Been putting in a fair few sessions lately on the low stakes tables and I keep coming back to the same thing... the simple stuff still works better than trying to get too cute. Decent starting hand selection, hammer position, value bet your good hands, and stop bluffing every bloke who clearly just wants to click call with middle pair. Sounds obvious, yeah, but heaps of players drift away from it once they watch a couple of flashy vids and start thinking every hand needs some wizard line.
For me the biggest edge is still just playing cleaner than the pool. Open a bit wider on the button, punish limpers, 3-bet the regs who fold too much, and when the calling stations stick around just bet them for value till they prove they can fold. At the micros especially, people love seeing rivers. You don't need to run some bloody galaxy-brain triple barrel every second orbit. Half the money comes from not paying off the nut peddlers and not spewing into people who never chuck a hand away.
One thing I reckon gets underrated is table selection. Massive difference between a table full of nits and one with two splashy punters donating after work. Same with game type really - full ring and 6-max are different beasts, and loads of players use the same autopilot approach for both. If I'm in 6-max I'm way more alert to blind battles and thin value spots. Full ring, I can be a bit more patient and let the impatient ones punt first.
Also curious how many of you are still taking proper notes. I still do it and it's saved me heaps. Stuff like who min-raises monsters, who snap calls down light, who always stabs turn when checked to... that little info adds up fast. HUD or no HUD, doesn't matter, just having a read on the weird habits is gold.
Anyway that's my take right now - the solid, boring style still pays better than the flashy stuff at lower stakes, and discipline matters more than creativity most nights. Keen to hear if anyone's finding the pools tougher lately though, or if you've made any adjustments that genuinely moved the needle.