Party 1/2 full - Total Rock Garden?

[joop]

[ QUOTE ]
TAGs? Hardly. Most of the players are ultra-passive and completely unaware of things like position. You frequently see people open-limping in the CO with hands like AQ, and the only "tricky" thing about their play is that they are more than happy to just check-call every street with the best hand if anyone else shows any aggression at any point. Just be careful not to overplay your marginal made hands and respect raises from most of the players and you'll have the best of it.

[/ QUOTE ]

I couldn't agree with this more.

I've just moved up to 1/2 this last week and have played about 4000 hands in the hours after 18:00EST. During this time I've found the games to be anything but aggressive, even when players flop top two pair or a set, they won't raise your bets. I've never had any problem finding tables with 3-4 people seeing the flop on the majority of hands, and frequently there's 5-6. I sit down at the tables with the highest pots and away I go. I was actually quite suprised at the standard of play given what I had read on here before moving up.

[Stosh]

Wow, how good to see this thread. I thought it was just me. I hadn't played on Party in awhile and had just finished SSH and wanted to play some small stakes limit yesterday and was real suprised to see only 2-3 to the flop at most. Party certainly didn't live up to the fishy reputation I was accustomed to hearing about. It felt like I was playing on Absolute or something. 'Stosh

[afk]

And one again I find myself agreeing with my main man, Greg J.

I don't think Party 1/2 is particularly difficult either. One of the best parts about 1/2 is you see a wide range of different playing styles. This is the time to learn how to play against them!

Edit: Oh yeah, TABLE SELECTION

[hate]

If you can't make money at 1/2 ring, then you're a shitty player. Seriously. This whole rock garden myth is because people have no table selection skills and think calling a preflop raise from a TPP with QJo is hot [censored].

[JackWilson]

[ QUOTE ]
If you can't make money at 1/2 ring, then you're a shitty player. Seriously. This whole rock garden myth is because people have no table selection skills and think calling a preflop raise from a TPP with QJo is hot [censored].

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm yours...let's make babies together.

[Rah]

I've been multitabling 1/2 for tens of thousands of hands over the last months (basically I play higher when I don't have a lot of bonuses to clear but that seldomly happens).
The trend is clear; it's becoming gradually tougher and tougher to beat the game. Being checkraised on every other hand is something that only happens on Party's 1/2 tables, especially during bonus times.

Some people argue that there are bad players too; but which level doesn't have them? One or two bad players doesn't make up for all the TAGs. I'm considering a permanent move to 2/4 just to find some easy targets again. 1/2 is definitely tougher than both 0.5/1 and 2/4.

[stir]

Agree and I would add that much of the observations are made on the basis of a small number of hands. You can run through a streak of tables that are unusually tight relative to the norm. Can happen to anyone unless your are careful about table selection

[Dangergirl]

If you think that 1/2 is tough and can't beat it, then you are in for a surprise when you hit 3/6 and higher. I think someone summed this up best by saying TABLE SELECTION is key. Also adapt your play based on the types of players at the tables. Possibly try 6 max to improve your aggression and blind stealing skills. These skills will only make you a better full ring player.

[otctrader]

I had to get in 1000 hands quickly last night to whore out the Party bonus and found it anything but tight; and despite a bigger collection of TAGs you can exploit the ones that use misplaced aggression, i.e. jamming overs into your nut hands and/or going crazy with Ax blind steals.

YMMV

[flair1239]

[ QUOTE ]
TAGs? Hardly. Most of the players are ultra-passive and completely unaware of things like position. You frequently see people open-limping in the CO with hands like AQ, and the only "tricky" thing about their play is that they are more than happy to just check-call every street with the best hand if anyone else shows any aggression at any point. Just be careful not to overplay your marginal made hands and respect raises from most of the players and you'll have the best of it.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is right on. Most of the tight players at 1/2 represent exactly what they have. Furthermore, many of them can be easily moved off of their marginal made hands.

1/2 is also good place to learn appropriate situations to be aggressive with overcards; primarily becuae they rarely play back at you and they are capable of folding.

I think becoming competent at 1/2 full ring on Party is a good transition for anyone coming out of the .5/1 games. Simply because as a earlier poster said, in order to really beat the game you have to develop your post-flop game.

As opposed to .5/1 where you a primarily just looking to identify value betting situations. At 1/2 in order to make up for not getting paid off huge with your made hands, you have to look for good stealing situations. Which is not to say that you can come in and start throwing money around with crappy hands. If you have not already read/review the semi-bluffing sections of TOP and HEFAP, you can actually apply some of that stuff at 1/2.

Also this is a good time to start applying table selection princepals. People who skip 1/2 full are in my opinion missing out on a cheap oppurtunity to improve their game. This is all stuff you will need to be able to do at 2/4 and 3/6 anyway; so you might as well learn now.