1) Position in that game. You are right. Although the personnel changed constantly, I had a succession of loose-passive calling stations on my immediate left and in the seat after. This doesn't make the game "bad" as such, and the mass of calls on the flop when you are winning with top pair good kicker do mean that you have to be lucky. But when you win a pot it makes up for a lot of suck-outs against you. This was how it ran yesterday. Shrink to $200 down over an hour's play, win a pot to get back to even. Shrink to $300 down over 90 minutes, win two pots to get $50 up. Shrink to $400 down over two hours, win a pot to get back to $200 down. Shrink a bit. Go to bed at 2am. This probably makes for a variance of 20 big bets an hour. It also takes a while to adjust your style to what I'll call "the Bellagio daytime $4-$8 style" where a single raise makes no difference and an attempt at a check-raise (which probably wouldn't make any difference anyway) gets six callers. YOu are then tempted to bet out middle pair from the SB, only for top pair bad kicker to call you from last position.
This "won't bet, won't fold" kind of player is remarkably common in low-limit live games, but he's an unusual anaimal in online $5-$10.
I think my expected earn on Virgin in this kind of game (depending on my seat) varies from $10 to $30 per 50 hands -- it's that weak. Other players welcome to join. You can skin the fish and then I will skin you. That's the way it normally works. :-)
PJ
2) Perception of you by other players. I don't think that this made much difference. They played that way against each other and against the winning "good" players (not that I saw many of these) as well. I also reload my stack subtly, so only the observant players would see that my stack was not increasing in size thtough my winning pots, but through replenishment.
In other words, your points are accurate, as usual, but were not a factor in this case. I was +EV for the game, but I should have left anyway.
3) Party: I'm still playing $5-$10 there (I have one last bad session left before I retire hurt again) despite losing just over $500 in three days on that site alone. I'd run my roll up there nicely to not far off $2,000. But you are right, I might as well sort out the Neteller thing. I have a pile of papers to sort out for tax year 05/06 (runs through to April 5 in this country) so I can make that part of my "sort things out financially".
4) More Party: I suggest that you take a look at the $5-$10 limit games again, just a brief look. Tell me what you think and whether my perception that they are far less attractive than they were just a year ago is correct. I'm playing there now and there was only one game at $5-$10 averaging more than $70, with three or four hovering from $64 to $69. The VPIP looks to be in the 21% to 25% range
Re: Leaving a Good Game
1) Position in that game. You are right. Although the personnel changed constantly, I had a succession of loose-passive calling stations on my immediate left and in the seat after. This doesn't make the game "bad" as such, and the mass of calls on the flop when you are winning with top pair good kicker do mean that you have to be lucky. But when you win a pot it makes up for a lot of suck-outs against you. This was how it ran yesterday. Shrink to $200 down over an hour's play, win a pot to get back to even. Shrink to $300 down over 90 minutes, win two pots to get $50 up. Shrink to $400 down over two hours, win a pot to get back to $200 down. Shrink a bit. Go to bed at 2am. This probably makes for a variance of 20 big bets an hour. It also takes a while to adjust your style to what I'll call "the Bellagio daytime $4-$8 style" where a single raise makes no difference and an attempt at a check-raise (which probably wouldn't make any difference anyway) gets six callers. YOu are then tempted to bet out middle pair from the SB, only for top pair bad kicker to call you from last position.
This "won't bet, won't fold" kind of player is remarkably common in low-limit live games, but he's an unusual anaimal in online $5-$10.
I think my expected earn on Virgin in this kind of game (depending on my seat) varies from $10 to $30 per 50 hands -- it's that weak. Other players welcome to join. You can skin the fish and then I will skin you. That's the way it normally works. :-)
PJ
2) Perception of you by other players. I don't think that this made much difference. They played that way against each other and against the winning "good" players (not that I saw many of these) as well. I also reload my stack subtly, so only the observant players would see that my stack was not increasing in size thtough my winning pots, but through replenishment.
In other words, your points are accurate, as usual, but were not a factor in this case. I was +EV for the game, but I should have left anyway.
3) Party: I'm still playing $5-$10 there (I have one last bad session left before I retire hurt again) despite losing just over $500 in three days on that site alone. I'd run my roll up there nicely to not far off $2,000. But you are right, I might as well sort out the Neteller thing. I have a pile of papers to sort out for tax year 05/06 (runs through to April 5 in this country) so I can make that part of my "sort things out financially".
4) More Party: I suggest that you take a look at the $5-$10 limit games again, just a brief look. Tell me what you think and whether my perception that they are far less attractive than they were just a year ago is correct. I'm playing there now and there was only one game at $5-$10 averaging more than $70, with three or four hovering from $64 to $69. The VPIP looks to be in the 21% to 25% range