Before zoom I would only ever leave a table the fish either left or busted or when my stack reached over 300 big blinds and there was another decent player at the table with a similar stack size (using a 20BI rule and it seemed daft to me to play with what was effectively ~10% of my roll on the table).

Now when I play Zoom one of those reasons I would keep a deep stack is gone because I'm no longer fish hunting I'm trying to beat the average of the player pool. I've taken to using a 180BB max rule now instead were I close any of zoom tables that have more than 180BB and immediately rebuy in for 100BB aka Rat-holing.

My reasoning being that I'm no longer losing my spot at a table with a fish and I still don't trust my deep stack game enough vs. decent players who I think most of the players who have accumulated those stacks will be.

Questionable poker etiquette aside, am I losing value because I'd rather use hyper nitty BRM and shy away from any large pots?

20 BI is not even close to being nitty BRM, I would actually say it is rather aggressive.

And yes, I would think you are loosing value by ratholing but I guess it depends a lot on how good your deepstack play is. But if you are better than the average player at 100 bb I don't see the reason you shouldn't be better at 250 bb.

Was typing a reply and lost it, basically what A.Ertbjerg said, if you are beating the standard pool convincingly, you will beat the deepstack crowd as well and thus be losing value by ratholing. But if you want to reduce variance, go ahead and do it. I see no convincing etiquette reason why you should stick at a normal nanostakes tables just because you won "big" and no reason whatsoever for Zoom.

Thought I remembered to add this in my OP but it appears I didn't. I specifically switched to a 30 BI rule for Zoom.

Weird how normally everyone says that stack sizes are crucial but whenever this topic comes up it's "nah you'll be fine if you play well at 100bb effective you'll play well at 700bb effective"

Deep-stack play is very different from 100bb poker. Position becomes even more important, hand values change dramatically, fold equity goes down, implied odds go way up.

I absolutely love getting deep stacked in Zoom. Think like this, a 5/10/? NL player sitting with 5-600bb vs you with a similar stack. You have the skill advantage. Equals carnage for him and good times for you, right?

Skill advantage is not inherently the same across different stack sizes. You probably play 40bb effective worse than a pro shortstacker even if you'd crush him at 100bb effective. Same goes for deep stacks. Getting good at deep-stack play is a really good idea, but don't just assume you have an edge if you have no idea of the differences in strategy as you get deeper. There's good articles on deep-stack strategy around and some good chapters in Easy Game III for those who have it.

I was generalising, most of the regs here are going to be better than a random guy playing 2/5/10nl I would presume that extended to Xbb deep unless people here suddenly go wonky when they get deep

Implied odds (and especially reverse implied odds) make a huge difference to how you play. For example, straight draws (especially disguised ones) have much more value and TPTK, two pair and low sets can be very expensive indeed. Most of what people learn as "standard" is based on 100bb effective stacks - deeper stack play is almost a different game entirely.

Edit: but, yes, understanding this while players are happy to stack 300bb with a set because you "shouldn't" have been chasing an unlikely straight does make it very lucrative

I don't think the underlined part is always true, depending on where you are in the hand. For instance, if someone fires a 2nd barrel on the turn, he might get a lot of folds from villains with marginal hands thinking that they will face a 3rd bullet on the river (which could be bigger than usual with stacks that deep).

But if you have a draw to the nuts, then hitting that draw means you can win much more than if you had standard stacks. If you miss the draw, you aren't calling on the river anyway. Hit the nuts, and you can win a massive pot. The high implied odds is the cause of the reduced fold equity.

For draws and combo draws, I agree. For middle pair-type hands, however, a lot of people will fold early in the hand to avoid the reverse implied odds.

There is nothing questionable here. Rat-holing applies only to short-stackers after they have doubled up, not to 100bb stacks.

I think we're on the same page here. You're right that fold equity isn't decreased in all spots, but relative hand strength, preflop range construction and implied odds considerations mean that 300bb+ poker plays quite differently to 100bb poker.

A huge part of the game in ZOOM is blind battling. Even at the full ring tables. These days the average reg is opening 50%+ from the btn, people have 13-20% 3-bet ranges out of the blinds and I get snap 5-bet shoved on almost 50% of the time I 4-bet resteal.
I can't tell you how many times I snap off 5-bet shoves with 77+, AQ+ for 200+bb pots and see AQ, J9o, ect. You get 200+ BB deep and you lose this entire dynamic.
I'm talking about NL100 or higher here but maybe its different at lower stakes. I've played millions of hands and well over 95% of it is 100bb poker. The entire game dynamic revolves around effective stack sizes. I'm a big winner in the game, and I rat hole religiously.

Not to mention another thing. Every time you rathole you get a fresh 30s time bank. So you can (A) play deeper with less time and try to get "implied odds" (but how often do you make a big hand that you want to fist pump in 300+ bb with really?) (B) push small edges hard aggressively, have full time bank for tough decisions, 4bet resteal resteals all day.

I think so many "regs" have overinflated egos. Almost all players are not 1/3 as good as they think they are. On average its' going to be the better players who have the deep stacks to cover you. But most "regs" make it some personal issue that if they rat hole they're somehow admitting to themselves that they're unsure about their edge on the average deep stacked reg.
Really though, like all things in life, there is so much more to it than this. Even if you truly do have the edge you think you do (against deep regs, not against the overall player pool) playing deep is going to affect so much more than just variance. Everything changes.

Excellent advice.

It's funny though, we don't like playing short stacked so "omgz shorstacking ratholers *****" even if they might be uncomfortable playing 100bb, yet because we like playing 100bb and get a bit uncomfortable playing deep "yes, it's OK to chip down if you get deep and feel uncomfortable". I personally would be quite happy if everyone was forced to play deep and not allowed to chip down at all. Having said that, it's in the rules to chip down so do whatever maximises your financial edge.

Given the format of Zoom poker where each hand is theoretically an independent game, who cares?

If u can't adjust then rat-holing is probably best, if u can then sitting out probably is neutral to negative EV (not huge but could def improve your winrate longterm)

or you could just stick with the deep stack and try and win your biggest pot ever?

i only really rathole when i get above a 350bb stack cz i dont really feel comfortable playing so deep, think it'd kill me if i lost like a 700bb pot at 50nl

I love playing zoom super deep stacked, I try to run my stacks up to 1000bb

This.

You're not rat-holing if the people you won the money from are not at the table. Even so, with internet poker, etiquette is pretty much non-existent. What would be low class at a live game is standard fare at a virtual table.

I buyin for 100bb and sit out out at 150bb.

ebffs - everything you said makes sense.

I love playing deep. You can push people around with your stack and can maximise all your wins. Although i'm not sure about the value when being coolered. We both flopped fullhouses and i had the lower one and effectively lost 4 buy-ins in one hand! Was devastating...