question Unpopular one: stop trying to outsmart the micros

Bit of a rant, but I reckon heaps of players at the low online tables make the game way harder than it needs to be. Everyone wants to get fancy with weird bluffs, hero calls, sick check-raises on scary boards... mate, half the pool is just clicking buttons and paying off way too light. You do not need galaxy brain stuff at these stakes.

My take is pretty simple: play tighter pre, stop limping rubbish, value bet more than feels comfortable, and give way less credit when people call down with all sorts of junk. Position still matters a ton obviously, maybe more than anything, but people act like every hand needs some creative line when most of the money comes from boring solid decisions. Fold the marginal crap, punish the loose callers, and don't stack off with one pair just because you talked yourself into some heroic read at 11:30 on a Tuesday arvo.

The big one for me is c-betting too often into stations. Bloody pointless. If a table is full of callers, just build pots when you've actually got it and quit trying to force folds that aren't coming. Curious if anyone reckons the same or if you've had better results going full aggro at the micros. What leaks do you see the most?

How thin are you actually going on river bets in those games though? I'm fine betting the obvious top pair stuff, but when it's second pair decent kicker into a sticky caller I always seem to chicken out and check back. Feels like that's where a lot of the missed value is.

Leo RapidChip wrote >

The big one for me is c-betting too often into stations. Bloody pointless.

Yep, this one. I reckon loads of low-stakes players copied the auto flop stab from vids and never learned when to turn it off. Another leak I keep seeing is people refusing to fold dominated aces pre, then acting shocked when one pair gets them in a mess.

I think you're leaning a bit too far into the wait-for-value side. Against pure callers, sure, just bet your made hands hard. But once there are a couple competent regulars in the pool, you make money by pushing on the right turns and 3-betting more from late position. If you only show aggression when you're strong, better players catch on pretty fast.

Hard disagree on the anti-limping thing as a blanket rule. Open limping rubbish early, yeah, bin it. Overlimping behind weak players when you've got position is a completely different spot, and too many people throw that away because they've convinced themselves every pot has to start with a raise.