Does available limits in my casino affect the game I play in?

[gobbledygeek]

Maybe a stupid question, but...

The local casino I play at offers only two limit games: 2/4 and 4/8 (although it does offer no-limit games as well, I believe 1/2, 5/10 and perhaps higher). Does this affect the quality of the game I play in?

That is, I've often read that live games are insanely soft when compared to online games (I've never played online so I can't compare). I've also read that, in general, lower limit live games are insanely good and only get worse (i.e. skill level of opponents increases) at higher limits (in Bob T.'s Well thread he mentioned how there are few good players playing below 15/30). But, if your local casino only has two limits to choose from, how does this affect the quality of the games? I mean, if any good limit players are playing in my casino then they're either at my 2/4 table or the 4/8 table that I'm eventually going to take a shot at. Does this mean that the games in my casino are simply not as good as games in casinos that offer more limits?

I guess I just began thinking about this when I played the other night. It was one of the worst 2/4 B&M tables I'd seen. All regulars, with on average 4 or 5 at most to the flop; folded to the blinds half a dozen times, rarely more than a couple to the turn. Now they all weren't great players by any stretch of the imagination, but they weren't absolutely horrible either.

GnotreallysurewhatI'mgettingat,justputtingitoutthe reG

[jesse8888]

I've thought about this a lot, and I think to truly find an answer you must look past the single card room and outward to the entire "region". Here's what I mean:

If there's only one card room in your "region" (and by region i mean reasonable driving distance), then whoever plays poker is going to go to your room, and most likely those players are going to be decent by live standards. In this case, poker has obviously not caught on where you live, and thus only people who kind of know what they are doing come out to play.

If this is the case you're in, I'm confident the play in your 2/4 and 4/8 games is better than I'm used to.

In my region (Northern California), there is not only an abundance of card rooms, but also a sizable enough population to sustain them. Poker has taken off here, and tons of people who barely know the rules come out to drop 100 bucks on Friday night. I generally find that the quality of play goes up dramatically from the smallest to second smallest game (in my case, the 3/6 players at my local card room are just gahd-awful, where as you can usually find 2 or 3 people at the 6/12 people with a clue as to what's going on).

Not sure if this helps or hinders your thought process....

[One Outer]

I'd be inclined to assume that since there isn't enough demand to spread a wider variety of limit games that the competition would actually be softer.

The tightness you're seeing at that 2/4 game may be a result of NL players in the game, no?

[mrcunningham]

Jesse,
Do you really see that much difference between the play at 3/6 v. 6/12? I recognize it's hard to quantify, but my take has been that they are not so different, except that the drop is relatively twice as high at 3/6. Even though I have smallish numbers ~25,000 hands, if you take into account the drop and tip, my relative win rate is not different between 3/6 and 6/12.

[gobbledygeek]

[ QUOTE ]
The tightness you're seeing at that 2/4 game may be a result of NL players in the game, no?

[/ QUOTE ]

Nope, the tight games of late have been made up of players who are strictly 2/4 limit players (some of whom dabble with 4/8 limit). In fact, I've found that in my room NL players are horrible at my 2/4 limit table; they are a lot looser preflop because they feel they are just passing time playing Bingo plus they are under the mistaken assumption they can outplay our lowly table with any two cards.

Table started off very tight again yesterday. In the first hour and a half there was an average of 3/4 to the flop, I think the biggest flop was 6 maybe once or twice; plus folded to the blinds a half dozen times. Table loosened up a bit afterwards with the addition of some horrible players but man it has been bad lately.

Gridingout150BBdownswingG

[mikeca]

Where I usually play they offer 2/4, 3/6, 6/12, 8/16, 20/40 and sometimes 40/80. I have found there is a big difference between daytime games and evening games, especially Friday and Saturday nights.

I have only played 2/4 once, so very small sample, but all the players were really bad. In the 3/6 game during the day there are a few good players and some good LAGs. The “good LAGs” seem to me to have years of poker experience, and player pretty well post-flop. They probably know how to play correctly, but it is no fun. They also know how to evaluate opponents and they get out of the way of any TAG at the table unless they have a strong hand or strong draw. Many of them have obviously been playing against each other for years, and will check the hand down when only their buddies are left in the hand. Very annoying.

The evening games are very different. The 3/6 evening game has hardly any good players in it. It is just people having fun.

I think time you play is a big factor in game quality.

[One Outer]

That sucks and I'm sorry your local game blows. I can't think of anything to help, except...no...well, it won't hurt to tell you...


maybe you could try the live straddle?
http://archiveserver.twoplustwo.com/...te_id/1#import

[jesse8888]

[ QUOTE ]
Jesse,
Do you really see that much difference between the play at 3/6 v. 6/12? I recognize it's hard to quantify, but my take has been that they are not so different, except that the drop is relatively twice as high at 3/6. Even though I have smallish numbers ~25,000 hands, if you take into account the drop and tip, my relative win rate is not different between 3/6 and 6/12.

[/ QUOTE ]

You know, the more I think about it, you may be right. It's hard for me to gauge as I used to play 3/6 and now play 6/12, and used to be "not as good" and now hopefully am "better". I just seem to find people at the 3/6 game who don't even know the rules from time to time.

[One Outer]

[ QUOTE ]
I just seem to find people at the 3/6 game who don't even know the rules from time to time.


[/ QUOTE ]


You never see them in the 6/12 game? Really? I must be really, really blessed with the Canterbury then. A few weeks ago I played with two players at the same time in the 8/16 that didn't know the rules. Players that don't know the rules are common in 6/12, but not as common as in the blue chip games, of course.

[mrcunningham]

I think you're correct that during certain times, like 7-11 pm on Fridays and Saturdays, you sometimes find complete beginners. However, I doubt that we win most of our money from the total beginners, more often from the beautiful chemical reaction that takes place with the proper combination of LAGs and calling stations. Even more importantly, we lose most of our money to the drop, which is proportionally twice as much in the 3/6.