Small Stakes Poker
When I read around poker forums and read professionals poker blogs and articles I am astounded to hear them talk so easily about buy-ins and buy-in sizes. I read somewhere a professional saying “It was a very low buy in, around $500”. They talk of buy-ins to tournaments up to $1000 like it is a small amount of money. I am aware that for most people this constitutes a reasonable amount of money, sometimes up to a month’s wages for some people. There is absolutely nothing wrong with treating small stakes poker as seriously as you would a $10,000 buy-in. But do you know that small stakes poker is everywhere?
I started playing online poker with a bankroll of $200. I knew that each month out of my normal income I could reload with $200 so I did not mind if all of this was lost during the month although I hoped it would go up rather than down. I decided to find poker tournaments not too large that I could play in and was shocked when I filtered my poker room’s tournament choices but how much I could play for each evening. I decided on poker tournaments to give myself the chance for a big score each time I played, considering my bankroll was easily reloaded.
Lots of lower stakes players hardly ever play poker tournaments thinking regular play is meant for the professionals. You can play in poker tournaments with decent guarantees every day. There is plenty of choice and I can choose the tournaments that are right for me. If you wish to play low stakes poker tournaments all day for up to $100, you can play in many tournaments. This will give you amazing practise and the more you play the hands and learn from the individual spots you encounter, online poker offers you a quick way of learning. Just be careful that you do not get carried away and always monitor your bankroll.
You can also get a massive amount of low stakes poker tournament experience live. Generally live buy-ins are around $20 or more. Poker rooms, pubs etc offer slightly higher buy-ins to get bodies to play. If it is micro stakes poker most live players do not bother to turn up. They try and strike a balance of getting new and good players through the door. However, the advent of poker leagues in pubs has given players the chance to get live experience cheaply. Pubs are restricted to what they can charge per buy-in, but they do this because it brings in between 10-20 customers during the week when they would normally be quiet. They benefit from the poker and so do the customers. I play around two to three times per week this way and it is a lot of fun. I find the standard of play is ok and it is good practise, for much cheaper than playing at a casino.
If you are a poker player with professional aspirations, there are a lot of places to play poker both online and live that can give you a lot of experience. You should be grinding out and learning from the low levels of play. Even if you have a lot of money I would still recommend getting the experience at the lower stakes. Players talk about paying “tuition” to better players. I would certainly rather protect my roll by not paying loads of tuition at the high stakes and losing all my money. Ensure you have a base where you know you can beat the low stakes games, allowing you to take a shot at higher games knowing you can replenish your bankroll if things do not go your way. This is essential to maintaining your bankroll and keeping you in the game.
