Open letter to the forum

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I am in complete agreement.

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[bobbyi]

When I started reading twoplustwo, we had separate forums for mid- and high-stakes. They were eventually merged due to lack of traffic in high-stakes. I agree that there is now enough high-stakes traffic to justify splitting them again. In fact, I really think this should happen. I would post much more on mid-stakes if it was it's own forum. However, I think the history of what happened to the original high-stakes forum is instructive. Since there was so much good discussion on the mid-stakes board, anyone who had a high-stakes hand would post it there instead so that it would actually get attention. This led to even less hands on the high-stakes forum and this became a cycle and high-stakes turned into a ghost town. This meant that people stopped reading the high-stakes forum, so whenever someone posted a hand there, someone would need to make a post on mid-stakes to say "hey, go check out this interesting hand posted on high-stakes". Essentially, there was so little high-stakes play that the high-stakes forum collapsed in on itself and was absorbed into mid-stakes.

If you create a separate HU/3-handed forum, this is exactly what will happen today. I agree philosophically that having one forum for full table games and another for HU through six-handed doesn't really make sense since HU and six-handed are very different, much more different than six-handed is from full ring (especially here on the West Coast where tables are nine-handed and there is always someone up from the table, so "full" games are a lot of seven- and eight-handed play). However, in practice it is clear that the demand for HU discussion just isn't there to support a whole forum. I wish it were as much as you do, but that isn't the case. Today, HU posts get no responses either in HUSH or in MHS. If people aren't interested in responding to those posts now, they certainly aren't going to become interested when you take those posts and put them in a separate forum where no one will even see them. The HU/3 forum will languish and people who have HU hands will post them in MUSH instead so that they actually get seen. If there ever is an interesting post on HU/3, someone will come along and start a new thread on MUSH saying "you guys should check out this HU/3 post", which defeats the point of having separate forums. Further, you say you don't like having .5/1 and 100/200 hands posted together on HUSH and this is exactly what would happen on a HU/3 fourm.

[TStoneMBD]

Hi Bobby, I understand your point of view that a HU/3handed forum might not gain much attention, but I don't believe that to be true. If there was a HU/3handed forum I would participate in it frequently, and if I would I assume many others would as well. We do get threads in HUSH that involve button raises against the SB and BB. These threads would be appropriate in the HU/3handed forum and there are enough of them now that I think they belong to a seperate home. HUSH really has become a 6max forum.

I also didn't know that midhighstakes was once 2 forums as you have been here longer than I have. However, just because the forums couldn't coexist during that time doesn't mean they won't now. They definitely will without question. There was a lack of traffic in high stakes back then as you say, but now there isn't. The only concern might be that there will be a lack of traffic for middle stakes, but I don't think that would happen. We have so many players who play between 10/20-20/40 and do not post their full ring hands, but only post shorthanded hands in the HUSH forum. There is no home for the 10/20-20/40 full ring players, I think we should make one.

[MelK]

I think the heads up / 3 handed forum is definitely needed. All discussion gets lost in the HUSH forum now. If it becomes a relatively inactive forum, thats fine by me, but its very existance will encourage more on topic posting.

[gabbahh]

This might actually be the first time we all agree on something.

[SlyGuy]

I will go with TStone here.

[MelK]

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This might actually be the first time we all agree on something.

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OK, good. I didn't know we were in constant disagreement all the time, or even when we have posted in the same thread. So I'll take your word for it.

Maybe we can post together in the new Heads Up forum. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[MarkL444]

glad to see everyone agreeing. tstone is clearly spot-on with what needs to be done to improve those forums. and it IS important.

[Chobohoya]

Great post, I hope that Mat Sklansky reads it and recognizes this fact as well.

[stigmata]

signed.