What Poker Stakes Should You Play?

The lower the stakes the more it favors gamblers, and the higher the stakes the more it favors skilled players.

Why?

Because at the lower stakes, the cost is cheap and opponents that should be folding their hands will call with poor or mediocre hands hoping to hit a miracle card. When you have enough opponents gambling on miracle cards, one of them will certainly get lucky and beat you even if you are playing solid poker. I call this theory, the “collusion of donkeys”. At the higher stakes, the cost is expensive so opponents must have good hands or have to fold when the odds are not in their favor.

At lower stakes, you will lose money because of the collusion of donkeys effect, but if you have the skills to have an edge over other players at higher stakes you will earn money.

I knew about this collusion of donkeys theory at the lower stakes and I used to avoid such games, but on my recent Las Vegas trip because I’ve been so out of practice I felt I had to warm up at the low stakes $4/$8 LHE game. This was a mistake! There was no need for me to play at the $4/$8 LHE level when my regular game that I would play with a positive win-rate is $15/$30 LHE. I switched from $4/$8 LHE to $8/$16 LHE and immediately noticed it was a much more disciplined game and I started having a positive win-rate earning $44.74 per hour, which is an Expected Value (EV) of almost 3x the big bet (3x $16). Players would actually fold if someone raised, and the collusion of donkeys calling to the river was nearly eliminated. Oftentimes the hand ended on the flop after a player would bet.

This chart shows generally what is considered the stakes for micro-stakes, low-stakes, mid-stakes, high-stakes, and nosebleed-stakes:

If you are playing for fun, sure by all means splash around in the micro-stakes and very low-stakes.

But if you are playing career-poker, then play as high as you can as your skill and experience and bankroll allows you. I’ve played as high as mid-stakes $30/$60 LHE and the game is dramatically different from $15/$30 LHE. I did not possess the skills to have a positive EV at $30/$60 LHE and had to stay at the $15/$30 LHE level and test the $20/$40 LHE level before moving up. If you’re playing career-poker, you always have to be testing your skills at the next level whenever you can so that it becomes your new baseline.