Rake in Low Limit Hold 'Em

[Adalbert Waldenbusch]

I've been playing now quite some time Limit Hold 'Em on the internet. Especially at Paradise and now at Party (0,5/1; 1/2 and 2/4). When I add it all up I quite lost some amount of money though I follow the books on the topic and though I read this forum and asked questions here (under another handle which password I've forgotten).

I won't post any hands now nor do I think I need a lot of advice else about my playing style, 'cause I know it cannot be so bad that I loose some money consistently. I rather suspect that it's virtually impossible to win consistently at this levels because of the rake.

As an example let's see Party Poker. At the 2/4 table the average rake may be 1,5 (max 3 $). If you win 7 games in hundred, you loose about 11 $ that way. That's 2,5 Big Bets. It's more than the amount you should have won in this appr. 1,5 hours (good player 1 BB / H).

My newest example: I played 80h at Party (2/4) and I am down 400$. Wouldn't I have to pay the rake I would be up at least 100$. I think Mason and Sklansky wrote their books for the 30/60 games where the rake plays no significant role. Were they to play at 2/4 maybe even they couldn't win much.

I also got some answers on this topic here on the forum, some guys said "Play at least 5/10", what I cannot afford at the moment, others said build a bankroll from 0,5/1 and so on, because they argued that the low quality of the bad players there do more than compensate the rake problem. On the other hand last summer a guy from Party called me by telephone and asked why I stopped playing there. Even he stated, that below 5/10 the rake eats up all your profit (and I think even a bit more).

Hey guys, what do you think?!


Adalbert

Do you think to play tournaments is a better idea?