Stars v. Party

[NoPeak]

After playing at Stars for several months, I decided to give Party a go last week. I've played mostly $10 SNG's and many $1,$2,$3,$5.50, and $10 MTT's at Stars, and after a slow start ended up doing well, especially in the SNG's. The best finish in a MTT that I can recall is finishing 14th out of around 1600 in a $3 entry. After making my first deposit at Party, I entered a "new player" $1 MTT and finished 2nd out of around 420. I went on to place in the money in the first 3 SNG's I entered.

Is the average Stars player just better than the average Party player? Do Stars players just play tighter and smarter than Party players? Is Party just full of fish? Any input would be appreciated.

This might not be the correct forum for the question. My question was based mainly on finishing so high in the Party MTT as opposed to Stars MTT's.

[PokerNeal]

I play both. At low limits generally the "quality" of the crowd is the same at both Party and Pstars. At higher limits you are likely to find higher caliber players at Pstars than at Party. This is only fair given that Party has such a large crowd and more oriented towards the mass market...

[RFJ]

Well I don't think it's the quality of people that are different rather they type of game they are. I play on both sites and i'm pretty sure most people do the same. For one thing PS and PP have different seating numbers. PS has 9 while PP has 10. The major diffrence i believe why PS is harder than PP is that PS has antes. Although you start with more chips in PS that 500 extra really is nothing when you think about the antes. Antes start at 25 so for each orbit your complete that 500 is gone in like 2 orbits. In PS i think you have to get good cards or you will be blinded out real fast. In PS you need to establish a lead to keep up with the blinds. You need a lot more luck. If your a big stack and decide to play your chip stack and steal antes and the blinds it will likely cover your loss. If you had stolen the just the antes for one orbit that's 225 x 9 = 2025 in chips. That's only the antes and not including the blinds. I find that i'm am usually blinded out in PS as compared to PP where i can last a lot longer. Sometimes you hear from people that you have to be more aggressive. Yes i can understand that, but not when your already beat. Everytime i check to see if i would have won if i took it all the way to the river with my hand. The answer is i would have lost 9 out of 10 times. I can tell this because although i might not play there are always those loose players that will take it to the river. Sometimes yeah my JJ would have taken the pot, but only because my JJ would have made sets while his KK did not. Yeah people really don't think about the antes, but they can really decimated your stack or increase it real fast if you happen to get a rush of cards.

[mrbaseball]

I made a post about a week ago comparing Stars and Partys structures. Even though Stars starts with more chips (1500 vs 1000) you get blinded off faster in Stars due to higher starting blinds, 9 player tables and antes.

So with Stars you have to be more aggressive and more willing to steal, resteal and make other bold moves.

In Party you can be much more patient and wait for better hands. Especially early where you should play ultra tight until you get at least close to a cinch hand. With only 1000 starting chips it is very easy to get short stacked quickly if you get involved much without much. This is what gets most people in trouble early on in Party. They get involved too often too early.

[Greg (FossilMan)]

[ QUOTE ]
I made a post about a week ago comparing Stars and Partys structures. Even though Stars starts with more chips (1500 vs 1000) you get blinded off faster in Stars due to higher starting blinds, 9 player tables and antes.

So with Stars you have to be more aggressive and more willing to steal, resteal and make other bold moves.

In Party you can be much more patient and wait for better hands.

[/ QUOTE ]

What about the impact of the level changes? Stars lets you play 10 minutes per level, while Party only gives you 10 hands. Especially once you lose about half the table, you get a TON more hands per level at Stars. I'd say at least twice as many.

Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)

[RFJ]

Are you sure about the 10 hand levle change? I think PP changes levels every 20 mins... Maybe i'm wrong or maybe your played in some special tournament...but i just checked right now and it increases in 20 minute increments...

[PokerNeal]

I think Greg is refering to single table tourneys. They have the number of hands he is talking about... only the multi-table tourneys have the time format between the levels...

[mrbaseball]

[ QUOTE ]
Stars lets you play 10 minutes per level, while Party only gives you 10 hands.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is true for SnG type tournaments. But in standard MTTs they both have 15 minute levels. Here is the link to my inital research.
web page

You pay considerably more on Stars for blinds and antes than you do for just the blinds on Party.