My First Online Experience - Party

[CMP]

I took up Riapeno on his offer of $50 to sign up to Party as his affiliate (bonus code RGP – you know it has to be legit), and though it took me (a 100% online rook, except Poker Room freerolls) about a week to get through the process of downloading and verifying my account, I finally got the e-mail that $50 had been added to my account (plus a $10 (20%) bonus from Party).

I watched the Cubs game last night, and then, while casually taking in the late Sox-A’s game, I got the chance to log in. I decided to try a bunch of games at the $.50 – 1.00 level.

I started with Hold Em. I post behind the button and am dealt my first hand of real money online poker: black AA. I raise and get 92 callers who see the flop of Ad-5d-x. We cap the flop 3 way. As you can imagine, a small diamond comes on the turn, river is a black non-pair card and my first online hand features a flopped set of aces losing to a flush.

I have never seen this in B&M play, decide online poker is rigged, and swear it off for life. Kidding!

I get an incredible amount of playable hands in my first round, and all fail to connect and lose: AJs, AJo, K10s. I’m UTG+1 and UTG raises, I fold my 89s. Flop comes 6-7-K, turn is a 10, of course, and river a blank.

Finally, things start to turn on the HE front. I play J7s in the small blind, flop top pair J, bet the whole way and my hand is good. Later, I get JJ in MP, raise, about 55 callers, flop comes Q-high. I bet the whole way, and nobody’s got a Q, JJ good.

Next, I tried 7-stud. I found these to be the best games of the night. People were playing with ridiculous stuff! Everyone seemed readable (….that guy is working on……nothing, as far as I can tell, Kings up still good, raise). Good times.

Next, Omaha/8. Fun game that I don’t think anyone at the $.50-1 level knows how to play (myself included). Mostly, the hands would go call, call (x7), check, check. Flop – 1 or 2 low cards, check around. 3 low cards, you’ll hear from all the lows out there. I don’t know. Didn’t spend much time there, but my thought was if you were patient with hand selection, you could wait around for the nuts or second-nuts and get paid. I, however, was too excited just to try everything out that I played some real garbage.

Same thing with Stud/8. Played a lot of ridiculous hands. Big pots here, but usually split. A few scoops here and you’d be doing okay. I don’t think I even took half.

I did not try any PL, NL HE, Omaha high-only, or any tournies.

I won $13 in about 2 hours (was up maybe $25 at one point, but gave most away in Stud/8), and played enough hands to get my deposit bonus too, so my account was up $23 for the night.

Impressions: so fast compared to B&M, especially at the end – “wait, what’d that guy have?” Games (1 short session of each) I liked stud, limit HE, Stud/8, and Omaha/8, in that order. I look forward to playing again!

General thoughts/comments appreciated on all the $.50-1 games at Party.

CMP

[lorinda]

Nice report!

Things seem fast at first, but soon you will find one game too slow, trust me. (Although stick to one at first)

The .5/1 at Party is a very soft game, but you will experience large swings due to the softness. In the long run of course, if you are any good, you will come out with a tidy profit.

Don't be afraid to send for a hand history, there are links to the last hand and present hand available at the top right of the screen and they will allow you to order that hand history without fiddling around trying to remember the hand number.
If there is a 'What did he have' that is important to deciding how someone plays just send off and look.

Lori

[Homer]

bonus code RGP – you know it has to be legit

What does this mean? Because some guy created a bonus code named "RGP" it must be legitimate? This makes no sense. This guy is in no way affiliated with RGP. He's a regular affiliate just like everyone else, with the exception that he's constantly spamming RGP. Oh wait, nevermind, that's just like all the other affiliates.

-- Homer

[CMP]

Homer--

That comment was totally tongue-in-cheek, I hoped you would've gotten it from the tone of the rest of my post.

In any case, do you or did you ever play party $.50-1.00 games (apart from the 2+2 private table - not typical)? If so, I'd like to hear your comments on the games I mentioned.

Thanks,

CMP

[westmt01]

The .5/1 at Party is a very soft game, but you will experience large swings due to the softness. In the long run of course, if you are any good, you will come out with a tidy profit.

Very well put; this accurately descibes .50/1 at Party. These games can be frustrating to the point of maddening some nights when some really bad player keeps getting saved at the river to beat your AA for about the 5th time in a row. But eventually their luck always catches up with them. I tend to play very tight in these games, and it pays off in the long-run. It's amazing how many people will stay in with lousy hands all the way to the river, and it's people like this who make Party the profitable experience that it is.

I think there are 3 keys to consistently winning the .50/1 games at Party: 1) Discipline to only play with very good starting hands, 2) Patience to wait for the fishes' luck to change and to not try to get instant "revenge" on some moron who has just inflicted his 5th consecutive bad beat on you, and 3) Having neighbours who won't call the Police when you're screaming at your computer as some guy with 72o sucks the winning card out of the river to beat your AKs flush.

But most of all, don't expect Party's low limit games to resemble REAL poker.

[thwang99]

Wonder how long it'll be before we'll see a "2plus2" affiliate code... - Tony

[thwang99]

The .50/1 games can resemble real poker, just depends on the table, and the time. Late at night, there could be several decent players at a table with only a few obvious fish. But it'll most likely always be beatable by ABC poker and good discipline. Loose-aggressive tables can be maddening, though. If a lot of people are in, your odds could still be in your favor but the chances of going on a several-hour losing streak are quite high. You may go for 3 hours without winning one decent pot! Be prepared for times like this. I like to tighten up when I'm running cold, not because that is the proper adjustment in loose lowlimit games, but because I tend to loosen up when I'm running cold, because I want to "hit a hand". So, I tell myself to tighten up and this combats the subconsious tendency I have to loosen up.

- Tony