GTA Poker;355516 wroteThe easiest way to tell if a game is beatable is average preflop raise sizing relative to blinds and stack sizes IMO.
Another way to tell is if most of the pots being won in a 1/2 game is <= $50, then you're being raked for the full 10% which is difficult to beat in the long run. To illustrate, see
DrTyore's thread where we played two very different 1/2 games at Mohawk Slots. If only the table he played at with $200-$400 stacks was typical of the OLG electronic tables, but here is my experience so far in the 1/2 games I tried in all four
GTA OLG rooms:
- The minimum buy-in in 3 of the rooms is only $50, and most players have been buying in for the minimum to $100. The lower the average stack in a game, the harder it is to beat the 10% rake.
- The maximum buy-in in 3 of the rooms is $200, & very few players have been buying in for $200/max.
- There seems to be more "hit-and-runs" with the electronic tables, especially when a young player gets lucky. With a live dealer & chips, a big winner has to get up and find chip racks, rack up all his chips, then courteously says goodbye to the table. When a 1/2 non-reg gets lucky and has a huge stack at the electronic table, he suddenly stops talking to everybody he has been been friendly with, then quietly signs out with his card in two seconds and quickly flees from the room without saying a word to anybody! :biggrin: It takes awhile for some players to notice that most of the money has disappeared from the table. The biggest stack leaving is usually replaced by somebody buying in short.
- The average bad player in 2013 is not as horrible as before. While there were more "call-with-any-two-cards then max rebuy" players five years ago, today's bad players last a lot more hands while ~$200/hour in rake and rabbit hunting keeps disappearing from the table. When the bad player eventually busts out, he usually does not have any money to rebuy, so he is replaced by a better player buying in for <= $100.
This is why when I play at Woodbine, I will play 5/5 or 2/5 with pokerJAH.