Seeing as how the micro stakes offer the cheapest form of online poker cash play available, lots of players use micros as their launching point. And many of these same players eventually want to know how long it will take them to consistently make profits in micro stakes poker.
The reality is that there’s no set length of time you can pinpoint before moving out of the micros. Some players might feel comfortable and far superior to the competition within 5,000 hands, while others might be looking back at how things went wrong 20,000 hands later. Obviously it’s ideal to avoid the latter situation, which is why we’re going to closely examine how you can get out of the micros quicker.
Review, Review, Review
The number one biggest mistake made by micro stakes players who never improve involves failing to review sessions. Now we’re not saying that people need to look at every single hand history at the day’s end, but it’s always nice to look back on a few tough situations you encountered. Furthermore, it never hurts to post your hand histories to forums and ask more experienced players for advice.
Bluff Less, Value Bet More
One simple formula that you’ll see preached by successful micro stakes players involves bluffing less and value betting more. And there’s a reason for this – it works! As for the first aspect of this formula, far too many players think they can run opponents over in the micros with well-timed bluffs and aggressive play. However, you’re much better off waiting for strong postflop hands that you can value bet with. After all, plenty of micro stakes players overplay top pair and will gladly pay you off on good hands.
Don’t focus on Time, focus on improving
One last point that we’d like to make here involves focusing on improving your game, rather than on how quickly you move out of the micros. Sure nobody wants to remain stuck at a level where they’re making $1 or $2 an hour at most, but it’s a lot better than jumping right into 25NL and losing $200 in a month. This being said, spend time working on your game away from the tables (training sites, forums, hand histories, etc.), then worry about moving up.
