I had a conversation with a couple of players at a South Florida poker room after he mentioned another poker room had listed a couple of the new games that they planned to spread starting in July.  The particular poker room was the same room that I suggested a couple of months ago that they begin spreading 1/3 NL.  The player said, in fact, that was exactly one of the games that they planned to spread.

1/3 NL poker has a lot of advantages over it’s 1/2 counterpart.  Most importantly, it’s the minimum amount to actually overcome the incredibly high rake ($5 + $2) during tight poker games.  When a game gets too tight, the winning strategy becomes to buy the pot on the flop.  This isn’t actually a winning proposition if your opponents are halfway decent and you have a high rake.  1/3 NL makes this a beatable game.  Also, the disparity between the $3 preflop bet and the small blind ($1) is enough to help force a skill decision on the small blind player.  This gives you more reads on them and more profit saving opportunity on your small blind.

As to whether the information I heard was accurate, I wasn’t convinced, however, I do hope the local market is receptive to 1/3 NL and that the poker rooms learn how to push the game so that there is a choice for buy-ins and limits at the micro stakes NL.

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