So after yet another incredibly frustrating session at the local casino playing 1/1 (five way AI AA gets powned by the guy who called with his Ks5s when he rivered a flush), I have a question about game structure.

When I post questions here, I invariably get the response that I should be playing a game with "better structure". Invariably that means deeper buyins. What is it about deeper buyins that makes a game "better"? From what I can tell, the players really aren't any better. So, when the buyin is 30 - 100 BB, there are still people that buy in at the minimum. Instead of getting stacked by the donks with a $60 stack, do I increase the risk to my bankroll by getting donk stacked with $200 stacks?

Can someone please enlighten me why a 100bb game is better than a 40bb game? I'm about to give up on playing live....

Thanks!

When games play deeper then there is more post-flop play. Pre-flop hand selection is less important and pre-flop mistakes are much less important since post flop mistakes become sooo much more costly.

With 40BB stacks your commitment decisions will be made either pre-flop or on the flop. Turn and River are just two more cards to run out where you either need to hit or dodge something. With >100BB stacks all the money almost never goes in pre or on the flop. The board may change drastically on the turn or river which makes your decisions difficult since bets are much larger on those streets and mistakes are very costly. The reason you want to play deeper is because it allows you to exploit fish much more - most fish take their hands too far and are not capable of making as many good decisions on the later streets of betting.

Another thing is that once people are deep - say around $700 at 1/2NL and you got them covered and have position on them you can completely own their face. The thing about most people is that once they're winner in the game they don't wanna lose all their winnings. So say this guy with $700 is sitting there and he's prolly like $500 winner. If I have him covered then I can take all his money in one hand. Most 1/2 players will be scared ****less of you in that case and will play super predictable. They will also only commit with the absolute nuts. In this situation I have found it super profitable to 3bet their opens with a super wide range - since a majority these guys will not 4bet me without KK+ (and only KK+, I'm not even kidding). They will call with QQ and lower and also flat with AK. They will also fold to c-bets a huge amount of the time since people at 1/2 generally play scared in 3bet pots. So say a regular open raise is $12, then you 3bet to $30... if you do this successfully 3 times you've made almost $100...nice. This works because stacks are super deep, against say 50BB stacks these plays won't work since people will just jam it in with AQ+ TT+ and not be making a mistake doing so.

Another thing is that playing against stations that take top pair top kicker way too far is even more profitable when playing deep since you can get 3 streets of fat value from them.

find a better game because of the rake. 4+1 in a 1/1 game with a 40BB cap BI is crazy! 1/2 is already hard enough to be profitable in (and its small profits) I can't imagine any lower with a capped BI.

I play 1/2 and the rake is huge 10% up to $7 + $1 BBJ.

masaraksh made some good points, but let me expand on this a little bit more from a different perspective.

People that sit in a 1/1 30BB-40BB capped game are not there to play poker. As I have said before, they are there to hit the lottery. If they get up a couple of BI's they get up and go home, sure some stay and spew it all back, but once they hit their lottery they are done. They are just waiting to get lucky and you to get unlucky.

When you sit in a 100BB capped game, more of the people there are going to be there to play poker. Yes they are still going to suck, but they are not going to be shoving constantly either. Its a much more sane game.

The issue is that there is only so much skill one can apply in a 30BB game, especially 1/1. A lot of it comes down to pf hand selection. One can teach someone "play these hands this way pf. If you have TP on the flop, don't be afraid to get your stack in." Position plays a role, but not a big one.

Move the BI to 150BB. Now, the number of hands you can play pf goes up with position. A villain faces a wider range of possibilities. Bluffing becomes a more viable option. TP is no longer worth stacking off with. You have more tricks available in your bag to use. You can move the gap between what you know and what the fish know.

That's why better players want to play with deeper stacks.

^^^^

exactly... I'm pretty sure the range of hands a good player can play profitably gets wider the deeper the stacks. (for example durrrr 3betting with 86o is just not gonna be profitable with 40BB effective stacks whereas at 300BB its not wrong.) - I really hate using high stakes durrr twilight zone crazy plays to prove my point in a low stakes live forum tho lol.

Thanks folks. One more question if I might. I played today at a 1/2 20BB-50BB buyin game ($40 to $100) at a different casino. Most folks bought in for 20-30BB. I didn't find the play a whole lot different other than the one player that was good was good. Same issue here in your opinion? The "best" game around is a 1/2 $40- $200 buy in at another casino a bit further down the freeway, but people still show up and buy in for $40. Is the problem really that low buy in?

Yes. This is really simple poker. That said, people will be far looser than they should be (because they are bad). You can exploit this and it is possible to be a winning player. However, it is a bit like shooting fish in a barrel. Yesterday on-line, I was playing a 20-50BB table and had AA. I faced an EP raise and a later 3bet. I 4bet and got two calls. On the flop, it was an easy shove and both called. While it is nice to win the 100BB, it certainly didn't take any skill. You just won't have it happen that often.

You can also look at this from a different point of view. Maybe you can also buy in short ($40). Then you can play super-tight/shortstacker strategy and punish all the people who are trying to play lots of hands and see lots of flops with such small effective stack sizes. Btw, bring lots of buy ins since doing this will be pretty high variance.

This will also be wicked boring poker which sucks.

Rake is the main reason why shorter structures tend to be worse.