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 Beginners: Consider Stud and Stud Variants to Clear Bonuses
Spenda, although this is not a NL post, its target audience is mostly in this forum and they'd not usually venture to Every Which Poker. I'd appreciate it if you could leave it here.
Bonuses or Boni? Whatever. You know what I mean.
If you've ever played in a Poker Room with a contributed rake rule for Points (versus a dealt rule like at Stars), you know how long it can take a tight player to clear a bonus at microstakes. You have to see a flop to accumulate any points and playing 18/12 at NL10 just does not get it done. I know I've abandoned a couple of bonuses at rooms where I didn't very carefully read the Bonus TOC, because plucking off my toenails would have been more fun than continuing to grind.
If you find yourself in this situation at a contributed rake room, consider playing fixed-rate Seven-Card Stud, Stud/8 or Razz to clear your bonus. The beautiful thing about these games is that, instead of a blind like you'd post in HE or Omaha, you pay a small ante on each hand. This ante counts as you having contributed to the pot. Playing 18% of your hands in NL, you would earn poker points on less than 2 hands per full ring orbit. I say less considering sometimes the blinds will fold and you'll pay no rake, therefore no points are awarded. Play 18% of your hands in Stud or a Stud variant and you'll earn points on all 8 out of 8 hands in the orbit (note that Stud games are capped at 8 players).
Hello bonus clearance at multiple times the rate you were clearing before!
Does the presence of an ante mean it's a more expensive game to play? Compared to other Fixed Limit games, not really. Take $1/$2 Fixed Limit Hold'em. Each full ring orbit will cost you $1.50 in forced blind payment, or $0.15/hand. Compare that to $1/$2 Stud, where the ante is usually 10% of the small bet, or $0.10. In addition to the ante, there is a bring-in. The bring-in is half of the small bet, or $0.50 in this example, and the player with the lowest up-card is forced to post a bring-in. On average, the bring-ins should even out amongst the players so you'll post about once per orbit. If the antes cost you $0.80 per orbit and you'll post a bring-in for $0.50, that's ($1.30 per orbit / 8 hands) $0.16/hand. So, we're talking a penny difference per orbit. It's small price to pay considering the rate at which you'll clear the bonus as well as the softness of the games.
Yep, I said soft games. That's the other good thing about Stud and Stud variants. It's not even remotely hard at stakes up to $2/$4 to to find multiple players playing 50%-80% of their hands from any position, particularly in Razz. The games are fun considering the action and how often big hands come into play and for a weak player who likes to gambool, this is very entertaining. You can take advantage of that quite easily. Spend even a little bit of time studying and you'll be one of the few players at the table who knows the game.
On Networks with multiple skins, after you clear your first bonus super-quick by playing Stud, you can sign up for another room immediately and play against the same players. This sort of bonus whoring is a great way to grow your roll exponentially.
Think it over. Good luck to you if you decide to go that route.
Things to keep in mind:
- It's extremely difficult to play Stud on more than 2 tables at a time. There's a lot of action and upcards to pay attention to. If you're a beginner though, you may not be playing more than that anyway.
- Stud and Stud variants can be swingy, particularly the low versions. You will get sucked out on, probably even more often than in NL. Do not tilt as a result. Know that going in, that superior skill will prevail and just as quickly as your garph took a nosedive, it can recover.
- You will get called names if anyone finds out you play Razz, names like pansie and pussy and wuss and ladyboy and limpdick and razzamatazz and Razz Hands and Shitty and Shittypansiewusspussy. It's ok. It's worth it every time the clown with QJ2T showing calls you down and the pot gets shipped to you. Be brave.
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Originally Posted by kfaess
