Whats Going On?

[daveymck]

We are seeing a rash of goodbye to small stakes posts as well as Chesspain and others seemingly having a crisis of confidance.

Whats the cause behind it, are the games changing, is everyone getting burned out of poker or is it the change in play that SSH has generated for some in these forums causing frustration.

[nepenthe]

I honestly do not know. Perhaps there is getting to be a greater disparity that I have not noticed in terms of difficulty between 3/6 and the lower limits. I've only played at 2/4 and 1/2 for a relatively short time so I can't attest to this.

My opinion still is that PP 3/6 isn't that much tougher as long as you use some minimal care in table selection and play reasonably well postflop. Perhaps a group of our posters is having a bad stroke of transient variance attack.

Another likely cause is that players who have recently moved up from the micros are retaining the same level of super-aggression that they may have gotten used to at the micros, and deservedly so against the mostly terrible opponents at those limits. At 3/6 (and to a degree at 2/4), however, this can be a sizeable leak against opponents who have a clue. Practicing judicious and tempered aggression becomes vastly more important as the quality of opposition improves.

[daveymck]

That is one of the first adaptations I have made at 5/10 agression works to a point but players with a clue will use that agression against you. I found I was getting to the showdown with the worst hand a lot more, I now am trying to be selectively agressive but sometime resorting to defensive rather than attacking poker.