Posted by Dr Fro 12:24 PM
My Beau Rivage trip
I got back from the bachelor party at Beau Rivage in Biloxi. There are several casinos in Biloxi, but only one poker room, the one at the Grand. Junell and I went to the Grand and played for 14.5 hours. We spent app 10 hours at separate $4-$8 tables, 2 hours at the same $4-$8 table and 2.5 hours at the $10-$20. I won $490 minus $21 I gave to a hot waitress named Renee. Approximately $50 was won at $10-$20 and the rest was from the $4-$8 game.

The structure of the $4-$8
While the $10-$20 was structured in the ‘normal’ way, the $4-$8 game was odd. Blinds were $1-$2 (instead of $2-$4) and the bets in the first two rounds were a spread from $2 to $4 and in the later rounds was from $2 to $8. This led to some interesting adjustments.

Specifically, since the early bet was ½, I could play roughly twice as many hands pre-flop. I have had software analyse my play and basically I already play too many hands pre-flop, but I tend to partially make up for it by making folds on the flop. Thus the game was naturally suited to turn my biggest weakness into my biggest strength. Funny though, it seemed as if nobody else really adjusted for this, as they were fairly tight pre-flop.

The second adjustment I made for this structure was using the spread limit to vary my bets to both disguise my hand and also to manipulate pot sizes. I only “disguised” a handful of hands this way, but I made sure that if I raised $2 with pocket Jacks that the next time I definitely raised the max. It was the manipulation of the pot that I really concentrated on. Manipulation of the pot is something that people who only play structured limit games no close to nothing about. It is interesting that people who are to the far left and far right on the poker spectrum form them are quite familiar with it: the home game player and the pot-limit or no-limit players. The home game players almost always play games with spread limits and they typically learn when to bet the max and when to lure people in. At the other end of the spectrum is PL and NL who also have a choice in the amount they bet. They are used to not only asking first 1) what do I hope to accomplish? and then 2) Should I check, bet or raise to best accomplish that, they must answer a third question if they answer “bet” or “raise” and that is 3) how much should I bet/raise in order to best achieve what I desire?

This may sound like I am rambling about a trivial point, but consider this: I was the only person at the table (save 1 or 2 other instances) that EVER bet something other than the max. I was also the only winner. Surely you would agree that anytime someone never exercises an option available to them they are not taking full advantage of the arsenal available to them. What if a guy never raised? Or never folded?

Pre-flop I made a small bet if I were betting for value (usually due to position). On the river, I would use the small bet to eke out a couple more bucks from the guy that says, “I shouldn’t do this, I know you have the flush…”

This is just an extension to Johnnies commentary below on the dialogue he had regarding a hand with James Singletary on the $6 versus $12 bet.

My favourite employment of the min bet was on the end when I missed my flush, but another flush came. There was a very good player who took (maybe too much) pride in his “good laydowns.” After 10 hours, I knew he was good and a tricky play might work. I bet the min and he incorrectly figured that I was stroking him to eke out 2 more dollars and folded his hand. He even said “I know you, you only do that with good cards. If you had bet the max, I would have called.” I lied and said I made the flush and told him it was a great laydown as I stacked a bunch of chips that I just stole. (Side note – that was the only mistake I saw him make, he was actually a helluva lot more knowledgeable in poker than I).

ESPNI am not kidding when I say that at least 5 guys on Saturday said “I have never played in a casino before, but I saw this on ESPN and wanted to give it a shot.” The rest of the table salivated and typically took all of the chips within an hour. What a great time to be alive.

$10-$20
The $10-$20 as you might expect was very different. It was so tight that it was very easy to steal blinds, but very hard to scoop a monster pot. It was very easy to avoid big losses and also hard to make big scores, so I think that the volatility is much less than $4-$8 and thus you do not need a bankroll that is 2.5 times, as you might guess. I think $200 should last a while, as it did for Junell and me. We only stopped playing because the game died. It was damn fun.

Games offered
There was no PL or NL. They dealt Hold’em, Omaha high and Stud. I think they may deal Omaha 8 or better, but didn’t actually see anyone playing. Biggest game was $15-$30 on this night, but I think there is a $20-$40 game once per week.

General
The people were so nice, much nicer than any other cardroom I have been in. But let’s face it, ½ the players are on vacation and ½ are from the Deep South which means they are going to be pretty genuine.

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