PS $.25-$.50 vs $.50-$1... WTF?

[Pokerho]

Is $.50-1 in Poker Stars really that much tougher of a game than the $.25-$.50 game?

One thing for sure, its substantially tighter. In the $.25 game, it's not uncommon to see 50% of the players in preflop. In the $.50-$1 game, you rarely see it over 36%.

Another thing is, there are only about 4 or 5 10 player rooms, and a pile of 6 player rooms (which I avoid).

My problem is this, at the smaller limit game, I am very nearly at 3 BB/100 hands. After almost 100 games (very limited sample, I know), I am DOWN 31 BB!

My stats are nearly identical in terms of hands played and PF raises, etc. and I really feel like I am playing the same. but every time I get my bankroll in decent shape, I kill it with a session at $.50-$1.

Is it me, is it Pokerstars, or is it just an unbelievably bad 100 hands (I've won 2 out of 103 hands, which I think would be hard to do if you were trying to.)

[bisonbison]

It sounds like your bankroll is too small to move up. A 31BB downswing is normal.

20k @ 3/100 = 600BB = 300BB for .5/1. If you play 20k hands at .25/.5, you will almost certainly be prepared to play tighter games. Or you can move over to Party and really enjoy .5/1.

[Pokerho]

You're right. It is. I started with $50 After about 3500 hands, I'm up $50 at $.25-$.50, and down $30 at $.50-$1 in 100 hands. I guess I'm going to go with short term bad luck.

I did notice ALOT more players at the $.50-$1 level at Party. Maybe I will have to re-fund my account over there. Anyone want to be my financial backer? /images/graemlins/cool.gif

[MortalNuts]

Lately (as in the past month or two), I think the Stars 0.25/0.50 games have gotten appreciably weaker -- as you said, it's possible to find tables there with more than half the players seeing the flop, which used to be pretty unheard of. The 0.50/1 games are getting somewhat easier, too, but they're still fairly tight -- that is, I'm happy if there are more than 3 people seeing the flop on most hands, and I'm never surprised when a PF raise takes the blinds alone. There are quite a few solid-ish players.

I don't quite know why this is, but I suspect it's because a lot of people (myself included) play at Stars primarily for the tourneys (SNGs and occasional multi-tables in my case), and only incidentally in the ring games. That, plus ime 1/2 there is even tighter, and there are still only like 2 10-handed tables going most of the time, etc., etc., so you have a bit of a bottleneck at 0.50/1; personally I played 1/2 for a while before running bad (or playing bad) and dropping back down to 0.50/1, where I will probably stay until I have a much heftier non-tourney bankroll (or until I win one of the huge multi-tables). /images/graemlins/wink.gif

I won't comment on your specific results, except to say that you've essentially had one short-ish bad session. 100 hands is 2-ish hours of play; being down 30 BB in that time is unpleasant, but it's certainly happened to me, too. Post some hands.

My general advice for those tables, btw, is this: you're basically just waiting around for the few live ones to show up. You're simply not going to make that much money off the uber-tight, uber-passive players, so don't worry about it. Steal the blinds occasionally, be aggressive in your raises, but be very cautious when that sort plays back at you. You make most of your money from the few times that some guy sits down and starts getting involved in every pot, paying you off with middle pair the whole way, etc.; wait for that guy, because he shows up every night.

have fun.