My new thing

[PShabi]

After a brief stab at 5/10 6-max at Party, where I dropped 50 bets I decided that I liked shorthanded play, but wanted a smaller stakes game. 1/2 was not gonna cut it, so I did some research and found that I could find some games at 3/6 thru a Pokerroom skin. Some rakeback was available and I gave it a shot.

Wow. Seriously, play money. The tables are only 5-max and you will literally have TABLE avgs of 50% VP$IP, 7% PFR. You rarely have more than one person at your table who's playing sub 50% before the flop. 60 and 70% is not uncommon. But they're not like the Party maniacs. They are ssooooooo passive. They will fish to the river with any hand trying to pair, or call down with bottom pair on any board. Raises are seriously very rare and you can lay down safely to a lot of the players.

There's only about 4 or 5 tables of 3/6SH at once and 80% of the players are terrible. You can pretty much play ABC and make cash. Not to mention I'm getting in 100 hand/hour at each table. I'm only 2-tabling cause the games move super quick, but my rakeback is at damn near 1BB/100 hands!

It's unreal. You do have to get ready to swing though. Tonight I went up $100, down $10, up $100, down $5 at one table. However, these players are so bad that it would be almost impossible to not beat them in the long run.

Looks like I'll be cleaning up while in the minors trying to get the balls back up for 5/10 round 2.

BTW: I will never, ever, ever go back to playing full ring games again. I sat in a full game waiting for a short table to open up last night and I couldn't do it anymore. First, it is sooooooo crowded. And it takes to long to play a hand.

Once you go 6-max, you never go back.

[GeoffM]

I hear you Shabi, 6 max is the schizel my nizel.

[Talking Poker]

Damn straight. I love shorhanded play.

I played at Poker Room's 5 max tables for a long time and absolutely killed them. Then I hit a sick, sick, sick streak that cost me I don't even know how much money. I could look it up, but I'd rather not. Let's call it a $1500-2000 skid though. It was insane. Hand after hand, session after session. I withdrew what I had left at the site (still well ahead in total), and called it quits.

I've gone back for a bonus now and then, but I don't play there nearly as much as I used to. It's funny... I know it's not "rigged" and could have happened anywhere, but it's like that site left a bad taste in my mouth and it's difficult to picture myself winning there. So I left.

[GeoffM]

As soon as I finish my stupid bonus over there, I'm so off that site. Fuck, driving me up the wall for some reason.

My game has gone to shit lately for no apparent reason. This little sobatical I am taking hopefully will get me out of my funk. My roll has been pretty much frozen (aside from the 3 party bonuses I did ) as of late.

I'm starting to think maybe wait until Party's June reload to get back into the swing of things.

But I do miss poker .

[Zybomb]

I dunno if its me, but I feel more comfortable at the 9 (or 10) person tables than the six max. I know from my reputation thus far it seems like I am a loose opener, but I do not like having to play rags often, or having the blind creep up so much. I find my profits much better at a full table where I can patiently wait for a hand.

[GeoffM]

I get the feeling that those that are good post-flop players (I include myself in this group) are more adept to liking the short-handed game. Those who are better at being patient are more akin to the full ring.

Or perhaps it is all about the fact that I was always use to playing 6 or 7 handed hoome games and just found my niche that way.

[Kurn]

My limited experience is the Pokerroom has even softer games at most lower levels than Party. I only found it by semi-accident. I wanted some diversion when cooped up in my hotel room after hurting my knee while on business travel in April, and since my work laptop is a Mac, Pokerroom was my only alternative. What a find.

[GeoffM]

Kurn, you are absolutely right that the games at lower limits are softer than Party.

However, clearing the bonus is what pisses me off. If I were playing on Party, I likely would have already cleared 3 $100 bonuses, while at Pokerroom I still got about 40% of the way to go.

[PShabi]

That's the great thing about the 5-max games at PR. You don't have to play rags.

For starters, people are really soft on your blinds. I rarely see a free flop from the BB at Party but at PR you get in for free a lot. The players are so passive and loose that you are going too get paid off on good hands. If they don't raise you to punish you when they hold a hand (I've had people check down overpairs, no shit) and they pay off passively when they have a tiny peice of the flop then you make money.

So, you don't really have to get crazy pre-flop with these guys. You can still play selectively. That said, I do have an increase of around 10% in my Vp$ip.

[Talking Poker]

Some people make a lot more money by playing with bad players than they do clearing bonuses. To me, bonuses are gravy. If there happens to be one available where I want to play, great, but if not, I'm not going to play in less profitable games to try to squeeze out $100.

Don't get me wrong - for new players that are worried about building a bankroll, I think bonus whoring is great... but once you reach a certain level, they become much more insignificant.

[Talking Poker]

I doubt you've played there enough to see a significant sample of players from the site... but keep us posted. I'll be interested to see how this shakes out for you.

I've tried short handed games all over the place and at different limits. For me, $5/10 at Party is definitely the most profitable. I've played the $10/20 with mixed results. To me, the variance at that level wasn't worth it when I knew I had more of a sure thing at 5/10, so I moved back down (for my primary game anyway).