[Sunny Mehta]

Ryan,

Good observations - you seem to grasp the crux of the concepts well.

The key to choosing exploitative global strategies for your particular game obviously has a lot to do with the general opponent proclivities. I.e. - how aggressive they are, how tight/loose they are, how much steal equity you have, how much THEY will steal both preflop and postflop, etc.

I don't know your particular game's tendencies well enough to make a super definitive statement, but here are some observations....

$1-$2 online games tend to be much less aggressive than, say, $10-$20 games. IIRC, a stat analysis I did last year showed an average pfr% of like 11 at the 6-max $1-$2 level versus pfr% of 14 at $10-$20. That's a big difference, and both my experience as well as research show that the differences very much extend to postflop play. Lower limit players are simply more passive, while higher limit players are more aggressive and more "gambley".

Obviously though, these are generalizations to a degree, and exact tendencies may be different from site to site, level to level, and even time period to time period - certain things turn "in fashion" for a while and cycles come in and out of phase. Heck, games on certain sites a few months after the legislation were flat-out terrible games.

To get back to your specific question, until lower limit games start approaching the level of tough aggression that higher limit games do, it probably makes more sense *for good players* - if they have to choose - to err their stack size on the side of using it to steal, and just dealing with the tough commitment decisions that may follow overpair hands. It's probably more profitable than tailoring a shorter buy-in purely for commitment with overpair hands. However, it cannot be understated that that presumes the ability to read hands well, pick spots well, NOT TILT/SPEW when stealing, and make correct folds. The key is accurately and honestly assessing your ability wrt those things - which can sometimes be tough for all players.

Thanks for the kind words and the close read. Matt and I will be active all over the 2p2 forums to aid discussion.

-S