It happens at least once a week. There you are sitting in your living room with your wife after dinner, and she turns on The Bachelor (or something equally tortuous). That’s when you, of course, reach for your laptop. But what can you do that is so absorbing it will guarantee your mind won’t be invaded by any of the agonizing scenes or verbosity blasting from your big-screen TV the next hour? If you’re a poker player, the solution is easy. Make a small deposit at an online poker room that services residents of your country, and get in a game.
Having made a deposit, the goal is to never need to deposit again, regardless of how many dimwitted young singles network television manages to keep finding. The poker site, by contrast, needs most of its customers to keep re-depositing. They don’t care if a few sharks also eat from their plate, as long as the revenue keeps flowing. Your job is to be one of those sharks. But how?
First off, play the very lowest stakes games until your account size grows. If you deposit $100, stick with the $2 maximum buy-in games. The competition here is generally weak, and even the worst streak of luck can’t significantly damage your bankroll at the rate of $2 at a time. You will face two types of opponents at these tables – well, three. The first are tight, timid players who are waiting for strong hands. They are easy to beat. Once identified, you want to play loose and aggressive against them, betting at every opportunity and raising them liberally.
The second type of micro-stakes Holdem player is just the opposite. Because the stakes are so low, they are playing wildly, jamming pots and pushing all-in just to bully the table. This kind of player may be slumming and doesn’t care about the money. But you do. Maniacs will offer your best chance to double your stack and grow your account size from cash games, so look for them. The way to beat them is to not just play tight, but only play hands that have the potential to flop big hands – like small pocket pairs, suited cards, and connectors such as 5-6. You will probably have to call raises with these hands when a maniac is at the table, but that’s OK because soon you will win the maniac’s stack. Don’t play medium-strength non-connector big cards like A-10 and KJ against these guys because even if you flop top pair you will likely get pushed off the hand – or worse, lose your stack when the maniac wakes up with an overpair. Wait for the trapping hands.
Tournaments are another way to go, especially low buy-in events. We’re talking $2 or under here, not to mention free rolls. Now, MTTs can last a lot longer than your wife’s TV show – but they also have the biggest potential to make your account size see a big jump. Some players use poker bots to help in tournaments, such as those sold at http://bonusbots.com. One such usage would be if you need to go to bed before the event completes. You can have the bot take over for you in this case, and see how it finished the next morning. Poker bots are not officially allowed at online poker sites, but in practice they tend to be tolerated, especially in free rolls and $1 entry-fee MTTs. In free rolls many of the players don’t even bother showing up, and so their stacks are simply folded away. But they can be tedious to play manually, as you usually need to finish in the top five to be paid.
Which brings us to the third type of opponent you will encounter at the low stakes cash tables: poker bots. Some people enjoy the challenge of seeing if their bot can win at cash games. Bots are mechanical in their actions, and play very consistently. If you see a steady, mechanical player who always takes the same amount of time to act, you may have spotted a bot. To test your suspicion, start raising him every hand. Bots can usually be raised off hands much more often than human players, and they will not adjust to your aggression or make any moves back at you. If you keep raising them and they keep folding, it’s a pretty safe validation that you pegged a robot poker player. Don’t go overboard trying to run them over, though. For example, don’t start pushing all-in against them. Even a bot can wake up with a strong hand once in a while!
Playing a mix of cash tables and small tournaments is a good way to keep it interesting, and to grow your account size at a steady rate. Don’t be in too much of a hurry to step up in stakes. Remember, it’s the low stakes games that are making you money. A bad run at twice the stakes will be much more devastating to your bankroll, and the competition will get tougher as you move up. Sticking with the easy pickings, and perhaps taking a shot at a higher priced tournament now and again, is the way to make your account last. You may even find that you have become a small stakes shark. And that’s good, because network television is likely to keep catering mindless shows to the female demographic far into the foreseeable future.