Is there enough fish to go around?

[og5]

Hey guys, I read a thread on the microlimit forums about a player think of moving from .50/1 to 1/2. Most of the responses were that the jump is a big one, table selection goes from no big deal to very important because of the larger amount of TAGs and less fish. I wasn't to happy to see that because I'm at 50/1 and just barely starting to break even. So I'm wondering,

if 50/1 is 20% TAG/80% fish
and 1/2 is say 50 TAG/50 fish
then what's 2/4? 70 TAG/30 fish?
3/6 80 TAG/20 Fish?

Is that really enough fish for all the good players to profit off of? I'd hate to work my way up to the 3/6 level just to play a bunch of 2+2ers /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Any feedback appreciated, thanks

[cnfuzzd]

its " *are* there enough fish..."

The other problem with the 1/2 is that there is 6max offered at that level, and a lot of the fishier players go there.

peace

john nickle

[littlejohn]

At 2/4 it is not nearly like that. I'm not datamining for this info but I'd say at any time I can sit down at a table and have a couple TAG's, a few calling stations - loose or slightly loose, and a few 50%+ players - some aggressive and some passive.

That being said - I do find that I am playing against the same multi tablers often. Perhaps it is the time that I play (night west coast) but if I happen to find a really juicy table it's simply a matter of time before the rest of the multi tabler's find me and my goldmine and start filling it up with TAG's. One loose passive leaves, a TAG replaces him, and so on. So for me, 50-75 hands at a table is a success, but it is rare to go over that amount since it becomes what is probably best described as a 2+2 table (even though I don't know who many of the 2+2'ers are) - because it ends up full of TAG's. Then we all leave and go looking for the next good table.

One thing I do get a kick out of is the 10-15 person waiting list for an especially good table. By the time 2-3 of those multi tabling TAG's hit that table it's not going to be good any more. So I can't imagin being 10th on the list and hopping on the table where the sharks are eating the sharks.

[bdk3clash]

The following games on Party are plenty soft and eminently beatable by most reasonable posters here from personal experience:

-$0.50/1
-$1/2 full
-$1/2 6max
-$2/4
-$3/6
-$5/10 6max (though a drastically different skillset appears to be required here)

$5/10 full games aren't great in general but there are frequently good games to sit in.

I have a couple hundred hands at $10/20 full but can't really comment on the nature of those games, and I have yet to play the $10/20 6max (which all accounts say is a great game, though quite different from the micro and small stakes LHE games on Party) or the $15/30 (ditto) or $30/60 levels.

You'll generally run into better opponents as you move up, but the games are still filled with plenty of subpar players. Also, there are plenty of players who are tight and aggressive preflop but not very good postflop.

Moving up is a great way to further your game. Arkady made a great post recently that moving up is an important part of getting better, and I agree. I wish I had cashed out less and moved up more when I first started playing, as the opportunity cost for a (potentially) winning player not playing higher is relatively high.

[UseThePeenEnd]

Fear not. 2/4 game selection is VERY important to me and I very seldom fail to find a table that is loose and passive. I just played about 60-70 hands at a table where my opponents averaged 69% / 2% and never had a player with VPIP under 36%. It did not vary much during that interval- then other tight players began filtering in (bringing VPIP way down to say, 50% until losing winnowed or chastened the loose folks). Granted, thats remarkable.

Weekday afternoons Eastern Time can be more difficult- this afternoon was particularly arid; the best table I saw was about 36 / 3 with a couple TAG's. Often the presence of a particularly leaky player tracked down by the buddy list is enough to sit at a table that overall wouldnt seem particularly promising. It gets much better in the late evening.

A loose passive game is a TAG magnet, though, and true misery is finding a juicy game, getting lucksacked a couple times, and then having a major TAG immigration before you get any traction. You then face the choice of mixing it up with the 2+2 crowd hungrily eyeing the customers flush with your money, or moving on to do the work of searching out another ripe pasture.

What I notice is not a dearth of good games, but that the good conditions are increasingly ephemeral as mutitabling semipros become more numerous. You have to put in the work, though, and while you're searching you ain't playing.