ITH Poker Forum

[Ixiterra]

Was so nice of ITH to crash as I posted this thread after typing about 5 paragraphs. So now you get the short and sweet version.

I used to be a pro, averaged 3.5BB/100 at 2/4 10 max and 6 max during the last 250k hands of my career. I have played over 1 million hands of 2/4. 300k of that is 6 max. I started again about 2 months ago after a 2 year break, had $10 in my stars account, worked it up to about $2,500 playing .25/.50 and up.

Right now I've got 36k hands at Stars with a 1.27BB/100 rate. 3k on FTP with 1.88BB/100. 60k overall in this database. If there's any rust, it should definitely be gone. If I hadn't had a miracle day on Friday where I won 200BB, I'd be on a 350BB downswing. Yeah overall it's not that bad, but I see one good day among two distinct 200BB downswings in a row.

Are the players just that much better now? I tried tightening up which seemed to work on Friday, but not yesterday or today. The players were noticeably worse on Friday, but on Sunday they were back to their usual selves.

Is anyone playing 2/4 6 max with a decent earn rate? 1.27BB is a waste of my time, and I don't even feel confident that I can keep that up. I could post the usual suckouts and miracle cards that hit me but give me 2nd best, etc. ad nauseum, but nobody wants to be here all day.

I refuse to use the 'R' word. Why can't Americans just be fricken allowed to do what they want WITH THEIR TIME AND THEIR MONEY, MR. GOVERNMENT ASSHATS? Ok anyways.

Anyone still doing good? I know the poker boom is over, but it would help to know some people out there are still winning well.

[Willem]

I don't play at Stars because the games are tough there and I don't have any rakeback. I don't doubt they are still beatable but you need to be very good to achieve anything above 2BB/100. I don't know how it compares to 2 years ago since I wasn't playing then. I think you just need to accept that you will never achieve the same winning rate ever again. Any winning rate above 1BB/100 is something to be proud of in these tough games.

I played a lot of 2/4 and 3/6 in the first few months this year but my strategy was very sub-optimal for these games, so my winning rate was even lower than yours.

[Skrotnisse]

Looks to me like you have a solid winrate. (over +1BB/100 is solid imo)

[JoeStimpy]

Looks to me like you have a solid winrate. (over +1BB/100 is solid imo)

Based on much of the posts on forums these days I have to agree. It seems at pretty much any limit 1/2 and above only the real elite players can maintain anything above 1BB/100. If getting the benjamins is your primary concern you might want to switch to NL, seems like it is considered more fishy... and there certainly is a ton more game selection.

[Ixiterra]

Wow, that is really sad. I've been told I should try .50/1NL as it is the last bastion of very fishy play... but one... million... hands of limit under my belt is incredibly hard to walk away from. And I 4 or 6 table, which I certainly wouldn't be able to do at NL for many, many hands. Today I played almost 2k hands and made $46. 0.63BB/100. I did get like 3k fpps though, and I am about 255k away from a 60" plasma.

Had this hand today:

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Ixiterra [As Ks]
gchacha: folds
SebastianSt: raises $2 to $4
Ixiterra: raises $2 to $6
bienvenue: calls $4
SebastianSt: calls $2
*** FLOP *** [Ts Js Qs]
Ixiterra: bets $2
bienvenue: folds
SebastianSt: folds
Uncalled bet ($2) returned to Ixiterra
Ixiterra collected $18 from pot
Ixiterra: doesn't show hand

Pretty sure that's my first flopped royal, though it's my 3rd spade one I think.

[JoeStimpy]

Yeah I think there are still fishy limit games out there but mostly they are on the smaller sites and you have to really search them out. They also don't necessarily stay fishy for very long. For awhile the 8/16 and 10/20 SH LHE games on Cake were very fishy... and I think at times probably still are. Another challenge I find is adjusting between a site like Cake where a TAG style I think is optimal and a site like Stars where the consensus seems to be that you need to play a LAG style.

Sites without poker tracker support generally I think tend to be softer, the problem with the smaller sites like Cake is that then you don't have the level of CS as with the bigger sites and often times games aren't running at the limit you want.

[Ixiterra]

Well, I'm cashing out of pstars. It wasn't fun while it lasted. $10 to $1928 final tally after being over 3k several times. 1.18BB/100 overall, and I got a PS3 and an 8MP camera out of it. I'll play a little bit on FTP with the 800 or so I have on there, but I'll probably be cashing that out soon too. f*** POKER.

[JoeStimpy]

Turning 10 bucks into $1928, a ps3 and a camera sounds pretty good to me, but I guess we all have different expectations!

Have you thought about moving up levels, 1.18 is nice win rate, if you could sustain that at 5/10 or 10/20 you would be laughing. I think the skill level has flattened out a fair bit so you might find the games aren't too different than 2/4.

Then again, doesn't sound like you're really enjoying playing so if that's the case, I'd say cashing out is the best option. If it isn't fun why do it!

[Ixiterra]

I actually played 3/6 for awhile yesterday, and save for the fact that I lost nearly $300, I thought the play was actually worse than at 2/4. I actually won $470 at 2/4 yesterday, lost $450 today. Unfortunately it seems that 300BBs is nowhere near enough bankroll for any limit anymore as I have seen several 200BB+ downswings in 40k hands, so moving up in limits really wasn't an option without grinding out more crap. I'd barely feel safe with 500BBs, and that's 5k at 5/10 which I don't have. I had dreams of a plasma TV and eventually moving up to 30/60 since I certainly don't need my roll to live anymore, but alas it is not to be.

[Willem]

Have you thought about moving up levels, 1.18 is nice win rate, if you could sustain that at 5/10 or 10/20 you would be laughing. I think the skill level has flattened out a fair bit so you might find the games aren't too different than 2/4.

Actually, 5/10 games at Full Tilt are usually better than the 2/4 games. Probably because the 2/4 and 3/6 games have many TAG regulars while the 5/10 (and higher) games have more gamblers. But these games have much higher variance and I wouldn't play them with 500BB at least.

[Ixiterra]

2009 UPDATE:

Started playing again after my company went bankrupt a few months ago. But I started out at .50/1 since my roll was not comfortable for 1/2 or higher. Had a few warm-up sessions in the end of June, and here are the stats for July:



Heh the 3/6 orbit I played was just today and on accident. I clicked a 3/6 table because the lobby had moved me out of 1/2 section and into 3/6, and I just saw an open table and went for it. When I clicked ok to sit I was like "120 buyin, what?" but had already clicked OK and the BB came to me at right that second and auto-posted at the table. haha. So I played the orbit and got QQ on the BTN and won a decent pot. Folded everything else and left.

Anyways-
1/2 hands came after the time at .50/1 as the roll started building. You can see the differences in the percentages, and that was intentional. I felt like I was playing too tight at around 30-32% VP$IP and a 16% PFR. So I broadened my range a bit, and the BB/100 started going way up. I'm not sure if I could play 44/20 like back in the day, but 35/20 seems to be a good number for now.

Now only a few hundred $ away from what I told myself would be a comfortable 2/4 roll. Going in pretty confident too will be nice. But man does playing poker add a lot of stress to your life. Did hear back about a potential job coming up though, so that'd be great.

/end poker life story rant

[poker_Elmo]

Glad to see you are winning at a nice rate.

Good luck with the job leads!

[Cript]

You need better table selection. I caught you at one of my $1/$2 6-max tables. cript29

Did we play anything against each other?

[Ixiterra]

It looks like I got your SB and BB once and that's it. I'm $1.50 up on ya.