Where are you coming from?

No more bad beat (or cracked aces) at Harrah's - got replaced with "High Hand Jackpot". Any hand of quads or better (must use both hole cards) gets extra cash.

Best bad beat $$ is at Ameristar (if you are into that kind of thing).

$1-2 min at Harrah's and Ameristar - $1-3 at Hollywood.

Best tourney is at Harrah's on Saturday morning - $10k deepstack (only once a week), then Mondays at Hollywood (Also $10K)
Best "nightly" tourney is Ameristar ($5k)

Best cash is Hollywood then Ameristar

WSOP qualifiers at Harrahs's (2nd Saturday, monthly, yes?) - $200 shootout or if you win a daily tourney it's a freeroll for you.

IMHFO

Appreciate the info.

I actually meant if any KC players had any hands worth telling the board about. I am coming from Texas. Corpus Christi and Brownsville area. I am currently in Kuwait right now though. I've been out here for 15 months now. Finally getting released into the world next month. I picked up a job in Belton. Plan on living there instead of living in town.

I've been playing hard the last 6 months. Three months we played nightly for 5 hours with 1500-2500 on the table. Soldiers rotate in and out so we are pretty slow now. Play maybe 4 times a week.

Looking forward to the real world, a new city, freedom with some poker thrown in.

Ahhh, starved for entertainment - okay - I never do this, so just for you. How about from two weeks agoboth at Harrah's)

Deepstack tourney EARLY
Blinds $25-$50
UTG1 raise to $250
4 callers by the time it reaches me in BB with AA
I throw in $2,000
TWO CALLERS - Oh crap, someone has KK or QQ
Flop KQ7

OR from last week's cash game
My 88 vs AK
Flop K82 with flush draw
I shove - He calls
K on the turn - I have a full house and he has trip kings
A on the river

Not to mention my full house vs quads last weekend

Yeah that was f***ing fascinating

You seem to indicate that you thought someone had KK or QQ in the first hand, but you didn't say if they did or didn't? Did they?

Given we're both in Kansas City, I have to ask who you are. Your face isn't familiar, but your finger gesturers are.

Ducati26, I don't know if they're still offering it but Harrah's had a Saturday night Pineapple tournament for a change of pace.

Appreciate the entertainment haha, if you call it that. AA's cracked is more of a nightmare. You can only put your money in with the best hand right?

I have been playing some of these guys for 6 months straight so one of them had me steaming on Sunday. All I remember is my KK's with a pre-flop raise of 75 getting called by 82ss. Flush hit. I had to dig myself out a $300 hole that night but left up $150. Hard to leave money on the table.

My plan is to hit KC on the 18th. Hopefully find a place by the 22nd and play for 10 days straight before I start work. Living in Belton, I doubt I will want to play everyday. Probably Friday through Sunday. I get 10 days off from the 1st-11th of Febuary so I'm thinking of hitting New Orleans for the Superbowl. Should be alot of money to be won in town for the game.

Why are you going to be living in the boonies of Belton? If you're job isn't close and is in Kansas City, you're going to end up hating the drive. I know I did when I lived that far south and my job was in downtown KC.

Naw I will actually be working in Belton. The place I am looking to live at is 2 miles from work. I may choose to live in Lees and make that drive everyday. I doubt it though. How bad is the drive from Belton to Harrahs and Hollywood?

Google maps says 36 minutes to Harrah's NKC, 42 minutes to Hollywood. So probably 30 and 35 minutes respectively unless you actually follow the speed limit. Ameristar will be a couple minutes closer than Harrah's.

I'm going to be in Kansas City for a couple days on business. Should have the majority of one afternoon to play.

Where would anyone recommend I head for some 2/5, 1/2, or 1/3 on a weekday afternoon? Is there likely to be any 2/5 going on anywhere? Also, if I'm driving straight from the airport, which would be easiest to get to if I only have a couple of hours to play?

Thanks for your help.

If you're coming straight from the airport, I'd suggest Harrah's as it is the closest. Forget Hollywood as you would spend about another thirty minutes or so getting there.

I-29 South to I-35 South
Take the Armour/210 Exit and go East
Take Chouteau Exit and go south to the entrance to Harrah's on your right.

Ameristar is a few miles further on 210 East but why go there when you're closer to Harrah's.

Get the Bravo Poker App on your phone and you will be able to see who has what action going when you land.

Hollywood Casino is 30 minutes south on I-435 - 1-3 minimum (my first choice for you - most likely to have 2-5). It opened less than a year ago. 1 pm deepstack tournament on Mondays

Ameristar is a little closer (25 minutes) by going southeast on I-29 (second choice) Nice bad beat jackpots - but meh.

Harrah's is the closest (20 minutes) by going southeast on I-29 - but least busy of all three. Afternoon will usually have no more than 2 tables going - a couple 1-2's or 1-2 and 3-6 - (3rd choice - 1 pm tournament - uber-fast structure)

Did I play this well, or play badly and get lucky? Criticism welcome....

I’m UTG+2 at a $1/$2 table, about $350 in my stack. The villain of the piece is UTG with about $250.

UTG opens with a preflop raise to $5, and I look down at Ah-Jh and bump it to $15. We get one LP caller, and UTG calls.

Flop comes Js-8h-3c, giving me top pair with top kicker. UTG raises $15, I call, LP folds.
Turn is 6h. UTG raises $20, I call. I sense an overpair but have nut flush possibilities now.

River is 10h, making my nut flush, and only the very unlikely straight flush can beat me. UTG raises $30, I reraise $75. UTG thinks for a minute-and-a-half before calling with Qd-Qs.

Do you mean UTG bet?

Yes, sorry for the poor nomenclature there. UTG's first action was a "bet" in each case. I always mess that up when posting.

I like it. Villain limped with his pocket queens and got cracked. He can only blame himself. You hit top pair top kicker and he only bet 15. After that, you ended up with a flush draw and he tried to value bet his queens. You backdoored him. He tried to control value bet 30 not knowing you had the flush. After your raise, he should have sensed the backdoor or two pair, but decided to call.

Without knowing how long you two have been on the table, any other showdowns, how long it took him to call your raise, or how the table has been playing, it is hard to tell what he was thinking.

He valued his QQ's as a $5 bet. Why didn't he reraise your $15 bet after he set the trap? You got lucky with runner runner but he let you get there. Luck on your part. I would have probably taken the same line post flop, but figured you hit two p or flush on the river. If he is experienced, he figured you hit the river but had to call to see.

At a 1/2 table QQ's have to be worth 8-16 depending on how the table is playing. If I bet $5 and got raised, I would have reraised then taken the pot down after the flop. After you see the flop you would have "felt" my overpair with my bet.

I think you played your hand right. He took a good post flop line but got rivered. He was probably pissed, but couldn't be mad at you.

A question for the locals:

I feel like per capita - KC has less poker action than it should. Especially a lack of higher stakes action. Anyone else feel the same way?

My best theory is that there are too many poker rooms / casinos for the market. This is all with scale in mind (we are not Los Angeles in population). So I know a handful of rooms is not a "ton", but it can only hurt to have the action separated. If there are 2 people at Ameristar willing to play 5/10, 4 at Hollywood, and 1 at Harrahs on given night X, the game will never go...

Agree / disagree? Anyone else wish there were higher stakes more often here?

Agree 100%. Once Hollywood opened it really skewed the landscape. Harrah's poker room seems to be the hardest hit. Now, on Friday nights, where you might have seen one empty table, they are lucky to fill three tables. As I write this it is almost 3 pm Saturday and they have 2 $1-2 tables going. Compared to 8 tables at Hollywood and 5 at Ameristar. They have had to respond with desperate moves and ideas like tourney action on Friday and Saturday night, or dumping bad beat jackpots for high hands. Some of the change is good (deeper stacks in tourneys) but some are just desperate. I am not sure that jacking up tourney entries 60% will be good or bad. I like it (more money to win) but I am now seeing a lot of different people playing - though the size is no different. Did it run some off? Don't know for sure - haven't heard anyone saying it is an issue for them. Then the gaming commission takes away phones and ipods at the table for the Missouri side - do not care for that (rumored they may be giving that another look).

I don't know what the answer is but there are players here. I know at least one local pro who won't even play here. He fly's out for his live action. He tried Hollywood for a while when it first opened but gave up on them.

But you are correct - about the only place you can hope to get over $2-5 is Hollywood now. As I look on Bravo right now they have a $20-40 table going (limit).

Good to hear it is not just me seeing this. And I agree with you on the fact it changed for the worse with Hollywood opening. I thought poker room competition could only be good news - but turns out, no, not when everything is spread so thin.

Also, it hurt the low stake game too, as now every competent player is stuck together in one level.

I guess I am hoping for someone to close their room.

The Kansas City market can't support 41 poker tables - something has to give.

All the significant action above 1/2 moved to Hollywood when it opened last year.

Ameristar is the furthest from Hollywood and still gets a significant number of players from the east side. Ameristar also has a $2 BBJ drop in most games and attracts a number of "bonus whores". For a fun time in the morning, go over to Ameristar and pound on the nits in the 3/6 limit game - you'll win friends for life!

Harrahs has taken the hardest hit. The GM at that property clearly wishes poker would go away (and I assume the corporate WSOP connection is the only reason that it hasn't). Harrahs ignored the Hollywood opening until they were significantly damaged and have been trying half-heartedly to get some of that business back ever since. They have not found any gimmick that creates a market segment for themselves.

Both Harrahs and Ameristar have raised the buy-in caps on 1/2 1/3 games to $500. While this is good for skilled players, it's almost guaranteed to kill a room even sooner - the low limit NL players starting out will go broke much quicker. This will reduce the total number of players in this market.


So, the BBJ hunters play limit at Ameristar. Everyone else plays at Hollywood. Harrahs is the room that "needs" to close, but I assume corporate won't allow it.

Again, the market won't support 41 poker tables. Until a room closes, the market is going to be fragmented.

-Jeff

This is a problem in a lot of other markets as well. St. Louis can use to ditch a poker room. Vegas could use to ditch a dozen probably. Unfortunately, poker is losing popularity, and I don't really see it recovering to where it was ~5 years ago.

There is a $160 at Hollywood tomorrow. I believe they plan to run this the last Sunday of every month. 90 player cap seating alts for a couple hours.

Did you play said tourney last weekend? I am curious to hear a review.

Yeah, they had a 90 player cap and seated alts thru the first break (2 hrs 10 mins). Ended with 119 players, paid 12, over 4k to the winner. Deeeepstack: final table of 9 had an ave stack of 13 bigs. They made a deal 4 handed, left some to play for, made another deal hu. I think it ended in 10 or 11 hrs.

I'm usually willing to play 5/10. I have to disagree about the "action" around here though. I think it's pretty good at Hollywood. When I mean "action" I guess I'm talking about the skill level of players. When I go to Vegas during the WSOP, I saw tons and tons of bad 2/5 games which really surprised me. I've almost never played in a 2/5 game in Kansas City that I wasn't excited about.

Ever since I posted that Hollywood has put together some bigger games... so might have been I just never saw it before that post - or things are getting better here.