose for extended periods of time.

Poker is a long term game. So long as you make better decisions than your opponents on a regular basis you will eventually come out on top.

Yes there are times where your opponents get really lucky and hit a monster on the turn or river. That's unlucky for you but that is part of poker and it happens to everyone.

Go through your hands where you lost a large pot. Analyse your lines, could you have made a better decision which would have saved you some money? I know there are several times where I could have saved more than half my stack if I succumb to their aggression.

Not all players at micros are crazily agressive. Most of them are loose but passive and if they go crazy and you don't have a read just stay away until you know them better. If you are uncomfortable with aggressive players target the passive players. At least when they raise you know they have a hand and can save alot of money in the long run.

Did I understand it right, that you deposited 20$, and played 2 tournaments for 8$ each (36man)?
So, essentially you could buy in 2.5 times. usually, you should have a bankroll of 50-100 buy-ins available, that would be 400-800$. If you have less, you can decide to play a lower limit, deposit more money, or choose a smaller player field. To demonstrate that:
if 9 out of 36 players are paid, your chance of loosing 2 times in a row are

(27/36)*(27/36) = (3/4)*(3/4) = 56%

if you are an average player (and excluding rake). Of course, you could also have a series of lose-win-(lose x 7) or similar, so your chance of being broke after 10 tournaments is quite close to 100%.

My suggestion: read the articles; deposit more money (or play freerolls - though that way it takes a while to gain money); try again with smaller field size (SNG for example) or cash games.

Of course, you should want to pay as little as possible for your poker education, so start on the lowest limits.

good luck at the tables.

Originally posted by johnberry256
Hi everyone,

I just started out playing poker (just a week ago) and I already have a question and I already lost my 20 buck deposit in just a week (I know... probably I'm the fish you all are looking for)

I lost 16 something joining two 36 player tournaments, in one of them I was left in 7th place, 12th in other.

The remaining 4 dollars I managed to make them 7 and then went down to 0.

I don't have a problem with the $16 that went down to the tournament, because it seems from what I have seen that luck is a great factor in those.

But I do have a problem with the remaining $4 which I played on the micro levels.

I have seen than in these (micro) the hands are reduced almost to a coin flip. Many of the players bet having nothing and many times they get lucky on the river card and win the pot (is almost unreal). In fact I lost all of it like that.

They seems very aggressive, winning the pot with nothing and then when I play (knowing that they almost always have nothing) I put my money in with something like a pair of jacks and suddenly they make three of a kind with something as lower as deuce and I lost. I didn't lost all the times, but enough to lose it all.

Is this normal or I'm the sucker? What am I supposed to do in these games? or should just quit and play higher where everyone seems more "serious" (this seems a little coward on my side)

But I see this happens a lot not just me but to a lot of players, and all of the players in the table became frighted of these players and suddenly what happens is that as soon as these players raise everyone folds and these players make a couple of bucks just like that, since most of the time as soon as someone calls they get lucky again and win, enough times to be rewarding.

Writing this it seems that they are not as bad... but please let me know what you think and any advice will be more than welcome.

Thanks a lot!

(English is not my mother language thanks for the understanding if I made mistakes!)

so you deposited 20$ and lost 16$ of that playing 2 36 player tourneys?

you have a big problem my friend and is not related to your poker play.

my surprise was to read that even the teacher replied to you and said nothing about your bankroll management

but maybe you dont need one, you may need a budget and set the amount you will deposit each month

good luck

http://www.pokerstrategy.com/strategy/mtt/1529/1/

Well! I kept playing, I didn't know that there were tournaments for free and those have been fun too.

Thanks for all the tips guys I will be sure of not going into any other $8 tournament!

well that's good to know:-)

I often have some freeroll on in the background or just to have 4 tables open (if I have less than 4 tables open, i start browsing the internet). it also serves to let off some steam... Even though they are incredibly easy, fields are usually very large, and you might end up playing for 4 hours, just to win 0.04 $. you can calculate the expected winning as (total prizes/#players). Nevertheless, as this is free money, your Rerturn of Investment is infinite^^

Overall, I suppose they are good for learning the very basics. As soon as you know these (and are willing to deposit a small amount), "real money" tournaments of the lowest stakes will return more money/time spent