Micro Stakes Online NL Poker Forums

So I'm looking to get started going pro. I've had the idea of going pro for a few years now and its slowly gone from idea to dream. I made an attempt earlier this year at B&M casinos when I stumbled into a $10K bankroll. My partner in crime was a local dealer and he was paranoid about cheating/hacking in online play. That was a big mistake. Florida gaming laws at the time allowed a maximum of $100 buy in at any stakes game. It was just unplayable. Soon after I started, though, my house was destroyed in a fire and my car destroyed by a drunk driver, all within a span of about 2 weeks. That pretty much killed my bank roll.

As luck would have it, though, I soon thereafter met an online pro who showed me the ropes and pointed me to DC. So here I am, ready to try it one more time.

I have a much smaller bankroll this time, so my current plan is to start HU NLHE $0.05/$0.10 and work my way from there. I saw the warning in the Beginners FAQ about beginning in HU as opposed to 6Max, but I feel like HU is really my strong suit. I have a very strong grasp of psychology and recognizing patterns in play, and I think I have deadly hand reading skills for a beginner. I'd like to eventually try working 6 max games professionally and learn PLO, but for now it's HU. I'm working my way through a lot of the video's recommended in the beginners FAQ, and my friend also recommended the pr1nnyraiding series for HU play.

So a few rookie questions:

Poker Tracker3 vs Hold Em Manager? My friend uses PT3 and I'm currently using the trial, but I've seen a lot of videos here specifically dedicated to the use of HEM. Which is better, or better for what?

Where should I start playing? I'm looking at Absolute Poker. I noticed neither Poker Stars or Full Tilt offer Micro HU, and AP does. Does anyone have a better recommendation for Micro HU?

Maybe I haven't worked my way through enough of the videos yet, but how important of a stat is VPIP in relation to HU vs other games like 6max? I mean in most hands 75% of the money is blinds so I'm curious as to how that affects VPIP or how PT3/HEM would factor that in to calculating VPIP.

My friend showed me pokertableratings.com for looking up player histories, but I've noticed he will use a few others sometimes. Any recommendations/advice on this?

Any other general advice anyone thinks I may need for the the way I'm looking to begin would also be greatly appreciated.

I'm not going to address the ideas of you going pro, since those have been well covered in similar past threads. If you haven't read them, a forum search would be a good idea.

HEM is more or less an industry standard at this point, which isn't to say that PT3 is a bad product. I use HEM, and am happy with it.

For micro HU cash games, you'll have to play either on Cereus (AP) or Cake, if you're in the US, afaik. Please note that even though the players in these games are lolbad, the rake is brutal. Other sites don't offer <50nl HU, so if you played on another site and are stuck on the idea of playing HU, HU SNGs are your only other option. They play quite a bit differently, though, but are also raked a lot less than micro HU cash, and don't require quite as strict BRM.

HU cash is much more related to your opponent's strategy than other games, imo (they should all be played in an exploitive manner, but there is no having to "get through" players in a HU setting). Don't worry about stats too much. Just raise as many buttons as your opponent will allow you to, and conform your out of position strategy to your opponent. Watch Pr1nnyraiding (as your friend recommended) and Dogisheadsup. HEM/PT will only count hands where you either raised or called a raise for VPIP, but for the sake of your HUD you'll want a BTN VPIP and SB VPIP stat, rather than a general aggregate of the two.

PTR is going to be against most sites' T&C, but for the sake of playing weaker opponents a lot of HU players will just look at PTR to get a general overview of how profitable an opponent is likely to be. But at 10nl HU, that's not really an issue. My general advice for game-selection at those stakes is to play anybody, and only quit nits -- if by some fortune you're playing somebody who is good for the stakes, I might quit them too. Again, the rake is horrible, so you'll want as big of an edge to compensate for that. And get rakeback!

If you want to play HU < 50nl then definitely play HUSNG. Don't even bother with .05/.1 HU cash the rake is just too brutal.

I am not a HU specialist nor a pro, so I have little to add, but here is my 2cents.

a) Online will be like 3 stakes more difficult to live from what I hear.
b) Never overlook bankrollmanagement. I have seen countless people blogging they have busted, and I think it is way more common in HU players. Of course, if you can and don't mind reloading, it won't apply.
c) "Dogisheadsup" is a very good video to watch.

and welcome to DC!

Thanks for all the feedback. I honestly didn't think that anyone would have SNG Micro HU tables, but yeah I saw a few at AP and that might look like a good place to start. Should I be reviewing any SNG video's or would they not really apply to HU SNG's?

there's definitely pretty major differences between HU cash and HU sngs - mostly the high blind stuff. bones has a new series called 'two men enter' which would be a good place to start and of course pr1nnyraiding and dogisheadsup are great.

yeah, i might be getting a break on the rake, but table selection goes right out the window in HU SNG's. i guess the trade off is worth it at these stakes though. thanks for all the advice everyone, you've been really helpful.

If you want to play professionally you will need to spend more time playing 6max than HU so I think your time is probably better spent learning 6 max.

Also I would just skip learning NL and jump into PLO asap since the games are softer and you have a better chance of getting ahead of the curve.