Are the games this much tougher?

[MtSmalls]

I've been playing for the past year or so online, mostly at PokerStars. I do fairly well at the $1/$2 HE games and better at the Stud8 games. The last two nights, after working my bankroll up to $300 I played the $2/$4 HE game. both times I got my head handed to me.

Sunday night, at the end of the night I was down about 20BB, I had seen about 26% of the flops and was 0-12 on showdowns. BIG GOOSE EGG. The big loss was flopping a set of 6's when my opponent flopped a set of 9's. That happens.

Last night was pretty much the same. I think I won 2 showdowns out of 10. Down 20BB in less than an hour. Here is a typical hand:

From the CO I limped (after 2 or 3 limpers) with KhQh. Flop comes down Kd10h6h. Ok I think, Top pair decent kicker, second nut draw. checked to me,I bet, get 2 callers. Turn is 7c. not good but not bad. checked to me again, I bet get one caller. River is Ad. I thought for about 5 seconds after it was checked to me, couldn't figure an A had chased me down, bet, get raised, call get shown Q-J off for the rivered str. SIGH

Are the 2/4 games this much tougher than the 1/2 games? I know stars has been documented as one of the tougher low limit places to play (low flop percentages etc), but I cant imagine that this step is this much harder. (I've played 6-12 live in Vegas and LA with decent success). Or did I just have two bad nights back to back?

I guess its going to be another few weeks to build the old roll back up to take another shot....

[Hung]

One of my crazy nights. I played 2-4 limit. Don't ask me what I was doing there. Prolly tilt.
Anyway, I limp in with 66 in late position. There was no raise. BB checks and we 4 players see the flop. I flop a set. Flop is KT6 rainbow. I immediatly start betting the first round and BB raises me I raise again and we cap the first bet. Turn is a rag. Same thing, we cap the bets. I think he has KT or maybe TT, giving him a set of tens. But wouldn't he raise with TT to narrow the field? On the river I checked and he bets. Now I just call because I'm afraid of a bigger set. We open and he shows a set of Kings. Isn't this a risky play? He checks his KK on BB. Probably trying to trap, but he's taking a lot of risk. Anyone would limp in with a small pair and hit a nice flop. I lost a huge pot. He got me big time.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

Take heart, Hung. Remember the old saying - if you flop a set and lose, but you don't lose a lot of money, you played it wrong. Nothing worse than set over set.

[yct]

PokerStars is known to have the tightest 2/4 game online. It would be wise to play 2/4 else where.

[Inthacup]

Everything you've written seems to be within normal variance. You're going to get straits and flushes rivered on you. However, you don't have the bankroll to play 2 4 anymore. Go back to 1 2 and rebuild.

[Instinct]

I like Pokerstars, it is a great site. However playing the low limits there on a regular basis, especially if you are fairly new to the limit, in my opinion is just dumb. You will have trouble beating the game. Flop % is generally low, and pots are small.

Occasionally they have a 2-4 game worth entering but this is very rare. They really are the toughest out of any of the main sites. This last week the 2-4, 3-6 games have been better but they are still so much tougher to beat than some other sites. 5-10 and up the games are decent alot but not 2-4 and 3-6.
Try partypoker.com ... games are much better. 2-4 is usually better at Paradise too as well as Ultimatebet.
For 1-2 i'd recommend either party again or pokerroom.com.

Remember one of the great things about online poker is your ability to look around. For someone trying to move up from 1-2 to 2-4 in my opinion you are trying it at the wrong site.

[Jeffage]

Let's start by being realistic. Losing $80 or $100 in a 2-4 session is not a big deal, not that unusual and shouldn't be wholly unexpected. If your $300 online roll is very important and you want to use it as a daily roll that is not replaced, playing 2-4 is unwise. You will definitely get beat up and on your worst days will lose more than 20 bets.

Jeff

[ChipWrecked]

I haven't been playing online for that long, but the 2/4 at Planet hasn't been much of a problem for me. 4/8 is as high as I go at B/M, due to soft bankroll.

[Stew]

I can understand your frustration. I recently venture onto PokerStars for the first time myself (taking advantage of the MoneyMaker Promo). Anyway, the highest limit I play is 1/2. I prefer .50/1.00 or even .25/.50. But, I thought I'd play 1/2 as that seemed to be the best way to try to convert my FPP's into the number required to cash the bonus. Anyway, after three sessions of getting smoked, I finally dropped down to .50/1.00. Although it will take me twice as long to convert the bonus, I am not getting smoked anymore.

[rusty JEDI]

Perhaps it is small sample size but a few other people i have talked to say they "feel" the same way. That is that the 1/2 on stars is tougher than the 2/4 and 3/6. Here is my limited stats at stars as i only play during bonus time because the games are better elsewhere.

1/2 6hours played, lost $15.30 per hour. That is -7.5bb's per hour which is a kick in the nuts of course the sample size is very small and only 6 hours because i found the 2/4 to be much softer.

2/4 18 hours played, won $19.77 per hour. That is almost +5 bb's per hour, which is likely a run of good cards.

However, as i said before i find the 2/4 game much more beatable.


rJ

[lefty rosen]

is getting used to losing double the money, when you have a bad beat day. I remember I was an occasional 2/4 player at pokerroom, and when I played there a 100 dollar loss session was bad but not horrid, yet when I consistently played at 1/2 this was a bad beat day from hell. It's all in the perspective. Now I consistently play 2/4 and these 100 dollar days don't faze me..........