Quote:
Originally Posted by RlyBadAtO8
I just started dabbling into some plo8 a few days ago and not having a whole lot of success which book/articles would be good for a beginner to beat the micro plo8 tables?
expectations are very important.
to play poker well is to make mostly correct decisions, and one way to evaluate if a decision is correct is to determine whether that decision has a positive expectation, generally expressed on these forums as +EV.
if you are unfamiliar with this concept i would recommend learning about it, which can be done reading a good holdem book.
however the expectation i'm sharing my opinion with you about is expecting "success" and "beating the micro tables".
Rake plays a large to very large role in microstakes split/pot poker online.
-rake is paid by the winner
-rake is a percentage of the pot
100% pot - x% rank - contribution to pot= profit(winnings)
with 0 rake if you are award 100% of the pot if you contribute 45% to the pot(the later streets are played primarily heads-up(hu)) then you profit 55%
with 10% rake if you are award 100% of the pot if you contribute 45% to the pot(the later streets are played primarily heads-up(hu)) then you profit 45%
when the pot is split and consequently you are awarded 50% of the pot rather then 100% your profit is 0.
(100%-10%)*.5 -45%=0
consider the pot limit structure of betting and see this is not an unusual scenerio, an example: 4 people limp to see a flop (4bb-4.5bb pot), 3 people continue to the turn for a 3/4 pot bet(3*3+4.5=13.5bb pot), 1 fold on the turn and its hu for 2 streets of pot betting, (13.5*3=40.5bb, 40.5*3=121.5bb). the final pot @ showdown is 121.5bb, contribution to the pot by 1 of the 2 'winners' is (40.5+13.5+3+1=58bb) 58/121.5=47.75%
unless the rake was capped such that rake was not 'charged' for the entire pot, then if the rake was 10% someone seeing showdown is losing money.
(121.5 - 12.1(10%))*.5 - 58= -3.3bb
the 'dead$' that went into the pot, that would be split by 'the winners' is consumed by the rake. In fact, in the example 'the winners' lose money because the rake exceeds the dead$.
At lower stakes it takes bigger pots to achieve the rake cap. As the pot size represents contributions by the later streets moreso then the earlier streets as a consequence of the pot limit betting structure, the earlier streets where dead$ is contributed often don't provide enough to cover the rake. Hence you lose $ splitting the pot at the microstakes.
at$1/$2 when the rake is capped @$3 and the rake is 5% it requires a $60 pot (30bb pot) to achieve the cap
at .25/.5 when the rake is capped @$3 and the rake is 5% it requires a $60 pot (120bb pot) to achieve the cap
at .02/.4 when the rake is capped @$2 and the rake is 5% it requires a $40 pot (1000bb pot) to achieve the cap
(the rake% and caps I've made up as examples)
the point:
beating the microstakes may not be the correct expectation.
playing microstakes rather then higher stakes to learn and get familiar with the game may be the right decision.
measure your success by your progress and not by your profit
Last edited by ngFTW; 05-10-2013 at 11:28 AM.
Reason: added final point