So I'm not much of a cash player, but usually once every month or two I go to the Detroit B&M and play 1/2NL. Min buy-in is $50 and max is $100. I usually only bring $200 with me and can never reall seem to do much other than walk out plus $50 or so. The play is horrible and these guys run on a LOT of luck. The average pre-flop raise is $15 followed by usually $25-$30 post-flop.

My question is if I go with $200, should I try instead to play the 3/6 limit table? Most people usually buy in for just $100 over there and I think if I sit with $200, I could do alright and not have as many swings. At 1/2, the guys are betting $50+ with just TP and it's hard to read some of them because you never know what they could be playing.

What kind of difference can I expect if I sit at 3/6 instead of 1/2NL and would the more skilled and smart player prevail more often?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

I would say that the more skilled player could prevail at either and could fail at either, considering you are just going as a one time thing. (Meaning, this is just based off of 1 session, a very small sample.)


THE BAD--
-You could be playing NL flop top set, and get sucked out on the river by a flush draw and lose your whole buy in in less than 2 minutes, that would suck.

-You could sit at the 3-6 table and slowly but surely lose all of your money to HUGE missed draws and retarded rivers. A slower, death, although I don't know which is more painful. 1 hand, or 3 hours.

THE GOOD--
-You could play the NL and be on a heater, while all the other donks there are paying you off. You could run your buy in up x5 before you decide to leave.

-You play the 3-6 and go on a major heater here too, but probably walk away with 40-50BB, like being on a huge rush in NL. You might be able to win a few hundred at 3-6. You can't win as much in a single session at 3-6, but if you're going to relax and have fun, and don't want to lose your whole buy in, in 1 hand to the river, play 3-6.

If you're there to make $$$, I would scout the tables and see which games juicy. Probalby NL. GL either route.

I've run into the same problems at B&M 1/2NL with $100 max buy-in. The donks turn in into bingo poker, so you have to be EXTREMELY patient and a lot of times that doesn't work because they'll call any draw and suck out. The dumb ones seem to be luckier than people that know what they're doing. Don't call pf raises just to see a flop ever in a 1/2NL game. Raise or fold.

You might also want to think about taking that $200 and just buy-in at the 2/4 or 2/5NL.

It seems like you aren't playing the right strategy against the $1/$2 NL players. Against players that bad you should be raking money in.

I think the best way is to play 3/6 for a couple of sessions and judge the play. See which seems better.



As an aside, I have never understood why the standard raise is usually so much larger when playing live. Open raising to $15 with a $100 stack at $1/$2 always seems so wrong.

O yeah I forgot to add, the casino rake in 1/2NL is pretty brutal also. If you think about it, you're losing almost 10% of your buy-in every 30 hands to the casino. One more reason I just stay away from 1/2NL tables completely.

Well they don't take rake on the hands, but do take $6 from each player every half hour. I think I'd rather have the rake, since I don't end up playing many pots anyways.

Thanks for all the input, keep it coming!

Whoa, they have a rated rake? Usually they only use those in big games so that they don't have to break down the chips. $6 half hour? That aint too bad, just as long as you are winning 1 pot every 10 hands.

how far is the casino from your place? For me at home, it's about 45-50 mins so for the most part, unless I bring like at least 3 buyins worth for the nl game, I like to play limit. @ Barona, players at nl and limit are equally bad imo. Some days the limit players are just BAD, playing any face card while at nl, you'll find some ppl who'll push all in with A high.

But like what simo said, if you're not destroying a 1/2 game that juicy, then perhaps NL isn't your game. Try the 3/6. For teh most part, the ppl I played against are tight/passive.

Oh, I'd play 4/8 if they have that tho, $4 rake is a *****.

Wow, that is pretty high. So they actually take 12% of your buy-in every hour. Stay away from this game unless you're just going to the casino to have a good time and don't care about the money. With a rake this high, you need to make $12 per hour just to break even. In a regular casino rake they take the $3 in blinds every round so if you give it 3 minutes per hand on average, that's 20 hands an hour or $6 in blinds going to the casino rake. That's how it is in Vegas and every Indian casino in So. Cal. $6 every half hour is twice as much as it should be. I don't care how good a player you are, it's hard to beat the rake and the suck-out artists all at once.

With $200 3/6 limit seems more appropriate.

However if you can bring more money in, 1/2 NL should be more profitable.