Down for the weekend but up with experience

I had a nice weekend but unfortunatly it didn't pay off moneywise and I lost somewhat. But it was a great trainings camp.

The players I faced had been more than bad. Lot's of people from Asia and Eastern Europe. The type of action was loose-aggressive to loose-super-aggressive.

Those people created more action than I was used to and there was a lot of multi-way, raise, re-raise pots (against those types PartyPoker is a passive crowd!). Usually there had been least 7 from 10 people seeing the flop (often with at least one raise). 3-4 players going to the showdown wasn't unusual.

I've seen people raising and re-raising with the worst end of it (72o) and proclaiming that they "...know how to play poker and they guy calling them with AK for an A-high just played it badly" ;-))
Guess, the same guy was suprised that the "tourist" just beat him in a big pot with KK that improved (not that it was needed) to trips on the river. "Oh, you already had a hand on the flop?" Payday! :-)) Well, no surprise that those people couldn't understand how anyone can fold Q7o.

Unfortunatly those maniacs go lucky from time to time. And with 3-4 at the showdown there's a big possibilty that one lucky player cracks your valuable hand (I got AA's, KK's, QQ's and Full Houses with 7's cracked). Bluffing somebody out of a hand - now way (most of the times).

With this style of opponents you face big variance. Much bigger than in other games. If you don't get valuable cards you will lose here even with super-tight play. You pay your blinds and you will definitly lose some valuable pots. If you get good cards - this is a goldmine for tight aggressives.

Unfortunatly I didn't get the cards this weekend and lost a little as said in the beginning.

What makes the game more complicated: Those guys fire up as soon as the game starts. Some play it like a re-buy tornament. They burn their money quite fast (first new buy-in after 15 minutes), buy-in for a second (maybe third) time and leave.
So a full table goes down to a 4-6 people game after not more than two hours.
If you are lucky you get fresh blood otherwise the table may brake after 3 hours or you play short-handed for several hours. Short handed play is different. You have to loosen up somewhat but the pots are smaller and the rake will hurt more. But I learned a lot this weekend. I logged 13 hours in 3 nights. Hoped for more, but well...

They provide some nice incentives that make the almost 300 km trip worth the travel.

This is not a place for a passive player type. This player will be dominated by the locals. Loose players will be crushed. They play bad poker but they know how to play people.
Even with my tight aggressive style it was difficult. The problem is that if you don't get good cards you can't show aggression. So for the first two nights I was labled as tight-passive. Not good as they easily used this against me. I knew I would strike back but until then I was clearly dominated. The last night was better. Raising and re-raising them with KK and QQ and going back to very tight play gave me some respect for value play. After that they tried to lure me into some pots but it went back to them (see the KK example above). Unfortunatly the table broke to early that night.