The art of playing for 50 Big blinds on microstakes
Okay, I have returned the initial loan from Chris (Thanks Chris!) of $20 at PokerStars and with that, my bankroll there is now $94.  I have started buying in for 100BB or $2 now and boy I am still trying to get used to the swings involved.  It made me long for the simple days of playing only for 50BB.

Nevertheless, I don't think I should turn back now lar.  Yes, already a number of times I ran into AAs when I had KK preflop all-in and it really hurts when it is 100BB haha, and when you get drawn out at the turn or the river, losing 100BB is still no joke.  But I have decided to stick to 100BB for now, at least until my bankroll drops to $50 hehe. 

So let me "celebrate" the end of my 50BB days at Pokerstars with a simple "cookbook" recipe on how to easily win at poker 2nl with 50BB. This strategy should also work up to 10nl.  It was reading the book "Professional No Limit Hold'em" that I realized this strategy actually made use of the Stack-to-Pot ratio (henceforth SPR) as well as the Commitment Threshold that the authors were trying to teach us.  Let us dive right in.

Playing 50BB Preflop: Tight is right

When you have 50BB, you don't have much to play with so it is very important to play tight preflop.  I would recommend only playing AA-QQ and AK and AQ.  You may also play any pocket pairs 22-JJ too but only do so if you can limp into the game preflop, don't call more than a mini-raise with them and only play them after the flop if you flop a set.  Of course, when you have a set, no way are you not going all-in at 50 BB, no matter how dangerous the flop is, since there is no guarantee that your opponents have a flush or a straight and even if they do, you have a high chance of improving to a full house by the river so that hand basically plays itself.

With the monster hands AA-QQ and AK-AQ, always raise preflop by at least 4BB, meaning to 8 cents, I will come to the reason later.  The main hand you are aiming for is top pair or overpair on the flop.  The beauty of restricting yourself to those recommended hands is that once you flop top pair, you automatically have either top kicker (If you flop any pair with AK) or 2nd best kicker (if you flop a pair of aces with AQ).  Of course, if you start with AA, you will always flop top overpair and if you play KK or QQ, once the flop does not have that overcard, you are basically set.

That is the beauty of playing only the big cards.  The essential difference between big cards and speculative hands like suited connectors is that, while big cards often make the best hand on the flop with top pair top kicker, suited connectors only rarely make an even better hand like straights and flushes after the flop, meaning the turn and the river.  Suffice to say, do not play suited connectors or any ace rag hand if you are buying in for 50BB.  Your game is only to hit the flop hard with top pair. 

Playing 50BB postflop: Stack to Pot ratio and commitment threshold

This is where I will be borrowing some concepts learnt from Ed Miller et al.  The reason why it is important to raise 4BB preflop, other than the fact that top pair hands fare better with only a few opponents, is to achieve the correct SPR for top pair top kicker (TPTK) hands.  Most of the time when you raise to 4BB, you will get at least 2 callers but it is also fine if you only get one caller.  If there are two callers to your 4BB raise and they are the small and big blinds, the total pot at the flop would be 12BB.  Assuming you are the smallest stack at the table, the SPR, which you get by dividing the smallest effective stack which is yours, over the pot at the flop, will be 46/12, which will be about 4.

4 is a great SPR for playing TPTK hands.  If you have one caller, your SPR will still be below 7 so that is still fine for TPTK hands.  It basically means that, with your remaining stack, you are virtually committed to the pot.  You have passed the commitment threshold and cannot be bluffed off the hand.  Most of the time, you will get 2 suited cards or 2 roughly connected cards at the flop and it is important not to slowplay at all.  Bet 2/3 of the pot, or 9 BB if the pot is 12 BB. 

You will sometimes win the pot there but often you will get at least one caller.  Now if the turn card is a "safe" card, meaning no third suited card or no obvious straight, go all-in with your remaining money, which should be 50-4-9 = 37 BB.  If he calls that bet, very likely he will have the same top pair as you but with a weaker kicker, sometimes he will even have middle pair. Other times, he will be trying to chase his straight or flush draw. Thus, you will most of the time win the showdown. 

Conclusion

Of course, there will be times when he is trapping you or even river you with 2 pair or even a set but those will be few and far between.  Poker is always a long run game so don't worry about coolers or bad beats like that.  The beauty of playing only 50BB is that you don't really lose much when such events happen.  If you keep following the above strategy, you will always win in the long run because people at 2nl basically love any one pair regardless of kicker.