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“In a balance of mutual terror, whoever acts first has the advantage!”
Showing posts with label PLO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PLO. Show all posts

Monday, May 2, 2016

The racetrack is gone, but there's always the straddle.

This week at Hollywood Park Casino.

Haven't played there in a long time, still needs a lot of improvement in the ambience, but hopefully when the new casino is finished it will be the prime destination for LA poker.

They have Pot Limit Omaha on the board, one of my favorite games, but no one signed up except for the Omaha 8 games, which aren't spelled out on the board, they just call it Omaha. The 50 Big Blind limit on the buy-in makes it too much gamble for me in a game that already has lots of action and half the table looking for the flop. I would most likely play it with 100 Big Blinds as the buy-in.

Looked at the 3/5 $30-$100 NTH, but I don't like starting with only 20 big blinds. Decided to start small with the 1/2 $40-$100 No Limit Texas Holdem game.  They had 3 tables already going and about 7 on the waitlist that wanted to play, which is what I look for if possible. A new table with no big stacks in the way, which opened up about 20 minutes later.

I was reluctant to play with only 50 big blinds, but since the table was loose and kind of passive, it was a good start. . Usually had at least 4 players see the flop. Only hand that really lucked out against me was a new player, about an hour into the game, that got the low end of a straight flush, on the river, against my AQ draw. Got a Queen on the flop, we were All-In when she hit the straight on the Turn and the Straight Flush on the river. If I had a pair of Queens or another Queen had hit the board, we would have hit the jackpot. She had less chips than me so it was an easy bet.

A new player entered the game a little later, looked to be one of the usual suspects that played there a lot, one of the good old boys. His favorite play was to straddle, which is not that big a play at a low stakes game like 1/2 NTH.

"The straddle is more a sign of a gambler", someone who wants action, but also wants to limit the field with a second forced bet. It's a bet, usually Under-the-Gun or first to bet after the Big Blind and limited usually to an extra Big Blind. It's also a "Blind Bet", he makes the straddle bet before the cards are dealt. Anyone who wants to bet now has to bet at least 2 Big Blinds, which forces out most of the weak limpers. I love gamblers. In this scenario, all you have to do is bet 4 times the Big Blind and they usually fold as they are out of position and playing blind.

"By straddling you change the effective stake of the game, and in turn change the effective stacks. If you have a solid 100bb strategy but not a great 50bb strategy, why create a bad situation for yourself? Overall, straddling is a losing play. You put in more money with a random hand, and when you do so from UTG you have awful position when you go postflop. You also halve the effective stacks and artificially increase the stakes to one that you likely are not bankrolled for. In specific situations a straddle can be good, especially when it’s socially viable…but barring that, you should usually avoid straddling in your games!" Red Chip Poker 

Wasn't a bad day, made about $20 an hour, could have been much better or a lot worse, as I was All-In a couple of times when I was down to about 25 Big Blinds and my cards held up.

FYI, there was also a Sunday Special $25,000 Guaranteed Tournament going on, usually billed as the First Sunday of each month. I'll post a blog on the Tournament Value in a later post this month.

I NEVER BLUFF



Monday, January 18, 2016

The Confusing Pot Limit Poker Bet Structure? Maybe not.....

One of my favorite games in Poker. I will usually play Pot Limit Omaha or Texas Hold'em before any other.


Pot Limit Rules
http://www.wsop.com/poker-rules/rules_nlpl.asp
Rule #6. In pot-limit, if a chip or a bill larger than the pot size is put into the pot without comment, it is considered to be a pot size bet and any excess is returned to the bettor OR if short of the pot, additional money needs to be put into the pot to make it a pot size bet.

The Bottom Line: Always announce your intended Bet, prior to moving your chips into the pot. Remember, if you don't announce "Pot" first, you'll be called on a string bet if you put the minimum bet in first, then try to add a raise to bet the Pot.. Always vocalize your intended action.

How Much?
It's sometimes hard to do the math in your head. If the pot is $424 and someone bets $68, how much can you bet? Don't waste time by attempting to calculate the answer beforehand - just announce "Pot," then figure it out, put in your call first, and then add up the total pot with all bets, adding that to your bet. (In case you're wondering, the answer here is $628.)
Easy to figure if you just multiply the last bet times 3 plus the pot, before the last bet.
68*3=204+424=628, which is the amount of your raise.
If the chips have already been added to the pot, then the last bet times 2 = the pot bet.
424+68=492 +136 = 628.
If the next person wants to raise the pot again, the new bet would be 3 times 628 (1256) + previous pot of 424 = 2309.

How you determine the maximum bet is by counting all the money in the pot and all of the bets on the table, including any call you would make before raising. (It sounds more complicated than it really is.)
You can raise any amount in between the minimum and maximum raise amounts.
Pot-Limit Hold'em is not very popular, and is mostly seen only in some large tournaments (such as the WSOP), but the Pot-Limit betting structure is used in Pot-Limit Omaha.

Pot-Limit Omaha is rapidly becoming one of the most popular poker variations, so it's a good idea to get acquainted with the Pot-Limit structure anyway.



I NEVER BLUFF


Monday, June 1, 2015

A day at the Gardens: Hawaiian Gardens Casino CA

Updated 2/11/2017

A Day at the Gardens: Hawaiian Gardens Casino CA

I've played at most of the card rooms in the LA area; Hollywood Park, Hustler, The Bike, Commerce, even Crystal.
If I had to rank them it would most likely be:
1. Commerce Casino a slight edge over
2.The Bike,
3. Hustler
4. Hawaiian Gardens Casino
5. Hollywood Park
6. Crystal Casino.
Haven't played at Normandie yet, but from what I hear, I would put it slightly over Crystal.

Hawaiian Gardens Casino
I've been looking for more Sit and Go games and Omaha games, in my price range, and heard they had some at Hawaiian Gardens Casino. Hollywood Park advertises Sit and Go's but I have yet to see one as they keep saying they don't have enough dealers. The Bike and Commerce have them during their big tournaments, but not normally. None of the other local casinos offer them.

I tried a couple of the Sit and Go tournaments at Hawaiian Gardens. They have a couple of formats. A 6 max that pays the top 2. A full single table that pays half the table and a 3 table shoot out. They are all turbo games, 10 min rounds, fast and more gamble in them than skill, but a fun game. I played my first shoot out a week or so ago, busted out midway in a it.

This week I wanted to try the 6 max, but it wasn't starting for another couple of hours, but they had a single table Sit and Go for $175 which payed the top two. Again it's a turbo, 10 min rounds and 1500 in chips, so it's fast. Threw away a couple of marginal hands, out of position, didn't really get any playable hands that weren't already family pots by the time it got to me. Finally got a monster, AA, two from the UTG position, I'm kind of short stacked, only about 12 big blinds, and I'm sandwiched anyway, so I just called a min raise (my first mistake), and two others called. There's 5 in the pot and the flop comes like 9,5,4, and I raise the pot (my second mistake). The cutoff raises all-in, he just barely has me covered, everyone else folds, I call, (my final mistake). The turn and river are no help to either of us, he shows 44 and cracks my AA and I'm out.

Chances are if I would have gone All-in pre-flop, he would have called anyway since we were both needing chips. So I look around at some of the cash games going on. Most look like they are good games. I like No Limit and Pot Limit and Omaha 8, but my favorite is Pot Limit Omaha. Most of the local casinos don't' have one that fits my pocket book, but they have one here with a $100-$200 to buy-in and $1-$2 blinds. They had a seat open so I jump in.

OK, they are playing $2-$4 blinds because they all decided to raise them, but if I only wanted $1-$2 blinds they would accommodate  Not my favorite stack ratio now that it's instantly depleted 50$, which cuts my "M" in half and puts me below my "CM", but I decide to play at $2-$4. They have some real action players, so my normal game should do quite well. In fact I won the first hand I played and got a fair sized pot. Played a couple of other hands along the way, but didn't get any favorable flops. Some of them liked to run it twice in an All-in bet, not my cup of tea, don't really see the point of a 50% tie over a 33% win ratio. The game was going OK for an hour or so, a couple of players busted out and bought back in and a couple of players busted out, left, and others joined.

One of the players who joined was another old fogy. Most of the players know him, as the players here often know each other. This one didn't want to play $2-$4, so after hemming and hawing about it, they changed to $1-$2, but wanted a $5 bring in on the next bet or call, which was kind of OK, but he didn't really sound too happy about it.

The game was kind of up and down as far as action now. The action players would raise pre-flop almost every hand, I won a few and lost a few, but still liked the game. The only misstep was when I raised hands instead of calling post flop without the nuts. I fixed that leak after my stack was down 50%. Some of the players were starting to cash out or bust out and no new players were on the board, so after we were down to 4, the table broke. A couple of the players, including the old fogy, decided to go to the Commerce, said they were going to play a proposed PLO game, they already had some signed in as "interested". Just in time for the Sit and Go Shootout here. I came out with a slight profit in the Omaha game.
This will be one of my games to play in the future.

The Shootout was looking kind of slim, but Tina, the tournament boss said it should fill up nicely. About 10 minutes after it was supposed to start, each table had only about 4 to 5 sitting, looking kind of iffy, but after about 10 min, we filled up. One of the players at table 1 had won the 2 earlier Sit and Go's, was getting kind of loaded, and busted out early. I was in about the middle of the pack at table 2, had 5 left and 2 were already short stacked. I decided not to play anymore hands to get to the final table, but I got a couple of good ones, one was Ten/Ten, won that round, another KQ, flopped the Q, won that one. Finally the 2 short stacks busted out and we broke for the final table.

Stacks were reformatted to the beginning of the tournament, we started at $1500 with $25/$25 blinds and 10 min rounds again. I must have gotten AK about 4 times in the game, won some pots. We were down to 5 players again and I was 2nd in chips. Busted one player out and now the chip leader, though not by much. Another player busted out and we were down to 3. Forth place paid $110, so now I was in the money and 3rd place paid about $350. Another player busted out and we were down to 2 with the chip lead see-sawing back and forth due to the blinds increasing. Each hand was more of a gamble and there really no skill going now. Most of my hands have been good, at least one face card with a middle kicker, only had to throw one low hand away, 2-3o. Every hand now is All-in and after a couple rounds where my opponent folded, I finally won and came in 1st, paid $656, not bad for a $70 entry, which helped set off the $175 I lost in the first Sit and Go.

I think the PLO games at Hawaiian Gardens will be financing my Sit and Go's, and some of the other deep stack tournaments I plan on playing.

UPDATE:
Looks like they have discontinued the Sit and Go tournaments and rarely have PLO games anymore.

Would have been a regular stomping ground for me, but not anymore.

I NEVER BLUFF













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