How long can a game stay good? Possible stupid question.

[siccjay]

The times I've played at Caesers were amazing. While it was only 2/4 I seen about 3 or 4 players multiple times and even they were pretty bad.

There was one guy who knew every dealer and I thought had to be pretty decent, but no. You gotta love it when the regulars cold call 3 bets with A9off.

What I mean is, I don't think that place could ever dry up.

[dopp16]

as i am sure a lot of you people know, there is a nice section "inside the poker mind" where feeney talks about the economy and what people can do to keep it thriving. While many casinos continue to thrive, there are games that dry up all of the time and for different reasons. I think that as a whole the poker economy is thriving, but for some whose game may be say 15/30 or 20/40 now have to choose between 10/20 and 30/60, or sit with the rest of the trust fund babies at the 2/5 no limit table, it does effect a lot of people. Certainly not in Atlantic City or Las Vegas, but in the smaller areas with limited rooms and a smaller economy.

[Al_Capone_Junior]

A game stays good as long as you are the best, or at least one of the best players in the game, and there's a significant margin of difference. As long as other players are making enough mistakes to give you enough of an edge to make the game "good," then it's good. When you are no longer one of the top dogs, when the very worst players leave, when no new money is available, or when everyone remaining plays well, then the game is bad. But in many locales, if you could play for say one straight week in the same game, it might remain good the whole time. Of course some times would be better than others, but good is mostly relative to your skill vs. theirs.

Now the degree of mistakes the other players are making will influence the degree of how good the game is. Suppose David Sklansky, Mason Malmuth, and me are all playing in a 6-12 limit game. Put seven typical vegas drunken tourists in the game. Obviously the three of us can make a profit here, the tourists will make plenty of mistakes to go around. But now take me, and make seven clones of me, and put them in the game instead of the tourists. Dave and Mason, while more skilled than myself, won't be able to make much money, if any, in this game, because I simply won't make enough mistakes to take advantage of and still overcome the rake. It's a skill in itself to recognise what's a good game, and what's a bad game.

al