Am I killing my Game?

[AUPhil]

I definitely love playing the contests here, but I'm wondering if I am ruining my "cash" casino game by playing contests so much?

The objectives of the contest seem far different from the standalone casino game. In the contest I often dump hands that I would try to improve in a casino.

Also, playing the contests is so easy (and fun) that I often neglect training play here or on WinPoker.

Any thoughts?
Phil

[Kap L]

I am also playing differently in contests than I would in a casino. In a casino, I try to win smaller prizes such as straights in order to keep playing longer. The contests have a limited number of hands and we are trying to beat a certain score. All those intermediate wins mean nothing if I don't beat the highest scorers. So yes, I too throw away hands I would ordinarily keep in order to go for the big scores.

[Minn. Fatz]

Strategically, dumping draws to go for higher payouts (and even tossing hands like pat straights to take a flyer at a dealt 4k or 2k) makes sense in contests with a limited number of games such as the daily or monthly. Somewhere around here I have a strategy like that for TDB.With an unlimited number of games such as the weekly contests I reason like this: since I'm going to need a high payoff somewhere to be in the running, and since other players are at least equally likely to hit one of those, it makes most sense for me to play each hand for maximum expected value so that I will notch a higher total for the 99 hands that aren't high-payout and have the best chance of placing high.In the 7 star contest, for me it's a matter of game selection: I have a much better chance playing games that offer a chance for high payouts on the draw as well as on the deal, so I'll concentrate on single-line or MultiStrike rather than multiline games. (P.S. there's still a couple hours to beat my 10,735 on MultiStrike this month and get into the round of 49, so good mathematics all .)