Conditions set up in "Small Stakes Hold 'Em" rare?

[Sm@rties]

I usually play 2/4 full table at InterPoker. I have read "Small Stakes Hold 'Em" and thought it was a great book. However, I think it is very rare that I encounter a game that is the common scenario in SSHE. At these 2/4 tables at InterPoker it is rather rare that more than 4 players see a flop. Actually head-up or three-way pots are the most common. I do beat these games but of course I would rather be in an even looser and more passive game. So my question is, is people getting more tight these days or am I just playing at a "bad" place? Last year I played a lot at Party Poker. Here the games are generally looser but they don't give any rake back so I took my business elsewhere.

By the way I really wanna post some of my hands in here, but the converter often referred to in here doesn't support InterPoker. Any other converters out there?

If this post is in the wrong forum then I'm sorry.

[James.]

i hand type my converters. and most live cardrooms in america have games just like SSHE. get out and enjoy them.

edit to say i mean "hands", not "converters". i guess i am my own converter.

[Harv72b]

Online games are generally much tighter than what is laid out in SSH, or at least in the starting hands tables therein. If you are using the tables, stick with the ones for tight games until you have a good feel for what you can play when. I've never played at InterPoker, but that has been true of every site that I did play, including Pacific (though less true there). At any rate, the aggressive approach the book teaches for postflop play does work very well in online small stakes games, and we all make (or lose) our money postflop.

You're welcome to type out hands if you have any questions on your play; the converter is just an easy shortcut for those of us who play on the supported skins. There's a thread stickied at the top of the forum which lays out all the important info you want to include in your hand posts, but really as long as you lay it out street by street and keep a running tally of the pot size (in bets) on each street, you'll be good.

[Octopus]

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I usually play 2/4 full table at InterPoker.

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The 2/4 Crypto games are some of the tightest around at that limit. (Note I am not saying toughest ... just tightest.) In my data, they average 2.18 people to the flop. By comaprison, the Absolute 2/4 game (which I would say is quite a bit tougher) is 2.43 and Party daytime is over 2.75. Even the Crypto 1/2GBP games are markedly looser (at 2.58). 3/6 and 2/4GBP are also looser, when they run. Even the 2/4 6max games average more people to the flop than the 2/4 full. Bonus chasers are nothing if not tight.

That said, none of these even come close to what you will see in a casino. Low limit B&M poker is a different world from online.

[Jiggymike]

I have been playing online now for a while and hadn't been to a casino in over a year, in which time I read SSHE, TOP, and several other poker books. The conditions online are "tighter" than what SSHE often accounts for but the players basically play in the same fashion after the flop, so you can use the knowledge from SSHE to win online (at least in my experience). There are more tight players who won't play garbage but enough fish out there calling any 2 suited and any A who will pay off with bottom pair and draw weak hands against you.

This past weekend I went to Atlantic City to play some live 2/4. It was honestly like a page out of SSHE; the first table I sat down at was going 7-8 to the flop once it got established and people were calling down with bullocks. Example hand: I am in LP with AhJh. About 6 callers so I raise, everyone calls of course. Flop comes something like Kh10c2s, rainbow, pretty ragged but not really a great flop for me. Everyone checks to me so I bet; at least 5 players call. Next card is 10h, giving me a heart draw but putting 2 Ts on the board as well as the K. Still everyone checks around to I bet again; maybe 4 callers this time. Last card is Js, everyone checks, I am embarassed to bet and just check hoping to muck. Somehow against 4 callers, my hand is best AND WAS THE BEST THE WHOLE TIME as far as I could tell, unless someone had a garbage pp. The players are so weak and passive that you can easily control a table with the knowledge from SSHE, charging people for their draws and taking all the free rivers you want (people check the turn with top pair over and over again). If there's a heaven, I want it to be like B&M low limit hold em.

[XmasXmas]

i agree that the conditions set up are fairly rare. the 3/6 party game looks nothing like the conditions in sshe. however, sshe is still a fine book, and i think it's important to learn the principles behind the actions in the book and adapting them to different conditions instead of looking for situations from sshe and playing because "this is what sshe said to do."

7-8 people per flop, no, but the SSH tight applies pretty well. Of the people that see the flop, many are SSH's prototypical terrible loose players.

I haven't played small stakes in a long while, but 4-5 handed was the norm. Someone would limp, someone would raise, a cold caller, the SB and BB would come in because no one ever freaking folds in the blinds. And bam, 5-handed, usually at least 3 of which were donks.

[PantherZ]

[ QUOTE ]
I usually play 2/4 full table at InterPoker. I have read "Small Stakes Hold 'Em" and thought it was a great book. However, I think it is very rare that I encounter a game that is the common scenario in SSHE.

[/ QUOTE ]

Online, once you go above .50/1.00, there aren't a lot of games that play like most of the examples given in SSH. These days, most of the games above that play like a mid-limit B&M game.

The glory days of six or seven players limping in a Party 3/6 game were over a couple of years ago.

[JoaoPinto]

Online money is different to live money. It goes for tournaments as well, live you'll find tournaments that cost $200 to enter that play like $10 online games. Same with Limit cash games, 3/6 live plays like .5/1 online.

[SMACK BOOTY]

Other folks have said it, let me repeat: If you want crazy loose, go to your local B&M and play low limit. But don't come back later and complain about being drawn out by the short bus crew. Be careful what you ask for... [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]