Party 3/6 (low limit)

[RiverMise]

Im noticing that recently I have not been as profitable at the 3/6 and 5/10 party games than a few months ago. I am still winning, just winning less. A lot of other players of similar party limits have made the same comment. Im wondering if

1) Have the fish dried up a little or gotten better?

2) Is the new rake structure to blame?

Thoughts or comments on this would be great.

-RiverMise

[OnlinePokerCoach]

I am doing better than before in 5/10, which seems juiced lately. My experience is therefore different than yours.

[darivercard]

Hey RiverMise,

I have noticed the same thing. I play 2/4 and 3/6 at party (4 tables). Lately, 3/6 hasn't been much (if at all) more profitable than 2/4 in terms of $$$ (my BB/hour is lower at 3/6 than 2/4 and it works out to be approx the same amount of $$$). I think part of it is that we have been spoiled with ungodly win rates (I know I have).
The main reason to me is this - to maintain the profits that I am used to, you need to be playing against very crappy players. Even with players that play lots of garbage and chase lots, but have reasonable judgement (i.e. don't call river and turn raises with 2nd pair), you are not going to make the huge returns that we are used to.
A point that I don't see mentioned a lot on this board, but that I think is very important is this - you are only going to make a lot of money against horrible poker players. If the players are even decent, you can win, but will not win nearly as much. For example, if it were worth my while, I could play .50/1.00 pretty much every single night and make money whereas at 2/4 and 3/6, I will have losing nights sometimes.
3/6 is likely the cutoff to where the quality of play is a lot better (relative to 2/4 anyways). anybody else have an opinion of the difference between 2/4 and 3/6?

[IlliniRyRy]

I've played 2-4 and 3-6 for awhile, and I think your win rate right now may only SEEM like it's not as high because the swings are much greater than they used to be. This is due to the fact that we've had a HUGE influx of extremely bad players. Your hands don't hold up as often because more people are chasing, so they're bound to catch more often. When you do win a pot though, it's sizable enough to offset that extra variance in your bankroll. Sometimes it's tough to deal with that extra factor, but I think you're going to see more and more of that as poker gets more popular. All the fish come out of the woodwork and want to gamble it up because they saw it on TV. 97 suited? Yeah, I'll call. They're suited! I could get a flush!

[Senor Choppy]

Maybe his win rate is lower because you keep insulting everyone at the table when you're losing, sending the recreational players to other sites and limits.