Has Party really tightened up?

[Petomane]

I started over a year ago at 0.50/1 & progressed to 2/4, multiple tables. My best months were Nov, Dec, Jan. I started playing some 1/2 shorthanded in Feb on top of my regular games and it really was a fish barrel. I only met one player who saw less than 40% of the flop in like 6 weeks. Then at the beginning of April there were at least a dozen regular players at the 1/2 6 max who played well with more coming.
Although you can find loose games, especially on weekends, there’s been a real tightening up in the 2/4 and even 1-2. Since I keep detailed records, I’ve been noticing my win rate plummeting. I recognize that I’ve been running bad in April, the occasional downswings are inevitable. But I’m worried about the tightness of the games. Whenever the cards are running bad, I drop down a level. I played 1/2 for the first time in months this week. Not only did I recognize a lot of decent players from 2/4, these games were tighter than 2/4, even 3/6, back in January. What’s going on?
In all fairness, one can’t expect an ideal situation forever. The fish bust out, the better players stay. You have to work on your game. Making $10 an hour is better than some menial job, especially for a college student. I could teach someone how to make a little money from poker in under a week - I think that’s exactly what’s happening.
The WPT is creating a new kind of aggressive fish. They see a guy on TV going all in with 72 offsuit for half a million bucks... and winning This past week, I’ve been raised on the flop by someone holding an overcard, reraised on the turn by someone holding bottom pair, reraised on the river with a weak kicker etc. I won those pots, but they sure were smaller - 50% of the money won was mine and that ain’t fun. Aggressive fish have the right idea, if not the skill.
I hope all you 2+2’ers tell me an idiot & that Party poker has never been better & that I should play through my downswing without whining.

[bigjay]

I think with Party you can get a very wide variance of play table to table at the same limit. I'd been thinking the same thing as you over the last couple months but then hit a nice streak over the last two weeks. You're going to experience swings in your play and win rate over time. I also noticed in my own play that I was loosening up while I was running well and this certainly contributed to my losing money and decreasing my win rate.

[lefty rosen]

Look at the table averages. They have even dropped at .5/1 so the weeding out of horrible players has happened to a point. But a tight game is still beatable, you just have to be willing to bash weaker pairs harder and not be the one drawing unless you have the odds. I noticed this in January myself, these things tend to go in cycles. June, July and August should be looser as more people are taking time off of work and school.

[jdl22]

Most people say that 1/2 is tighter than 2/4 or 3/6. There are various theories for this one being that many playing 1/2 are good players moving up and that fish play 2/4 or 3/6 because these tend to be the lowest limits found in casinos.

Personally I don't notice much difference between the limits. The aggression is pretty high, just resist the urge to get pushed off of pots easily which makes their aggression a good play.

[ewile]

I think that the number of people playing at PArty sort of maxed out a while ago. For a little while, durring prime hours I was seeing a shade over 40,000, and I've not seen that in a while.
Right now, Friday night 10:00 est, 34,000 players...that seems low compared to Oct, Nov,Dec...

[ewile]

though I am at a real loose 2/4 table right now!

[MMMMMM]

I think the $15-30 has tightened up a notch or so on average--but the games are still pretty sweet!

[Alobar]

[ QUOTE ]
This past week, I’ve been raised on the flop by someone holding an overcard, reraised on the turn by someone holding bottom pair, reraised on the river with a weak kicker etc.

[/ QUOTE ]

Doesn't sound very tight to me....sounds like good action

[goodguy_1]

no limt full ring games are in general much tighter w/ smaller pot averages.6MAX games are very good but they have really hurt the full games.

The limit holdem games have stayed good eventhu pot averages are down over the last 2 months.Limit games dont crush the fish like NL -they just bleed em nice n slow.

Must of the really bad new players are playing limit compared to 3-6 months ago where most new fish were playing both LHE and NLHE.You still run into really bad players everyday in every NLHE game on Party but it aint the huge fishfest it was 3-6 months ago [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] where half the table had completly no clue.Now a typical table has 2-3 fish with rest semi-solid players ie PokerTracker stats.

My hourly average in full ring game NLHE reflects the deterioration in these games.My hourly average fell almost 25% in last 3 months [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]. You gotta be more game selective also try branching out into playing other games for me that's 6MAX NLHE and 6MAX LHE games.You get 30-40% more hands per hour in these games.

I am very game selective I dont play in bad games..when I sense they are getting bad I'm out.

[InternetPokerPro]

The Party 15/30 games have definitely tighted up to an extent.

This should not be too surprising since there was no way that the horrible level of play of 6 months ago could be sustainable.

However, of the 30-50 15/30 games going at any point during prime time hours, there are still selected games that are extremely good and I would expect another upsurge after the new WSOP airs 100 times this year on ESPN.