general cash game questions

[kschellenger]

i have been playing 30+3 stud tournaments on Party Poker and have had a lot of success. Roughly 70% of the time I make the money. I am looking to broaden my game and play ring games as well. However, I have heard on this forum that Party Poker has unfavorable antes/rake etc. at the .50/1.00 level.
Is this still true at higher levels?
Are other sites better?
Are there any fundamental differences between ring and tournament stud that I should be aware of?

thanks

[mscags]

Yeah, stay away from the .5-1 level. The ante is too high to make it worth your time. The 1-2 isn't too bad with a .25 ante, but the 2-4 is probably the best place to start off with if you're willing to play those stakes. I don't play many stud tourneys so I'm not so sure about strategy changes, but I know there really isn't ever a time when you have to make a move and I don't think stealing is quite as important at the smaller levels, because most of your pots will be multi way anyway. I think we have some posters that play primarily tourneys, so maybe they will chime in with it.

[buffbrad54]

I play on stars where the ante is very favorable in comparison to the relative blinds. I played a 8/b tourney on stars for a 10+1 buyin, and I ended up making 6th out of about 170-180. The one thing you should note between tourneys and rings games is that your fold equity goes up. You actually make money by folding and your chips gain value over time. I was lucky enough to win a big pot in the early levels due to the loose-passive play of many opponents. Alot of check-calling, etc. If you play very tight in the beginning, you will likely win a large pot which will allow you to take the worst of it a few times and get lucky and suckout. Overall I would say I didn't change my strategy much.

[bigredlemon]

how tight one should play is unrelated to fold equity. That refers to how likely you can get someone to fold with your bet.

[Maulik]

[ QUOTE ]
i have been playing 30+3 stud tournaments on Party Poker and have had a lot of success. Roughly 70% of the time I make the money.

[/ QUOTE ]

over how many tournaments did you sustain a 70% ITM?

[Andy B]

Three. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Andy B]

I think the rake is about the same wherever you play on-line. Party's $.50/1.00 game has a ridiculously high ante. The other small games have high antes, but not ridiculously so, and the action is usually very good. I prefer Stars (and live over on-line), but I wouldn't tell you not to play on Party. If you're cashing in all of these tournaments, you should be able to afford $1/2, right?

[BeerMoney]

[ QUOTE ]
Three. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL, he cashed in 2 out of three, and rounded 66% up to 70%!

[Nick_Foxx]

I play primarily Stud/8 ring games and the occasional Stud/8 tournament ($10+1, $20+2, $30+3) on Pokerstars. The main difference between the two is in a tournament, I will almost invariably fold on 4th street if I catch bad. This is not always true for ring games, where I will often take a card off if I started really strong or other people did not catch great. Once I have a reasonable stack, I usually play exactly the same.

Mike

[kschellenger]

485 tournaments
120 1st place
35 2nd place
185 3rd place