No Limit comes to Washington

Well, sort of.

While playing poker in casinos has been legal as long as I remember, Washington has a screwed up set of laws.  First the maximum poker bet in tribal ("Indian") casinos has been $500, but in card rooms the max was $20 when I started playing several years ago.  They upped the maximum to $40 about 3 or 4 years ago which led to a bunch of 20-40 limit games, which is actually decent stakes, and some 2-40 spread limit.  The 2-40 game was a huge improvement over the 3-6 and 4-8 limit games that dominated the area.  Not only could you bet enough to get people to fold but you had huge implied odds which made it "correct" the play a lot of speculative hands, even against raises.  This led to much more action and much more profit.  But still it wasn't even close to no limit -- the $40 max came into play in almost every raised pot.

The Washington Gaming Commission has been debating higher limits probably since the day they upped the limit to $40.  Finally a month ago they decided to allow a trial of hold 'em with a $100 max bet with the law going into affect 30 days later.  Friday the 15th was day 30 and The Hideaway was one of the places that got a 3-100 spread game going.  It's still not true no limit but in playing a few hours I only saw one hand where the $100 max came into affect.  With a $200 max buy-in, you run out of chip before you run into the cap.  Note that if someone bets $40, you can then raise to $140.  It's really hard to have a deep enough stack and big enough pot that you'd want to bet more than $100.

Anyway, I played in the inaugural game after work on Friday.  Lots of people were interested in playing or at least willing to try.  The game was really good.  I doubled my buy in over 3-4 hours and it would have been much, much better had I not lost a huge pot on a bad suck out.  But that's poker.

I expect I'll still play at Snoqualmie with the 2-5 no limit, but this game is a good alternative.

Hideaway Fall Classic

One of my disappointments in the local poker scene is the lack of reasonably priced deep stack events -- tournaments where you actually play some poker before you get to the stage where everyone is shoving all-in every hand.  Either you have daily $30-60 tournaments that are fast with little or no skill or $500+ special events like Tulalip's 10-10-10 $1010 event.  So I was excited when I saw The Hideaway was having a Fall Classic with a series of reasonably priced events $60-120 and $240 for the main event with a lot of chips to start with and 20-minute rounds.

I played in a few of these.  The first was a $60 buy-in tournament starting with 30K chips (100-200 blinds) and 20-minute levels -- their normal tournament but twice as much play.  I didn't play very well and went out early.  The second event was an interesting twist on a team tournament.  Normally in a team tournament, the teammates switch who's playing every level (15 - 30 minutes).  In this tournament each team member was part of a pool of 20 players.  Each pool played its own tournament with the top 3 getting paid.  Then the top team, based on the ranks of its team members, wins 25% of the total prize pool.  I finished 4th in my pool and Meier got 3rd in his pool, which made us the top team.  We'll take it but we both feel like we could/should have won our individual pools as well.  Meier in particular got unlucky on his last two hands or could have been heads up with 2/3 of the chips.

I had a Mariners conflict and missed the Omaha/8 tournament which I wanted to play.  I played the NL bounty tournament Friday AM and finished with two bounties and go unlucky and busted at the final table.

Then I played the HORSE tournament on Saturday.  HORSE is a mixed game where you play Hold 'em, Omaha/8, Razz, Stud, and stud/Eight.  (Yeh, the "E" is kind of a stretch.)  Anyway, the tournament sucked and everyone who played in it thought so too.  Basically they started with too many chips for everyone given it's a fixed limit structure and raised the blinds too slowly.  I played 6 hours before busting at which point they got to the final table of 8 from 24 who started.  A tournament of this nature shouldn't take 6 hours to complete much less to just get to the final table. We spent 3 hours just passing chips back and forth when the blinds were tiny.  Then played some poker for a couple hours, then hit a shove fest where it came down to who caught cards.  Oh well.  Was fun to play HORSE for real and I'd probably go back for their cash game.  But I'd never play a structure like that again.

For the series, I think I wound up slightly ahead -- cashing once in the team tournament to pay for my four entry fees and having the bounties as profit.

No poker as I'm busy at work.  Played a silly social game Sunday night.  I'm not even sure you could call it poker.  Looking to play on Friday when the card room max jumps from $40 to $100 and there's going to be 1/3 "no limit" at the Hideaway.

Crazy Hot Poker Session

Spent most of last week in Toronto and Buffalo -- more on that later -- but wanted to share about a wild thing that happened to me playing poker.  Meier and I were at Seneca Niagra Casino, on the US side of the Falls, playing 1-2 NL.  After being down quickly, then building back my stack to be ahead, I'd been whittled down to about $65.  Meier and I had already decided this was going to be our last orbit and we'd pick up and check out the other casinos.  Warning: lots of poker content follows.

I'm under the gun (first after the blinds), so this is my "last" hand.  I raise to $10 with TT and get three callers.  The flop is 5-4-2 (or similar), I bet $30 and get one caller who we'll call Loose Gambler (LG) because he's a gambler as we'll see.  The turn is a jack and I push my last $25 in and LG folds.  I'm up to $125 now and it's time to go.  However Meier suggests we play one more orbit and I say OK.

BB: UTG+1 raises to 5, not a play I'd seen him make before, and a strange range because anyone who would call 2 will call 5.  Action comes to be and I re-raise to 20 with JJ.  Honestly I had checked out and hadn't realized that three people had called and thus my raise was too small.  Three people called the $20 making an $80 pot.  Flop 9-9-7, I bet $45, LG shoves for $25 more.  I think a bit and call and he shows K7 for a worse too pair and says "I hoped I could push you off AK".  My jacks hold and in two hands, I'm up to $255.  LG rebuys for $60.

SB: Meier raises to $8 UTG+1, there's a re-raise all-in for $20, I fold T8o, Meier calls.  Flop J-7-x, turn 9.  river blank and Meier shows T8s to snap QQ. (I think this was my SB hand.)

Button: I limp KJo behind several limpers. Flop K-J-T. SB leads for $6, three callers, I elect to just call; I'm probably best but it's possible there's a straight out there.  I'll see the turn and re-evaluate.  Turn K.  SB says "I don't like the king" and checks.  Everyone checks to me and I check, hoping to peal off an A or Q and have a straight pay me off.  River 4.  LG bets $10, I raise to $30, LG folds J4 face up.  I show a jack.  ($300)

CO: With about four limpers, I raise to $15 with KQ, LG re-raises blind to $36. Loose donkey in EP calls the $36.  I re-raise to $100 to isolate.  EP thinks for a while and calls his last $64 (Oops).  Board runs out Q-4-x-J-x and EP shows K4s (yes, really he put his whole stack in with that).  Blind LG flipped over his cards and had paired the board too.  MHIG. Meier criticized my play but I didn't think the limp $2, call $36 was a trap with AA/KK from this guy and wanted to get my money in good.  ($440)

HJ: With a few limpers, I limp TT (I know a raise will get called 4 ways).  Meier raises to $12 and given his style his range is wide, he gets 4 callers and I bump it to $90.  If he has AA-QQ, so be it.  He folds and everyone folds being him.  I show TT. ($490)

MP: I open raise to $12 with KQ, Meier calls on the button and we're heads up.  Flop A-Q-Q.  I figure Meier will bet the ace whether he has it or not, so I check but he checks behind.  Turn is a blank.  I bet $15, he calls.  River K, I bet $25, he thinks for a long time and calls with an ace.  ($540)

I may have the previous two hands reversed.  Or it's possible I folded from HJ and these are both MP hands.

MP: I limp 77 after several limpers. Flop Jd-7c-4d; bingo, I hit my set.  It checks to me and I check. The player to my left bets $6, a few people call, and I call planning to make a move on the turn. Turn is a diamond, everyone checks to me, I check, the flop bettor checks.  River is a 4th diamond everyone checks.  I turn over my hand, declare a set of 7s then realize I have 7d for a diamond flush; either is good.  I played this hand terribly but still won $40.  ($580)

UTG+1: I fold

UTG: I limp 5s4s.  Several limpers behind me.Flop 4-4-3. Blinds check, and I bet $8.  Slow playing is just a bad idea plus there are draws on the board. UTG+1 calls, UTG+2 thinks a long time and folds (77), BB calls.  Turn 5, BB checks, I bet $20, UTG+1 calls, BB shoves for $15 more and we both call.  As the river is coming out, UTG+1 says "who gets to check first?".  River is a blank (high card I think).  I bet $65 and UTG+1 folds.  BB shows 43 for the flopped boat. Wow, not only did I flop trips but then I hit the three-outer I needed to win the hand.  ($675)

Overall in one orbit plus a hand I won 8 of 10 or 11 hands, folded the others pre-flop and went from $65 to $675.  I'll probably never have a run like that again.

Back to No Limit

I played 2-5 no limit at Snoqualmie Casino last night for the first time in a couple of months.  After a horrible start and an up and down session, I cashed out up 1/2 a buy-in.

My very first hand, I limp re-raised in a straddled pot with QQ and the raiser shoved all-in.  I was pretty sure he had AA or KK and folded.  It's possible I made a bad lay down not wanting to lose all of my chips on the first hand but I think it was right.  Even so, it cost me half my stack.  I had to add on a couple of times to have a healthy stack and was basically back to my starting chips when my big hand of the night came up.

I limped in middle position with pocket eights and 6 or 7 people saw a flop of Q-8-3 with two clubs.  I bet $20 and a player check-raised to $70.  He was one of my targets at the table, clearly willing to put a lot of money in on a draw or medium strength hand. Given he might be drawing and was unlikely to have QQ (and if he does, I lose all my chips), I re-raised him to about $170.  He went all-in and I immediately called.  The turn was a club, which I didn't like and the river was a blank.  He showed KQ for one pair and I doubled up.  Unfortunately I lost of bunch of those chips soon after on a bad bluff.  I ground back over the rest of the evening and as noted cashed out well ahead.

I made a couple of poorly timed bluffs, but overall played pretty well though I was a bit rusty.  Hope to go back soon.

Wild poker action last weekend

I played at Snoqualmie last Saturday night.  Weekends are usually good games because everyone is out having fun and thus the play is more relaxed.  You don't often get "drunk tourist" locally like to do in Las Vegas, but on Saturday night there's a lot more drinking.

It was one of the wildest sessions I've had in a while -- up a bit, down a lot, back to ahead, and finally down a bit.  In a short four hours I had a ton of hands.  AA, KK, QQ, JJ twice, AK at least three times, KQ, AJ, 88, probably some others I forget.

That said, a lot of medium pots but no huge pots.  I don't think I saw the turn with any of the big hands.

I'll never understand why people enjoy getting plastered while playing poker.  A social drink sure, but what's the fun in paying $30/drink because you're so out of it you're giving away your money.  That said, I'm happy to relieve stupid people of their cash; that's much of why I play poker.

Vegas poker trip

Went to Vegas for a few days right before New Year's.  It's a great place to play because there are more good poker rooms in a two mile stretch than there are in all of Washington and Oregon combined.  Had a couple of huge cashes, mainly at the Venetian and Planet Hollywood and came out enough ahead that the trip was free.  Of course staying three nights for $89 total makes that pretty easy.

I played so much poker in three days that I really can't talk about interesting hands or sessions.  Independent of the cash result, it was a lot of fun to live on the wild side.  Cuz I'm kinda a simple boring guy :)

I'll be heading back in March and it looks like July as well.

Poker update

It's not that I haven't been blogging, I actually haven't played much poker since my last post. With the holidays, evenings have been spent shopping, wrapping, packaging, lighting candles, etc.  And then I had a major "non-playing" disappointment.

I played at Snoqualmie a couple of weeks ago and nearly tripled up by buy in. One of my best results of late.  Basically had two big hands where I hit sets and got paid.  One I erred by calling too much pre flop -- but I just didn't believe the guy -- but the other I played well calling down what was essentially a three barrel bluff on an all-club flop.  Also had a simple hand where four people limp called my raise to 25 and a flopped top pair and took down the pot.  I wish I could have more hands that were so easy.

We spent the weekend at Tulalip for my birthday so I could get a lot of poker in.  Unfortunately it didn't work out well. Monica wanted to go shopping after dinner so I accompanied her and didn't get into a game until after 9 PM.  It had been a long day and I just wasn't feeling it.  Though it was a great table with really bad players.  I also liked that their 3-5 game allows a $500 buy in which means more money on the table.  Wound up winning a little bit almost all of it on one hand where a guy "donated" $300 with trips, no-kicker against my tips-ace kicker when his hand HAD to be no good on the turn.

Hope to get in a session this week, likely Friday if not before, before I head to Las Vegas next Monday.

Snoqualmie 11/18

Had one of the most frustrating nights of poker in a while. First see my previous post on bad players.

Was at a good table at Snoqualmie against a number of bad players and wound up down a buy-in. Played three or four hands the first hour and was up $4 -- I had K8 in the blinds flopped top pair a rivered a straight and won a small pot. I could never get anything going. Had at most one big pair, no big aces that I recall, and a couple of small pairs. Saw a lot of KQ, KJ, 75 hands.

A made a few bad plays, but meanwhile I watched people throw money around. The guy on my left seemed like he had never played live before -- needed an explanation on every bit of terminology. He was pretty tight, but would limp call for 20% of his stack. I made a bunch of second best hands, but I think my real problem was inconsistent aggression. I'd make a loose raise pre-flop then give up when someone check-called. I think I could have pushed people off better hands a few times with a turn or river bet. And I probably played a bit too lose.

But ultimately when people are calling too often, you have to make a hand to win, and I couldn't make a hand.

Overall I'd grade my play a B-, but I need to be on my A game.