how do I adjust?

C

Cstarker27

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I've been pondering this quite a bit lately, and I would like some input. I have recently moved to South Florida and have regularly been a profitable $1/2 player and on occasion a $2/5(when the bankroll can support it). However, I am used to playing a much better caliber of a player at even these small stakes from other parts of the country that I lived in. Down here, I sit at a table, and there might be 2 other players that have a decent idea of how the game is played. But I am unable to put together any sort of traction. I've dropped $4k at the $1/2 level because I continue to get called down by bad players that make bad plays and get paid off.... I look through my notes and most losing sessions end with me being "sucked-out" on. Am I wrong to think that you really want no more than 3-4 bad players at a table? I mean too many bad players I think could have an even more disastrous outcome than too many good players. I would move up in limits, but my bankroll can't afford that as I only have $8k left. Thoughts?
 
IPlay

IPlay

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Just be a super nit and raise BIG. I play in these games and they are the softest live games I have played in. Make sure you are raising enough preflop to slim down the field and value bet the crap out of them and you should profit easy. In some of these games I'll raise to $17 preflop(1/2 game)and get called by the small blind with K5s. The variance is huge though since you are essentially playing a short stacked 2/5 game, especially when people are straddling often.

Also, please don't say you would rather play with good players........... Just not good logic.
 
ConDeck

ConDeck

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I've been pondering this quite a bit lately, and I would like some input. I have recently moved to South Florida and have regularly been a profitable $1/2 player and on occasion a $2/5(when the bankroll can support it). However, I am used to playing a much better caliber of a player at even these small stakes from other parts of the country that I lived in. Down here, I sit at a table, and there might be 2 other players that have a decent idea of how the game is played. But I am unable to put together any sort of traction. I've dropped $4k at the $1/2 level because I continue to get called down by bad players that make bad plays and get paid off.... I look through my notes and most losing sessions end with me being "sucked-out" on. Am I wrong to think that you really want no more than 3-4 bad players at a table? I mean too many bad players I think could have an even more disastrous outcome than too many good players. I would move up in limits, but my bankroll can't afford that as I only have $8k left. Thoughts?

I went through a similar change late last year after moving about 150 miles away from where I regularly played. I moved casino also where they had 50p/50p, 50p/£1 and £1/£2 games every night of the week. I had about 2 months before I returned to full time study as a mature student and I work for myself from home so I could fit in quite a bit of poker in the coming weeks.

While I had previously played, and was rolled for the £1/£2 games I found myself within a week playing the 50p/50p games 4 nights a week or so, often for 12hrs as they were SO profitable.

Most of the players were regs but like those you describe above that played daily at a significant loss long term but they liked to gamble and there occasional big wins kept then coming back. I would regularly leave with a 1000bb stack (Once a week maybe).

Over a 2 month period I played around 35 sessions and was up just over 100BI (almost 6K) at the lowest stakes.

I played like a super nit for first few sessions and was having a consistent win rate but then I started to loosen my own game up as I got to know the tendencies of the regs and I started to become a prolific 3 better and even 4 better in an attempt to narrow their ranges and isolate, they would not adjust for this and flatted FAR too many of these OOP that it was SO exploitable. The fact they pretty much only jammed on me with AA,KK and some of them AK/QQ also made this so profitable. In fact I would hardly ever enter a pot without doing so, just because my opponents were making such massive mistakes postflop and would regularly be deep by 11pm, when the player count went down from the usual 25 or so players that sat with a 100bb av stack to a single table of those that had got lucky enough to win and were there for the long haul with an av stack of around 200-300bb stack (game didnt break till like 6-7am), that I could literally milk them. I also induced everyone to straddle so that the game played much bigger, these players had no idea how to use it effectively just that it was "cool" because Tom Dwan does it and pretty much only benefitted me, nor did they understand position other than to know that "button is the best seat". I was making massive value bets, sometimes twice the pot against certain players, and my value range became significantly wider. I could pot control with my draws etc as I was almost always getting paid off and abused position to death.

Yes the swings in terms of BI per session could be signifcant, sometimes in for 4 bullets in a single session but when there is around 2500bb at a table and I had such an advantage I did not mind, as I think I had only 3-4 losing sessions in this entire time period.

It really did come down to learning player tendencies and value betting to death however and I did run like GOD in this time period but the game was very definitely beatable and sounds like yours above,

Beware of draw heavy boards that complete, fish love to draw, eware of sudden aggression (most players of this calibre are far to passive, aggression usually means something), widen your value range, isolate often (increase your bet sizing till you find the right balance), rarely bluff, loosen your range in position against the really weak players, pay attention to your table image and opp state of mind (eg beat a guy in 3 straight pots and be ready for him to blast the pot/stack off wide etc etc) and most importantly value bet, value bet, value bet!

I still have never found a dynamic quite like this one and while I cannot play regularly there anymore I still love to visit for the occasional game
 
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