My Regular Game

This is supposed to be a poker blog. Not that this is an original idea – there appear to be thousands of poker players out there who appear to not be satisfied with the opportunity to play a great game (or perhaps I should say participate in a great game, as “play a great game” suggests that is how they play…). These anonymous thousands, myself included, feel compelled to share. I don’t know what drives everyone else, but for me it is really the basic human need to share. I want to talk about my game. I want to compare notes. Most of all I want to brag when, through no fault of my own, I cash out for $4,000.

But I play in a small game. And playing in a small game isn’t conducive to sharing insight about play or bragging about results. So here I am, among the thousands.

Let me tell you some things about my regular game. It is public, live (spread in a cardroom/casino) no-limit hold’em. My game is one of the only legal cash games around – so the place has a monopoly and it shows in terms of rake, drink prices and all the other little ways a monopoly provider can screw a customer for the basic reason that they can. Don’t like it? Feel free to express your displeasure if you are anxious for a lesson in monopoly economics. The lesson goes something like: “Excuse me Mr Pit Boss, sir, but we are paying by the hour and the dealer has so far only managed to deal four hands this half-hour.” “Thank you for bringing that to my attention Mr Player. You’re welcome to go play somewhere else”.

The monopoly attitude also shows in demand. This is not a cardroom where an excited player can just show up and sit down for a game on the way home from work happy in the knowledge that she will be able to get a few orbits in before the hubby starts to phone asking where she is. No, playing here is a commitment. A person has to show up early, wait long and then once seated be sure not to leave their seat for more than 10 minutes lest they get picked up. And sometime I will comment on skill and morale of the dealers, but not tonight.

What else about my regular game? The buy in is not huge ($500 or so with a $5 bb). The game is also full of regulars – this is what I mean about the game being small. I play most weekends. And the single most important thing about this game is that, to my basic poker eye, it is quite possibly the softest game since Doyle showed up in Houston to a game full of oilmen.

How soft? There is a guy who plays regularly. Daily. He hums when he has a good starting hand. I swear to God, this guy picks up aces and the frigging theme from the Fiddler on the Roof starts to come out. Just like that episode in MASH (yes, dating myself) where Charles is fleecing everyone until the clue in that his whistling gets louder when he’s bluffing. Then there is the guy who regularly wanders over from playing Baccarat with $3,000 he is anxious to play with. Just like at the Baccarat table he simply puts it in the middle and waits for the dealer to tell him if he’s won. There is the usual group of young internet studs who have not yet got their heads around reverse implied odds and the simple fact that one pair is likely not that great a hand even if you do have a decent kicker. I could go on. Of course there are also some quality players in this game – world class in fact. But so long as you know who they are, well you just try and stay out their way unless you have position or cards – preferably both.

What else? The game often plays much bigger than the buy in suggests. No one, and I mean no one, in this game folds pre-flop to a raise smaller than 6 BBs and if you are serious about thinning the field then you need to be thinking about a pre-flop pop to at least 10BB and often more. After a few short hours there is usually $10 – 15k on the table.

So that is the background. I’m now going to post my first hand discussion, but I’m going to make it a separate post.

Don’t go away.