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First of all, I should say that I'm no expert. I only started playing seriously a month ago, but have had some success as both the levels you've mentioned. I have, however, only played on Pokerroom.com, so i'm not sure if my observations apply generally, although I suspect that they do.
On Pokerroom.com, the $25 games are the lowest possible. As a result, you have alot of downright fish. People who will play garbage hands like K7 and then stick with them all the way to the river when they hit a king on the flop. They like to call. They seldom raise. They are the ultimate calling stations. When they do get the opportunity to bet with a hand, they don't bet large enough, giving you very good pot odds to chase straights and flushes. While they are very mindful of when a flush is possible (I mean, it's right there in front of them in colour), while they might stop betting, it's usually difficult to successfully represent against these players, as they will usually call when they have any sort of hand. On the other hand, they pay very little attention to straights and will pay them off nicely. On the contrary, when these fish have a draw, they will usually take it, even when you don't give them proper pots odds to do so. They will often be taken all-in on nothing more than a flush draw. When the fish do hit a good hand, alot of them will slowplay too much. They'll slowplay their two-pair right into your higher two-pair, things like that.
By no means are most of the players at the $25 tables like this. But there are almost always two or three at each table. You then have a variety of other players - some who are tight, but too passive - some who are tight but can never fold an overpair or TPTK - and some who are just downright grinding out a nice wage.
I'd say, however, that the defining characteristic of games at this level is a lack of aggression. You seldom see potsize bets. There are far too many check-check-check to the river hands (don't, however, take that as a sign that you can steal the pot, because you usually can't - unless there's only one other player).
The $50 games are a different beast. Most of the players there have generally mastered the fundamentals of starting hand selection, pot odds - and generally you see alot more aggression when somewhat has hit a hand. There's still the occasional downright fish, but they are fewer and farther between. There are usually alot fewer players in on each flop, and players are more liable to fold to a sign of strength. Generally i've found that I can beat these games by adopting a super-aggressive strategy - a strategy that I know would be very unsuccessful if I attempted it in the $25 games (in fact, I have, and it was merely breakeven).
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TPTK-YOU make the call
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Originally Posted by nerdking
