Although the low stakes cash games do have some solid players participating in them, you have to realise that the vast majority of the players who frequent these games are bad at poker. You will often come up against a player who puts you in some difficult spots and you will label him as being a good aggressive player. He's probably not a good aggressive player, though. He's probably pretty terrible and the aggression masks his lack of skills for a while.
Bad players come in all different shapes and sizes. Some play excessively tight. Others play too passively. It is up to you as a poker player to identify them, exploit them and take their money.
I recently spent six weeks in Las Vegas where I played a few hours of $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em. This was the lowest stakes spread by any casino there. The games were nine-handed, although there were many occasions where players stepped out of the game leaving the active players to play six or seven-max.
These low stakes games are frequented by gamblers; usually a mixture of loose-passive limpers and crazy over-betters. Both of these player types are profitable opponents, although they can often frustrate you when they turn up with all sorts of crazy two pair-type hands or they blow you off your draw for the umpteenth time that session. Bide your time, however, and their chips will migrate into your stack.
Here are some pointers for beating low stakes games:
Tight-aggressive is the way to play
Tight-aggressive does not necessarily mean playing like a nit and only playing aces, kings and queens, but it does mean you should have solid starting hand requirements. Also, once you decide to play a pot, you are going to attempt to win that pot. There is no point going in half-hearted, that pot is yours!
Look for hands that play well / are easy to play post-flop
Pairs can make sets, suited connectors can make straights and flushes and suited aces can cooler non-ace-high flushes. Players of low stakes games have a difficult time letting go of pairs and any flush so by playing hands that can cooler them to death is a good idea.
Don't be drawn into multi-way pots with bad hands
Most pots are going to be contested three or four handed, which gives you odds to limp in on the button or play from the blinds. Don't do it. Save your chips. Of course, if you have a hand that could flop well then get into that pot, just don't be tempted to start playing Jd-2d to a raise and three callers because you're going to get yourself into a whole world of pain. Patience is the key, grasshopper.
Listen to your opponents' betting
Many players play their hands face up by the way they bet and by how much they bet. I lost count of the number of times I would see a player call a river raise from the world's tightest player or from a guy who had only shown up with the nuts when he raised on fifth street and then moan that they had to call. No you didn't, son. When Nitty McNittison calls your bets preflop, on the flop, the turn and then raises the river when the flush comes in HE HAS THE FLUSH ALMOST ALWAYS. That leads us onto...
Don't get married to your big hands
Looking down at ace or kings is a superb situation, but in low stakes games you can often raise 3-4 times the big blind and still receive five callers. As-Ac may be an 82% favourite over a random hand, but throw in three random hands and that equity drops to 64%. Make those three random hands 98o, JTs and QJo and the flop Tc-9d-5d and suddenly our aces only have 39% equity.
Play your big hands aggressively, but make sure you can let them go if all signs point towards you being beaten.
Low stakes cash games can be profitable because of the sheer number of mistakes players in those games make. Cut out your own mistakes and you should see your profits start to soar.