bored w/ $.50/$1.00. killed by $1/$2

[bwana devil]

did anyone else experience this while achieving poker success? i play party $.5/$1 and have actually grown bored of the small incremental wins there. so i jump up just one step and usually get killed.

i know this means that im not quite good enough to move up a level, but im just experiencing a huge disparity in my success at the two.

any suggestions on how to make the transition smoother or combat the boredom? i really like single table tournaments and break even on those. so i try and break up the monotony w/ those.

btw, i have recently been working on pkertracker but havent analyzed my data yet. im sure that should shed some light on my play and improve matters.

william.

[scotnt73]

if you can beat .5/1 for a month or 2 then you are just having bad luck at 1/2 because if you can beat one you can beat the other. make sure you have enough of a roll that you arent just playing scared.

[mikeyKay]

well, i recently graduated limits to 1/2, and have found that it is just about identical to .50/1, but i only have about 4 hours playing. it could be a bad run of cards, or you could have some leaks in your game. how many hands have you played at .5/1? what is your win rate? what is your flop percentage? if you need to build a bankroll and are getting bored, then you might want to multi table at .50/1, but multi table is not for everyone (as you have prolly seen in tons of recent posts). but i think multi table is a good way to get pre flop percentage down, and find leaks in your game real quick. tourneys are a good change up like you suggested, but i personally am not very good at them, so i usually stay away. good luck, and keep improving.
-mike


I aslo meant to say, look at your table selection. try to play the same kind of tables you played in .5/1, if you played in avg pot of $9-11 in .5/1 try to play $18-22 pots in 1/2 and if you cant get a good game, then maybe do a tourney or something...table selection is vital as you move up.

[fluff]

While 1/2 games can easily be as bad as 0.5/1 games, table selection is much more important on Party 1/2. In 0.5/1 you can pretty much sit anywhere and get a table full of fish, in 1/2 you have to be more selective.

[charlie_t_jr]

[ QUOTE ]
well, i recently graduated limits to 1/2, and have found that it is just about identical to .50/1, but i only have about 4 hours playing.

[/ QUOTE ]

I hear this quite a bit, but my 1/2 results just plain suck, and I find the games at 1/2, at times very tight.

I don't have poker tracker in front of me, but approx 11,000 hands at .50/1, 3.45BB/100. Approx 10,000 hands at 1/2, -.06BB/100.

Very frustrating. I suppose bad runs can last awhile, but it looks like there is quite a difference in 50/1 & 1/2. All though my 1/2 results for this year are much more in line with what I would expect...maybe I'm beginning to adjust to 1/2.

[charlie_t_jr]

[ QUOTE ]
While 1/2 games can easily be as bad as 0.5/1 games, table selection is much more important on Party 1/2. In 0.5/1 you can pretty much sit anywhere and get a table full of fish, in 1/2 you have to be more selective.

[/ QUOTE ]


I think this may be my biggest weakness at 1/2.

[Cipher]

When I move up a level I try to play late at night, especially on week ends when the drunks are out. I avoid the next higher level during the day and early evening when people seem to be more clear headed and in control.

My experience with $1/$2 is that they play a very consistent "no fold'em" like they studied it in a book. Wining is just a question of waiting for the cards.

Cipher

[JSD]

bwana,

Any specific things you noticed about the 1/2 game that you think might be contributing to your lack of success there? Any hands you can post that you think played out a lot differently than they would have at a typical .50/1 table?

I disagree with the posters who say that 1/2 is identical to .50/1. After 12K hands of .50/1 and 5K hands at 1/2, I've found that the biggest difference between the two is that the 1/2 is much more dynamic. Meaning that at certain times, some tables will play very similarly to .50/1 tables. And then 30 minutes later they will be a veritable rock garden, with an average pot of 4BB and 25% flops seen.

As others have mentioned, this makes table selection much more important at 1/2. I think that it also means that you need to be able to adapt your game, both to the table style and to individual players. You need to be able to see the table getting tighter and either get out if you're not comfortable or slowly start mucking things like Axs in MP with one limper.

[mikeyKay]

10k hands is a pretty decent sample size, but not rock solid...i think. like you said in the other post, table selection could be your problem...and i would also think about what you are doing in .5/1 that makes you win, and if you are applying those concepts to the next level. If you are not doing close to what you were doing before, go back to what was working, and if you are doing the same thing, try to look at the texture of the game and why it isnt working.
-mike

[MicroBob]

my hunch is that your earlier poor results at 1/2 were just short-term fluctuations.
the fact that the numbers seem to have evened out indicates that you are getting better luck.
it's also possible you are adjusting to the game properly or are less intimidated by it.

it is true that the 1/2 games can be tighter....but i think that if you have a decent amount of success at .5/1 (and 11k hands doesnt quite get you there) then you should do okay at 1/2.

the significant difference in the stats is likely more attributable to short-term fluctuations.
you only have 10k to 11k hands at each afterall. and you are about breaking even at 1/2.

be sure to adjust to the table you are on though.

and i very much like the idea of only playing at your higher levels during the prime-time hours and then scaling back to your lower level during the non-fishy/drunken hours.

[MLo]

My experience moving from $.5/1 to $1/2 on Party was that the play was much tighter. In addition to the other responses, you might also think about working on your shorthanded game if that interests you at all, since Party has a lot of 6 max $1/2 tables where the players are very loose. Shorthanded games require a different approach though, and you will definitely want to read a lot of the posts in the shorthanded forum to get some strategy ideas. You will also want a bankroll that can withstand bigger swings.

[Alporfavor]

The difference i found was that at 1/2 your opponents will still call down with bad hands (bottom pair etc) but won't raise with them like they do at 50/1 which is always great when you hold the nuts /images/graemlins/cool.gif

[StellarWind]

I'm making the transition now at Paradise. After some false steps I think I'm doing fine now.

Even if you don't have an account, download the Paradise software (www.paradise.com) and look at the game listings in the lobby for a few minutes. They have preflop percentages for every table. If that doesn't convince the doubters that 1/2 is different from .5/1 than they can't read. During the good evening hours (US) the 0.5/1 games run from 40-60% preflop. 1/2 games range from 30-45%.

The 1/2 game is much more aggressive. That doesn't necessarily make the game less good but it makes it different. One of my problems is that aggressive players bother me. A LAG can lose just as much money as a calling station, but I personally do better against the station.

You have to get used to playing for more money. A 10 BB loss seems bigger at 1/2 and that can cause a loss of confidence with all sorts of negative results.

I've countered that successfully by reducing my table-hopping ways. Sitting at a table longer helps me to get to know the players better. After I saw how badly they sucked I realized I couldn't be a losing player and I felt better. That allowed me to relax and do better.

Good luck.

[CardCuda]

Agreed on all - (additions) -

Paradise 1-2 vs .50-1.00 =

Have you noticed that alot of hands are heads up after the turn card. Definitely not as many chasers or calling stations @ 1-2. People will fold @ 1-2 on the expensive streets (all the sudden it's 2 dollars to see another card instead of "just a buck". Or I'll play this hand for 50cents, but not for a dollar....make any sense?)

Pretty much any pocket pair above 7's are treated like ACES! (Found this out in a "weak call down mode session" I had a couple weeks ago). (could have just been that session...not done with the experiment yet.)

Notes and paying attention to your table is imperative (at least at Paradise). Only raising your premium hands AA, KK, QQ etc... will kill your action (at the .50 games this doesn't matter).

another thing I've noticed is that the table can change dramatically in seconds! Give one bad beat to a player for a big pot ($60+) and tilt, raise everything, acute LAG syndrome begins.

But all in all they're pretty much the same....another thing....the fluctuations in your bankroll take some getting used to. If your in one pot raising and capping on every street and lose you'll feel it a lot more.

Also I do believe that the players at 1-2 play better post flop...which as said by most here makes good table selection and notes on players a must.

My own theory ....I think at the 1-2 games "Play by the book" poker is what you see. There are fish at every level but at 1-2 it seems, that this is the "education application game". example...

Smart on-line poker players (the few there are) start out reading, practicing applying principles of the game at micro level, and gradually move up. Most I beleive start right out at 2-4 or 3-6 (cause thats the lowest limit at B&M's) (I was guilty of this when I first started /images/graemlins/tongue.gif)...get there "virtual butt kicked" and go back to the B&M game or drop down to the .50 game find they can beat that game but are "stagnant" at the 1-2. The "I Just read another book I think I'll try 1-2" scenario, I don't know if this makes any sense...just a theory of mine.

[sfer]

Hey Bwana,

I'm going to disagree with most of the posters here and say that 1/2 can be hugely different from 0.5/1. At 0.5/1 it's basically impossible to find a table without at least 4-5 players seeing every flop and having most hands show-down 3 ways. There are 1/2 tables like this but you have to seek them out. There are plenty of 1/2 tables that are tighter than the good 2/4 & 3/6 tables.

So you have to get better and find the juicy tables. Once you get used to 1/2, you can still play and beat it mindlessly, but it's not the variance-roller-coaster/money-machine that 0.5/1 is.

[charlie_t_jr]

I posted something similair to this a few weeks ago in the general forum. Low limit means different things to different people. So beginners/fish with more money start at 2/4 - 3/6. I believe to a certain extent the 1/2 is filling up with former .50/1 players who have worked on their game and now are moving up.

[sfer]

I like this theory. I think it might go a long way toward explaining the difference in skill between the average 2/4 and 1/2 player.

[ddubois]

Also likely is that new people jump into 2/4 because that's what they played when they went to vegas.