Am i playing the right game??

hi all,
I recently put $50 into my bluesquare account with the full intention of playing sensibly and within my bank roll.
I started playing the 0.05/0.10 10 seater cash games and although i was playing well, making strong raises with the right hands and position, i was constantly getting beaten by hands that should never have been in the pot in the first place.
I don't know why i did it but i sat down at the 1/2 full ring game with my whole bankroll of $55, this may seem crazy but being a tight player i sat at a table with 10% p/f as i thought that if i was going to move up like that i wanted to be at a table where my raises that weren't gettin respect in the smaller games, because of the stakes (3xBB is only 30c after all) would get respect when the stakes were higher and the standard of play more suited to mine.
Over the past week i've turned the $50 into $180 by playing a tight game, only raising with good hands when no-one else has entered the pot and when i'm going to have position after the flop, also with a few cheeky raises with suited connectors where i can steal the blinds or have outs if they call.
The thing is i know that this won't last forever and i know that my BR isn't big enough to take a downswing at that level, but it's working, i've made a profit so i'm obv not doing much wrong!
I was just wondering what anyone elses take on this is? Should i stay playing at the tight 1/2 games where i'm making a profit or drop down to a level more suited to my bank roll and keep getting beats from chasers and general idiots?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks

P.s just qualified through a freeroll for a Super sat to a Sat for the GUKPT Walsall!! yey, it's not much but i set myself a new year resolution of free rolling into a main event this year after just missing out on a trip to EPT Prague that i originally bought into 2 tournaments earlier for 100 PKR Points

I'd personally be thankful you've manged to go from $50->$180. Even playing tight it could easily have gone $50->$0.

A good rule I've read is you should be able to afford 20 full buyins on a cash table. $180 is a nice amount to be able to grind your way up without risk of losing it all.

As for your raises getting no respect, this is a good thing. For example, just a few minutes ago I raised pf with JJ, got 4 callers and flopped a set. Someone then bet $4 into a $1 pot. I was only too happy to take all their money..

i did this too multiple times. the key is to get out before u lose it. before u have 180 lose a big hand go down to 100 and say ok 100 max tables i will win it back. then u lose it all. Id stop now prolly since u have gotten so high (<3 times ur initial) and start playing.

If replacing your roll isn't a big deal then its fine to play this way. Remember its very risky and you will likely go bust, why not consider dropping to nl$25, at least then you can handle the swings a little better. Also why do you think that you can beat the $1/$2 players when you cant beat the micro limit donks ?

Good luck with your quest
I'm in Little Billing

Hey all, thanks for the replies.

I don't have a clue why i can beat the 1/2 games but not the donks in the smaller games but at a guess i'd say that it might be because i play a very tight game in the 10 seater ring and obviously because of that i need to get paid with my decent pre-flop hands (as does everyone but i think more so when u play real tight)

So when i do come into a pot i'm usually the first person to come into it and preferably a max of 2 places off the button, also when i come into a pot i come in hard with big raises of at least 4xBB to make people have to think hard about coming into the hand, i think this works more in the bigger stakes because usually my min raise is 4xBB and this will only have the desired effect at the higher levels, low level people seem to come in on anything and hope for the best on the flop.

When i first started playing the smaller cash games i thought that everyone had bad beats and playing my tight game was going to give me more beats anyway. Obviously if i am throwing money at the point in the hope of scaring off chasers i have a decent made hand and i would be betting the right amounts to not give them odds to call but they would anyway, this is an aspect of online poker that REALLY winds me up, all the poker guides and books u'll ever read say that if you dont give them the right odds to call u'll be a winner in the long term but it certainly doesn't ring true for me.

The reason i moved up was because in the smaller games people call anything with 2 outer draws and crap like that all the time!! it isn't how u should play poker so why should i keep rewarding peoples stupidity with my BR grrr!!!

Anyway rant over with

hey wurries, i actually live in corby, i always put northampton because no-one knows where i am in the world if i put corby I know of little billing though, used to go billing aquadrome back in the old days when i was a kid (says the 24yr old lol) do you know of any decent live games in the northants area because i'm struggling to find any??

And i've just read my above post and it sounds like I am an ultra tight poker purist hehe, i am a bit too tight maybe but i am working on it (slowly bringing crazy stuff like steals and bluffs into my play lol) and in my defence i was schooled by the two Harrington on Holdem books and one of Phil Helmuths so i never stood much chance of being very aggresive

You've been lucky for a week. There's no such thing as being able to beat a high limit but not the low limits. You will bust eventually playing 1-2 with that bankroll, it is almost inevitable no matter how good you are.

"this is an aspect of online poker that REALLY winds me up, all the poker guides and books u'll ever read say that if you dont give them the right odds to call u'll be a winner in the long term but it certainly doesn't ring true for me."

Yes it does. If you don't have discipline to stay at reasonable levels, and you don't understand the true meaning of long-term, you will not be successful at poker.

I'm not trying to be mean, but the downswing is coming, and judging from this post, you aren't prepared.

"i've made a profit so i'm obv not doing much wrong"

This is known as "results-oriented thinking." It is a very bad thing for a poker player.

Gala Casino in Northampton do tournies three or four days a week, and will be starting cash tables very soon, apparently. I've never played live poker yet, but I'll probably "lose my virginity" this Thursday, as it's their rookie tournament night and I'm on holidayWell I'm sure half of Scotland (and all UK steel industry towns) would know where you were . If you put Northampton but don't specify your country they will probably assume it's Northampton, Massachusetts in good old US of A

A poker pro could sit at a 5c/10c game and lose his entire buy-in, or a complete donk could play high stakes poker and double up. The difference is, sit a poker pro at the 5c/10c game and I guarantee you he is able to make a steady profit over thousands and thousands of hands. Put a donk at the $300/$600 table of HSP (even if they have enough money) and if they play long enough, they will lose all the money they came with. You played $1/$2 with a shortstack and tripled your buy-in. What was that over, 1k hands max?

I disagree with the previous poster who said there's no such thing as being able to beat a higher game but not a lower game, it's a completely different skill set. Lower limits you just play ABC poker and you win. Higher limits you have to play much better. The difference is though if you try to play "better" at the low limits, it won't work. It's multi-level thinking. 4th level thinking can't beat 2nd level, but 3rd level thinking can.

But the point of this is that it will be MUCH harder to profit at $1/$2, and the fact that you tripled your buy-in means you got extremely lucky. Whether you are a winning player at $1/$2 right now is irrelevant. You put Doyle Brunson with just over $150 at a $1/$2 table and he will lose it a large percentage of the time. Unless this is expendable money that can be replaced very easily, you need to move down now or else you're going to need luck even if you're the best player in the world.

That's true, but how many players are capable of fourth-level thinking but don't realize they have to switch gears at the lower levels?

I guess it is vaguely possible that there are some playesr out there who can't do it, but the reality is that 99 out of 100 players who think they need to "move up to a level where they respect my raises" are really just bad players.

Nice post Zach. The thing that a lot of people fail to realise on the micro's is that you can play a mindless nut mining style and get paid off almost every single time. Hell it seems to be working at the nl$100 tables except they dont get paid off as often. You dont need to make any fancy/smart/clever poker on nl$10, just simple ABC nit style on a few tables and the level is easily beatable.

Oh I agree with you completely, and I do believe that anyone who can beat the higher limits can also beat the lower limits. I guess I was a little vague there, I just meant that the skill set is different. I guess I just had a problem with your absolute language in saying "there's no such thing...". I agree with you that this is not the case, and if a player can beat a higher limit and not a lower limit than they really aren't that great of a player. If all people had to do to beat pros was play like low-limit donks, I think they would have tried it already.

Kyle thanks for the advice (sort of), few points though

Pretty sure i already stated that i knew this hence the whole point of the post

Good advice and i totally understand where you are coming from, I have the discipline to sit at a 1/2 game for ages waitin for decent hands though so at least i have the foundations to build on! Always the optimist n that

furries,
i was thinking of checking out the gala in northampton, didnt know they had games on in there though, give me information, i want buyins start times hehe
i'm on leave from the army so i'll definetly give it a go, do u have to be a member to go in the casino? I know that u can sign up on the door but do they still have the 24hr cooling off period?

No, the cooling off period is now history, as long as you have evidence at the door (e.g. photocard driving licence) you can sign up and go straight in. I asked for a schedule of poker tournaments but they haven't had them printed up yet, poker seems to be a fairly new venture for them. You could ring them on (01604) 623500, and there's a big poster down in reception with all the details

Cool furries, might see you on thursday night then, i'll give em a call tomorrow and see what the buy-in is.

Thanks for the advice guys, I dropped down to the 0.10/0.20 full ring on bluesq and in 2 hours have got past the $200 mark from $180 earlier on tonight

Is this the right level?? The max buyin is $20 so now that i've got 10 Buyins i think i feel quite comfortable

Also, came 13th in the sattelite to the satelitte tourny that i free-rolled into got a bit unlucky early on, was getting decent cards but the flop wasn't hitting me at all and judging by the big re-raises to my continuation bets it was having no trouble hitting everyone else! grr

Ah well, still got 11 months to freeroll into a main event, i can do it!!

...to answer your question, "No."





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