Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Thoughts on Local Limit Poker

It appears that the days of the 3-6 or 4-8 game have gone the way of the dodo in the Tri-Cities. The Crazy Moose and Cable Bridge both have Wildhorse Casino Fall Poker Round-Up promotions going that require playing in 2-8, 2-20 or 2-40 spread limit games.

In the beginning I felt that this was a terrible thing. There are many poker players (including myself) who mainly play for fun and do not have a large bank roll. I know of at least one player that I used to see at the Crazy Moose all the time who just doesn't play there any more and the cheapest game he can find now is the 2-8 spread limit game at the Cable Bridge (if they ever get one going at that low limit) or the 2-10 spread limit game at Jokers in Richland. I feel for him.

On the other hand, I personally feel that playing in a 2-20 or 2-40 game makes me a better player. I become more patient. I make better hand selections. I am definitely loath to chase crap. I just barely qualified for the Crazy Moose promotion because I simply do not play cash games any more unless I win enough in tournaments to justify it. While qualifying and playing only 2-20 spread limit, I made a profit of over $200 during those 30 hours. So for me it will truly be a free roll. Wish me luck!

Maybe after these promotions the 3-6 or 4-8 games will return. I hope so simply because I miss seeing a lot of people that used to play those limits.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Rockets and Weirdness

Sunday morning at the Crazy Moose I was playing in the $60 tournament and was having continuous bad luck. I was pretty short stacked with about 2400 left and the blinds at 300-600. Scott (seat 6) raised to 1800 from middle position. I was in seat 8. Our seat numbers are important in my story of the 2nd tournament (below). Anyway, I looked down to find the black aces. Ta da! Yippee!! I reraised all-in, everyone else folded, and Scott called. He was pretty short stacked too and only had me covered by about 500 chips. He had A-10 diamonds. Ta da! Yippee!! He got runner-runner straight cards and knocked me out. Boo hoo. Cry. Sob. Damned A-10 diamonds.

That same night at the Cable Bridge I was playing the little $15 tournment. On the very first hand Bob (seat 6) raised the 25-25 blinds to 100. Me (yes, seat 8) found black aces. I was still upset about the morning fiasco and could have almost folded them, but being a prudent player (ha) I raised to 500. Everyone folded, Bob only called. The flop was 8-A-3 with 2 diamonds. Bob immediately pushed all-in and I immediately called. He had - you get one guess - the A-10 diamonds. Gak!! Even though I had flopped a set of aces I was not happy at all because he was four flushed and I just knew he would hit it. I tried mightily to suppress my apprehension and got very lucky. He hit nothing and I doubled up on the very first hand!! Ta da! Yippee!!

This double-up and some other lucky hands (and good play if I do say so myself) got me to the final table and I will get to play in another tournament of champions. I just can't get over all the similarities of these two hands . . . it's like being in the Twilight Zone. Then I read the post by my buddy Dr. Phil about his fun with A-10 and I'm beginning to think that this will be the hand of the month or something. Too strange.