Adapting my game in the new poker world

[Harlequin99]

I used to be a regular $2/$4 full ring limit player but have not played much in the past two years. On my return a couple of weeks ago I have found the game has changed radically. Previously, I was able to play three tables more or less on automatic mode following the advice from Matthew's book more or less exactly. I had a healthy return of around 1 big bet per table per hour. Now I find that almost all the other players in the full ring games are doing exactly the same and it is extremely hard to make money - this seems to be the case on all the sites I have taken a look at. Occasionally a poor player would arrive but his money would be quickly divided between the other nine players and then given to the site as rake.

In my frustration, I dropped down to a $2/$4 6 handed limit game which is something I am rather inexperienced at. I put my thinking cap on and tried to play my absolute best poker. What I found completely startled me - the players, for the most part, are really bad! I only realised why when I had a look at the other $2/$4 games on the site and discovered some of these players where at four or five other tables.

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For example, here is a player I have encountered

Extremely tight passive. He folds his big blind about 90% of the time to a raise. It became embarrassing when I had stolen his blind about a dozen times and he still folded when I raised. The sad thing was no other players at the table notice - they treat him like any other player and often don't raise his blind. It's simply a case of, if he has a hand then he bets, if he doesn't then he doesn't bet. I know exactly when I can steal the pot from him and exactly when to fold to him - he is like a machine.

Another player raises my blind every single time - all I do is reraise and then bet on the flop and he folds whenever he doesn't hit anything. I wait a couple of rounds and do exactly the same and he doesn't seem to remember.

Another class of players always defend their bb against a raise from the sb but will fold to a sb call and then a bet out on the flop when they don't hit.

Another group of players, always bet when I check to them.

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And so on... I have extensive notes about all of the regular players and I alter my play against each of them accordingly. Virtually no other player alters his play depending on who he is up against, unless it is a maniac. I now find that I rarely have a losing session as I can pick up so many free bets and save so many bets as I know exactly when certain players will bet, which players value bet the river, which players don't defend their blinds etc. Admittedly this is over a short period of time but I really fail to see how I can lose in the long run against such poor players.

In contrast, the full ring games are full of tight aggressive players - who are hard to beat - and tight passive players - whose strategy is not great but they lose their money slowly. The fact that they are playing several tables does not hurt their chances since I think the boring machine like plays are quite close to optimum strategy in this type of tight game. In contrast, playing the player seems far more important in 6 handed games.

I have played at an offpeak time when there was only one table available to play and the play was so much tougher! When my opponents played only one table I was probably only a break even or slightly losing player. I generally only play one table at a time now unless there are two tables open with a lot of predictable players that I know and only when there are lots of multi tablers. I have found this to be incredibly profitable.

Does anyone have any other advice to adapting to how the game has changed in the past two or three years. Or some tips on 6 handed play - it is so much more enjoyable and profitable than 10 handed!

[doubleup]