Dealing with maniacs at .02/.04

[Hack]

What do I do? It seems in the past few days that a lot of people have taken to sitting at the .02/.04 tables and start raising 90% of hands they get, from any position. They also like re-raising and capping. They don't sit with a lot of money, only a dollar or so at .02/.04. I would love to bankrupt each one of these fools but the variance is becoming gigantic. Should I just try to sit to their left and re-raise them with premium hands to try and get it heads up?

I know they're betting crap hands like any ace, any king, any pair, etc.

[Bez]

I presume most players will be crap so position will become less relevant. Definitely raise and re-raise with premium hands and with suited connectors a lot. Simply by posting on this site I suspect you can beat higher limits. Maybe move up?

[Hack]

But should I move up if I have trouble consistently beating this limit? Should any decent player be able to consistently beat .02/.04, or is the variance just too high with 8 people seeing the flop and lots of capped pre-flop bets.

[Bez]

You should be able to beat it but you need 1000s of hands to see if you can due to the high variance. I'd recommend playing at higher levels that you can still comfortably afford in order to assess your ability quicker. Players are still terrible at all micro-limits but less so the higher you go (as you'd expect). I'd personally recommend playing at the highest level you can afford without negating your finances in a visible way (eg $100 bankroll may not affect your standard of living, allowing you to play much higher). Variance will still be high but not in the same league as that of your current level.

[Hack]

Gotcha. I think I understand what you're saying

.02/.04 can be beat but it will take a LOOONG run to figure itout and I am wasting my time you are saying.

I have $100 to spare. Is that enough to play .25/.50 on Stars with decent skills?

[KingOtter]

I was having the same issues at .05/.1 ... sort of. Basically people would call until the end no matter what and I could never predict what they were raising.

I still see a bit of that at .25/.5, but I was amazed at the difference of skill level between .05/.1 and .25/.5. I still see the players calling until the end, but if you can work in a check-raise it can weed those out.

At .25/.5 the trouble I'm running into is with passive players not betting their premium hands, so I get nailed at the showdown.

KO

P.S. I think the normal rule of thumb is 300BB in order to absorb a bad run. at .25/.5 you've got 200BB which is pretty good. I just had a bad run of about 140-150BB but I seem to be coming out of it now, so you may be cutting it close.

[Bez]

Unless you experience a pure rape streak. Or play drunk like myself. Stella Artois is so great. Seriously, you should beat it considering your number of posts. I presume you have been taking notice given 300+ posts. With the knowledge you have gained, I can't see you losing in the long term at that level.