Move to $1/2 level ?

[Marat]

Hi all,

I'm playing at $0.5/1 level and I winning 3.1BB/100 hands (after 16000 hands).Now I tried move to $1/2 level, where I was destroyed. Back to $0.5/1, recovered losses, move to $1/2 and situation repeated. Players reraised me with 24o and rivered out my flopped sets, top pairs lost to runner, runner two bottom pairs, etc.

My question is:

Is level $1/2 that much different from $0.5/1 level??? I never saw that much maniacs at $0.5/1 as at $1/2! When I raise and reraise preflop I have least four callers.When I bet the flop and I don't have NUTS, I am death.

[Hellmouth]

Ive been struggling at 1/2 now and I dont know what to say yet. It does seem that players go to the river with much stronger hands and will only get aggressive when they have much stronger than average hands to show down.

I still have not adjusted well to this level. The pots arn't big enough to make up for my mistakes anymore. Also the rake seems to be a lot bigger chunk of each pot at this level.

Sorry I cant help more.

Greg

I've just recently moved up to $1/2 also. I've noticed that the players are more aggressive - especially preflop. I've tightened up my preflop standards (generally using SSH tight) and that has helped alot.

The other thing I've noticed is that sometimes I'll get on a loose passive table and everything is great for awhile. Everyone calling my aggression with 2nd pair and weak draws etc. Life is great until someone leaves. They get replaced by TAGs [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] Maybe my aggression and their calling is bloating the pots and sending out signals to the sharks.

Marat,

Do you have PokerAce? If not, it is definitely worth the $25. There are tons of bad players at $1/2, but I think the problem people have when they are moving up levels is that they respect their opponents too much. I think this was part of my problem at least. Yes there might occasionally be some good players at your tables now, but overall most of your opponents probably still stink. Getting the PokerAce HUD will let you distinguish the good players from the bad ones very quickly and might help you build confidence and improve your reads.

Another thing to work on is trying always to keep in mind what range of hands your opponents could have, instead of only playing your own cards. This is especially important when you are in hands with the better players.

Finally, the standard advice people on this forum will give you is to post some hands that give you trouble and to try responding to other people's posts.

[homebrewer]

I posted this a short-time ago, but I think many of us have had experience similar to yours. Careful analysis of your play might help you figure out how much of it is you and how much of your results are due to variance. Hang in there!

*****
Your experiences are very similar to mine. Not long ago I was "crushing" .5/1 full-ring and 6-max (about 30k hands too). I then made my 2nd foray into 1/2 6-max (the 1st was profitable but I found several leaks that I had to work on). My confidence was high and I was *running well*. I figured my 2nd try would be even more profitable - assuming I had improved my play.

I suffered a pretty good downswing almost immediately. I looked real hard at my hands and found several that I played poorly. However, I also found that I *seemed* to be running bad too. One of the things that affected me psychologically, but not really my play (at least I don't think so) was losing more in terms of actual dollars. The absolute dollar amount that I had lost was psychologically painful. Turns out that in terms of the actual number of BBs, my downswing at 1/2 was similar to other downswings that I've gone through in .50/1.

In similar threads, others have advocated "hanging in there" until things turn around. That's what I did and I ended up having a big turn around.

Marat,

I recently made a move to 1-2 as well and having a pretty good run at it for the first 3k hands or so ... im sure a lot of it is just hitting a good run of cards. One thing I have noticed is that play varies much more.

At .5 1, my playbook was pretty straightforward (since I tried to sit at mostly 35+ vpip tables) - raise with good hands, protect post-flop and value bet the river against bad players. At 1-2 I am seeing a lot more flops h/u and 3-handed as opposed to 5-handed, so my short handed game gets stressed more. Also, reads make a huge difference since the players sitting at 1-2 tables range from tight rocks, to TAGS, to LAGS to LPs & the tags seem taggier, Lags laggier etc.

[Webster]

I was like you guys and basically skipped 1/2. 2/4 is a better game. I STILL have problems in 1/2 at Party and I play MOSTLY 3/6 now.

1/2 is a tough place because you have good players (sort of) that are willing to gamble. The quality os 1/2 is just plan better - it's where real poker is starting to be played.

One thing you have to do is ALWAYS think in terms of big bets - not dollars. That will take some sticker shock away.

[WalkAmongUs]

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Hi all,Players reraised me with 24o and rivered out my flopped sets, top pairs lost to runner, runner two bottom pairs, etc.

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if this is happening an inordinately large amount of times then it is variance. You should love to play against players like this. Just make sure you are protecting your hands adequately so as not to offer them correct odds to chase these crappy draws.

I didn't find 1/2 full ring to be that hard - I wasn't crushing it, but I was consistently squeezing out just over 1BB/100, and if I'd played more at Party I'm sure I would have done better.

I chose to play Absolute, where I discovered that the players are NOT that much better, they're just tighter. You can beat them, you just have to adjust your game. And yes, plug your leaks.

LAGs can be your friends. Just sit to their left. And get PT to keep track of your own stats, replay hands, etc. You don't need PAHUD (you should be able to quickly tell who's loose and who's aggressive at your table) but it might help.

And finally, if playing for higher stakes is on your mind at all, move back down until your bankroll big enough that the money doesn't matter. I recently made the jump from 1/2 to 2/4, but I waited until I had a 500 BB BR to even start taking shots, because I knew that if my cushion wasn't big I'd feel really bad about losing $100 at a single table. (Now, winning $150 at a single table, like I did last night...I like that better. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img])

[tiltaholic]

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Re: Move to any level ?

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...I discovered that the players are NOT that much better..., they're just <something>. You can beat them, you just have to adjust your game. And yes, plug your leaks.


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