There are high rollers who can play for very high stakes and can afford to lose a lot of money. For the vast majority of poker players, the poker stakes are a very important factor in how they play the game. So. Let’s take a deep dive into the world of poker stakes.
From Very Low Stakes to Very High Stakes
The vast majority of poker players start at low stakes and move up. This is especially important for new poker tournament players. They don’t necessarily start at very low stakes and move to very high stakes but their course in poker takes a low to high or higher trajectory.
If a poker player goes from high stakes to low stakes, it is normally a sign that they should stop playing poker!
What Can We Learn from the Stakes?
As a general rule, low stakes poker players have less experience at the game than players at higher stakes have. Keep in mind that this is a general rule! There are poker players who thrive at low stakes!
This simple fact teaches us that when we sit down to play online poker here at Juicy Stakes, we have to feel out our opponents. We need to try to determine if the mistake a player made on a hand was a real mistake or a misdirection, a “mistake” designed to make the other players think that she or he doesn’t know what they are doing!
Bluffing in Poker is the Classic Form of Misdirection
We are all aware that almost every hand will have some form of bluffing. In fact, most of the reason new players are advised to start at low stakes is because it takes a long time to learn how to bluff and how to read a bluff. At low stakes, a poor read on a hand won’t cost the player a lot of money while at high stakes, a simple mistake will cost players dearly!
Low Stakes Do Not Call for Low Attention
This is a common mistake that new players make. At higher stakes, they know that they have to pay close attention to every hand. At low stakes, especially at very low stakes, many players let their attention waver.
This is also very common on hands that the player has folded out of.
Why Do Poker Players Fold so Often?
Once again, new players playing at low stakes often feel that they can play a lot of hands “at least to see the flop”. We repeat as often as we can that this is an incorrect approach to improving one’s poker!
A much better way to improve at poker is to follow the book for a good long while until you feel confident in staying in a hand with a lesser hand in the hole. It takes a long time to develop enough feel for a hand and for one’s opponents to feel confident staying in a hand with just a king high hand.
Position and the Cards are the Main Reasons Poker Players Fold so Often
Most dealt hands are too weak to call with. Most players are out of position when they are dealt a medium hand. New players should start out folding all of these hands which amount to about 70% of all the hands they are dealt.
Now, players who are paying attention on every hand will see that if a player is betting by the book, their hand will be close to an open book when they do bet. So it is important to develop a feel for when it is appropriate to bet with a medium strength hand.
Only the top pros can stay in a hand with a patently weak hand!
Risk is a Kind of Misdirection
There is a kind of contradiction in terms when poker players play at low stakes. The risk to most players is small so the incentive is to play just for fun. If that is how a player feels about playing poker, so be it! Poker is a great deal of fun in its own right.
Still, we feel that poker is even more fun when a player learns from as many hands as possible so that they can move to higher stakes and still feel that the financial risk is manageable!
How Can a Player Win Big at Low Stakes?
The key to winning big at low stakes is to pay better attention than all of the opponents and to be able to take advantage of every mistake or tell an opponent makes.
This is why we say that some players thrive at low stakes. They are more attentive, learn more from every hand, learn more deeply from every session, and are able to incorporate their knowledge from the earliest hands in a session.
What if an Opponent is a Similar Player?
Players who thrive at low stakes also can quickly identify an opponent who also thrives at low stakes. One way to deal with that situation is simply to leave the game and find more malleable opponents. Another way to deal with that situation is to turn the session into a game of wits where you try to fool that single opponent as often as possible.
Players who choose the second route usually feel that the learning curve was in their favor even if they lost money in the session! Remember, playing at low stakes presents a small financial risk to most players! We might say that the amount learned at a low stakes poker session was well worth the “investment”!
Juicy Stakes Offers Online Poker at Many Stakes Levels
Players can always find a game at a stakes level at which they feel comfortable. Once you join a game in progress, you are on your own to get the most out of the session whether that means winning money or gaining knowledge and experience or both!
Juicy Stakes also offers many online poker tournaments. Once again, these tournaments may be for high or low stakes! We feel that every player should be aware of himself or herself and play at the skill level best suited to their bankroll and poker knowledge.
Juicy Stakes Offers Good Advice
As this article attest, we at Juicy Stakes Poker publish many helpful articles for our many online poker players. For the finest in online poker, we urge you to JOIN JUICY STAKES POKER!
