One common piece of advice in micro stakes poker is to play tight and wait for good hands to come around. The reason for this advice is because the average micro stakes player is loose-aggressive, and they’ll overplay mediocre hands past the flop such as top and middle pairs.
However, some players begin to question this advice when it comes to playing in 6-max games. The thinking here is that, because blinds come around more often with fewer opponents at the table, players need to be far more aggressive. So is there any truth to this logic – where 6-max micro stakes poker games require a different strategy than full ring games? The following should answer this question.
It’s all Situational
We just covered that you’ll see the blinds come around more often in 6-max micro stakes games. So the common thinking here is that you need to be more aggressive because the blinds are eating at your stack more frequently. And in theory, this sentiment is true since playing a wider range of hands will help you combat the increased blinds frequency.
However, you also have to take the situation into account. For example, if three out of the five opponents at your 6-max table are loose-aggressive maniacs, it’s not going to do you a lot of good to play their game – even if it is a shorthanded table. Instead, the optimal playing style is going to be tight-aggressive because your opponents will already be over-playing hands, and it just becomes a waiting game from there.
So the overall point is that just because you’re on a 6-max micro stakes table, it doesn’t automatically mean you need to play more aggressively just to deal with the blinds. Your opponents will determine the best playing style, which we’ll cover next.
Reading Opponents
Much is made about reading your opponents and the overall table dynamic. And the simple way to do this is by focusing on the game at hand, rather than watching TV, listening to music, or surfing the internet while you’re playing.
Getting into the specifics, you should really watch how much money each player bets with certain hands from various spots on the table. For example, if a player goes all-in from early position with pocket 6′s, you can probably mark them down as being a pretty wild player (depending on the situation). In any case, the key is to constantly focus on your opponents while playing online poker.