The poker games here in Vegas seem to be pretty terrible, with fewer tourists throwing their money around like it grows on trees.
In contrast to my trip to the Commerce Casino in L.A. two weeks ago, where every pot seemed to attract multiway action for many limps, the games here seem to be tight. Sure, the players aren't always very skilled, but many of them know how to fold top pair, which is unfortunate.
L.A. is filled with local players who will go to the casino to gamble because it's one of their hobbies. That's why the tables were filled and the action was as good as always.
But Vegas thrives on tourists, and when the economy is down, there are fewer donks to go around.
What this means is that I'll have to look a bit harder to find the good games. Or maybe it means I'll have more time to do other things instead of poker.
Showing posts with label live. Show all posts
Showing posts with label live. Show all posts
Friday, December 12, 2008
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Live Games
If anyone wanted to claim that the economy is doing just fine, they could point to the bustling Commerce Casino with its loose-passive games. Same as it ever was.
Over the weekend, I played two of the Commerce's 5/10 NL varieties -- the $400 max buy-in and the $1,500 max buy-in games. Both were similar, with multiple limpers on most hands and at least four people seeing most flops.
I found that with so many limpers, stealing blinds was nearly impossible. Preflop raises were counter-productive unless I had a premium hand that I could raise for value. Otherwise, it made more sense to limp around with the crowd and try to hit a big hand. We all know how often big hands flop.
My impression is that position counted for even more in these games. I needed to have a positional advantage to get the most value from my hands when they did hit. Raising utg with JTs was foolish in retrospect because I had little expectation I could win the hand without hitting the board.
With so many people in each hand who wouldn't fold if they caught any piece of the flop, the best way to make money was to value bet constantly and rarely bluff. Unfortunately, you need to make hands in order to value bet, which can get pretty damn tedious when you see 30 hands per hour.
I know these loose-passive games are profitable, but I hate having to adjust my style to the point where I'm simply trying to hit and get paid off. I'm more comfortable 3-betting, 4-betting, blind stealing, continuation betting, bluffing and playing heads-up on the flop.
Over the weekend, I played two of the Commerce's 5/10 NL varieties -- the $400 max buy-in and the $1,500 max buy-in games. Both were similar, with multiple limpers on most hands and at least four people seeing most flops.
I found that with so many limpers, stealing blinds was nearly impossible. Preflop raises were counter-productive unless I had a premium hand that I could raise for value. Otherwise, it made more sense to limp around with the crowd and try to hit a big hand. We all know how often big hands flop.
My impression is that position counted for even more in these games. I needed to have a positional advantage to get the most value from my hands when they did hit. Raising utg with JTs was foolish in retrospect because I had little expectation I could win the hand without hitting the board.
With so many people in each hand who wouldn't fold if they caught any piece of the flop, the best way to make money was to value bet constantly and rarely bluff. Unfortunately, you need to make hands in order to value bet, which can get pretty damn tedious when you see 30 hands per hour.
I know these loose-passive games are profitable, but I hate having to adjust my style to the point where I'm simply trying to hit and get paid off. I'm more comfortable 3-betting, 4-betting, blind stealing, continuation betting, bluffing and playing heads-up on the flop.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Commerce Casino
I leave for L.A. on Thanksgiving Day for a trip that will include seeing the USC-Notre Dame game at the Coliseum and gambling at the Commerce Casino.
I plan to have a great time once I get there. Currently I'm counting the minutes until my flight leaves.
I'll have Thursday night and much of Friday free to play poker. I'll play either 2/5 or 5/10 NL, depending on how I feel. I know 2/5 is an easier game, but I'm thinking that playing slightly higher could help me stay focused despite the many distractions of brick-and-mortar poker.
I'm also tempted by the 9/18 limit game, which I like mostly because the chip denominations are so strange. Why not just play 10/20? Supposedly if you play with more chips, the game has more action...but whatever. Still, I appreciate the novelty of it.
Leave me a message in comments if you're in L.A. and want to meet up at the Commerce.
I plan to have a great time once I get there. Currently I'm counting the minutes until my flight leaves.
I'll have Thursday night and much of Friday free to play poker. I'll play either 2/5 or 5/10 NL, depending on how I feel. I know 2/5 is an easier game, but I'm thinking that playing slightly higher could help me stay focused despite the many distractions of brick-and-mortar poker.
I'm also tempted by the 9/18 limit game, which I like mostly because the chip denominations are so strange. Why not just play 10/20? Supposedly if you play with more chips, the game has more action...but whatever. Still, I appreciate the novelty of it.
Leave me a message in comments if you're in L.A. and want to meet up at the Commerce.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Fishy Home Game
I played in a $20 home game sng with a few friends and some guys I met for the first time.
It was like 2004 all over again, like the poker boom had just begun.
Three of the guys wore sunglasses. Several listened to iPods. One guy wore a hoody. Everyone was Phil Ivey in their own minds.
They were pretty terrible, and I didn't know how to really feel about it. We all had a great time just hanging out and playing poker, and I like encouraging people to learn and enjoy the game. But they were also universally bad, with little indication they had the ability to improve.
We're talking about basic misconceptions about the game, and my protests to the contrary fell on deaf ears. They couldn't believe that calling all in with a naked flush draw was a bad play. They didn't understand the idea that you might want to fold bottom pair sometimes. They had every sense of entitlement for every suckout and couldn't understand why they lost when they got it in with the worst of it.
In other words, these were exactly the kind of players you'd want at your table.
It's great for the game that friends come together for social, enjoyable home games. But it's depressing to see so little potential for them to gain the insight they'd need to have a shot at becoming real players.
---
I eventually lost my single buy-in, going out in fifth place after several suckouts. That's alright, especially since I got my money in good 100 percent of the time. Without escalating blinds, I may have never lost.
I got to wondering what my expectation would be in that kind of game. The payouts were 150-40-20 for the top three.
How much is my $20 buy-in worth in the long run? I think has to be worth at least $40, and maybe even $60. How high can a ROI go for a single-table live sng?
It was like 2004 all over again, like the poker boom had just begun.
Three of the guys wore sunglasses. Several listened to iPods. One guy wore a hoody. Everyone was Phil Ivey in their own minds.
They were pretty terrible, and I didn't know how to really feel about it. We all had a great time just hanging out and playing poker, and I like encouraging people to learn and enjoy the game. But they were also universally bad, with little indication they had the ability to improve.
We're talking about basic misconceptions about the game, and my protests to the contrary fell on deaf ears. They couldn't believe that calling all in with a naked flush draw was a bad play. They didn't understand the idea that you might want to fold bottom pair sometimes. They had every sense of entitlement for every suckout and couldn't understand why they lost when they got it in with the worst of it.
In other words, these were exactly the kind of players you'd want at your table.
It's great for the game that friends come together for social, enjoyable home games. But it's depressing to see so little potential for them to gain the insight they'd need to have a shot at becoming real players.
---
I eventually lost my single buy-in, going out in fifth place after several suckouts. That's alright, especially since I got my money in good 100 percent of the time. Without escalating blinds, I may have never lost.
I got to wondering what my expectation would be in that kind of game. The payouts were 150-40-20 for the top three.
How much is my $20 buy-in worth in the long run? I think has to be worth at least $40, and maybe even $60. How high can a ROI go for a single-table live sng?
Sunday, October 12, 2008
What are pot odds?
At a spread-limit hold'em table in Biloxi in 2004, a player got check-raised on the river in a large pot. I don't remember the hand at all, but I remember what the player said.
"The pot odds say I've got to call," he said.
He put in the bet, and sure enough the opponent who check-raised showed the nuts and raked the pot.
Then a snooty dealer felt the need to open his mouth.
"Those aren't pot odds. Pot odds are something else entirely," the dealer muttered with a sigh, as if he was finally fed up with listening to people speak like they knew what they were talking about.
I had only been studying poker for a few months at the time, so I didn't speak up.
More than four years later, I'm still convinced the dealer was wrong.
There are two primary uses of the term "pot odds," and both are valid:
1) "The amount in the pot weighed against the amount invested to continue playing," according to the PuntingAce poker glossary. Similar definitions can be found here.
In this sense of the term, pot odds are used to determine whether you should call a bet based on the chances of your hand improving before the river. For example, if you have a flush draw with one card to come and you only have to call a bet that's less than one-fifth of the pot size, it could be said that you have "pot odds" to continue.
2) "Pot odds are the ratio of the current size of the pot to the cost of a contemplated call," according to Wikipedia.
This broader definition can be used to make a decision on the river. When you have to call $10 into a $40 pot, your pot odds are 4:1. If you believe you're good more than one in five times, you should call the small bet.
The second meaning is the one the Biloxi dealer objected to, but I can't see how his more limited interpretation of "pot odds" can possibly be the only correct one. Pot odds apply both when you're likely behind with a hand that could improve, and on the river when there's no further chance to hit.
I should have realized that dealers don't always know what they're talking about.
"The pot odds say I've got to call," he said.
He put in the bet, and sure enough the opponent who check-raised showed the nuts and raked the pot.
Then a snooty dealer felt the need to open his mouth.
"Those aren't pot odds. Pot odds are something else entirely," the dealer muttered with a sigh, as if he was finally fed up with listening to people speak like they knew what they were talking about.
I had only been studying poker for a few months at the time, so I didn't speak up.
More than four years later, I'm still convinced the dealer was wrong.
There are two primary uses of the term "pot odds," and both are valid:
1) "The amount in the pot weighed against the amount invested to continue playing," according to the PuntingAce poker glossary. Similar definitions can be found here.
In this sense of the term, pot odds are used to determine whether you should call a bet based on the chances of your hand improving before the river. For example, if you have a flush draw with one card to come and you only have to call a bet that's less than one-fifth of the pot size, it could be said that you have "pot odds" to continue.
2) "Pot odds are the ratio of the current size of the pot to the cost of a contemplated call," according to Wikipedia.
This broader definition can be used to make a decision on the river. When you have to call $10 into a $40 pot, your pot odds are 4:1. If you believe you're good more than one in five times, you should call the small bet.
The second meaning is the one the Biloxi dealer objected to, but I can't see how his more limited interpretation of "pot odds" can possibly be the only correct one. Pot odds apply both when you're likely behind with a hand that could improve, and on the river when there's no further chance to hit.
I should have realized that dealers don't always know what they're talking about.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
I won a tourney!
I took down the monthly WPBT event today. It was a pretty solid field. I only really got lucky on the last hand, when I hit a set of Queens on the flop against AA. The rest of the tourney I just tried to play my game and take all the chips I could. I guess tourneys don't have to always be donkfests.
I enjoyed playing with Mattazuma, Schaubs, stevenwe, Patchmaster, StatikKling, Kameelah, bdidde and columbo. (Screenshot linked from Mattazuma's site -- please let me know if you that's uncool.)
---
I got an interesting comment from Ryan to a post I wrote about Casino Arizona recently:
I need help. I play daily at Casino AZ. I recently left medical school and a 100K per year job so i could move out west to be with my sick father. I am readig/studying/playing poker non stop when i am not with my mom and dad so that i can spend more time with them later as opposed to the rigid schedule of a 9 to 5 job( or Dr.) I'm doing well... but could be doing alot better. I havent been able to find any postings or books on the particularly unique type of poker they play there. 5/150 is a semi spread limit/no limit game. I have a good undertstanding of it but i would really like some help/tips from all of you pros on how I could improve my game at this level. I could go to vagas and play true no limit but that would defeat the fact that i need to be close to my family right now in this very tuff time. I work hard and dont quit, and really feel poker is my calling. SO any tips would be greatly apprecated. Thanks for you help in advance.The Casino Arizona 5/150 games come in two varieties -- one with a $350 buy-in and another with a $1,000 buy-in. The $350 buy-in game has 3/5 blinds and a $150 maximum per betting
action. The $1,000 buy-in game has 5/10 blinds and the same betting maximum.
The cap doesn't isn't very relevant in the $350 buy-in game because one max bet and another max raise will get players essentially all in unless they've built up a deep stack. I didn't play the $1,000 buy-in game while I was there, but I imagine the cap plays a bigger role, making me think the game would need to be played with more of a pot limit-type strategy. That means players will more often have pot odds to call with their draws and there will be more suckouts. But the cap also minimizes losses when those suckouts occur, so it goes both ways.
The real difficulty in trying to play this game full time will be making significant money off of it. Yes, it plays loose, on par with almost every live game I've ever sat in. That's a good thing, and I believe these games are beatable.
But the problem is the slow rate of play, the rake and the jackpot drop. I'm not sure what the rake is (probably 10 percent of the pot with a $5 max per hand -- please correct me in comments if I'm wrong). The $1 jackpot drop is taken out of the blinds, so even if everyone folds around and the blinds chop, they still lose $1 from a pot that no one even played. That's pretty ridiculous.
So if you anticipate playing 30 hands an hour and winning three of them, you'll probably pay somewhere between $12 and $18 an hour in rake and jackpot drop. If you're beating the $350 buy-in game for 10 bets an hour, that's up to $18 taken out of your $50 winrate, which is significant. The rake wouldn't appear to be as damaging in the $1,000 buy-in game if you're a solid winning player -- $18 or so out of a $100/hour rate. Even these figures are optimistic however; I'm not sure how feasible a 10 bet per hour winrate is. Five bets per hour may be more realistic, which means the rake's cut of your winnings would be much more damaging to your profitability.
Ed Miller wrote about this topic in a recent post.
My primary advice would be to supplement live poker with online poker. Live poker is a tough grind, and you can play so many more hands online, thus improving your hourly earnings. I wouldn't want to try to make a living at live tables at the stakes Casino Arizona spreads.
I'm sure Ryan would appreciate any other advice commenters could contribute.
---
Here's a fun hand I (mis)played at 2/4 today where I won a nice 400-bet pot with a mere pair of 5s. I put my opponent on an overpair, so I gave myself up to 18 outs -- nine for the flush, two for trips, three for two pair and three for the gutshot.
The problem is that I miscalculated the pot odds. The pot was $604, and I had to call $480 on the turn, which means that even 18 outs weren't enough. I should have folded, given my read.
Fortunately, I'm a lucksack. My flush outs were no good, but my little pair of 5s held up!
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to smizmiatch [4c 5c]
3 folds
smizmiatch raises to $14 from the button
1 fold
JustCuts raises to $46 from the big blind
smizmiatch calls $32
*** FLOP *** [6c 9c 2d]
JustCuts bets $65
smizmiatch calls $65
*** TURN *** [6c 9c 2d] [5s]
JustCuts checks
smizmiatch bets $190
JustCuts raises to $743, and is all in
smizmiatch has 15 seconds left to act
smizmiatch has requested TIME
smizmiatch calls $480.90, and is all in
JustCuts shows [Ac Kc]
smizmiatch shows [4c 5c]
Uncalled bet of $72.10 returned to JustCuts
*** RIVER *** [6c 9c 2d 5s] [Td]
JustCuts shows Ace King high
smizmiatch shows a pair of Fives
smizmiatch wins the pot ($1,562.80) with a pair of Fives
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Casino Arizona
I got in to Phoenix late Monday night, hopeful that I would have enough time to check out the games at Casino Arizona. Fortunately, I found out I had no obligations until dinnertime Tuesday, so that gave me all day to gamble it up.
When I got in the cab, I quickly learned that there were two casinos called Casino Arizona, each about equidistant from my hotel. It's so stupid to name your casinos the same thing, especially when they're only about four miles from each other. I also didn't like that at Holland Casino. Come on guys, show some originality.
Anyway, I told the taxi driver to take me to the larger of the two. Unfortunately, there was no poker (except 3-card poker) at the McKellips location. I sat at a blackjack table for about 15 minutes, lost $7 and decided to get the hell out of that money hole.
I promptly found a cab to the other Casino Arizona at Indian Bend, and I was really happy I did.
It had 46 tables spreading limits from 3/6 to 80/160. Betting in no limit games was capped at $150 at a time, so the no limit tables were either 5/150 (with 3/5 blinds and a $350 max buy-in), or 10/150 (with 5/10 blinds and a $1,000 max buy-in). I got on the list for 10/150 but sat down at an open 5/150 table.
I'm convinced that no matter what casino I go to in life, no matter what the stakes, that at least half of the players at every table will be complete idiots. I looked up at the TVs on the wall and saw a commercial for DeVry Institute, and their slogan was, "People are smart." No they're not. They're dumbasses who think it's a good idea to come to a casino and lose their money, hopefully to me.
Even in four hours of play, I saw some crazy things. I was a woman raise and reraise her $1,000 stack all-in, $150 at a time, with only AJ for top pair, shitty kicker on an A35 board. The other guy had A5, which held up. I got all in three ways preflop with KK against J9 and another hand that mucked. Of course, the J9 hand flopped top pair, turned two pair and rivered a full house.
In one hand, I posted from the cutoff after taking a bathroom break and got to see a free flop with 43o. The flop came 52x, giving me the open-ended straight draw. A middle position player bet pot, about $25, and I called. The turn and river were both checked down, and I didn't improve.
"I think you can beat a 4 high," I said, as I tossed my hand into the middle.
"Wait, that's what I have," said the other guy in the hand.
I quickly snatched my hand back before it touched the muck or the dealer's hand. My opponent also had 43, and we chopped the pot with both of us holding the nut low. That had never happened to me before. Of course, I could have bet and taken down the pot, but then I wouldn't have the story.
There were only two other hands of note. In one, I raised preflop with AK and got a caller from the button. The flop brought an Ace, and I bet my hand the whole way until my opponent was all in. Amazingly, my AK held up in an all-in confrontation. That doesn't usually happen.
In another hand, I saw a free flop from the big blind with J4o against a bunch of limpers. The flop was AJJ, and I bet it out. I got two callers. I bet the turn again, and this time only the utg limper called. Before the river, the utg player asked, "How big is your kicker?"
That gave me a pretty sick feeling, so I checked and called his $100 river bet. He flipped over AJo for the flopped full house after limping with that crap utg. If I were playing better, I could have folded, but I was thinking that he was so loose that his range included a ton of hands I could beat. Also, with the A and a 9 out there, I thought we might chop the pot even after his comment.
Overall, I lost about $250, which isn't too bad. On another day, I might have been up $1,000. I bet the mid-stakes limit games are also good, although I don't know whether I'll have time to go back to the casino.
I'm easily annoyed by kids who won't shut up about their bad beats and old farts throwing away their retirement checks, but I'm consoled that much of the time that money winds up in my pockets.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Bluffed by a n00b
When I arrived at the home game last night, it was four-handed, with two of the players just learning the rules and basics of Omaha Hi/Lo. The guy who runs the game had promised new blood, and here it was.
I really like helping new players, so I gave them all the advice I could. I wanted them to at least know the rules and basic strategies before they started gambling.
A few hands into the 5/10 game, I was dealt Jd 9c 8s 4d in the big blind -- an unplayable hand in O8 unless you can simply check your blind, which I did. The flop came down with something like KQ2 with one diamond, giving me a weak straight draw and a backdoor flush draw. The flop checked around.
The turn brought the Td, giving me the second nut straight and a diamond flush draw. I bet out $10, and only one of the new players -- a woman tournament player -- called me. My read was that she had something, but I figured she would call with a wide range and only raise with the nuts.
The river brought a low diamond, maybe a 5, to complete my flush. Naturally, I bet out $10, fully expecting to get called with some two-pair-type hand that I could take down.
But then she raised! I was shocked. She had a big smile on her face as she looked down at her cards, clearly ecstatic over hitting such a monster hand. I knew pretty quickly that my J-high flush was no good. It was so obvious.
Still, I was leaning toward calling just because she was new to the game, and who knows what unpredictable players hold sometimes. Then she opened her mouth.
"I have to show this hand," she said.
My cards hit the muck pretty damn fast. There was no doubt in my mind I was beaten. It wasn't even worth $10 more.
She turned over a hand with TTT6.
"Four of a kind!" she said.
I buried my face in my hands and had to laugh. Of course, since you can only use two of your cards in Omaha, she really had three of a kind. She had made a common mistake of new players who forget that three of one card in your hand is usually worthless.
What's worse, I had been bluffed off the best hand by a player who didn't even know she was bluffing!
I got her back though with a fake bluff of my own. In a 2/5 NL hold 'em round, I bet my one-card flush draw on the turn and caught top pair Kings on the river. I bet $25 into the small pot, and she mucked, saying she had only made a baby flush on the turn.
Good times. I love live poker.
I really like helping new players, so I gave them all the advice I could. I wanted them to at least know the rules and basic strategies before they started gambling.
A few hands into the 5/10 game, I was dealt Jd 9c 8s 4d in the big blind -- an unplayable hand in O8 unless you can simply check your blind, which I did. The flop came down with something like KQ2 with one diamond, giving me a weak straight draw and a backdoor flush draw. The flop checked around.
The turn brought the Td, giving me the second nut straight and a diamond flush draw. I bet out $10, and only one of the new players -- a woman tournament player -- called me. My read was that she had something, but I figured she would call with a wide range and only raise with the nuts.
The river brought a low diamond, maybe a 5, to complete my flush. Naturally, I bet out $10, fully expecting to get called with some two-pair-type hand that I could take down.
But then she raised! I was shocked. She had a big smile on her face as she looked down at her cards, clearly ecstatic over hitting such a monster hand. I knew pretty quickly that my J-high flush was no good. It was so obvious.
Still, I was leaning toward calling just because she was new to the game, and who knows what unpredictable players hold sometimes. Then she opened her mouth.
"I have to show this hand," she said.
My cards hit the muck pretty damn fast. There was no doubt in my mind I was beaten. It wasn't even worth $10 more.
She turned over a hand with TTT6.
"Four of a kind!" she said.
I buried my face in my hands and had to laugh. Of course, since you can only use two of your cards in Omaha, she really had three of a kind. She had made a common mistake of new players who forget that three of one card in your hand is usually worthless.
What's worse, I had been bluffed off the best hand by a player who didn't even know she was bluffing!
I got her back though with a fake bluff of my own. In a 2/5 NL hold 'em round, I bet my one-card flush draw on the turn and caught top pair Kings on the river. I bet $25 into the small pot, and she mucked, saying she had only made a baby flush on the turn.
Good times. I love live poker.
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