I'm new, but is pokerstars my place?

Hello everyone. This is my first post here and I'm new to poker (3 months). I know the basics and have been reading some books. I haven't finished any yet because I dread reading books. I made my first account at party poker. I put in $50 and after a week I racked up $88 profit on low ring games. I later lost $50, then placed 180th place in a tourney and won $110. But since then I've been on a losing streak at party poker. I don't play many ring games because my bankroll is really below what I should play with. So when someone raises me $2 I get scared. I try more of the tourneys and SNG but some people are maniacs and hard to beat.

I've tried many $6 SNGs at partypoker and have lost all but two, which I place 3rd. I usually play good cards like AK, KK, etc, but I always seem to lose to a next best hand. Plus if I raise 4x BB I'm always getting called or pushed all in. Is partypoker too fishy making it hard to win?

So I hear pokerstars is tougher, but more new players are joining. I just signed up yesterday and played 2 SNG $5. I lost the first one at 4th place, and the second I won at 2nd place. It seems that I can bluff more, play much slower, and raise without being pushed all in every game. I know I have to play a ton more games and learn more, but I thought I'd make a long post

So is my weakness these loose passive players or is it just hard to win against fishes?

Ive played most of my online poker at pokerstars so i couldnt compare it to any other sites. In my experience, theres going to be several maniacs at a table at the 5.50s and even 11s. The 4.40 180 man sng's have lots of lagg/maniac players as well. Theyre definately beatable though. Ive made all my money in the sng's and MTT's, you just need to learn how to play with these players. Use these guys to double you up after you hit a good hand and they go all in on top pair.

PS is good for the reason they'll offer you lower stakes games. .01/.02 blinds with a max buy in of $5. Great game to learn the basics in.

Honestly, I wouldn't waste my time with sng's. It's frankly not the same game. The reason you're getting pushed on so much has a lot to do with tournament theory. But it's really an 'artificial environment' for poker. If you choose sng's as your game, Doyle's Room has great low buy in sng's and the sng forum here is probably the best resource on the web to learn from.

But I've walked a similar path as you in the last year. Bouncing around trying different things. Hell, I even played 7 stud exclusively for a month. NLHE ring is probably the most profitable game you can learn.

Good luck!

I don't know if it's changed, but I always found Party Poker's blind structure to be suited more towards gamblers. Poker stars is suited more to someone who likes to wait for good cards. If you don't like to gamble much, then PokerStars would probably be the better game for you. Unfortunately a lot of the other people you play against will be there for the same reason.

I have played a good many SNG's at Pacific with success, and they have fast moving blinds and gambling players also. I just lowered my standards a little bit, and gambled right along with them, but usually with just slightly better cards.

You gotta be able to mix your play up to play at some of these places, or find a place that suits you style.

Originally Posted by truemachine

So is my weakness these loose passive players or is it just hard to win against fishes?

This is a common misconception in poker, and any good poker player will tell you are dead wrong to think this way. The only reason it is hard to beat fish is because it is relatively hard to become a good poker player. Do you really think you would do better against good players? That notion is complete nonsense. 100% of any winning poker player's winnings come from the mistakes of inferior players. If you can't beat the fish you are a fish, because winning players know how to beat fish. I'm not posting this to put you down or discourage you, but to point out that if you can't beat the bad players, and are serious about being a good player, you better learn to beat the bad players at the low stakes first, because those are the easiest players to beat, and if you can't beat them and decide you can beat 'players that respect my raises' and so on, you are just going to lose your money even quicker. Also, drawing any conclusion whatsoever from your finish in 2 sngs is ridiculous. You have to play 10s of thousands of hands to have any idea at all what your true win rate might be.

I reread my post, and thought it sounded a little harsh. I don't take any of it back, but wanted to say I didn't mean to be harsh. Welcome to the forum. Spend some time around here and post hands and you will generally get some good advice, and with some hard work, you can learn to how to play winning poker. And again, concentrate first on learning to beat those bad players!

Adding to what Xan has said...beating the fish doesn't mean that they never beat you. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten it allin on a flop with a set or overpair against a flush draw, top pair etc. only to end up losing on one of the next two cards. Ya just deal with it - knowing that you made the right play is the solace. You will win most of those battles - but for whatever reason the losses sting worse than the wins cause joy.
Best of luck.

If you don't like free money (rakeback and bonuses) then don't go to party.

I thought I would update you on how I'm doing at PokerStars. I've been playing the $3 and $5 SitNGos . I've won 4 $3 and lost 3. For the $5 I won 2 and no losses. Most of my losses came from me playing too early and betting way too much on a hand. Whenever I played SitNGos at PartyPoker I would never make it in the money or close. The extra 500 chips make people gamble more I believe. I'm still working on a lot of problems I have, and this site helps me out.

Thanks

Originally Posted by truemachine

I thought I would update you on how I'm doing at PokerStars. I've been playing the $3 and $5 SitNGos . I've won 4 $3 and lost 3. For the $5 I won 2 and no losses. Most of my losses came from me playing too early and betting way too much on a hand. Whenever I played SitNGos at PartyPoker I would never make it in the money or close. The extra 500 chips make people gamble more I believe. I'm still working on a lot of problems I have, and this site helps me out.

Thanks

If you want to reduce variance, dont' play the $3 tubos. If you want to feel good about your "ability" play the $1 45 man.

If you are trying to build a bankroll it won't work, but if you want to convince yourself that you can beat some form of poker it works.

My stats over a small sample (~50 games each):
$1 5-table: 95% ROI
$5 1-table: 7% ROI
$5 multi-table: 4% ROI