Craziness at Party Poker (low content)

[fathertime]

I've only been playing at Party Poker 25NL for about 3 weeks and am still adjusting to how differently it plays when compared to the typical UB 25NL table (full ring). Two hands that boggled my mind last night are these (from memory, hand histories are at home).

Hand 1: unraised pot. I'm on button with qto. UTG calls; CO calls; I call; BB calls. I have not been paying a lot of attention to this table. I've been focussing on my play at another table where 3 of us are deepstacked. And so my only reads are playerview ones. Flop comes qxxr. BB bets .5; UTG calls; CO calls; I raise to 3 with qto in the hole. BB raises to 12. UTG folds. CO calls. I fold. BB ends up all in against CO. BB has qq 6 kicker; CO has qq 8 kicker. CO wins $40.

Hand 2, other table: I'm UTG ($120) with KK. I complete because there are three aggressive players to act. UTG 1 ($60) calls; Button ($18) raises to $4 (which means he has two cards); SB folds; BB (?) calls (which means he has two cards). I raise to $50, looking to take down the pot right there. UTG 1 calls (UH OH); Button folds; BB folds. Flop comes Axx. Damn, say I, I lost. Nonetheless I put UTG1 all in for the rest of his cash. He calls. Turn brings an Ace and the River an X. I pound the desk in defeat as the computer sends the cash my way. UTG1 had called me with 88. MHIG.

[sourbeaver]

Hand 2 is an absolutely beautiful example of the point I want to make with raising big pairs hard in these games.
Great hand.

[thatpfunk]

Dude, we were talking about unraised pots.

Seriously.

[fathertime]

You are dead on.

At PP my standard raise is $2 with whatever I have but I do make adjustments, based upon # of limpers and quality of players. I will occasionally limp/raise or limp/call with a premium pp. I'll limp call when there is a short stack playing stupidly aggressively postflop and I figure to stack him. I'll limp raise when there is a maniac raising and calling alot preflop.

I'm kinda bummed by the change in blind structure. I've played PokerRoom and UB 25NL both of which had a .1 and .25 blind structure. I think the .25 and .5 blind structure at party benefits me because I play much better starters and haven't had any problem getting my stack up to $50. Time will tell if the change makes any real difference.

[sourbeaver]

Wouldn't change a thing if OP was the open raiser.
88 would still make sure he donates his money.