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Musings about the high stakes cash/husng ecosystem
saymynamee
Member Posts: 9
in Poker Chat
Hi all,
I kinda realised this post turned into a wall of text, TLDR at the bottom. I don't know if anyone else does the same, but sometimes when there's not much happening on my tables, I like to idly click around the lobbies of the NL/PLO 200+ cash games and the 30+ heads up sngs. A man can dream right? I'm not gonna sit there anytime soon (I generally play dyms up to 11's plus some cash games at .15/.3 or lower, I'm not some massive crusher) but it's just out of curiosity. And I always see the same screen names at the tables, sat with a perfectly topped up stack and nobody to play with and it got me wondering. How on earth do these guys make their money? The fraction of times I've seen a cash game actually running, to the times it's just 1/2 or 1/6 at every high stakes table, it must be about 1 time in every 25 if not less. And I don't have the 'hide full table' filter enabled either.
Now obviously the people that open sit 1/2 or higher cash games must be very good players, and at least part-time pros. No recreational player is sitting at 10 empty tables for hours on end in the hope of getting some action. But equally obviously, if they're not getting any action at all, they can't be making any kind of living. There must be something I'm missing surely? Same with sit n gos, you can opensit every 105 hu hyper on the planet, but you can't make money without an opponent.
The explanations I can think of are a) The high stakes streets are actually seeing tons of action contrary to my impressions (seems unlikely). Or b) The top pros on this site barely get any action, but when they do, it's from opposition so weak that a good reg can crush them for 25bb/100+ so they don't have to worry about volume. This also seems unlikely to me, why would a random fish jump into heads up 2.5/5 PLO against a crusher? Obviously there will be people on tilt, down 200 on the night wanting to make it back or w/e, or someone not very good that luckboxed a tournament whaling it up, but I imagine 90% of people that sit that kind of stakes will be competent at least. Option c) is that they're grinding Zoom on Pokerstars or something while open sitting Sky cash tables and if one of them pops up, they will gladly sit out one of their 1bb/100 tables there and focus on the softer action here. Seems like the most likely to me I suppose, but still.
TLDR: as it appears to me, only a pro would open sit high stakes cash day after day, a pro can't make a living getting no action, and there seems to be little to no action at 1/2+. The same names populate the lobby day after day. How do they square the circle? I'd love to hear what others make of it- or better yet, if one of those top players was to actually grace us with their presence and tell us where the money comes from.
Cheers.
I kinda realised this post turned into a wall of text, TLDR at the bottom. I don't know if anyone else does the same, but sometimes when there's not much happening on my tables, I like to idly click around the lobbies of the NL/PLO 200+ cash games and the 30+ heads up sngs. A man can dream right? I'm not gonna sit there anytime soon (I generally play dyms up to 11's plus some cash games at .15/.3 or lower, I'm not some massive crusher) but it's just out of curiosity. And I always see the same screen names at the tables, sat with a perfectly topped up stack and nobody to play with and it got me wondering. How on earth do these guys make their money? The fraction of times I've seen a cash game actually running, to the times it's just 1/2 or 1/6 at every high stakes table, it must be about 1 time in every 25 if not less. And I don't have the 'hide full table' filter enabled either.
Now obviously the people that open sit 1/2 or higher cash games must be very good players, and at least part-time pros. No recreational player is sitting at 10 empty tables for hours on end in the hope of getting some action. But equally obviously, if they're not getting any action at all, they can't be making any kind of living. There must be something I'm missing surely? Same with sit n gos, you can opensit every 105 hu hyper on the planet, but you can't make money without an opponent.
The explanations I can think of are a) The high stakes streets are actually seeing tons of action contrary to my impressions (seems unlikely). Or b) The top pros on this site barely get any action, but when they do, it's from opposition so weak that a good reg can crush them for 25bb/100+ so they don't have to worry about volume. This also seems unlikely to me, why would a random fish jump into heads up 2.5/5 PLO against a crusher? Obviously there will be people on tilt, down 200 on the night wanting to make it back or w/e, or someone not very good that luckboxed a tournament whaling it up, but I imagine 90% of people that sit that kind of stakes will be competent at least. Option c) is that they're grinding Zoom on Pokerstars or something while open sitting Sky cash tables and if one of them pops up, they will gladly sit out one of their 1bb/100 tables there and focus on the softer action here. Seems like the most likely to me I suppose, but still.
TLDR: as it appears to me, only a pro would open sit high stakes cash day after day, a pro can't make a living getting no action, and there seems to be little to no action at 1/2+. The same names populate the lobby day after day. How do they square the circle? I'd love to hear what others make of it- or better yet, if one of those top players was to actually grace us with their presence and tell us where the money comes from.
Cheers.
Comments
Some players want to play HU and at the higher stakes so they will sit guys. Some will want to play the best, some just want a game so sit whatever is available. Why do you think 90% will be competent and what edge do you think the top guys have against competent players? What edge against less than competent players?
I don't know what the win rate would be for a reg when someone sits in one of these games but have a guess and think about how many opponents they need to sit them per week for them to be making a reasonable income.