Those kind of passive calling stations, who never raise to let you know whether you are beat or just being called in position with bottom pair or a draw are frustrating, but you just have to play ABC poker with them and value bet their asses off when you have the goods. And when you do bet middle pair and get called, you often just have to check and sometimes fold the winner to someone with position betting a worse hand on the turn when the bet increases.
The fluctuations you mention are normal as you say, you get down $300 and then win some pots and are up $50, or about what you expect for an hourly rate in bets/hour or 100. The thing to do in evaluating your play though is to examine how often you are putting money in on the turn and river when the bet size increases, and especially out of position, with more marginal hands and see whether you should be folding in some spots earlier and toning down the aggression, or the opposite of representing more strength by checkraising the turn and leading non-threatening rivers (assuming they can fold marginal but better hands).
I was still online now (3:50a EDT) and did check the 5/10 list on party. You know I have said in the past I regard a good game as a 7 big bet average, but let's say 6.5. 9 tables met that criteria, although only 3 of them were full ring. Although since I don't play limit at any stakes, I don't really have a baseline to judge by, but from everything I have read on 2+2 the games certainly have seemed to tightend. And a large part of this seems to be the growing prevalance and popularity of 6-max tables, which of course often means the FR tables are populated by even more rocks. I like 6-max in both NL and plo (although party got rid of 6-max in plo with latest change), and would certainly prefer it if I played limit. Of course you have to be more aggressive with more marginal holdings, while avoiding the tipping point of going too far, and the variance will be higher. But if you can play 6-max very well, then your win rate should be higher as well with more hands per hour. But it is a different animal and you can't think A6s is suddenly a huge hand utg just because it is 6-max.
Since the games do not indeed seem to be as good as a year ago, and since you are forced to play at the worst times, it is even more imperative to have an ongoing systematic plan to evaluate your play and constantly improve. When you sit at your normal tables, I suspect that of the 10 players (9 on stars if like big bet?), then 3 will be good winning players, and the rest losers or only marginal winners. So you need to be one of those 3. Also, I think it is imperative that you constanly are reviewing the table list and signing up for new tables so as not to suddenly find yourself on 3 or 4 tables at the bottom of the list as the losers slowly leave. Of course this is a cycle, that goes back and forth, but you need to be putting yourself on the best tables and leaving those that have cooled down.
Re: Leaving a Good Game
Those kind of passive calling stations, who never raise to let you know whether you are beat or just being called in position with bottom pair or a draw are frustrating, but you just have to play ABC poker with them and value bet their asses off when you have the goods. And when you do bet middle pair and get called, you often just have to check and sometimes fold the winner to someone with position betting a worse hand on the turn when the bet increases.
The fluctuations you mention are normal as you say, you get down $300 and then win some pots and are up $50, or about what you expect for an hourly rate in bets/hour or 100. The thing to do in evaluating your play though is to examine how often you are putting money in on the turn and river when the bet size increases, and especially out of position, with more marginal hands and see whether you should be folding in some spots earlier and toning down the aggression, or the opposite of representing more strength by checkraising the turn and leading non-threatening rivers (assuming they can fold marginal but better hands).
I was still online now (3:50a EDT) and did check the 5/10 list on party. You know I have said in the past I regard a good game as a 7 big bet average, but let's say 6.5. 9 tables met that criteria, although only 3 of them were full ring. Although since I don't play limit at any stakes, I don't really have a baseline to judge by, but from everything I have read on 2+2 the games certainly have seemed to tightend. And a large part of this seems to be the growing prevalance and popularity of 6-max tables, which of course often means the FR tables are populated by even more rocks. I like 6-max in both NL and plo (although party got rid of 6-max in plo with latest change), and would certainly prefer it if I played limit. Of course you have to be more aggressive with more marginal holdings, while avoiding the tipping point of going too far, and the variance will be higher. But if you can play 6-max very well, then your win rate should be higher as well with more hands per hour. But it is a different animal and you can't think A6s is suddenly a huge hand utg just because it is 6-max.
Since the games do not indeed seem to be as good as a year ago, and since you are forced to play at the worst times, it is even more imperative to have an ongoing systematic plan to evaluate your play and constantly improve. When you sit at your normal tables, I suspect that of the 10 players (9 on stars if like big bet?), then 3 will be good winning players, and the rest losers or only marginal winners. So you need to be one of those 3. Also, I think it is imperative that you constanly are reviewing the table list and signing up for new tables so as not to suddenly find yourself on 3 or 4 tables at the bottom of the list as the losers slowly leave. Of course this is a cycle, that goes back and forth, but you need to be putting yourself on the best tables and leaving those that have cooled down.
Bluff