How High are the Lowest Stakes? |
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Posted Wed Apr 18, 2007 11:00 am GMT by lwestatbus
Kind of hard to write a good title for this post. It's basically a theory on finding the right game and deals with my fixed limit ring game career. Not sure how pertinent it will be to other games. But I'd be interested in other people's thoughts.
Anyway, after many, many months of almost almost continuous winning (measured on a month by month basis) on PokerRoom I switched to PokerStars when PR kicked the Americans out. Since the switch I've been struggling. Had some big losing months, took a hard look at my game, and have been winning the last two months, but nowhere near the level I'd experienced on an almost continuous basis at PokerRoom. All of the play is FL ring games. I'd started at PR at .25/.50 and worked my way up to $1/$2, which is what I continued with when I switched to Stars. After some monster losing months I'm now back to .25/.50.
Here's my theory: At PR, .25/.50 was the lowest stakes offered for FL ring games and 1/2 was only the third level up in stakes from the lowest. At Stars, however, FL ring starts (I think) at .02/.04 and there are several levels between there and .25/.50. Therefore at PR I was playing the most inexperienced players (probably) while at Stars those at my levels have mostly "graduated". While there are still individual wackos sprinkled among the tables there isn't nearly the amount of dead money at a table that there would be at the lowest stakes. I'm therefore having to really grind out my winnings. I'm doing this, but, again, nowhere nearly as profitably as at Stars. The essence of the theory is that you want to find a site (online or live) where the lowest stakes offered can still generate enough money to make it worth your time.
I really started to formulate this theory during my recent trip to Vegas (see report here) where I played the lowest FL stakes offered at five different casinos. The play was universally horrible but the stakes (ranging from $2/4 to $4/8) made it profitable to play.
Any thoughts? Are there any other online sites that accept Americans with the lowest FL stakes at least .25/.50 or higher?
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Posted Wed Apr 18, 2007 11:38 am GMT by Dave B
Many at casinos are there for fun/action. More at home online are trying to make money.
95% people playing under 2/4 online or 6/12 live will lose money, you simply cannot beat the rake.
Posted Wed Apr 18, 2007 11:53 am GMT by Phil14312
I think you are pretty well on in your theory. Lowest stakes = worse players. A lot of people, especially micro stakes online are just looking to pass some time, its like a videogame for them. You sort of lose that as you move up in stakes. Very similar to a casino, where the lowest stakes will generally have the most casual players.
PM me sometime if you want me to sit with you for a while at PS and see if I can give you an outside viewpoint.
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