Your thoughts on small internet cash games

Mr. Flibble

HI.


I've recently been playing alot of small cash games on the internet - .10.20c 9 seater NL. I've been making a decent profit plalying ultra tight. I'm wondering if theres much difference in player skill in .25.5 and .5.1 games. I presume there are less absloute jokers throwing away their stack, but what about people who play consistantly.
I've noticed there seem to be alot more players at the higher stakes players . . so perhaps this means a decent amount of bad players.

Also, any hints for playing these games?

RoundTower

The players are just as bad, just the chips are a different colour which takes some getting used to. Don't know what you mean about having more players at the higher stakes, as far as I can see precisely the opposite is true.

Mr. Flibble

Maybe its just an anomaly with these stakes at VC but there seem to be 1 - 2 more tables at .25.50 stakes than the .10.20 stakes. . . altho there the same number at the moment.

At what stakes do you think there a considerable increase in player skill?

ianmc38

Depends, you can meet good players @ 0.10/0.20. I find even at $1/$2 the players can often be terrible.

Small cash games can be profitable. I play about 15hours a week at 0.25/0.50 and make between $150 and $300 a week.

handsfree

my expience is that the .10/.20 on tribecca may as well be play money. i also made the mistake of bringing my whole bankroll to a .25/.50 game. so my advise would be hone your skills on $5 sngs and when your bankroll is big enough (around €250) hit the cash games.

Mr. Flibble

Excellent ianmc38, untill I find a job this is the dream

Can I ask, do you play multiple tables? At such small limits I have found it less stressfull to just play 4 tables and play solid tight poker than to try to read players as half of them seem to play any 2 cards. Obviously I would make more at 1 table if I paid attention to it - but I'm not sure I'd make 4 times as much.

Mr. Flibble

I used to play only stts but since trying these cash games I seem to be making more. I have been playing more hours though. I have to say they are completly different. After playing only cash games for 2 weeks I entered a two table tournament and it felt like I was playing a completly different game.

I moved up to .25.50 last week and was doing ok. Managed to make $100 but then threw it away one morning when I tried to 'mix it up' and cashed out all but $80 lest I lose more, then moved back to .10.20 as pennance (i'm very harsh on myself amn't I). Back to $140 now, once I get to 200 I'll go back to .25.50.

I found the players there much tighter preflop. I never seemed to get any action when I raised unlike the smaller game. Maybe the players there notice I've been folding for the last 10 mins. Or maybe I was imagining it.

I think what I really want to know is at which level would I have start actually playing proper poker - not just acting like a tight robot which is working well at this level - to make a profit.

Marq

After playing only cash games for 2 weeks I entered a two table tournament and it felt like I was playing a completly different game.

You were.

Imposter

Mr. Flibble wrote:

After playing only cash games for 2 weeks I entered a two table tournament and it felt like I was playing a completly different game.

That's because it is!

Back to $140 now, once I get to 200 I'll go back to .25.50.

If you can't afford to reload money regularly should you lose it, i'd suggest waiting until you get to 500 at least. Alternatively if you drop below 100 drop back down but even that is a very aggressive bankroll management strategy and may leave you broke.

I found the players there much tighter preflop. I never seemed to get any action when I raised unlike the smaller game. Maybe the players there notice I've been folding for the last 10 mins. Or maybe I was imagining it.

VC players and tight in the same sentence! I'll be damned. VC/Tribeca is probably the site with the highest variance at these stakes so your bankroll probably should be even bigger than usual.

I think what I really want to know is at which level would I have start actually playing proper poker - not just acting like a tight robot which is working well at this level - to make a profit.

It's all poker, you just need to be able to adjust to your opponents properly. The problem with this is that at lower levels the plaxers don't know what they're doing themselves so it's almost impossible for you to get to grips with how they play. I'd say .25/.5 is where some players might start to have an idea of what they are doing. The number of players in this category (and their abilities) then increase as you go up the levels imo.