[jfk]

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In my above average, amateur, recreational play, my strategy is to win a smaller amount of very large pots. Thus the rake only impacts me when the rake per pot times the number of wins per hour exceeds the theoretical and unavoidable time charge.

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Midas,

Even a time charge at or around $15 per hour a quality player sitting at 6/12 is going to struggle to net $10 an hour.

Moreover, while it would be ideal to win a your share of the very large pots, that is typically not under a player's control. I'm sure you're not playing J5o off the button just because six players have limped. Assuming you're playing according to Miller/Sklansky stating hand principles, you may sometimes be influenced by number of players with your late position and blind decisions but usually pot size is primarily going to be left up to the vagaries of your opponents decisions.

While a good player can assert some influence onto the size of the pot, in general that player cannot always have direct control over self-selecting playing only in pots that are large. Playing decisions have to be based on decisions of EV, regardless of pot size.

The impact of rake and tips at low limits can also blunt some of the tools a better player would use at higher limits. With a $4 rake in a 3/6 game, there's little sense in a blind steal from the cutoff seat when you know that the BB is going to come along the vast majority of the time. To my mind it makes little sense to chuck in $6 to create an $8 pot (before tip) unless I have a playing advantage that can make up for that gap.

If I misunderstood what you meant, please let me know.

bernie,

I'm not getting a lot of 3/6 or 4/8 work in these days but those times when I am on such a table it is not all that unusual for the norm to be small pots with limited multiway action. Again a big part of this is that a full table here is nine handed and tables don't normally run full. When going with seven or eight players, you still need at least half of those at the table to chuck in chips to see the flop with four. I see that happen less and less.

Fundamentally, I don't see scratching out a single digit amount of dollars per hour as earning. I see it as a corollary benefit for those play poker for reasons other than profit. Perhaps 3/6 or 4/8 is "beatable", but no one (normal) would work a regular job for the wages offered by these "beatable" games.