Online Poker » Best Poker Sites » Best Low Stakes Poker Sites

Few beginning online poker players dive directly in to high stakes poker games as they either not yet confident in their skills, do not feel like investing an adequate amount of money in the poker site or want to take the opportunity to learn how the poker site works before moving on to higher stakes. The best low stakes poker sites offer stakes as low as $0.01/$0.02 for all game types and varieties. The definition of what level stakes constitutes low stakes is often subjective. Many players view the cut off between low stakes and medium stakes at the $3.00/$6.00 level. For most online poker players, the high stakes level then begins when the stakes reach the $10.00/$20.00 level. In reality, the view of low stakes depends entirely on how much the player is willing to risk on an online poker game and the size of their bankroll.

Best Low Stakes Poker Sites - PokerStars

PokerStars offers a variety of low stakes poker games that start at $0.01/$0.02 and move up through $0.02/$0.04, $0.05/$0.10 and through to the $2.00 range. For low stakes tournament players, PokerStars also offers a great deal of multi table tournaments that begin about every 2 minutes. Lo buy in tournaments at PokerStars range from $1.00 to $5.00.

Best Low Stakes Poker Sites - Full Tilt Poker

Low stakes poker games at Full Tilt Poker start at $0.01/$0.02 and progress up through the higher limit games. Sit N Go games are available for all game varieties for as low as $1.00. For all game varieties available at Full Tilt Poker, 63 tournaments are available each week for $5.00. If you enjoy satellite tournaments, you can also access these tournaments for as low as $4.00.

Best Low Stakes Poker Sites - Absolute Poker

Absolute Poker offers low stakes games in Texas Holdem, Omaha, Razz and mixed games that start at $0.01/$0.02. However, stakes immediately progress up to the $0.05/$0.10 limit after micro stakes. Freeroll tournaments and $1.00 + $0.10 guaranteed tournaments are very popular at Absolute Poker and available throughout the day.

Why is Low Stakes Poker Popular?

One of the reasons that low stakes poker is popular is that the buy in for the poker game is kept within reason for most poker players. The idea of online poker progression is that a beginning player can start with low stakes poker games and, over a series of several years, progress to the point where they can play high stakes poker games while still risking the same relative percentage of their bankroll as they did with low stakes. For example, the best low stakes poker sites offer low deposit minimums such as $20.00. The logical starting point with a $20.00 bankroll is at the micro stakes games of $0.01/$0.02. This means that, even if they are having a particularly poor session, they still have an adequate bankroll from which to build back up.

One important thing to remember with cash game buy ins is that the minimum buy in is typically equal to 100 times the small blind at the best low stakes poker sites. In this way, the minimum buy in for a low stakes poker game is $1.00. The maximum buy in is, likewise, 100 times the big blind - for the micro stakes game, $2.00. With high stakes games, even participating in a game can require a very large bankroll. For example, while $5.00/$10.00 stakes might sound too high to a beginning poker player, the buy in for such a game would be $500.00 to $1,000.00. Many beginning poker players choose the best low stakes poker sites because higher stakes would completely consume or exceed their entire bankroll. This would mean that one mistake or strike of bad luck, and all of your money would be lost to a single hand.

Finding the Best Low Stakes Poker Sites

The best low stakes poker sites are usually easy to find as the vast majority of poker sites on the Internet will consist of many players with small bankrolls that prefer to stick to micro stakes games such as $0.01/$0.02 or $0.05/$0.10. The best low stakes poker sites cannot center their low stakes only on cash games, however. These sites should also offer a wide range of tournaments with low buy ins - even a large amount of freerolls. The best low stakes poker sites recognize that there are a great deal of beginning poker players on their site and develop their software and web site to both allow these players to compete and hone their skills along with way with training materials and resources.

Low Stakes Poker Strategy

Low stakes poker strategy focuses on making good poker decisions rather than trying to win as much money as possible to advance. The best low stakes poker sites will offer a great deal of low stakes site traffic so you have no shortage of choices when selecting your game. Use low stakes poker as a way to learn the finer points of the game and break some bad habits - particularly in psychological poker play. For example, you might fold a pocket consisting of Ace, Nine when facing both a big raise and poor position but then see a flop with three Nines. This can be painful to bear. However, based on good poker strategy, you still made a good decision. Poor poker players will see this as a sign and not fold a single hand for the rest of the hand. Good poker players will see this as a bit of bad luck and forget about it right away.

You should also never forget that the ultimate idea of low stakes poker is progression. If you play proper tight poker will you are still learning but never progress to higher limits, your hourly earning rate will likely be just below minimum wage. If you are playing casually at the best low stakes poker sites, this might seem alright. However, you should always be looking towards using the low stakes to learn the game and build a bankroll to eventually advance to higher stakes play. A solid low stakes poker strategy is to use a tight aggressive approach where you play about 30% of the hands that you are dealt and play them forcefully - with a strong pre flop raise.