This is mentioned every few posts, but I would really like to consolidate this info. This is what I've got:

Obviously players are better the higher the stakes you play at, for the most part. At lower stakes, you're more likely to get hit by bad beats more often, as numpties (and I would probably have to consider myself in this group at the moment) play hands they shouldn't and draw lucky. As a newbie, I am obviously playing in the micro stakes, in fact i am playing $1.20 SnGs at PokerStars. Now, once I get my game together, and learn to play sensibly, should I be able to beat these games? Or is it just a pointless exercise?


Cheers,



Andy

Low stakes games are FAR more profitable in terms of bb/100 (thats big bets per 100 hands played, we don't use much Bb/hr anymore). The bad players contribute a lot of dead money to the pot, allowing to loosen up some and play more hands, and make more money. Yes the beats will occur more frequently, but for every beat there will be 5 other times that they don't catch. Usually at a higher stakes game, you are usually beat from the getgo, but don't know it and play a second best hand.

There will also be a time where you can make more $/hr playing the micro/low limit games playing 8-10 tables, than you can playing 1-2 mid stakes tables.

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Marm is entirely right.

Of course you will see more bad beat,but your moster hand will pay so much more!!!!!! Low stakes mean value bet, value bet, value bet... when in doupt, value bet!

KJ

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Originally Posted by Girevik
Heck, I've seen people go nuts with middle pair!

Thanks guys - that certainly gives me a bit of confidence that I'm not wasting my time - now if only I could learn to play!!



Andy

I don't know that I agree. The lower stakes at a lot of rooms attract bonus whores and the higher stakes attract action junkies. I'm not sure a compelling case for one being any "easier" than the other - certainly one might be more profitable when played with a certain style than another, but I don't know that either is more profitable on face...

Chris

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The bonus whores need to play the mid-stakes offered to clear the bonus (.5/1-3/6 limit). The fish go to the lowest/er levels offered, so the .01/.02-.25/.50 usually have very few bonus whoring rocks, and lots of fish. Places like Party which basically only offer .5/1 as their starting, there are enough fish there to easily offset the rocks. And anyways, I like having a couple rocks on my table, especially to my immediate left, I can have a 1-2 bb/100 increase in win rate alone just due to the ability to steal the blinds at will.

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Um, I'd rather have a bonus whore at my table than a solid t/lA-AG player at my table.

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“There's no sense in being precise when you don't even know what you're talking about.” - John von Neumann

Hey buddy, I'm from the UK too!

I am pretty much a novice like yourself and though I can understand your frustration at bad beats (was the victim of some myself last night), from my experience these numpties play up to 3/6 and beyond so unless you fancy some 1000 NL you're not going to shake them off any time soon.

The thing to remember is, these people who are giving out the bad beats, the ones who play 'bad' poker, these are the same people who you can make easy money on. Think about it, if there's another so-so-ish player at the table, you're not likely to be winning much money from them. It's the fish who are the providors!

By the way, where do you play? I play at a (better IMO) PokerRoom skin called Holdempoker so look out for me there in the .15/.30 and .25/.50 limit rooms. They're running a big WSOP freeroll tonight if you fancy giving the site a try.