Fish don't cash out, that's what makes them fish. I want them to keep depositing. I think fish are more likely to think "ok I'll put on another $300 because I'm halfway to a $50 bonus," with $10 they're just gonna shrug their shoulders. This is what kept party going imo

My sample sizes:

1/2 - 132K
2/4 - 37K
3/6 - 6700
5/10 - 54K
10/20 - 10K

I had more, but in moving to the new computer I lost the first few months of the year. Also, my 275K database loads basically instantly. :P

The actual numbers really don't matter because they will vary from person to person. Just play and calculate your own. The main thing to realize is that this is a good change for everybody 2/4 and above. 1/2 kind of took a hit here, mainly because of volume needed like GB said, but the micros also benefited from this since they were basically left out of the program before these changes. They also decreased the amount you need per month to maintain SN so that helps out 1/2 players who already have SN as well.

Edit: Apparently this does suck for FR 1/2. I guess they can't 24 table to SNE anymore, or it will be much more difficult. Weren't they getting some ridiculous rakeback anyway though?

lets be honest

neither you nor anyone else here understands, en masse, why fish do the things they do

nobody understands why they think 4th pair is good on a 4-broadway board

nor do we understand why they try ridiculous bluffs in terrible spots

and we sure don't know what they're thinking regarding bonuses, cashing in, re-buying, etc.

ive run pretty damn bad over the last several weeks.. but today takes the cake.

1000 hands at 2/4 and im 39 for w$sd and am down over 100 BB.

i just don't understand how i can have sessions like this 20x in a 3 week period?? so what if i run hot for a 10k thousand if a) it doesn't make up for the 30k hands that i lost preceding it; and b) here comes another 30k hand losing streak to follow it...

im just so sick of it. and you know, i posted about how much i grinded the last few days and won money.. YEAHHH i won $$.. well **** THAT.. i ran like **** HOLE for running good. i lost over 60% of the time i took AA/KK/QQ to showdown. every big pot .. EVERY BIG POT for 14k hands has gone the other way.... and this is when i win $$$..

you want me to get excited about a ****ing nice 10k hand run that is flanked by getting shafted for 30k hands on each side with a 42% w$sd... well, great.. i did. just like i did for the 70k hands prior to that.. and the 70k hands before that too.

i wish i still had my nlhe db from when i tried my hand at 6max nlhe to begin 2009. over 3 months i was dealt AA/KK/QQ something like 125 times each and had a losing record with all 3 hands at 25nl... i am almost certain that a monkey on meth couldn't manage that...

**** **** ****

start doing meth?

and another thing.. why the **** are my vpp/hand so much ****ing lower than everyone else's. its sick.. im way below what everyone else always quotes.. im not a nit. i don't avoid games with big pots.. is that just another run-bad in life thing?

at first glance, the vip changes seems awesome! in fact, i'll be severely tempted to push for SNE just by playing my usual stakes, although i would need to increase my volume 35% or so..

One thing did stand out at me though:

http://www.pokerstars.com/vip/earn/

Am I correct that this will severely limit the number of higher stakes 6max games that go? I'm unsure how I feel about this, on one hand, it would be nice to earn 6x playing at unfilled FR tables.... however, if a game is good enough that it will certainly fill i'd much rather it stay 6max...

Isn't it basically impossible to start a high stakes full ring table most of the time?

Personally, i think any 1/2 player should move up immediately. Already having a repuation for being one of the worst raketrap stakes, you would need to be beating it for over 4.5bb/100 hands now to be in the green.

most 30/60+ games are played on FR tables these days

wait does that mean in huhu hand on a 50/100 FR table each player is making 9 points a hand? that cant be right

nope quite the opposite actually... most people sit and wait for hu action at FR tables, but if a donk comes along not wanting hu, they'll likely join the FR and then the game fills.

actually, perhaps the new SOP for hu players will be waiting at 6max tables?.... nahh.. i just cant picture starting 6max tables much under this new system

no, $1 would be raked, generating 6VPPs, so 3 would go to each player

Sounds good then. I'll be trying to start fr games from now on. The whole HU plz thing basically gets no respect anymore anyway does it (or that's just Elo probably)?

Yep. Quite thankful my BR is now up to where I am taking shots at 2/4. Just in time...

any more changes worth noting for any making 500K points a year? Milestones boni seem a tad higher for the whole 1 mil.

so its better to start a FR table rather than a 6-max, how is that?
and does this mean FR is making a comebackat stars?

So what exactly does this mean. I'm not beating 1/2 at 4.5BB/100 and yet I'm way in the green. How do you figure that I won't be in the green?

I want to move up, but I cashed out a lot of my roll and don't have quite enough for 2/4. And since I took a break I'm not that confident in my pokering skills as of late.

Pretty sure that 4.5bb/100 is just to break even with the rake. Your winrate in PT3 or HEM is without rake. Therefore if you are winning at 1BB/100, your true winrate is actually 5.5BB/100 before rake is taken out.

under the new system in 2010, starting a FR table will almost certainly be better since you'll get 6x the VPPs no matter how many people are seated. The only way starting a 6max table would be better is if you somehow knew it would fill with weak players you want to keep to yourself... but there's no way to know that in advance!

There is already a trend toward FR play at higher limits. Many speculate this is due to the lack of HUHU tables, so huhu players tend to wait for action at FR tables... if this attracts a big donator who doesn't give 2 ****s about hu... well, then there's a new FR game going. I dont realy see this as a huge deal, but the trend has been met with resistance by stars regs who prefer 6max.

however, i definitely dont want to see high stakes 6max shift to FR any more than it already has.

this is awesome. 207 more hands and im down another 25 BB as i continue to get shafted by winning at sd less than 42%. i asked a few players how often they play 1200 hand sessions and win at sd less than 45% and they all said, "not very often".. they are all players you know from the forums. i can tell you that it has happened to me 20x ++ in just a few weeks.

+1

Take a look at dbeckham's stats. He's losing significantly more at 1/2 lhe than 2/4 over large samples of hands. If he's playing his standard style, he's going to have a bigger losing rate at the raketrap stakes. And i know the competition down there is weaker than 2/4... so take that into account. It's really rare nowadays to see 2bb+/100 at 1/2 because of the ridiculous amount of rake taken out. Even Tpirahna mentions this in his blog about how those stakes can be unbeatable for the avg. thinking player. This just reinforces my idea that u need to move up as soon as u can if u benefit off of rakeback.

Dear stars, can you have just ONE day when you give double VPPs or whatever so I don't shoot myself trying to hit SN by the end of the year.

If I do not feel that comfortable at 1/2 (atm loosing on a loosing stretch or I want to think so). What should I do? I do not want put the risk of playing 2/4$ without the BR

Should I down to .5/1? (pretty soft game for me) and build the BR there? or its even worse in terms of rake?

Dredok, i'm not really the best person to answer this, but i think you will get your confidence back soon. I started out horrifically... loosing more than 200 big bets in the first 5k hands, but since then i have limited the amount of tables and know who the winning regs are and to avoid them and have had better results lately.

Personally, my roll determines where i play at. I follow the 1k big bet rule. If it's not there, then don't move up. Fortunately, i have a staker to help me out for next year. So i don't have to worry about it. According to the chart that ixterra posted, .5/1 did improve, but it still doesn't beat 1/2. But if you're beating .5/1 for 3+bb/100 and you're not beating 1/2 for .5/100 or if you're even losing, maybe you could build it at the stakes you're comfortable at. Whereve your hourly is better is where you should play i think.

But, thanks to this improvement in rewards like the "stellar," you could actually end up building your roll pretty quickly the first couple of months. Especially if they have the instant cash credits.

GL