[scotty34]

Here's some of my thoughts on the subject, in addition to agreeing with most of the previous posts. This post is assuming the players are not addicted gamblers, and are generally rational in their thinking.

There are people who just play poker for fun, and there are people who want to get serious about it and make money. The people who play for fun are obviously rarely going to get very good at the game, and just play at whatever limits they feel comfortable with and will almost always lose long term.

For the people who are serious about getting good at poker, they have some big obstacles to overcome. You cannot just read a book and jump into a 5/10 game and start winning. You probably can't even just jump into a .5/1 game and start winning. It takes a lot of discipline and study and experience to become a winning player. I think for a lot of players who want to make money, starting at .5/1 just isn't worth it for them. It would take ages to build your skills enough to go from .5/1 to a level where the amount of money you can make is actually significant. Many players simply do not have that kind of time, due to their jobs, families etc. (as an aside, I believe this is a reason why there is an decreasing trend in the average age of good players).

They will get frustrated grinding through the micro limits, and take shots at games that they clearly aren't ready for and/or are underbankrolled for. Either that, or they may just decide to start off at 3/6 or 5/10 or higher, where even with decent basic knowledge of the game, you aren't likely to be a winner.

In summary, the lower limit games can easily be beaten. I am very confident that I could teach anyone without a major learning disability to beat Party .5/1 within two months if they were actually serious about it. The problem lies in discipline and frustration for those who are serious about getting good - the risk/reward payoff or opportunity cost just don't seem to warrant the time that needs to be invested.

Also, you would probably be very surprised with how many players 'think' they are winners, and chalk up losses to bad beats. I can tell this from talking to friends that play who are clearly losers in my mind, and from the countless times of watching the 50/5 player berate the 40/30 player for sucking out, and how terrible his play was.