Posted by Dr Fro 9:22 AM

Oh, Canada!

I got back from Vancouver yesterday. I was there for a week but only managed to play poker one night. We were too busy drinking working.

We found out that the nearby Edgewater Casino only had 4 poker tables, all of which spread 4-8 limit poker. So we took some cheap (that is, cheap when split 4-ways) cabs to the River Rock Casino in Richmond. Since we got there at 9ish, the place was packed. I put my name on just about every list. The place was huge. Just a guess, but there must have been 50 poker tables there. With that many tables, I figured the wait wouldn't be long, and I was right.

Just in case you didn't already believe that all gambling is highly politicized, I need to tell you about the sign on the wall at RRC. It read:

Alcoholic beverages are sold at prices meant to discourage overconsumption while gambling.

I thought the the whole point was to overconsume?

I had one drink and paid $7 for it. Being cheap, I decided this was maybe a good thing that the drinks were pricey. Maybe my lack of drinking would lend itself to profits.

My name was first called for the $3-$6 NL game (or, in US$, the $2.64-$5.28 NL game), and that is where I stayed all night. I sat down at a table with 8 Asians and one other gringo. It felt a lot like Dallas and Houston. There were some very aggressive players, including one guy (we will call him "Nigel" although I seriously doubt he or anyone in his family is named "Nigel"). Nigel ran $100 (maybe it was $200) into $1,700 in 2 hours. He once called all-in with K9. Even if you have never met Nigel, I know you know the type.

So when I get AK and raise to $20 preflop and Nigel raises to $60, I figured it was a no-brainer to go all-in. Against another player, I won't do this because the odds are that the player either has AA/KK which dominates me or a lower pair against which I am 50/50. I have nothing to gain by going all in (in fact, I have a half-written post on this subject that I intend to publish someday...the problem is that I keep changing my mind on a few points. Specifically, the value of getting KK to fold to an all-in raise has me hung up - how many people would ever fold KK to an all-in bet? Maybe ARH would. Maybe JohnnyMac would. Maybe. ) Where was I? Yes, I had AK and went all-in, thinking that it was reasonably possible that Nigel would call me with something like AQ. Nigel had JJ. All was not lost, it was a coin toss, which is what I figured my worst case scenario was. I lost.

And so the evening went. I didn't have any other devastating hands. I mainly paid to see the flop and folded when the flop came all night. I once hit a flush and lost to a boat, but surprisingly limited my losses to not very much. But mainly, I just lost on the flop all night.

I don't know exactly how much I lost for the night becuase I didn't pay much attention, but some back of the envelope calculations, including estimates for other things purchased with my Canadian dollars told me that I must have lost around $450. Oh well, at least I got a $7 Jameson out of it.

Of my mates, only KTL and AD won anything, both of which did it at the $1-$2 table. AD must have been happy to play poker. He lives in Luanda, Angola, which is not known to be a Mecca of poker. I was told the players were even looser there than at my table.

If you ever make it to British Columbia, I suggest you check out the River Rock. The place is nice and clean. They spread every imaginable game. The players are very loose, and the staff are very nice. Two thumbs up.

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