Party NL25 and variance...

[SpiderMnkE]

I had a 40 minute stretch once where I lost 3.5 buyins.

I took 3 2/3 outer beats in a row for stacks. That didn't phase me... because I knew I was getting my money in with the best of it. So I guess I can imagine that happening 3 times in a row. Haha... that would certainly be crappy.

I guess it will happen at some point... but it can't happen that often.

I just hope it doesn't happen right off the bat when I jump to the $50 games this week.

[Wayfare]

The variance is high. The $50 games can be just as easy as the $25's although I have met some tricky players. Since you have such a wide range of tables to play at, there really is no reason to sit with the ones who know how to play.

I suggest that you play fewer tables at the $50 until you get your multitable system adjusted. Since I play primarily for relaxation, I still only play two at once. Three tires me out, and four is just too much for me to play well.

[Zag]

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(I can handle myself well heads up or three way, and when there's nine+ people around the table, I excel... when a few people get up though, is when I start floundering... can't quite get the hang of re-valuing hands, etc. etc.)

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I am totally with you there. I feel that my best game is 3-way, with heads up and 4-way in a close tie for second. I also can play well on a full table, as long as I leave when I am feeling impatient (which I almost always have the discipline to do). However, 5 to 7 players seems to mystify me. I never seem to beat that game.

I think it is because I use two very different skills. In the full game, I am just patient, I wait for good cards, and I pound with them. There is always somebody who catches well enough to come along, and it makes up for the few times that I have a very good hand but someone else has the nuts.

In the short-handed games, I am basically playing the players, and my cards are much less important. I shift gears well and seem to be able to keep my opponents off balance consistantly.

But in the middle games, either I run into an aggressive player who keeps pushing me off my middling hands, or I get a good hand, bet, and win just the blinds. I can't seem to take advantage of the over-aggressive players like I can in the short games, because there is too often someone else playing along, as well, who likely has a real hand.

Any advice at all is appreciated. Does anyone find these games to be their strength?

[RoyalSampler]

I am up 28 buyins on UB and in my first 4 hours at PP, went down 6 buyins. Aces just wouldn't hold and I wasn't playing my A game. Variance can be huge when your aces get overcalled every time! If you haven't played much online and this happens it would be terrifying. If things don't turn around, you could start at the UB micro levels. 1c/2c and 10c/25c to build your confidence and prove to yourself you are a winning player. This is why I started at UB. Now I think I am starting to get PP to work for me. Monkey, what * buyin are you using? You sound like you have a very strict plan, like I do (although occasionally I jump up for a one off).

[SpiderMnkE]

I am on the 20 buyin plan. I actually have a totall roll of $1444... but only 970 of that is at Party. The rest is hanging around at UB. So once the party roll is at $1000 I bump to the $50 game.

I play 4 tables of the $25 game. I make between 5 and 6 BB/hr. This is like 70 hands per hour per table I think.. I'm not sure.. that is a guess... anyway.. between $10 and $12 an hour.

I'm not currently using my poker tracker. Don't ask me why. The answer would be laziness, except that I keep very close records and create spreadsheets and charts and post it on my website so I can check it from anywhere. So maybe it isn't laziness. But somehow it is.

I'm not sure what my plan is when I bump up. I think I'm going to just start off 4 tabling right away.. because I've watched my friend play and it looks pretty much the same.

If I drop 4 buyins right away... I'll probably cry and move back down. Hopefully I jump in on a hot streak and can build up a couple buyins to play with. As if 20 isn't safe.. haha.

I don't know if that is really a plan.. I think it is just what a poker player is suppossed to do. I am just sticking within the proven parameters that I read about on the forum.

[RoyalSampler]

Yup I'm living by 20* buyin too. Bit further to go to get to the 50's than you, hopefully sometime next month. It's not so much that I set these rules because I believe poker should be regemented, but that I feel comfortable if I apply dicipline.

[Snoogins47]

In response to the questions...

Well, when this was posted, I was down about 4 and a half in the span of about 2 hours... played about 2 more hours, and I made back two of those.

I figured that it wasn't some horrifically bad downswing, as I've burned through more buy ins than that in an NL homegame before.

And sadly, I haven't made the jump to PT yet.. this is sort of my first jump at "seriously" playing. I've played for about two years, live homegames 3-4 nights a week, occasional casino jaunts, and then I started grinding out micro-limits after cashing $1.50 in a freeroll.

I started keeping some notebook stats on the micro stakes, but then sadly deviated from it.

That initial freeroll money turned into $300 in the course of a whole lot of hours in the span of about 2-3 months, and I felt it would be best to continue my little journey by moving up again.

Only been on Party for about three days now, just experimenting, getting my feet wet, seeing what games I'm fit for, getting used to the software, etc. I was back to taking down some stats (not nearly as useful as pokertracker stats, but I was taking hands played, hours, money won, BB/hr, BB/100, etc) but in three nights of playing I've had three or four disconnects that messed up the stats that party keeps on hands, flops seen, etc (and I usually just did a wrap up after my sessions)

And note: I didn't jump straight into four tabling. I started with 2 10 handed games open, played that for a while (as I'm fairly used to playing multiple tables, between my micro stakes stuff and my old freeroll habit, I'd often have three or four different softwares open at once ;P) then hopped on six-max and played two tables of that.

What was mentioned earlier is quite true... at Party, especially six max, the aggression is somethin else. And also like was mentioned earlier, it's very easy to get pot committed in that game. I found, much like I always found in the shortstacked homegames I've played, that I might drop a few buy ins pretty quickly, but once I get my stack up to 2x the buy in or more, my game improves immensely, and I feel 3x more comfortable. Last night, this is what happened. I had two hands NOT get sucked out on, had about $60 in front of me on one table, and then patiently worked that up into the lower triple digits, while the other table I kept floundering right around 1 buy.

I'd continue rambling, but it's time to hit up the real job ;P

[TerraUbrett]

You say the variance is high, but I have an experienced friend who's plays 3/6 limit and he says that the variance is much higher in limit and that by staying in the $50nl rooms my variance should be no more than 3-4 buy in. The only downside to this is there is more money to made playing in the 3/6 limit rooms.

[excession]

for goodness sake get PT, use the gametime windows and the new auto-rate features

anyone who doesn't is playing blind (and whilst shutting off the targeting computer and using the force make have worked for Luke Skywalker, as I'm no Jedi I only play sites that I can use with PT)

[lefty rosen]

I played this game the first time in months for 1 week 2 weeks ago and the games were relatively tight during the day. The variance wasn't much. Infact it was the toughest games around if you didn't fold JJ against a big raise you were being dominated...... So the variance was next to nothing... My bad I thought you were talking about full ring games. The short games are why the full games are now full of Sklansky clones......