BACK down to 2/4

[golfboy7]

I have the link to the "I hate tiger woods" post in which the guy took winning players' statistics and found a mean/average and have been pouring over my PT stats for this month and can post the stats for all of my 27K+ hands of 3/6 if you want me to but that's not really what I am looking for.

I guess what I"m loking for is answers to some questions and maybe some reccommendations.

I work in a seasonal business, from my name you can probably guess it's GOLF. And basically at the end of November, I'm done for the year. WEll rather than going out to getting another job for 3 months, I'm considering playing poker for those 3 months until the work season starts up again.

So now you know the mindset that I'm in. With that in mind, give advice/answer the following questions...also, feel free to offer advice on other subjects as well should the topic of this post be lead astray...

Try to quantify the difference in difficulty in BB/100 between the 2/4 party and 3/6 party...?

for the month of sept. i'm a .28bb/100 loser at the 3/6 game over 27k+hands. But i was beating the 2/4 for 1.4bb/100 before I moved to 3/6. Is it really THAT much harder? (these figures are for 4+tables)

Is it possible that I'm just running bad this month? (rhetorical question, i know the answer could be yes, but 27k hands seems like a somewhat descent amount of time to be able to weather a bad run )

I have rakeback, thank heavens, which will put me back in the black for the month of september, but it's become exhausting to be a small loser each night over and over.

Like i said, I've studied my stats from PT and MOST of them fall in the stats range on the afformentioned post. Also, in the post, it says "there are probably people who's stats fall outside of these guidelines that are winners, and also people whos stats fall inside these margins who are losers but this is a good start." What are your thoughts on this?

For the time being, i have moved back down to 2/4. (my ego isn't so big that I refuse to move down) and will crunch away there for a while before making the move again.

I know this is the right move for the time being, but I want to actually get something out of this and learn from my experience, so lets talk through this and hopefully I can accomplish that goal.

I'll check back frequently (sorry for any spelling errors, Im typing in a hurry before I have to run an errand)

[DrewOnTilt]

The difference between 2/4 and 3/6 is not so much the potential win rate but the level of aggression and variance.

Welcome back to 2/4. I'm back down here myself after averaging -0.18BB/100 at 3/6 over my first 10k hands.

MAN this is a grind.

[sy_or_bust]

It sounds like you'd be better served by playing less hands/tables and making a concerted effort to get better. Especially if you want to 'go pro'. You cannot simply move down a level and expect variance to flatten out without reassessment. It is very likely that you aren't a significant winner at the 2/4 - 3/6 level. Find out why.

[mtdoak]

Bad runs happen. That being said, 1.4 BB/100 @ 2/4 isn't exactly exceptional good. And being a loser after 27k hands points to some flaws, though it can happen to winning players. I made the same mistake when i first got into poker, i ran 1 BB/100 at 2/4, moved up to 3/6, and got beat back. My question for you is, were you playing 3/6 full or 3/6 6 max. Because the jump from 2/4 to 3/6 6 max is going to be a big one. I recently had to move down (i abused my BR) to 2/4 full from 3/6 6 max and cannot believe how soft it is in comparison. My other suggestion for you is the get a good part time job during yoru offseason, one to meet your living expenses, and user poker to supplement your income. It'll take alot of pressure to win off. Finally, this. Moving up is not a matter of bankroll. While the bankroll DOES need to be there, if you are only a marginal winner at one level, chances are your going to be less of a winner once you move up levels, at least until you adjust. BTW, the biggest difference between 2/4 full and 3/6 full is the need for good table selection. In 2/4, if you open 4, your going to find at least 2-3 good tables. In 3/6, you'll find 1-2.

[Bob T.]

Moving up just isn't a smooth process. You will probably move up and down several times during the course of your career. One thing that will tell you that you are ready to move back up to 3/6 or whatever level, is that when you move back down, you recognize that you have a better understanding of the game than you did before, and you can beat the lower level more handily than you could in the past. Otherwise, rinse and repeat.

If you are going to be playing to pay your bills over the winter, then you probably want to be on the safe side of the margin where you are profitable, otherwise, it might be a very cold winter for you.

[golfboy7]

Thank you for such quick responses.

Indeed it was a 2/4 full table to 3/6 full table move.

reason I like full tables is it allows me to play position better than 6 max and i play 4 tables right now, which is much harder to do if they are 6max tables.

a part-time job would not be out of the question over the winter and will probably be the route that I end up taking.

I have a some thinking to do.

Thanks for the info so far, keep posting if anybody has thoughts and I'll keep reading responding.

[MyTurn2Raise]

Personally, I'm not moving up to 3/6 until I can beat the 2/4 for 2BB/100 hands over a larger type sample...like 25k hands. But, to each his own.

Actually, I'm moving to 1/2 6 max after 2/4 full. I read a thread here once (sorry cannot find it right now...I'll work on it) that said the difference in 3/6 is slight but there. 3/6 is more aggressive and less players. 6 max trains for more aggressive play and more heads-up play.

[heropretend]

agree with most comments. you should play 2-3 tables of 2/4 til you see your winrate at around 2bb/100. if you get bored play 1 table drunk for a few thousand hands and if you can do that, you're likely ready to handle 6max.

[crunchy1]

[ QUOTE ]
reason I like full tables is it allows me to play position better than 6 max and i play 4 tables right now, which is much harder to do if they are 6max tables.

[/ QUOTE ]
I'd like to read a deeper explanation of what you mean by this statement.

[Pominos]

I'm moving up and down from/to 2/4 to 3/6 all the time. And I still can't beat 3/6 for some reason. At 2/4 I'm close to 3.5 BB/100 over the last 30k hands (have only used PT for about a month or two, since I changed sites). But at 3/6 I'm down about 1 BB/100 over 10k hands.
It fells to me like 2/4 is much easier than 3/6. Or perhaps it's just the variance.

I know I will keep playing 2/4 for a while longer, with the occasional stab at 3/6 until I can make the same money/h at 3/6 as I do today a 2/4