Beating $2/$4

[Ray Of Light]

I currently play one table at a time on $0.5/$1 and I am beating the game solidly for 2BB per hour. This is over 15k hands.

I want to completely bypass $1/$2 and play $2/$4.I have a bankroll of $1200 which is the 300BB required, so I won't be playing scared.

My question is, how much more difficult is $2/$4 full ring games compared to $0.5/$1 full ring games on party? Are the games more tricky post flop? Are they tighter, or the same? Is having a solid knowledge in SSH and WLLHE enough to beat the game, or do you need to mix up your play at this level? And is the game selection at $2/$4 more difficult to?

[sfer]

2/4 isn't hard, but it is more aggressive, slightly tighter, and there are more "regulars" who play decent who you will have to be aware of. Generally, it's less brain dead than 0.5/1, but that's not to say it's tough. Try a soft looking table or two and see how it goes. If you run into trouble, there's absolutely no shame in moving back down.

Good luck, and post hands that give you trouble.

[PassiveCaller]

I don't mean to rain in on your party but 2 BBs in .5/1 isn't ground breaking success.

[doughhater]

I would definitely recommend playing at least a few thousand hands at the 1/2 level. There is a noticeable increase in aggression from the .5/1 to 1/2 and a similar increase from 1/2 to 2/4. I think that getting your feet wet at the 1/2 will better prepare you for the jump to 2/4.

[bdk3clash]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't mean to rain in on your party but 2 BBs in .5/1 isn't ground breaking success.

[/ QUOTE ]

If he's only playing 1 table, that's probably over 3 BB/100 hands, which is pretty good.

[Ray Of Light]

True... but to beat the game for 2BB PER table is a solid long term return. That works out to approx 4BB per hundred hands, which is the expected rate, when I compare it with the results of other more successful online players.

You are right though, I could expect to make much more... but only if I multi-tabled. However, I am focusing on playing a more solid and more aggressive poker game (thanks to purchasing SSH) and I find that my game improves fastest when I simply play one table at a time for now...

[Evan]

4 BB/100 is an AMAZING rate that is debatably unsustainable. I don't know where you got the impression that it's expected and you could expect much more. If you're making 4 BB/100 over and reasonable sample size (at least 30k hands, should be more) it's definitely time to move up. I play 3/6 and 5/10 right now and doubt that I couldn beat .5/1 for 4 BB/100.

Also, there's no shame in playing 1 table. I did the same thing myself until about 5 weeks ago. Don't be afraid to try more of course, but don't feel like you have to. I didn't move to more tables until I felt comfortable playing basically without thinking much. I'm playing 4 now and might go to 5 or 6 soon, but I think it was really best that I didn't do it too quick.

Ray,
I play regularly $1-2 (win very consistently at around 2bb/hr - multitable) and recently tried to increase to the $2-4 level. This was a huge change, in fact I am back at $1-2. It's not that I lost my shirt at 2-4 its that after hours of play, I was doing the same (or even slightly worse) than I was at the $1-2 level. My observations were as follows:
The players are much wiser at 2-4 compared to 1-2. They actually FOLD when they are beat. 1-2 players seem to keep calling you even though they know they are beat. They do crazy draws that end up paying us big when they miss their gut -shot or don't hit a set on that bottom pair that they have and we have something as basic as top pair with a good kicker. We make money when others play bad. This is the fundemental rule of poker (IMHO). At 2-4 there are better players and therefore profits will not be 2x what they are at 1-2 (or 4x for your .5-1 game). You can be successfull at these limits however it does take more work in table selection (looking for bad players).
In short, after my attempt at 2-4, I decided to go back to 1-2 were I could grind out consistent profits. They weren't spectacular, however they are at least consistent wins and in my opinion better than a paper route.

Good luck ,

www.systematicpoker.com (http://www.systematicpoker.com)

[Morta]

Well the only advice I can offer, is that I think you should do some laps at 1/2 too, so you can get used to the bigger pots. Perhaps its just me but the jump from .5/1 to 1/2 and now to 2/4 is kinda hard in the start because of the bigger pots. Maybe its lame but it take me some time to get used to the increase in potsize and even just betting out 4 dollars on a river bluff. I need time to adjust between levels so I could imaging the jump from .5/1 to 2/4 could be scary in terms of $ on the table.

So my advice: Play 5-10 thousand hands at 1/2 and get used to the increase in amounts at the table.

[sthief09]

I don't think 300 BB is enough to play any limit above 1/2. I probably wouldn't feel that comfortable with less than 400 BB

[Kenrick]

Indeed. If you have a 300bb bankroll but lose half it on a very possible 150bb downswing, now you only have $600/150bb left. A 300bb bankroll is only a 300bb bankroll if you are willing to play with all of it. A 400bb roll is better, but a 500+bb roll lets me sleep very well at night after losing sessions.

[uw_madtown]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't think 300 BB is enough to play any limit above 1/2. I probably wouldn't feel that comfortable with less than 400 BB

[/ QUOTE ]

I think 300BB is fine as long as you're willing to drop back down and rebuild it if hit with some heavy variance or you turn out to be teh suck at the new limit.

That way, if you don't get hit with a downswing out of the gate, then you don't have to wait as long to move up. On the other hand, if you do drop half your bankroll, you have to take the nutpunch to your pride and rebuild. I'm sure that builds character though.

[gamblore99]

goodluck.