First time posting long time lurker. Found a raked home game that is making my head spin.

I am a long time player of about 20 years so I think I have a good feel for the changes of the game over time. I consider myself a TAG player and have been fairly profitable (proven when records are kept). I am a casual player that doesn't always live near a casino (typically move every 2 years).

My question is even though this is a 1/2 officially, at least 80% of the time there is a 5$ button straddle and the opening raise is typically between 18-24$ all consistent with 2/5. I am one of the 2 players that does not straddle the button. My first 3 times I bought in for 250 which is my normal 1/2 buy in. My next 3 times I bought in for 450 which is my normal 2/5 comfort zone and always have a reload/add on to feel out the table. I'm not sure I am gaging my buy ins right since the 3 times I have lost ( 600, 750, and 65 ) is more than the 7 times I have walked away with a W. Total of 660. I feel like the increased buy ins make me feel like I am a bigger loser than I actually am since I'm marking this as a 1/2 and smh saying no profitable player should be losing 300 bb. Am I way off here. Any advice is welcome

Game looks to play larger than most 1/2.

Treating it as small 2/5 game is probably correct.

What is average stack size of players. Will play big factor in how to approach game.

Where action starts, after button straddle also will effect game.

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It sounds like a great game and I wouldn't be too concerned over the losses. I am a massively winning player over the last 2k hours but have had many 300bb downswings. If you play aggressive you play correct, and if you are playing aggressive highish variance will happen.

What I would focus on is tight pre and postflop hand selection. In a game that plays big there is no need to play marginal hands or hands that barely hit the board. There is so much added value from how big it plays that even a loose player like myself would tighten up a lot. In games like this PPs seem extra valuable so I'd play more regardless of position hoping to flop sets.

The average starting stack of the good players at the table seem to be 300$
The 4 bad players everyone is hoping to target start with 500$. I should also add I have seen them rebuy 4 times each.
At the end of the night (we play for 5 and a half hours) there is roughly 8k on the table if not more.

I also believe this is an amazing game but when the bad beats come they hurt. Last Sunday I sat back and grinded my stack up to aprox 950$ and lost more than half in one hand with a bad play and a bad read on the turn. It is very easy in this game to be way ahead on the flop and ask yourself wth happened on the turn since some of the players will think nothing of calling an all for 500 plus $ with a gut shot that is almost impossible for my mind to put them.

It's not so much the losses I am concerned about since my bank roll can more than cover the variances but the trend is small wins and huge losses. I don't have a large enough sample size to actively judge how this will play out over time but wanted to get other opinions on if this was normal or okay I guess. There is so much free money and I don't feel as if I am approaching it all correctly.

You're right. You're not. This reads like a fake hand history. You say that you're a 20-year winning player properly rolled for a cream dream of a game that can be smashed by a rote strategy available everywhere. But feelings. What would you like us to tell you exactly?

If losing 300BB in a session makes you feel something is wrong then you're either a nit or a very inexperienced player. Both 300BB losses and wins should happen relatively frequently.

Nit is not how I would describe myself but possible for someone else too. I tend to feel uncomfortable in games that I can't easily control the swings. My comfort zone for poker is and always will be 10/20 - 20/40 stud. My conversion to N/L was a difficult one for me and not by choice. Moving as much as we do, one either has to adapt or quit. I understand that these swings should happen frequently and with such a small sample size I shouldn't be judging anything on just this. My main question is how I should be looking at this from a record keeping stand point and whether I should be considering a 600$ loss as 300bb or 120bb. I apologize for not getting right to and sticking to my point but at the same time wanted to open the conversation to anything I may be missing with my approach. If it means anything to you or anyone else, sometimes being a female comes with feelings and disadvantages of a mindset most male players don't have.

I'd leave it at 1/2 for your records because believe it or not these guys would probably tighten up a bit in an actual 2/5 game. So you dont want to delude yourself into thinking youre a 2/5 crusher just because of this one game that sorta kinda plays like it.

Average raise size, stack depth, and player quality determine the average potsize, and thus swings, more so than blinds. I have played in 1/2 games where stacks are 150 and a $7 raise wins the blinds, and 1/2 where stacks are $500, every pot is straddled, and a $20 raise gets 6 callers.

Worrying about what size to consider the the bb for winrate tracking purposes is dumb. Its a meaningless number. $$ won is far more important, but even that still is pointless over a small sample. All that really matters is being properly rolled and recognizing your edge against the opponents.

But since you seem fixated on what size bb this game is, I would go ahead and call it 2/5.