Improving my game
 

I've been playing .5/$1 on party poker and it's just horrible. People call with everything and hit their miracles. I know I should be winning in the long run if I play goOd starting hands but, it doesn't seem like it's working for me. On the other hand, I do pretty goOd in the NL games. I'd really like to improve and build my bankroll through limit games and hopefully move up to higher limits in the future. What should I do? Thanks for any advice.

Re: Improving my game
 

Hi,

I'm a newbie playing 0.05/.10 so you "way ahead of me" in the sense.. I guess you didnt start with $0 and play 0.02/0.04 though.

Anyhow - id just say drop the limit if you have have the banlroll (300 Bigbets). or maintain your game, Review some hands here.. and keep at it.

The maniacs pay back, but make sure your playing good poker.

As i say i'm a newbie, Started with $0 and made $65 at 0.05/0.10 at the moment (in about 2months - Signed here before playing/Had long break).

Good luck,
Stay positive.

Re: Improving my game
 

Glad to hear that the Long Run is finally catching up with you, Chris. Told you so. ;-)

To the OP: players who'll call with everything really increases your variance. In the long run it's quite certain that they're donating you money (otherwise, playing like that would be correct, or at least as correct as playing correctly, and no one would win by playing "good poker"). In the short run it may not feel like they are.

Do make sure you're not leaking, though. What sorts of books or reference material are you using?

Re: Improving my game
 

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What sorts of books or reference material are you using?

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I've read "Small Stakes Hold'em" I currently have 600bb for .5/$1. I hear the $1/2 games are rock gardens so, I'm just playing .5/$1 at Party. I just registered poker tracker today thinking it would guide me to improving my game. One bad thing is that I formatted my comp last night and forgot to save the hand histories that I've had.

Whoops...I actually have 1800bb including the money in my neteller.

Re: Improving my game
 

Read, re-read, then copy by hand SSHE. I've gone through the book about 10 times. Once you've done that, read it again. The concepts in there aren't a "okay, I read it, I got it" type ideas. It does involve STUDY.

Yes, you will experience suckouts. Get used to it. After a humiliating period of "knowing what I'm doing," I'm pushing .01/.02 at UB until my 'roll gets healthy. Think .25/.50 people chase anything? Try muscling a guy around for a penny. Still, using the SSHE concepts, I'm up about 1000 BB's in a 2 month period.

Patience.

Re: Improving my game
 

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Still, using the SSHE concepts, I'm up about 1000 BB's in a 2 month period.

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So, you're up $20 in 2 months?

Re: Improving my game
 

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I've been playing .5/$1 on party poker and it's just horrible. People call with everything

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I assumed that it would be looser at lower levels, but I'm playing .05/.1 like Chris (at Royal Vegas) and it seems like everyone is scared to bet. There wasn't one guy with more than two bucks in front of him at one stage last night.

I was second to bet with pocket rockets on one hand. I raised it, everyone ran for the hills and I'm sitting there on my own with 13 cents on the table....I couldn't believe it. Maybe I should slow play the big hands in early position?

Thinking about it later, maybe it's beacause of the time zone I'm playing in (Sydney late evening). I get all the guys from Australasia, China, Asia etc. Maybe two bucks means a lot more to the guys I'm playing against.

Re: Improving my game
 

LOL Wozza. I've never played at that limit before but, how are the other limits at Royal Vegas? Sounds interesting. Is it linked to a casino?

Re: Improving my game
 

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how are the other limits at Royal Vegas?

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The site went down earlier this evening. When I eventually got on there were no .05/.1 games available, so I hopped on to a .10/.20 table.

Christ, it was so different. I was bitch slapped from one end of the table to the other for 20 minutes before I realised that these guys were playing poker (as opposed to whatever I'm trying to do at the lower limit).

Now I'm slowly trying to grind my losses back - with spectacular lack of success at the moment. Time to unplug the laptop I think...

Re: Improving my game
 

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Still, using the SSHE concepts, I'm up about 1000 BB's in a 2 month period.

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So, you're up $20 in 2 months?

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Yep, it sucks moving so slowly, but at my site (UB), unfortunately the next step up is .25/.50, which only gives me 40 BB's. I can't afford to move up. Any neg. variance will kill me.

I saw a good post on 2+2 about how to take advantage of deposit bonuses and move up. I've gotta get to $50 first.

Re: Improving my game
 

I'm up $66 in ummm around 2months of playat 0.05/0.10 games at a fairly unpopular site(4000 players or so online at same time - Prob 7000 members overall).

It sure is slow, and having only read ITH and keeping strict to my starting hands i've moved up and down.

I started with $20 deposit, Played 0.02/0.04 got to $30 and moved up ASAP.

I then withdrew $20 when i hit $40 and the bad side of "varience" hit me.

Dropping to an all time low of $4 i went to 0.02/0.04 and worked up again to $20...

Went back to 0.05/0.10 and played the same game. Now i'm up to $68 currently.

Sat on a table this minute up 23BBs/93hands.

Recently purchased SSH and having read 60pages will re-read it 3times before i use its advice.

I've gone for a more agressive game now, This has given me more varience due to bad beats being more expensive and wins being bigger.

My bluffing skills have also developed.

Anyhow - I'd say leave party if you have cleared your bonus? and go to a site like Pokerstars play lower limits .25/.50 maybe.

At my site .25/.50s are full of agressive players, THis causes bad beats and wins with high cards very often.

0.05/0.10 and .10/.20 is totally different game, the agression is still there but only on made hands (Maybe semi bluffs on OESD/Flushes not made but with 8 - 9outs etc).

Work your BR up and move up limits gradually.

I'm a beginner, Being a student i've had to avoid risking my money and keep strictly to profit and sensible bankroll decisions.

Good luck, Just my 2cents but move down..

It may be varience hitting you bad... Partypoker is supposedly chrushable? Are you playing scared? Anyhow, Personally i'd say move down and improve your game whilst working up your BR - But this advice is "Playing it safe".

You may keep at .50/1 and chrush it and have a HUGE bankroll at the end of month.. But i'd rather drop and have my BR than risk losing it all.

Good luck - By the way, My site is small so i have notes on 1/10th of players and know them fairly well - This of course helps me Vs unknowns on partypoker. However i dont have PT or Playerview to help me.

Re: Improving my game
 

Thanks for the advice guys. I forgot to mention I'm not new to Party poker but, I just recently wanted to improve my game and try to make some goOd $$ playing poker. Party Poker's lowest limit games are 0.5/$1. I've been playing at PP for almost a year now and I've played all the limits not knowing about the 300bb rule. PP gave me $100 a month ago and I've turned that into almost $1,000 playing NL25/50. I feel like limit games are more stable but, everytime I play .5/$1 I'd start losing and then go back to the NL games to win it back. Should I just keep playing at .5/$1 and see if things get better? or Just stick with NL?

Re: Improving my game
 

Ooooh my bad, Sorry - Ignore my advice then, I feel stupid now advising someone more experienced than myself lol [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Anyhow - Stick to what you enjoy mate, if you can crush NL i see no reason why to leave it...

Personally find Limit more enjoyable, Ask yourself..

What do you enjoy? if itslimit, Id still go over to Pokerstars and drop to a lower level for a while.

Maybe you have leaks that help in NL but hinder limit? I.e. Over aggresive?

Good luck mate
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Re: Improving my game
 

Royal Vegas .05/.10 limit games have to be THE tightest games on the internet. Both a friend and I recently ran through our free $10 on that site and were STUNNED at how tight the games were. Not sure why that is, but I did notice a lot of non-US based players, maybe they advocate playing uber-tight overseas. Maybe it's because it's the place anyone who's ever read a book on Poker is starting because you get $10 free...not sure, but whatever, it was a beating! hah

Re: Improving my game
 

Hey if you're a good NL player maybe you ought to just stick with that. I'm a good ring player and I have been trying to learn NL playing 10+1 SnGs on Party. Everybody says they're ridiculously easy, but I've played more than 400 and am only up like $112 so I feel like a moron.

As for your game, use PokerTracker. It is a brutally honest friend that will tell you exactly how you are playing. The first thing to check is your VP$IP, which is pretty obvious, but until you have PT it's hard to tell if you are playing at a reasonable 20-22 for the .5/1 game or 26-28.

Conversely, you're problem could be playing too tightly. Lately I have seen a lot of posts from people who have VIPs around 15-16 in .5/1 and are barely scraping by.

One thing that NL helped teach me that's good in the limit games is to respect position. In UTG and UTG+1 I'm trying to play as tight as any of the rocks. I'm shooting for a VIP in those positions of about 11 and 14 percent respectively. Make sure that you are at your most aggressive in the premium positions, CO and button. My overall preflop raise percent is just under 10, but from those spots it's 12-13.

If you find yourself in a super loose and aggressive game remember to play only premium hands. The way to beat maniacs is to have a starting hand AQ or better, medium PP or better, that could win in a showdown unimproved. That way, once you get in a pot with them you can stay till the end with reasonable odds.

Good luck