Party Poker NL Competition

pilamsolo · #1 11-08-2003, 08:50 PM

I recently started playing NL online at Party, both $50 and $100 buy in games, and I'm wondering what other players think about the competition in these games. I consider myself a decent no-limit player, sometimes I'm too aggressive but pretty good at recognizing when to switch gears. The games I've been in at Party seem to be particularly easy to beat, with many passive players that will, for example, play Kxs, and call all-in with their flush draw. Sure I've been beat a couple of times on the river, but I've found that overall these games seem to be very lucrative. Is this a common sentiment?

Acesover8s · #2 11-09-2003, 01:15 AM

Yes, these games are very lucrative. The competition is horrible. They are also no fun and you could program a computer or a child to beat them.

eastbay · #3 11-09-2003, 01:21 AM

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Yes, these games are very lucrative. The competition is horrible. They are also no fun and you could program a computer or a child to beat them.

[/ QUOTE ]

When you say "very lucrative," how much can an expert make per hour?

I would agree that the competition must not be great, considering I am up after 5000 hands at the $25 tables. Those are my first 5000 hands of poker ever.

Acesover8s · #4 11-09-2003, 01:53 AM

I honestly have no idea. I am a poor NLHE player and usually my play in the Party games involves very little thought. I am averaging 11$ an hour in the 25$ game and $18 an hour in the $100. I have never played in the $50 game. I would assume the better players here like Guy, Jay, or Crock could probably get 2-3 times these numbers.

crockpot · #5 11-09-2003, 04:04 AM

competition? what competition?

Foldarama_City · #6 11-09-2003, 08:29 AM

Believe it or not but I've had a very bad time playing NL at Party recently. I've made a healthy profit playing NL at stars and prima but party I'm down money. I'm probably just going through a bad run where everyone is hitting their flushes on the river or hitting a set against my aces or kings.

But I'm wondering if I need to adjust my strategy. I generally bet the pot or just under it. Should I be going all-in more often to eliminate more of the drawers. I also raise 4 x the BB preflop for all preflop raises - with a reraise preflop I normally raise 3 or 4 times what the original raiser went with. Any thoughts?

Fistdantilus · #7 11-09-2003, 12:22 PM

Don't try to bet people OUT of the pot on party: it just won't work. Think of betting on party as massive value bets. My motto on party is: when you have the nuts, go all-in because some idiot is going to call you. I'm not kidding either.

I had the same problem as you, and the solution was to bet less when i had a speculative hand. On the flop I still bet a little over the pot, but on the turn and river I slow down. Why? If the first bet didn't scare them out, they are coming along the whole way. It sounds very dumb, but put in massive bets when you WANT to be called.

Your raising preflop seems fine.

Fistdantilus

Foldarama_City · #8 11-09-2003, 12:54 PM

Thanks for the advice. Just clarifying by what you mean by speculative hand. Would you consider two pair with two flush cards on board speculative? Also, how much would you overbet the flop? Its something I dont do and maybe I should seeing the pot is so small at that stage.

Acesover8s · #9 11-09-2003, 01:32 PM

I had a very bad run playing PLO at Party after making money on every other site. I realized eventually that my problem was that everyone would slowplay their strong hands and I'm from the school of, "you check? OK, I bet." So, I was constantly running myself into sandbaggers.

This may or may not help.

Fistdantilus · #10 11-09-2003, 02:51 PM

By "speculative", i mean overpairs or TPTK. 2 pair is fine for larger bets, as long as it isn't bottom 2 pair. A *very* common scenario for me goes like this:

AKo raise $2 preflop, get 2-4 callers
Flop comes A T 5 rainbow
EP I checkraise, LP I bet/raise. I usually bet 1-2$ over the pot; just enough to distort the pot odds. 1-2 callers
Turn comes blank.

Here's where if you bet, bet less (1/4 to 1/3 pot). If you don't bet (which is quite possibly the correct play against good players), you *will* face a large bet into you on the river. Betting the pot here would put you nearly all-in, or close enough where you can't fold to a raise, so a little bet seems like the best play (if you want to avoid the big river bet by them).

I feel this works because people on party can't fold. So, preflop you get the better players out of the hand (or know where you stand with them), on the flop you overbet the pot to make drawing incorrect, on the turn/river you get a little money in the pot if you are ahead and to slow them down if they are ahead (but not betting so much that you can't get away from the hand).

Just my thoughts.

Fistdantilus