Do some sites have better players or just different styles?

[Uglyowl]

"Good poker players find a table to play where the expected return is the greatest".

I went from playing at a couple of sites where I was raking in money left and right and having a grand old time. I moved to others because of greater availablity of games. HMMMM... no longer making money. I figured maybe it was just a small unlucky streak, but it continued.

Are all the players really better at these places? Why don't they move to where all the fish are? On my way to my real job it started to scratch the surface of what is going on. If these players are "good players" they would know better to move to where the $ is easier to get.

I sat there and tried to figure out what was different and how to play against this. What I realized it was a style difference. Some sites are passive (no bluffing/ not much preflop raising), while others are "kamikaze" loose. Once someone steals someones blind there is a revenge factor (i.e. "you are not stealing my blind even if I have "9-6")

Once I figured this out I am chipping away the January losses.

Any opinions on this?

[ohkanada]

I have played tournies and 1/2 table satelites at 3 sites.

I have always found Paradise 1 tables as fairly weak players. The problem is the structure sucks. Having the blinds increase every 10 hands is silly. When it gets headsup it goes very fast.

I havn't been playing Ultimate for a while. I liked the 1 table structures better than Paradise. The players were originally weaker than Paradise but I think they are better now although I have had a lot of success on them. I have had no success in the multi-table tournies on Ultimate even though it seemed there was a lot of weak players.

Pokerstars is the main place I play tournies. I think you have the best players here. The multi-tables are a lot of fun and give you good play for your money. The 1 and 2 table satelites are fun as well. The problem is they give you so many choices that the 1 tables seem to rarely go off. I have been playing the 2 tables lately. The structures are the best of the 3 sites and give you lots of play.

So yeah the players and the styles are quite different. I think all are beatable but the styles are also associated with how the structure of the tourney works. The shorter the rounds the more gambling is done.

Ken Poklitar