Enjoy Online Poker at Low Limit with this Detailed Guide
You don’t need to be a high roller to enjoy online poker. In fact, there are more cash games and tournaments available at the lowest stakes than big buy-in games. This guide takes you through everything you know to get the best from low limit poker sites – including a strategy overview for the different game formats.
Apr 08, 2020 A low stakes poker game is a $2/$4 Limit Hold’em, also known as ‘2/4 limit.’ So, if you want to play poker in Las Vegas for the first time, you should start with a low-limit game. Here are the best poker rooms you can find in Vegas if you’re a poker newbie. If you yet cannot make it to Las Vegas, you can go to various online casinos. Online you can play for $1 per hand or round in games like blackjack and craps. You can also play for 5-cents per hand in video poker and for as little as one penny in slots. And if you think betting low limits like $1 per hand or one penny per line is child’s play, give me a couple minutes to convince you otherwise.
Here is what you will find below:
Online Poker Rooms Spreading Low Limit Poker
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What Counts as Low Limit Poker?
In a live casino, the smallest stakes poker games are $1 / $2 – with a buy-in of $200. When you go online, you’ll find the games start a lot lower than this. Almost every online poker site will have games with 1c / 2c blinds. Your maximum buy-in for these is $2, though you do not always need a full stack. As you can imagine, play is loose and wild at these levels – making the games easy to beat.
If the penny games are too small for you, there are always options to play ‘bigger’. Cash games have buy-ins at $5, $10, $25, $50 and up from there to the high stakes. You’ll find that the standard of play dramatically improves at 10c / 25c blinds and above. This is the smallest level that multi-tabling grinders use to generate an income.
Tournaments start with buy-ins at 50c to $1. Those games often attract large fields of recreational players. To win in those games you’ll need to survive a lot of bad beats. Low limit tournaments are available anywhere between $2 and $10. Above this level you will find players who sit in a lot of games and have a decent level of strategy knowledge.
For the purposes of this guide to small buy-in tournament poker rooms, I’ll cover deposits between $10 and $50.
Pros and Cons of Low Limit Poker Sites
Getting started with online poker is easy, even with the smallest bankrolls. While there are a lot of benefits to starting small, there are also some drawbacks. Here is what to look out for:
Pros:
Easy to beat games: With so many opponents having no concept of poker strategy, you should be able to turn a profit.
Big Choice: Not only can you enjoy all the formats at low-limits, there will be a big choice of tables – meaning you can find plenty of profitable situations.
Bonuses and Incentives: Poker rooms offer welcome bonuses for the smallest deposits (as well as bigger ones). Look out for extras like tournament entries and beginner-only tables.
Cons:
Frustrating Beats: The nature of players at the smallest stakes means you will inevitably get bad-beats. Opponents with any 2 cards sometimes get lucky and crack your aces. Keep in mind that solid play will get you the money over time!
Big Tournament Fields: Low-Limit tournaments tend to attract huge fields. While this increases the prize pool, it also means you’ll need to play for many hours to have a shot at reaching the final table.
Loyalty Tiers Harder to Climb: Poker site loyalty schemes require you to collect points from real money games. At the lowest stakes these can accumulate slowly.
Low Limit Poker Cash Games
Cash games describes the poker format where the chips in front of you have a real monetary value. If you win a $10 pot, then your bankroll increases by exactly this amount. There are 4 main formats for these games at almost every poker site:
Full Ring: These games are 9 or 10 handed.
6-Max: Six players this time, with 4-max also spread at some sites
Heads-up: You can play cash games against a single opponent
Fast-Fold: This format includes names like Zone Poker or Zoom. You go to a new hand as soon as you fold, with players from a large pool.
All poker sites have a huge choice of games at these limits. They are characterized by loose, passive play, with a lot of players seeing each flop. With only small amounts of money at stake, players are reluctant to fold. If someone connects with the flop even slightly, or has a draw, you can expect them to call bets all the way to the river.
Strategy for beating these games is simple. You’ll get an immediate edge on the field simply by playing fewer hands. By folding more often, you will have a card strength advantage when you do get pots. Avoiding the ‘passive’ (limping and calling) style – and playing your good hands aggressively will win you the money. Add to this awareness of playing in position – and your edge will be magnified.
Low limit cash games are high-variance. With so many opponents calling bets with marginal holdings, there is always the risk someone will ‘catch up’. Keep in mind that this style of play will lose them money over the long-run. As long as you stick to solid ‘ABC Poker’, you will profit over time.
Small Buy-in Poker Tournaments
The smallest buy-in poker tournaments are free. Known as ‘freerolls’, these games are used as promotions or loyalty rewards. At the bigger sites, you’ll be battling with 1000’s of opponents for some real money prizes. Fields in these are a mix of people who simply don’t care (going all in every hand), and players with little idea of poker strategy. Getting to the money is tough, as you’ll have to survive spots where opponents playing any two cards hit unlikely flops!
While there is a jump in the number of players who take the game seriously once you get to tournaments with real money buy-ins, the standard is still poor. Loose, wild players in the early stages create a dilemma. Playing against them is risky, as you never know what hand they might turn up with. At the same time, if you don’t take their chips, you’ll have to fight for them in pots with better players during the later stages.
Again, simple, solid ‘ABC Poker’ will win over time. Play better hands (on average) than your opponents – and play them aggressively from position. You need to build a stack, as the profit from tournaments comes from those times you hit the final table. Playing overly tight to get into the money is not a profitable strategy over time.
There are a lot of tournament formats to choose from at the lower limits. These include rebuys, turbo games and tournaments where each player has a bounty – awarded to whichever player knocks them out. I recommend checking out satellite qualifiers. These start from just a few dollars, and have prizes of tickets to bigger buy-in tournaments.
What Other Low-Limit Poker Games are Available?
Sit N Goes are a great way to build your small deposit into a bigger bankroll. The most popular format is a 1-table tournament. 3 players get paid, with the winner getting 50% of the prize pool. Strategy for these is different to a multi-table tournament. You’ll need to stay tight earl – and learn the math for the all-in or fold strategy when only one or two players need to be eliminated before the cash.
Lottery Sit N Goes are a fast and enjoyable variation. These games allow low-limit players to win big prizes. The key feature is random prize pools, which are decided after the game starts. The exact format varies from site to site, though 3 handed and super-fast blinds is the common theme. It is possible to win 10,000x your buy-in via these games.
It is not just Texas Hold’em that can be enjoyed for a small buy-in. Omaha poker variations are rising in popularity. These games have 4 hole-cards instead of 2. You can play ‘Pot Limit Omaha’, Omaha Hi-lo or even exotic 5 and 6 card variations. Blinds start at just 1c / 2c – making these games accessible to even the smallest bankrolls.
Depositing at Low-Limit Poker Sites
If you are only depositing small amounts, you will not want to pay fees (which could take up a large percentage of your bankroll). In general, the smallest amount you can deposit is between $10 and $20. This will depend on the site, and the method you choose to deposit with. I recommend you check the bonus terms before you make a payment. You might find that adding a small amount to your deposit gets you extra benefits like tournament entries or matched welcome deals.
US players can deposit with Visa or MasterCard credit cards, prepaid Visa cards, Bitcoin or money transfers (for example MoneyGram). If you are outside the US, there are many more options available. These include PayPal, Skrill, Neteller, local bank transfers and virtual visa cards.
The guide to small deposit poker sites here at GambleOnline.co has details of these options.
Which Low Limit Poker Sites are Legitimate / Safe?
Every player likes to make sure that the poker room they deposit at is safe before parting with money. Fortunately, there are a lot of options out there with rooms which have been running for many years – and looking after players fairly and responsibly.
Poker rooms have a big interest in maintaining their reputation for fairness. Once this has gone, the poker playing community will soon move elsewhere. You will find reviews of the biggest and best brands here. For US players, I recommend you check out Bovada Poker or BetOnline – both sites have been running for years and are known for fast pay-outs.
International players have a huge choice. This includes many rooms which were around since the beginning of online poker and have remained scandal-free throughout. Party Poker, 888 Poker and Bet365 all have big brand respect – and welcome low-limit players to their rooms.
Wrapping Up: Is Low-Limit Poker Right for You?
Enjoying online poker does not need a huge bankroll. Games start with blinds at penny-levels, and tournaments at less than $1. The low standard of play, and lack of strategy knowledge of your opponents at these levels means you should be able to beat the games. Keep in mind that the loose / passive style (and many opponents seeing each flop) can be frustrating – especially when a bad player gets lucky and hits that miracle river.
With solid, aggressive play, and a view to the long term – you could be moving up to the bigger buy-ins before you know it!
Nathan Williams
Low stakes cash games almost by definition are supposed to be easy. After all, these games are often populated by some of the least skilled players that exist. Then as you play higher and higher limits, the competition becomes increasingly more competent and even world class at the highest stakes.
However, not all small stakes cash games are created equal. This is often the case right now for online poker players, especially those playing from places where the options are limited. Players are sometimes forced to play in relatively tough lineups online, even for very small amounts of money.
In this article I am going to discuss some of the best ways to beat tough low stakes cash games.
Succeeding Against Competent Low Stakes Poker Players
If there is one weakness that most competent players at the lower stakes have in common, it is an unwillingness to put big money in the middle without the nuts.
They will often pretend to be strong by making aggressive plays early on while the pot is relatively small, but once big portions of their stack are at risk, they will back down unless they have a really strong hand. And, of course, the great thing about poker is that it is really hard to make a strong hand.
Understanding this can lead to many profitable situations at the lower stakes where if you just have a little bit more heart than your opponent, you can take away many pots with little or nothing.
Now this doesn’t mean that you should turn into a maniac and start double-floating or raising the river every single hand. That’s a recipe for disaster. The key to taking away more pots versus competent poker players is all about knowing their tendencies.
More precisely, this means knowing who the weak players are.
Identifying the Weak Players at the Lower Stakes
One of the easiest ways to spot the weaker players is by looking at how often they go to showdown. If you are playing online and are using a HUD, then you can simply refer to their WTSD% (went to showdown %).
Players who are averse to playing bigger pots without a strong hand will often be on the low end here. Typically when I spot somebody whose WTSD% is in the low 20’s or below, I can almost be certain that this is the type of player who can be moved off of hands.
Now there is one important caveat to using this stat — you need to make sure that you have a decent sample size on the player. If a player has only gone to showdown five times, for instance, then this stat could be wildly off the mark. This is why I always like to have at least a couple hundred hands on my opponent before relying too heavily on this statistic.
If you are not using a HUD, another way to identify the weaker players at the lower limits is simply to pay attention to the frequency of pots they win and the types of hands they are showing down.
If they tend to play a “fit or fold” type of game — e.g., making just a single continuation bet and then giving up if they don’t get the fold — then this is the type of player who you want to float against a lot and take pots away from. Weaker players will also rarely show up with a bluff or call down with a weaker hand like middle or bottom pair.
Taking Pots Away From the Weaker Players
There are a few other important points to consider when you are looking to win more pots versus the weaker players in these games.
1. Frequency
First, you need to make sure you aren’t trying to bluff the same player every single time. You need to lay off and just let them have the pot from time to time.
Otherwise you run the risk of appearing like a maniac to a particular player and forcing that player to start fighting back. You want to make aggressive plays just often enough in order to make it believable.
2. Equity in the Pot
Secondly, you want to make sure that you have some equity in the pot when you are making an aggressive play. There is often no reason to run a bluff when you literally have nothing at all. Always try to have a least some sort of weak draw like a gutshot, or a semi-playable hand if making a move preflop.
On the river, of course, sometimes it will make sense to bet or raise with absolutely nothing because this is the only way to win the pot. However, on all previous streets always make sure that you have outs.
3. Board Texture and Situation
Lastly, it is very important that you make aggressive plays in the right spots and in the right situations. For instance, it is not a good idea to three-bet light preflop versus a tight player who opened under the gun. Most people will open with their tightest range from early position.
It would make much more sense to make this play versus someone opening from the button or the cutoff. The reason why is that most people will open with their widest range from late position because they are often just trying to steal the blinds.
Postflop, a similar logic applies. If you are the preflop caller it isn’t a good idea to make aggressive plays on Broadway heavy boards like . Somebody who raises preflop is more likely to have some of these cards in their range.
It is a much better idea to semi-bluff on a board that is wet and has lower cards — e.g., like . As the preflop caller, you are more likely to have cards that connect with a board like this. And more importantly your opponent is less likely to have connected in any major way with these kinds of boards.
If you are the preflop raiser, the exact opposite applies. You should absolutely use scare cards such as an or a to your advantage. A weaker player will often let go of a middle pair-type hand because they are afraid that you hit the Broadway cards that you are representing.
Final Thoughts
Best Low Stakes Online Poker Strategy
You are never going to “crush” a tough lineup of decent players at the lower stakes. Your opponents simply do not make enough big fundamental mistakes in order for this to happen.
In fact, the best approach to these games is actually not to play in them at all. There should always be at least one really bad player at the table when you are playing at stakes this low. But for various reasons this is not always possible in today’s online poker environment.
Hopefully if you do find yourself at a tough low stakes table, some of the strategies outlined in this article will help you gain a bit of an edge versus the more competent players in these games.
Best Low Stakes Online Poker
Nathan “BlackRain79” Williams is the author of the popular micro stakes strategy books, Crushing the Microstakes and Modern Small Stakes. He also blogs regularly about all things related to the micros over at www.blackrain79.com.
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Best Low Stakes Online Poker Sites
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