3/6---9 fish table......don't sit down?

[BCl]

I need some exp players advice here..my local b%m, 3/6, fishiest table you've ever seen.7-8 players seeing every flop...im a really tight player, premium hand only for the most part.but here i couldnt win a hand! no matter what i had, no matter how hard i bet it, they followed me to the river where nearly everytime one of them sucked out with a big hand.whati thought was going to be a easy cpl of hundred bucks..hell id admit it..these fish cleaned me out in 2 hrs time! Would it be best to not even sit down with a table playing this loose or is there a proper startegy for playing them??

[sean c]

Buy SSHE by Ed Miller read it and learn it.

[krimson]

Standard variance. Basically, you're not going to win as many hands with so many people going to the river, so slowly losing your chips is standard. When you do win pots, you take down mmasssiiiviiveve pots, and you catch nice little streaks for big upswings. This is what makes the game profitable, these huge upswings that will occur.

It should also be mentioned that your expectation here on average is much lower than you probably think. A solid player could expect to earn around $7-8/hr from a live 3/6 game. You sound like you have the idea in your head that you should be beating this game for hundreds a night. If this were true, we'd all be at our local casino's right now.

[Rootabager]

BAD BEAT!!!!!!

[BCl]

[ QUOTE ]
Standard variance. Basically, you're not going to win as many hands with so many people going to the river, so slowly losing your chips is standard. When you do win pots, you take down mmasssiiiviiveve pots, and you catch nice little streaks for big upswings. This is what makes the game profitable, these huge upswings that will occur.

It should also be mentioned that your expectation here on average is much lower than you probably think. A solid player could expect to earn around $7-8/hr from a live 3/6 game. You sound like you have the idea in your head that you should be beating this game for hundreds a night. If this were true, we'd all be at our local casino's right now.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yea i think you got it right. i really thought id run this table easily but it turned out to be Bingo instead of poker..plus the one thing i missed was the big swing...i kept thinking it was coming any hand now and it just never came...had i gotten 1 good rush it would have been totally different. i dont expect to wim hundreds a night at 3/6, i just thought i would at this table. i usually dont even play 3/6 but when i saw this seat open i couldnt get there fast enough..lol couldnt get out fast enough either!

[jat850]

Please, gotta play - every time. I keep written notes of my live game play every session and one of my rating scales is # of fish. I recently had a session at a tough table with good players but I was the big winner. I followed up with a losing session at the fishiest table I'd seen in ages. The difference was standard variance in the cards. For fish, krimson was on the $. Play your good hands only, in good position. When you get ahead, often with top pair or better, pound on them. Bet any EV+ situation as dead money will chase it. Sometimes they catch, many times they don't. But do not change your standards simply because they are fish. I have caught myself lowering my standards and playing flush draws I should stay off of as a leak in total LAP games. Maintain discipline.

read mason 2+2's small stakes hold'em book... really will give you much insight into how to play these games. i know i faced the same frustration after being a fairly profitable 3/6 player online, to getting killed at the B+Ms... will give you more reasonable ways to try and isolate in these games etc...

[SNOWBALL138]

I would start out by reading Getting started in hold em by Ed Miller. It provides a strong winning foundation for beating small stakes limit hold em. Its also a really quick read so you can put all of the ideas into practice right away.

After that, Small Stakes Hold Em is a must. There are other good hold em books, but before you read these two, there's not much use in reading anything else.

You might also want to try getting some practice by playing online. It makes it easier to learn poker to play online, because you can post hands on the forum, and you can use pokertracker. Also, the rake is a lot lot less.

The variance at these tables are extremely high. As long as you have the bankroll to back up yourself, you should have no problems. Last night, I was on a 2/4 online table where some fish was raising and reraising EVERY flop. After a while, we were getting 6-way capped action preflop on 2 of 3 hands. I found myself tightening even more, and trying to avoid hands I'd like to limp with, like low pocket pairs or suited connectors. I finally found KK and lost a 30 BB pot to a rivered A from the fish. I lost the 25 BB I sat down with in about an hour, but decided to buy back in for another 25 BB. After about an hour and a half more, I had won the 25 BB I originally lost back, and was up an additional 13.5 BB. The pots won in those games were gigantic, as I think the average was 12 BB.

The point is that not only do these players give their money away, they tend to loosen up a majority of the players on the table, which creates more dead money. Seek these games out, but be prepared for the swings. You could easily go up 30 BB right away, but you could just as easily drop 30 BB. As long as you maintain a tight-aggressive game isolating the fish, these games can be HIGHLY profitable.

[bobhalford]

You are just experiencing short term variance from a high hariance situation (like playing against a table of fish). When you get some more experience, you will find out how to best play in these games and will not be surprised to lose big pots with KK when an Ace falls on the river. It's normal in these games for this to happen.

A better game would be with 4-5 real fish and a couple average players, but since you don't have that, you should be happy to be able to play in this game. It can be very frustrating at times, but it's definitely a great situation and should be profitable if you learn to adapt effectively to the table texture.

Play it for several months and tell us how you did. If you are a good player you should be doing well.