Is it Still Possible to Make Decent Money in Micro Stakes?

[danieldeangelo]

I'm playing 5NL ($0.02/$0.05) and the rake feels incredibly high. I feel like I'm playing well, but my bankroll is barely moving. Is it realistic to try and build a bankroll just from playing these stakes, or is the main goal just to learn and get out as fast as possible? What's a "good" win rate to aim for here?

 

[Spielkind]

Play not for winning, only a little, still so long with 200bb in background. Use + 150bb to level up till you are sure to feel good at this level...... minus 50-from 200 go down till 100+ bb.. Good luck and read and check positions and play wisely.

 

[Aballinamion]

I'm playing 5NL ($0.02/$0.05) and the rake feels incredibly high. I feel like I'm playing well, but my bankroll is barely moving. Is it realistic to try and build a bankroll just from playing these stakes, or is the main goal just to learn and get out as fast as possible? What's a "good" win rate to aim for here?

Yeah, I don't think it's possible to make any real money at the lowest limits. For me, the whole point of grinding micro stakes was just to build a bankroll to move up to NL10 and beyond. But after years of playing, I never quite got good enough to make that jump, which is the main reason I quit taking it seriously.
But that doesn't mean you should give up on the game, no way! I think it's better to look at micro stakes as just the first rung on a long ladder. Sure, the winrate can seem crazy high sometimes, but even if you grind for hours and hours, it's just not worth your time—even with a positive expected value. What is worth it is building a decent bankroll so you can finally play NL10 and higher. The real endgame is getting to NL100, where the profits actually become viable for an average reg.
Depending on where you live, you can even make some decent cash at NL25, but that really depends, ya know?
For me, NL2 and NL5 are like elementary school for poker—it's where you just learn to read, write, and do basic math. NL10 and NL25 are like high school; the gameplay gets more complex, the opponents are sharper, and there aren't as many fish just swimming around. NL50 is your undergrad degree. After you finish that, you can move to NL100, which is kinda like a Master's degree. NL200 would be your PhD. And anything above that, like NL500 and NL1000? That's the post-doc life.
They're all just phases, each with a different difficulty level, and each one demands that you learn new technical skills about the game, your opponents, and, most importantly, yourself.

 

[Station_Master]

10bb/100 or more is achievable at 5NL. In $ amounts its not alot, but once you have a reasonable sample at a decent winrate you should have the bankroll to move up to 10NL

 

[Jpatch]

What is decent money? 20$ per hour? You will need to multitable quite a bit to achieve that on micro stakes.

If that hourly rate is too low for you then either you deposit and go up stakes or find another stream of income.

The house always wins.

 

[eetenor]

You can win at micro stakes but you would not do so playing a standard strategy. You have to be able to read the table dynamics and know that there is more than 1 "spot" on the table. If the table is not offering large pots often, you need to quit and find other tables.
then while playing you want to get max value from your hands which means betting pot and over pot often with your best hands--You can slow play but you really do not want to do that. If you are on a table where you have to slow play to win smaller pots you may want to leave that table. the reason is the smaller the pots we win and the combo of rake and variance that occurs can destroy our win rate in that type of game.

 

[KeyPatience]

Definitely yes as long as you manage to preserve and then increase it with steady discipline!

 

[thedarkman]

Cash games are a total loss, micro-stakes especially. Sit there for three hours and the rake will eat you.

 

[Lux12]

At 5NL the rake is very high (around 11–12 big blinds per 100 hands), which makes long-term bankroll building tough. A “good” win rate here is about 5–8 BB/100, but realistically most players use 5NL mainly to learn fundamentals and move up once they’re comfortable

 

[letpic]

At NL10 you can do a very good money in a month

 

[BaldHead]

Yes, it is still possible to make money at micro stakes, but it’s important to understand a few things.
First, the money there is small. Even if you play well, the income is usually not very big. However, at micro stakes there are many weak players who make simple mistakes. If you play with discipline and avoid tilting, you can stay consistently profitable.
Second, micro stakes are more about learning. It’s a good place to improve your strategy in games like Texas Hold’em or Pot-Limit Omaha, learn to read opponents, and manage your bankroll properly.
But there are also some difficulties. Nowadays many players watch training videos and read strategy guides, so the field is stronger than it was 10–15 years ago. In addition, the rake (commission) at micro stakes is quite noticeable.
Simply put:
yes, you can make money, but most of the time it’s either a small side income or a step toward moving up to higher stakes. ♠️

 

[burro]

The micro stakes player pool has changed significantly over the past few years. There are still plenty of recreational players at NL2 and NL5, but there are also more regulars who study the game seriously, use solvers, and have access to the same free training content that used to be exclusive to higher stakes players. The days of simply playing tight-aggressive and printing money at the micros are largely over.

That said, I do believe it's still possible to be profitable at micro stakes — for a few reasons.

First, recreational players haven't disappeared. They've just become a smaller percentage of the pool. If you practice good table selection and consistently sit in games with weaker players, your edge is still very real.

Second, most micro stakes regulars still make significant mistakes — they over-fold to aggression, they don't balance their ranges properly, and they play too many tables at once without paying attention. These are all exploitable tendencies that a focused player can take advantage of.

Third, the rake is the real enemy at micro stakes, not the competition. Finding sites with lower rake or rakeback deals can make a significant difference to your bottom line.

For me, micro stakes right now is less about making life-changing money and more about building solid fundamentals, bankroll discipline, and experience before moving up. If you approach it with that mindset, the question of whether it's "worth it" becomes much easier to answer.

 

[martinoni]

Studying and dominating the field I really believe in so!

 

[MAFNL16061986]

it is possible if the pot is pretty high enough and end up high into the money