Skipping SB on Party Poker

[UATrewqaz]

This is more a theory post I guess, but hypothetically if you did not have to post blinds (you got to skip the SB/BB each round, and still got the button) and everyone else did, how would that affect your strategy?

Would it be correct to play much tighter?

[somapopper]

[ QUOTE ]
This is more a theory post I guess, but hypothetically if you did not have to post blinds (you got to skip the SB/BB each round, and still got the button) and everyone else did, how would that affect your strategy?

Would it be correct to play much tighter?

[/ QUOTE ]

Of course, you could play only group 1 and 2 hands, and remove most of the variance and skill from poker.

Just playing aces or aces and kings would be dumb because there are many more hands that are clear profit makers, and you'd reduce your expectation substantially with aces and kings if it was that obvious what you were coming in with.

Of course, if you were 100% convinced that you had a very large skill edge over your opponents, and for some odd reason didn;t care about variance you'd still play all +ev hands.

[AncientPC]

[ QUOTE ]
Would it be correct to play much tighter?

[/ QUOTE ]

It would be a nit-fest like the no ante Stud tables on Paradise.

[MatthewRyan]

Although playing super tight (groups 1 & 2) would decrease your variance, it would also substaintially lower your total profit.
In reality your strategy should not change at all, assuming you are already playing +EV hands; if your goal is to still maximize profit.

[somapopper]

[ QUOTE ]
Although playing super tight (groups 1 & 2) would decrease your variance, it would also substaintially lower your total profit.
In reality your strategy should not change at all, assuming you are already playing +EV hands; if your goal is to still maximize profit.

[/ QUOTE ]

I hear ya, but as a decent but not great poker player, I could play the 100/200 or higher with almost no variance with this strategy.

Say I believe my true winrate is 2BB/100 at whatever limit it is I play. Someone offers me a deal to pay me 1BB/100 for playing the same number of tables, totally independant of my results. I know that I can take this deal forever, and my backer will never go broke or change his mind. I'd take the 1BB/100 given that I might not be as good as I think I am, variance might get me, or I might become worse relative to my opponents.

Playing tighter in the hypothetical is effectively accepting a deal like this. When you take into account the abillity to play at stakes above your skill, I think it's an easy choice.

[driller]

guess it is legal since the ability to do this has been around for at least 2 years. the person who really benefits is the player on the immediate left of the person skipping his small blind. he (the person on the left)gets to skip his big blind!

[Phytopath]

why does party still allow this?

If I recall before the last big update if you missed the SB from timing out, you had to re-post the BB and put a dead SB in. Now that was annoying to me, but at least it made more sense than this.

Has party done anything about these violators?

[CORed]

At 3/6 with a $1 SB, on a 10-handed table, you pay $0.40 per hand in blinds by posting both blinds. You pay $0.375 per hand if you bost only the BB.

For a 9 handed game, you pay $0.44 (rounded to nearest penny) posting both blinds, $0.43 per hand posting only SB.


For an 8 handed game, it's $0.50 per hand either way.

For less than 8 players, you are posting more per hand by skipping SB.

Even for a 10 handed game, I think it's questionable whether you really gain anything, given that you are missing the button and playing fewer hands per hour by skipping the SB. I would say that, since the software allows you to do this, it's within the rules. To do it every round deliberately is unethical, IMO. It seems that poker sites could make this unprofitable by requiring you to post the SB in the cutoff when you miss it. This would eliminate any incentive to do this deliberately.