Posted by Junelli 2:14 PM
On Monday I had a deposition outside of San Francisco. Because I had two nights to kill in Cali, I decided to check out the poker scene.

On the first night I played at the Bay101 which is home to a WPT event. Bay101 is in San Jose which is about 40 minutes South of San Francisco and Oakland.

When I walked in I learned that, although California has poker, it has weird rules. NL is still against the law in most places, but not all. If a club has been open for a long time, it is "grandfathered" in and allowed to play NL. Apparently if they bribe enough people they are also allowed to play NL (e.g. Commerce and Bike). The rest of the clubs are prohibited from offering NL games.

Bay101 is one of those places. How they can have a WPT event is beyond me. In any event, Bay101 has found a loophole to fill customers NL needs. They offer a $5-$200 spread limit game, meaning that all bets must be between $5 and $200. You can never bet/raise more than $200 at a time. The buy-in is capped at $200.

The blinds were also a little strange, $5-$3-$2. The $2 blind is on the button. Again, I have no idea in the logic of this rule, but oh well. Like I need "more" encouragement to play my button!!

It played just like a NL game, because most bets were well below the $200 cap. In fact, I was only hamstrung once when I held a 4h 5h against a flop of 6h 7h 7s. I wanted to move all-in for $600 with my open-ended straight flush draw. Instead I was capped to $250 on the flop ($50 of it was a call). A player with J7 called and another short stack moved in.

I hit my flush on the turn. The short stack turned over Ah 2h and took the main pot, and I won the side against the guy who had trips.

This is a relatively low stakes game that was friendly for the most part. I found it extremely soft, and was able to crush it for a $1,000 profit in less than 4 hours.

All in all, Bay 101 is a nice large card room with approx 30-35 tables. It was filled to near capacity on Sunday night, and the action was good. I recommend it.

On the second night, I decided to try a place closer to Oakland, The Oaks Card Club. The Oaks is not as nice, but it was much closer (only 10 minutes from Oakland) and there was a lot of action.

The Oaks only offered limit games, ranging from $.50-$1 up to $30-$60. There were about 16 tables and they were completely full on Monday afternoon at 5:30 when I arrived.

I haven't played live limit poker in almost 2 years, and even then, it's only been about 7-10 times. However, I've played an enormous amount of limit online. I've read several books on the subject, and consider myself knowledgable of the game.

I walked in wanting to play $10-$20, but they didn't offer that game. Instead they had $8-$16 and $15-$30. I put my name on both lists and then thought long and hard about which game to play. $8-$16 is easier on the bankroll and won't require as high a buy-in. However, that game is a little below the stakes I like to play, and there's a good risk I might play poorly if I don't take the game seriously.

On the other hand, the $15-$30 game is much more expensive and will likely require a buy-in of $1,000. It's a little higher than the stakes I'd normally play, but I'll definitely take it seriously and play better. Aside, I always play much better in high stakes games because I concentrate harder on cutting down on poor decisions, playing with weak starting hands, etc.

Anyway, I get called first to the $15-$30 and decide to sit down. I buy-in for $500 and hope it'll last.

Some differences I quickly noticed from the previous night at Bay101: Nobody folds! Nobody folds! and nobody folds.

There were an average of 5-7 players seeing each flop. This obviously diminishes the value of AA and KK greatly. In fact, proper play "by the book," is almost a surefire way to lose money.

I had KK cracked when a player with 57o called 3 bets cold before the flop, again called the capped bet, caught a 5 on the flop, called flop and turn bets and chased all the way to the river where he caught a 7 and scooped a $500 pot.

I suffered more bad beats in one session than I ever thought possible. AND, I dished out more bad beats than ever before. You almost didn't want to be ahead on the flop. And you certainly didn't want a hand like top pair against 4 players who won't go away. It's just sick!

The chip swings were enormous. I was in the game for $800 and went on swings where I was up $700 to down $700 in less than an hour.

At one point I had $110 left, and got AQs in early position. I bet/raised as much as possible the whole way through the hand, and was able to get my last $30 in on the river, which by the way, was where I finally hit my pair with a Q. My hand held up and I more than quadrupled up to $450. How's that for limit!

But I managed to adapt very well to this game, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I booked a profit of $550, and have decided to find more limit games around Houston.

**Aside*** Another reason I may try and play more limit, is because my NL game is in total shambles. I can't win at all and have completely forgotten how to play properly. I lose against good opponents, bad opponents, young men, old ladies, and the deaf dumb and blind. It's kind of funny that now that I know so much more about the game, I'm actually exponentially worse than I was when I was first learning, and didn't know the "proper" thing to do.

2 Comment(s):

Posted by  Anonymous, at 2:32 PM, December 07, 2006  

Only losers say "Cali". Sheesh. As if typing another 6 letters is going to cramp your fingers...

Its just as bad as calling all Texans rednecks. I'm sure that goes over well in Texas...

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Posted by  Junelli, at 2:49 PM, December 08, 2006  

Go catch a wave duuuuuuuuude!

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