The 2/4 to 3/6 Jump

[Festus22]

Please indulge me as I know this topic has been discussed at length but I'd like an opinion from an EV perspective.

I just crossed the +400 BB milestone in 2/4 earnings. My win rate is 2.51 BB/100 and I have around 16K hands of 2/4 in PokerTracker (I've played more but lost a bunch of data when my old PC crashed). I'm pretty comfortable playing 4 tables now so on an hourly basis, it comes out to around $20/Hr.

Sooooo...do I make the jump to 3/6 because that's the next logical step? Play just one 3/6 table and maybe two 2/4's and really focus on the 3/6? Is it really worth it?

To maintain my hourly rate, I'd have to make about 2.5 BB/100 3-tabling or 1.66 BB/100 4 tabling. And that's just to break even. So in reality, I would need to make 2 BB/100 4-tabling to make it worthwhile.

My gut as well as a lot of posts here tells me 3/6 is more than 20% harder than 2/4 so the jump may not be +EV. Also, I don't think my 2.5 BB/100 rate at 2/4 is good enough to consider the move. My guess is that most of you successful 3/6 players beat the 2/4 game for higher than this.

So what does everyone think?

PS: I've also been playing a ton of 6-max games recently and although I'm just breaking even, it is helping my aggression a ton. Is this a good training ground prior to a 3/6 move?

[Phil Van Sexton]

I'm sure everyone is going to post that 16k is not enough hands to compute a true win rate, so don't think about this in such exact numbers. You have enough hands to be very sure that you are a winning 2/4 player, but not enough for an exact win rate.

3/6 may be a bit tougher, but the rake % is lower. I don't see any reason to stay at 2/4 if you have the bankroll for 3/6. I like your plan to start with only 1 table of 3/6 at first.

As for playing shortheaded to increase your aggression, I'm not sure what to make of that. Just play the same way you've been playing at 2/4 and adjust as you go. Some 3/6 tables will be aggressive, some won't....just like any level.

Good luck.

[tallstack]

[ QUOTE ]
3/6 may be a bit tougher, but the rake % is lower.

[/ QUOTE ]

Are you sure that this is true, at least on Party? I have been comparing the two levels in PT and they are very close in rake % for the limited amount of hands in my database. So far, 2/4 has has a slightly lower rake %, but they are very close. Does someone have some long term rake % numbers to show the difference between these levels?

Dave S

[Kevin]

[ QUOTE ]
. Does someone have some long term rake % numbers to show the difference between these levels?


[/ QUOTE ]

2/4: 27,387 hands, average rake: $0.98, % of Pot 3.46%
3/6: 152,576 hands, average rake: $1.46, % of Pot 3.59%

Been a few months since I was in the 2/4 and the sample size is pretty small, but probably adequate sample for 3/6

[tallstack]

Thanks for the info, Kevin.

My numbers are very close to yours (3.50% at 2/4 and 3.60% at 3/6). I guess that the number of unraked hands in 2/4 outweighs the number of maximum raked hands in 3/6.

Dave S

[JinX11]

Assuming you're playing PP...

I haven't noticed anything terribly different from 2/4 to 3/6, personally, though my win rate at 3/6 is about .5BB less than 2/4. I think table selection becomes a little more important and a little more difficult: whereas in 2/4 it's typical to find 7-8 tables with avg. pot size >= 9 BB, you may only find 3-4 such tables in 3/6. So, I routinely play some 2/4 tables, some 3/6 tables (and maybe a 5/10 or 10/20 table if I can find a table where the avg. pot size ~10BB).

Ultimately, the only way you're gonna find out if you should move up is to go play there. It sounds like you're giving your game a good bit of thought, so that's a good start. Now, go play some hands. Best of luck! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[JinX11]

Also, bdk plays 3/6 - you need to stay out of his way. Especially if the board pairs.

[smoore]

I'm learning limit poker on party after being a successful NL tournament player on pokerstars. Started at 1/2 to figure out multi tabling and blew through 2/4 (only about 1k hands there) when I figured out that the rake and small blind at 3/6 are significantly less. I'm bankrolled adequately for 5/10 but the play there is harder for me than 3/6, so I'm at my level for awhile.

All that said... you're beating 2/4 for $20/hr... that pays your bills I assume. I would say that when you feel like you're playing well you should try multi 3/6, if you feel like you may be playing your B game, drop back down. Nothing says you have to play the same limit every day or session. Personally, I wouldn't want to mix limits in the same session although I can't put my finger on WHY I feel that way.

[Chaos_ult]

My instinct tells me that you aren't ready to make the jump yet, and here's why:

You had to make a post asking if you should move up or not.

What it really all boils down to at this point (considering the caliber of posts that I have seen) is confidence. Do you feel comfortable at playing 3/6?

Take my advice with a grain of salt

Happy holidays,

Matt

[Sundevils21]

imo there is no difference at all between 2-4 and 3-6(much less 20%). My bb/100 actually was higher at 3-6. Then again I didn't play very many hands at 2-4, that was a quick jump in limits.