Link to thread at google groups
Abdul Jalib Feb 22 2000, 4:00 am
This is a tour of the layers of poker society...
$300-$600+
Here the sharks are world class players, and the fish are whales like literally Persian princes or American billionaires. Sometimes $100-$200 pros follow whales into the game but they are shark bait. These games are almost always short-handed unless there is a whale, in which case professionals and their mothers may be flying into town to get onto a long waiting list. I've never played this high, so my knowledge is a bit lacking. This limit is home to the brother-sister duo of Howard Lederer and Annie Duke.
$100-$200
This is the domain of the tournament pros and the idle rich. Someone said that the more world series bracelets in the game, the better the game, and that's generally (but not quite always) true. They all golf by day and gamble heavily on it. Usually these games are short-handed. The real ring game professionals at this limit are extremely tough, e.g., Lenny Martin.
$60-$120
Largely the same culture as $100-$200, but a $300-$600 pro will sometimes demean himself by playing $100-$200, while you almost never see them in a $60-$120, whereas $30-$60 pros will often jump into a live $60-$120 but not a $100-$200. Overall, the average $60-$120 pro is a weaker player than the grinders down in $30-$60. Tells in $60-$120 are usually reverse tells. For example, in hold'em if a $60-$120 player checks his hole cards when a third of the suit hits, then he already has the flush most of the time. The fish at this limit sometimes have no idea how to play poker and will blow off a few thousand in an hour.
$30-$60
Here live the grinders that play day in and day out, 8+ hours per day. $30-$60 is the high water mark for most professionals, and it's not uncommon for a game to be all professionals, in which case you have to wonder about their sanity. It's also possible to have a game with only one or two pros in it, which just doesn't happen at higher limits. One thing that is striking about this limit is how darned aggressive it is compared to lower limits, though $60-$120 cranks it up to an even higher pitch. This is the last limit that S&M's Hold'em for Advanced Players is of much use. A lot of these players are extremely good, such as Roy Cooke.
$15-$30
Here you'll find the common recreational gamblers, the weak/learning pros, and the Abduls who bounce between $15-$30 and $60-$120 since those games are usually better than than the $30-$60. In Vegas, these games are very weak-tight, and the players fold much too often, while in L.A. these games are very loose rammin' jammin' games.
$10-$20
This is the land of starving professionals and some truly horrendous fish. If you thought $15-$30 was weak-tight, that's nothing compared to $10-$20. The game is normally passive, in addition to weak-tight, and it's is the first limit for which S&M's Hold'em for Advanced Players is geared. Both $10-$20 and $15-$30 allow truly stunning win rates for top notch players, in excess of two big bets per hour, since a top notch player can identify when his weak opponent has no hand in a pot that is heads up from the flop. $3-$6, $10-$20, and $60-$120 are the most common limits to encounter someone who has never played poker before.
$6-$12
Land of gamb000ling fish. The contrast with $10-$20 is incredible. You'll need about as big a bankroll for $6-$12 as $10-$20, because the $6-$12 games are so much wilder and also the rake/time takes a much bigger toll.
$3-$6
Basement. Braindead beginner fish live here, making for no fold'em poker. No bluffing is allowed. The rake or time charge will make the game somewhere between difficult and impossible to beat. Although you'll sometimes see a starving professional in $6-$12, there are no pros down here, unless you want to count retirees who play to supplement their social security checks.