As of November 2021, the APT Forum is closed to new posts. Like with many online forums, usage has decreased in recent years. All previous posts are still available.
Some suggestions to improve the website
Sign In to comment.
Welcome
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Comments
Hi @AllenBlay - you are right, though I think the tide is turning and they are becoming more popular. I've enjoyed short-handed cash games for a long time but hadn't played many short-handed tournaments because there were none in my price range live. Now that I'm playing online cash, the 6-max SnG's seem to be quite popular. There are a few 6-max online freezeouts (and some 4-max) - in fact I'm playing one tonight, which is a really great weekly tournament: 6-handed with 250BB starting stacks. Awesome, even if it will mean not sleeping much should I go deep.
Short-handed live games seem to be mostly at the very high stakes levels for now. IMO, this will start to filter down through the stakes and become popular even at moderate buy-ins. Its harder on tournament hosts because of the extra space required for the same number of participants so there may be a floor on how low the buy-ins go for a while. Still, they are fantastic formats. You really need to play poker in them because there is just nowhere to hide. You are involved in ~50% of pots in one way or another (including SB and BB) as opposed to ~30% of full-ring. You just can't wait for monster hands and have to expand your ranges dramatically.
Long story short is that they are not nearly as widely played as full-ring but they are played. My gut tells me they will become more and more popular as people try them out and get to experience the differences themselves. I don't know how much re-tooling of the bots its would require so it may not be worth it right away. Still, I'd keep an eye out and I think you will see these games growing in numbers fairly quickly. Part of the enjoyment in playing cards is actually playing hands. Because you are so much more active short-handed, I can see players demanding more of them once they try them out.
Best,
1Warlock
Not sure if I asked this previously or not but I see in the live tournament lobby there is a tab for ring games. Are there any plans to make ring games available so that members can practice against each other here? Would be nice to play with other members so we can try out what we are learning here on each other. Bots are great but they have limits. This feature would also allow players to talk strategy etc while playing and create more of a community atmosphere I'd think. Maybe we could even get a pro to sit in once in a while?
sorry no want to appear dumb.. what is a "ring game"? I all for more interaction -discussion with the brilliant people here... points to warlock.. yes i just think of it... YES... be so nice actually talk to friends here about poker things in a chat friendly environment... and i no flirting (sticks tongue out at the guy say that of me)
Yes, Warlock. You aren't the first to suggest that. It is in the pipeline. I can't say exactly when, but it won't be too long now. It actually came up several times at our Meet N Greet last weekend.
Great to hear @SteveBlay - I think it would be a fun way to practice.
On another topic, while reading through the sites FAQ and answers, I saw it suggested that players should track their poker IQ's over time. Well, how about having the site do that in graphical form like they do with profitability and such? Would be interesting to be able to see a graphical representation of how a player's IQ moves over time. I assume the data already exists in some form on the site already so all it would take is to extract the data and plot it over time. You could do it for each of the game types and let players see how they are progressing. Since I assume most people do get better with time, this could also be a great way to show them how much they have been helped by the site. Would probably be a great retention tool for that reason - if people can see that they are progressing, they are more likely to stay with it,. Just a thought.
I'd like to 2nd this comment as I don't think I see any changes along these lines.
Obviously, deeper stacks (up to say at least 200 BB) significantly changes the playability of small pocket pairs, suited aces, and suited connectors.