Moving up the limits.

[tenbob]

Ok this weekend was my first foray into $1-$2 and a little €2-€4 at pokerstars. I was initally very nervous about the whole thing and was wondering about the quality of play that i would be facing. I deposied €100 at stars just for this to see how i would get on.

Sat at a 6 player table initially €1-€2 with 80bucks, played very tight for the first few orbits and literally was astounded by the quality of play. There was 4 players to every flop raised or not. So i decided to wait for premium hands and play as hard as i could. ABC poker for about two hours, and moved my €80 to €210. I found the quality of play very poor (maybe it was just the table) and not far ahead of the micro-limit games.

Then i decided id have a go at €2-€4. Shorted handed table again, this time i brought €120. Now this was a different animal to the €1-€2 game, the quality of play was a lot better but the bloody deck went cold on me for a good 45 mins, here is the first hand i played that i won, and after this i spotted that these players actually respected raises and could tell if your hand was strong, i put in a few moves (not many) and left the table with €184. Overall i was happy with my play and the bankroll i have i should be playing €2-€4, but for the time being i think that ill be happy with the muppets at the€1-€2 games.

PokerStars Game #2815460606: Hold'em Limit ($2/$4) - 2005/10/16 - 02:27:54 (ET)
Table 'Sarpedon' Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: tenbob ($82 in chips)
Seat 2: TONGRFF ($153 in chips)
Seat 3: CodeStah ($45 in chips)
Seat 4: YaletownJoe ($73 in chips)
Seat 5: Aces2005 ($32.50 in chips)
Seat 6: PRIVATEPILE ($95 in chips)
Aces2005: posts small blind $1
PRIVATEPILE: posts big blind $2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to tenbob [9d Td]
tenbob: calls $2
TONGRFF: folds
CodeStah: folds
YaletownJoe: raises $2 to $4
TONGRFF leaves the table
Aces2005: folds
PRIVATEPILE: calls $2
tenbob: calls $2
*** FLOP *** [5d 9h 3d]
PRIVATEPILE: checks
tenbob: bets $2
YaletownJoe: calls $2
PRIVATEPILE: folds
*** TURN *** [5d 9h 3d] [Js]
tenbob: bets $4
YaletownJoe: raises $4 to $8
tenbob: calls $4
*** RIVER *** [5d 9h 3d Js] [4d]
tenbob: bets $4
1MaK joins the table at seat #2
YaletownJoe: raises $4 to $8
tenbob: raises $4 to $12
YaletownJoe: folds
tenbob collected $47 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $49 | Rake $2
Board [5d 9h 3d Js 4d]
Seat 1: tenbob collected ($47)
Seat 2: TONGRFF folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: CodeStah folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: YaletownJoe (button) folded on the River
Seat 5: Aces2005 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: PRIVATEPILE (big blind) folded on the Flop

 

[IrishDave]

I spend a lot of day in chat with the other mods, and Grumbledook keeps us posted on his adventures on the rings. I also watched him play for a while on a 5/10 table and I just couldn't believe the way folks were just throwing money around and hoping to catch. A long time ago I wrote a post about people with more money than sense and it must be true a lot of the time. I played a little 1/2 over the weekend and nobody at the table respected a raise at all which made you wait for a premium hand and hope your callers didn't get the suckout...

 

[robwhufc]

I logged on to Paradise half an hour before Pokerstars tourney on Friday, and won $80 on $1/2 table in just half hour. Was a 5 person table - 3 of the players called absolutely everything, and the other was only slightly more choosy. To give an example, I was first to act with A2 with rainbow Ace flop. I bet, hoping that the others would fold, knowing I would be on loser if one called. All 4 called! I checked down to river, and won hand! They had ALL called with Ace on board, without having an Ace themselves - How can you call with nothing, when FOUR people had already called i'll never know!!

I've had 2 more sessions on 1/2 5 player tables at Paradise without much success, but when you can hit dream table you can make a killing. There is nothing worse however than being in a mega-loose table and never getting a hand to attack with.

 

[colin_147]

I posted a message on here a few months back about the difference in quality between $1/$2 and $2/$4

There is a big difference in the amount of hands people are willing to play. I find in anything loswer than $2/$4 players, especially the blinds, will call practically anything hoping to get lucky. So basically the luckiest player on the night walks away happy. In $2/$4 you tend to find only premium hands get played, with the obvious steal evey now and again.

I would never go below $2/$4 now and only play this limit if I am not playing too well or if the deck is cold on me

Well done on the gains though, its always nice to make the step up and start off well

 

[Dorkus Malorkus]

*** RIVER *** [5d 9h 3d Js] 4♦
tenbob: bets $4
1MaK joins the table at seat #2
YaletownJoe: raises $4 to $8
tenbob: raises $4 to $12
YaletownJoe: folds

looool, I wonder what he had?

 

[tenbob]

looool, I wonder what he had?

Not sure but this guys had re-raised on the river several times prior to this and induced folds. He raised pre-flop so i figured him for a medium ace A9 ? Or a pocket pair or 67 ? (if he had that he would have called my re-raise). But for my first pot i was laughing my head off at the time.

 

[xdmanx007]

Well virtually every limit at every site online has loose players. Generally speaking, as you move up limits there are just fewer bad players. The main reason you find a lot of bad players at 1/2 online is because of the wager requirements most sites have on their comps or bonuses.

 

[starfall]

Looking at some of the stats for Omaha on some sites, it looks like there are some pretty loose players on all of those tables - you can find tables at all stakes where well over 60% of players are seeing the flop, even at $10/$20 stakes... so I'm pretty sure that with the right table selection you can find a nice loose table to profit from...