I am busy clearing a bonus on Empire so playing the Party $100's this week.

I just find it impossible to feel comfortable at these tables - I feel like I am always playing bad poker.

It's not like I'm losing - on the contrary I win very well (+$300 in 650 hands so far this week), it's just that I feel like I'm playing like a muppet..

two hands as an example...

I'm on the BB with [Jh]. One limper to Button (passive weak-tight player but really an unknown as so few hands logged - best I can be sure of is that he isn't an outright maniac) who min-raises. His stack is full. I've just bought in half stacked (I tend to do this for the firsty circuit or so until Gt+ is up and I decide if I like the table. I have GT+ up but aren't sure about the table yet.
Now I have bad position and no idea what this min raise means. As usual it's either a cheap attempt to get the lead in the hand with position post-flop or it's a monster...

So I re-raise to $6 to see if he has a proper hand. Limper folds. He calls. I am not comfortable. Pot is $13.50.

Flop is [8s][7s].

I bet $10. He flat calls. I really don't like this now. Pot is $33.50

Turn is I bet $15 (a weak lead but I want to keep the pot under control at this point and he seems passive so I don't really worry about a bluff raise). He min raises me ! Ugh
With a full stack I would think about laying this down now. To be honest the only things that kept me in the hand were the amount of $$ already in the pot ( a call would leave me with $5.60 left) and and the fact that I didn't really have a good read on him - for instance he hadn't seen any showdowns yet).
I call. $93.50 in pot.

River . I check - I'm so sure I'm behind I don't even push the last $5 in. He checks. he had .



A few hands later i feel like a total muppet when I call a $5 river bet to another (decent player) with my weak K on an AK board and he has AK. Normally I wouldn't put a penny in with second pair weak kicker but on Party I fell myself morphing into some kind of calling station with any top or over pair.

Whilst this means the good players do take money off me, the bad ones overbet so badly that overall I make more money this way.

But you see what I mean about being unhappy with my play even though I make better money

Anyone else feel the same?

It isn't uncommon for me to melt away a half to full buy in while I'm figuring out what is going on at 6 max table. I generally play full game so tight that I'm just playing hand strength more than "the man". I suspect from what I hear that at party I should play my 6 max games style at a full table, and give up a lot more action compared to Stars full tables.

There are opponents that I bet or raise middle pair against and when they actually have top pair I look like a muppet, there are other opponents that I take AK unimproved to the river against, when they hold 99 I look like an idiot when they hold AJ unimproved I am a poker god. Basically I win about 60%-70% of all showdowns but that leaves 40%-30% of the time looking like a moron. I'm fine with this if I looked like a moron for cheap and look brilliant for the big pots. If you are losing big pots by being wrong and winning small pots when right then you are going to lose, in reverse you are going to win.

The JJ hand you should have put your last $5 in the pot on the turn, you are either right or wrong and in the grand scheme of things, that $5 doesn't really matter as you are reloading or leaving the table anyways.

The pair kings vs. AK two pair, you have to have special knowledge that the guy plays a missed pair the exact same way in order to continue playing. With that special knowledge, if he shows you AK so be it, you had a read and it was wrong, adjust your read and move on to the next hand.

Trust your reads, sometimes they dictate that you play like a calling station, there are opponents that are noted, "Let him bluff off his stack to you.". These guys I take an ultra passive line against, that is contary to what I consider normal solid play, but is the best play against them. When your read is wrong, re-evulate your play against that opponent and see if it was a fluke or if you need to change up strategy and tactics against them and continue with play.

Deposit on pokerstars. Everyone say their the toughest tables around but I beg to differ. It suits my play style much more then party.