When last we spoke... Oh yes, step tournaments at Party Poker. Well it is an intriguing idea, but there is a flaw and the flaw is this. The last couple levels (especially the step higher) tournament are very hard to fill and so you find yourself sitting and waiting... I'm not talk about waiting for the water to boil waiting, I'm talking about waiting for your kids to complete college waiting. And it's also not waiting that you can do away from your computer because when you're starting a $3,000 buy in SnG you don't want to be out watering the lawn.
I believe for this structure to work the last two steps should be scheduled single table tournaments (where you can chose a date and time for a list of options). Since I know the Party Poker folks read this blog maybe they'll do something about that.
Along those lines of pickiness, in a NL tournament before it is your turn to act there is a checkbox where you can select "bet pot", however when it's actually your turn to act there's no such option... Hello? McFly?!
Having said all that the mini-step versions don't have the same issue, and you can buy into the lowest level of those for $5+$1 so it's an inexpensive way to spend a couple of hours.
On the website (http://www.lowlimitholdem.com/) we've moved things around a little putting the discussion forum and of course this blog closer to the top on our left hand navigation pane, and also clearing out some of the older "what's hot" items (they were more leukwarm at this point). Definitely visit and say hello on the discussion forum--there's a few crazy people posting up a storm right now and I think they want company.
In low limit holdem I've been playing a lot at the live cardrooms lately at the $3-$6 and $6-$12 limits. The live game is changing a bit perhaps as a result of all the TV poker and, if not tightening up at least including more tight players. Some people even fold before the flop now! Don't worry--not a lot of them and the games are still great. The larger rooms are now all using electronic shuffling machines to keep the games going pretty quickly. If you haven't visited your live cardroom lately you might want to take a look--they are booming too.
A live hand After you've been playing for a while there are certain sequences of events that happen on the poker table that you grow to almost subconsciously expect. Case in point a hand I was involved in yesterday...
I'm in late position with AhAc and the UTG player raises the pot preflop and gets two callers before me. I 3 bet (which the big blind calls!) and he caps the pot (everyone invested calls). I'm thinking KK. The flop is Td 3h Ts and UTG bets, gets a caller before me, I call and the BB calls. The turn is the 8h and UTG bets again.
At this point the subconscious expectation is that one of the other two players who called the flop bet is going to raise (holding a T)... After all, what are they calling the flop with? I call the bet and the the BB just calls again. That's four players in on both the flop and turn.
The river is the Js and the UTG once again bets and gets the same caller before me. I call again and the BB finally folds. I win the hand with aces and tens. UTG had exactly KK and the middle player at QJ offsuit.
Now this was an especially passive hand because of the way I played it, so it's one I'm thinking about. Definitely that "waiting for the hammer to fall" aspect played into my play, and yet how did it affect the final outcome? Had I raised on the flop it would have been heads up between myself and KK, none of the other players had a threatening draw (perhaps the BB caught a 3 on the flop, but didn't have enough to call on a fairly large pot at the end) so raising definitely would have cost money with the players having the cards they did. What if someone did have a T? With two players having overpairs (which was definitely a strong possibility based on the preflop action) they may very well call hoping to get in the middle of a raising war between myself and the KK that we each only have two outs to win. The only question to me is the river play--should I have raised on the river? I knew KK would call a raise on the river and there was a chance the other caller would call with a hand like Jx that hit on the river (like this case!). In retrospect if I'm losing to someone slow playing a ten or better I'll lose one or two bets by raising on the river (depending on if they reraise). If I'm winning I will be paid off one or two bets.
I think based on the action that not raising on the end was a mistake, but not a giant mistake and it was based on that subconscious expectation of someone slowplaying trips.
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