Why people struggle at 1/2

[Aaron W.]

[ QUOTE ]
I was looking at everyones graphs about a week ago showing excellent win rates at .5/1 and then showing roller coaster rides at 1/2. Then hearing everyone say how 2/4 is actually easier than 1/2 and it made me think about the rake schedule. So I decided to run a quick report looking at rake as percentage of pot and found that the worst rake seems to be at 1/2. Here's some stats from various sites...

.5/1
Paradise - 2.3%
Pokerstars - 2.0%
Party - 3.8%
Absolute - 2.5%

1/2
Paradise - 3.1%
Pokerstars - 2.9%
Party - 4.2%
Absolute - 2.3%


[/ QUOTE ]

This doesn't accurately account for the struggles players have. The worst proportional increase seems to be at Pokerstars at just under a 50% increase in rake. It sounds scary, but when you realize that .9% of the pot is really only pennies per pot, you need to look for other reasons to account for the roller coaster.

[DavidC]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I was looking at everyones graphs about a week ago showing excellent win rates at .5/1 and then showing roller coaster rides at 1/2. Then hearing everyone say how 2/4 is actually easier than 1/2 and it made me think about the rake schedule. So I decided to run a quick report looking at rake as percentage of pot and found that the worst rake seems to be at 1/2. Here's some stats from various sites...

.5/1
Paradise - 2.3%
Pokerstars - 2.0%
Party - 3.8%
Absolute - 2.5%

1/2
Paradise - 3.1%
Pokerstars - 2.9%
Party - 4.2%
Absolute - 2.3%


[/ QUOTE ]

This doesn't accurately account for the struggles players have. The worst proportional increase seems to be at Pokerstars at just under a 50% increase in rake. It sounds scary, but when you realize that .9% of the pot is really only pennies per pot, you need to look for other reasons to account for the roller coaster.

[/ QUOTE ]

0.05 per pot is $5 per 100, or 1/4 BB per player per 100 hands... quite a bit of money over the long term.

In a great game, this isn't a big deal, but in a tough game, this could actually kill the game.

[Aaron W.]

[ QUOTE ]
0.05 per pot is $5 per 100, or 1/4 BB per player per 100 hands... quite a bit of money over the long term.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not saying it's not a lot of money over time. I'm arguing that this increase in rake does not account for why players are struggling to beat $1/2 and why they have such large swings.

[ QUOTE ]
In a great game, this isn't a big deal, but in a tough game, this could actually kill the game.

[/ QUOTE ]

I seriously doubt there are $1/2 games tough enough that the rake will kill it.

Let me rephrase my position a little. If everything else were precisely equal, players making 3 BB/100 at $.50/1 would make 2.75 BB/100 at $1/2. But since things are not precisely equal, players making 3 BB/100 at $.50/1 are struggling to make 1 BB/100 at $1/2. The rake alone does *NOT* account for this deviation. There must be other problems (such as the inability to adjust to game conditions, ie when the game gets a little tight).