Ive said it many times that my main poker room, The Isle, is the toughest room Ive ever played. People dont like my definition of "toughest" but to me it means the hardest room to win at a high rate. In the case of the Isle its because the room is sooooooo nitty. Not because the players are great. But its still ridiculously hard to have a really high win rate.

Anyway, I brought that back up because I just finished a 4.5 hour session at Harrahs New Orleans 1/3 game. Holy **** is this game soft. I mean softer than the Pillsbury doughboy. Softer than Charmin. If you play there and dont crush, you need to re-examine your game.

I had one of my worst card dead session in a long time today and still won $400. Theres no telling what I wouldve won if I couldve gotten into more hands with these droolers. The game can play very deep because you can match the biggest stack. My table wasnt very deep but the table beside mine had multiple stacks over $3K.

I really didnt play hardy any interesting hands. I just value bet the fish the few times I hit a hand.

Its off to Biloxi tomorrow.

I ended up playing a short 1.5 hour session at Harrah's before we left for Biloxi this morning. I won another $350. Heres an example of how bad most of these guys are.

1) Cutoff raises $17. Button and both blinds call
Flop ($70) T83. SB leads $25. BB calls and button calls
Turn ($145) 2. SB shoves $75. Button calls with A4.

River 5

2) 2 limps. LP raises $17. Button calls. SB 3 bets to $67 with 88. First EP limper cold calls the 3 bet with KJs. Button calls also
Flop ($210) Q95. SB bets $100. EP calls. Button folds
Turn ($410) 4. SB shoves $90. EP calls.
River ($590) K.

There's about 2-3 ridiculous hands like that every orbit.

My total results from 2 trips to Harrahs N.O.

24 hours
$2335
$97/hr

And I never topped up to match any big stacks. I bought in for $300 and played from there. We all know 24 hours is nothing, but this place is a gold mine.

When I got there this morning there was a game that had been running all night and there were at least 5 stacks over 500 BBs

fyp

Left strikes where important and bolded my adds

Avaritia, with all the positivity/good advice I'd say you should make your own thread but aggregating it might kill the game

lol

My first session at the Beau Rivage went a bit differently. The players were still much much weaker and fishier than what Im used to (maybe not quite as bad as at Harrahs N.O.). My results just didnt turn out as well.

I was so card dead it was like I was in card hell. The 3 big hands I hit I had to fold preflop to big raises

Folded KJ....Board was 8KKK
Folded KT....Flop AQJ

But the worst of all...

Button straddle. UTG raises to $15. UTG+1 3 bets to $30. It folded to me with 66. I was pretty sure UTG+1 had a big pair. He had about $500 so I guess I could call. The game played more like a 2/5 and I would call $30 there occasionally with 66, but UTG was wild and he could easily 4 bet so I folded.

Flop T63....Turn T

They got all in with AT vs KK. I couldve won over $900 in that pot assuming the action went the same but who knows.

I got stacked with AA by a set
I got stacked by AA (I had AK)

Here are 2 other hands.

1) EP raises $15. 2 calls. I call 3h3d. We go 6 to the flop

Flop ($90) Th3c5h . EP raiser bets $20 and gets 2 calls. I raise to $120. Only EP calls.
Turn ($370) Td. He checks with $275 behind. I check back because its pretty obvious he has an overpair and I didnt want to lose him with that second T. Its also possible ha has the FD and I wanted him to hit it. I guess I couldve still made a small bet but with a pot that big it seemed weird.

River ($370) 6c. He bet $100. I shoved and he tanked for a good 3 mins and folded QQ

2) Button straddle. EP and MP call. I raise to $30 AK. Both limpers call. Straddler folds.
Flop ($96) K72. EP open shoves $170. MP folds. I call and beat KJ

Everything else was me folding preflop or me raising and folding the flop.

I lost $375 in 5.4 hours

For this trip Im +$375 in 10.3 hours of 1/3...$36.40/hr
For the month Im at +4015 in 89 hours....$45.11/hr

Ha, sounds like in NO I'll have to learn to never fold. In my game typically if 2 people call the flop bet I'd better have better than just TP, so I slow way down and lean towards folding to much future action. Here it sounds like I just have to play for reasonable stacks with just TP regardless of the action.

Brag: I have Mike's 2018 1/3 NL hourly beat so far... $63.01/hr!

Beat: 21 hours.

Variance: Actually may have ran a bit "bad" in a couple of pots the other day... twice getting AA vs QQ only to see an A/K fall on the flop to prevent stacks from getting in postflop. Although I shipped $1112 over ~8.5 hours, the first time I shipped north of $1K in just over a year.

Gha,I'llletyouknowhowmuchIlose!G

Short stacking is probably best for almost everyone. It's not an insult, but let's face it, nobody properly bluffs or bluff catches correctly, they play 100% faceup for value.

The only people who benefit from playing 100bbs or deeper are guys who know how to bluff and bluff catch, fold, value bet thin etc etc... the person who doesn't do those things right w/100bb+ is at a big disadvantage and where most of the profit comes from.

At like 60bbs or less, it's almost impossible to exploit someone who's playing tag/ for value only

Lol

Since I highly doubt there are too many players who are really good at deepstack, I don't even see how that statement is arguable?

The overwhelming vast majority of players are losers; they'd be *much* better off shortstacking than playing deep. Sure, they suck at shortstack too, but sucking at shortstack is better than sucking at deepstack.

And even a good percentage of the overall low percentage of winning players (I'll include myself in that category) aren't nearly as good at deepstack as they are shortstack. Pretty sure the optimum strategy for me and my skillset would be to rathole after my stack grows > 66bbs at a lot of tables I'm at.

Which leaves a very small percentage that would be better off playing deepstack.

Gitisnotaridiculousstatement,imoG

Well if we want to take this discussion that way we might as well say that for almost everyone the best poker strategy would be to not play poker at all. Because 90%+ are losing players

Again, I'm not seeing the ridiculousness of that statement either; looks totally true to me? And it doesn't even just apply to losing players; you could make that argument for a big percentage of winning poker players too (who've sacrificed/risked far too much in other parts of their life all in the name of winning a relatively measly $ in a silly game).

I mean, it's pretty hard to gauge without knowing the ins and outs of everyones life and how good a job they've done of properly balancing poker within their lives, but my guess would be most do a horrible job of it and it has far more detrimental effects than positive ones.

GamImissingsomething?G

My experience with Harrah's NOLA mirrors yours. Extremely loose and gambly game with a very high EV and a very high SDV. It's one of the games I think of whenever GG says no one plays TP for 3 streets anymore.

My little poker trip has come to an end. I head home tomorrow.

I played 11.5 hours of 1/3 at Harrahs and won $1366.
I played 10.5 hours of 1/3 at Beau Rivage and lost $440.

Total 22 hours and +$926. $42.10/hr

The Beau Rivage game has slightly better players but I ran really really bad there. Obviously I ran good at Harrahs but the players are absolutely horrendous.

Results at Harrahs including a trip in 2016
29.5 hours
Won $2956
$100.20/hr

Ha, I'm pretty sure my pot control MUBSy mentality isn't going to enable me to do that.

I'll let you know how much I lose.

GminvalueG

Ive often thought a pretty big miskate of mine when temporarily "going pro" was choosing a major market like sfla over a more unknown market like the gulf coast.

I mean in the end it was a good thing bc lol live poker but yea, isolated markets are king

New Orleans has the benefit of the smaller market but still a good stream of tourists flowing thru.

Mike - its been a while for me but lake charles is also fuggin epic in terms of wild games

^^^This exactly

My usual routine is flying over on a Thursday or Friday and getting a decent night of sleep. Wake up as usual before 6A and walk over to pick off drunks stuck from the previous night. Somewhere around 9-10A, go back to my room and then go get lunch. Come back mid-afternoon and play for a while then rinse, lather and repeat. Fly home either Sunday or early Monday and go into the office...

Both days I was there, there were games that ran all night and had 3-5 stacks in the $1500-$3000 range. I never got into one of those games so I dont know how they were playing but I can only imagine how profitable they are.

I havent posted many hands lately so here are some from today

1) MP limps. I raise to $25 in the cutoff. Fish calls OTB HU.

Flop ($60) JdJh3d. I bet $35. He calls.
Turn ($130) 4d. I check. He bets $60 with $75 behind. I crai and he folds. It may have better to call and check/call all rivers.

2) Same guy opens to $15 UTG and gets 2 calls. I call BB Qc9c.

Flop ($60) 9h3h2d. I check. UTG bets $40. Folds back to me. He has $135 behind. Based on his preflop sizing, Im pretty confidant Im ahead and I crai.

He called with AQ and turned an Ace.

3) A few hands later...Cutoff opens to $30 with only $75 behind. I call OTB KdKh. FIsh from 1st 2 hands calls SB. The BB also calls.

Flop ($120) Jc7c4c. SB open shoves $175. It folds to me and I call and beat his QsJh.

4) I open to $20 8h8d in the cutoff. SB calls HU with only $50 behind.

Flop ($45) 9c6s3c. He checks. I put him all in. He calls with JJ and beats me.

5) EP ($300) opens to $25. I 3 bet to $80 QcQs. He calls HU

Flop ($165) Kh9c3s. X/X
Turn ($165) Th. X/X
River ($165) Qd. He checks. I bet $50 and he folds.

6) Button straddle. I call 66 SB. BB and UTG call and we see a flop 4 ways.

Flop ($40) Jh6c4s. I check. BB checks. UTG bets $25. I call HU
Turn ($90) 7s. I check. He bets $40. I cr to $150. He tanks and folds and shows a J.

7) 6 limpers. I check my option with AcTc in the BB

Flop ($35) AdKd3c. I check and it checks to MP who bets $25. I call and EP calls.
Turn ($110) 3h. On the flop I was fairly confidant that I was ahead. I dont want to give a free card to a FD. Im probably chopping with one of them now but they are weak players so I led out $50. Maybe they will think I have a 3? They both folded. Maybe they had Kx and a gutshot? Who knows?

Nothing too crazy today. I played 4 hours and won $335 with $280 in lost equity on all ins.

Here are a couple of my bigger hands from yesterday.

1) I open to $20 AhKd in EP. An old but pretty good player calls in MP. LP also calls.
Flop ($65) Th7h7c. I check. Old guy bets $50 with $235 behind. LP folds.

With that bet size Im pretty sure he has a T with a kicker hes not crazy about or a pocket pair below the T. He called preflop without much thought at all which leads towards a PP. Hes a pretty TAGish ABC type player. We've played a few session together and hes never seen me make a move so I decided to crai and rep an overpair. He called with QTs and I missed. Blah.

I really didnt think he would call with that (and I dont think he should). I will have an overpair here with these stack sizes almost every time. I fully expect to get that money back using the same line against him in the future with an overpair.

2) 4 limps on an incredibly loose action table. I raise to $40 AsAc. I get called by a guy I call the Red Whale in the SB. (hes one of the worst players in the room and has reddish hair). I also get called by the BB who is the guy from HH1, HH2 and HH3 in the previous post. Hes another massively bad whale. MP also calls.

Flop ($175) Kh5s6c. BB leads $60. MP folds. I know BB has a K. Probably KQ-KT. I call. The Red Whale also calls.

Turn ($355) 7h. BB leads $125. I shove $450. They BOTH call.

River ($1705) 6d.

Red Whale had QhTh.....nice flop call, Sir
BB had K7s. Wasn't expecting that for $40 preflop.

3) A few hands later. Button straddles. SB calls. I call BB with AdAs expecting a raise somewhere but dont get it. The whale from HH3 with K7s calls in MP and we see a flop 4 ways.

Kd7c3d. Checked to MP who bets $25. Button calls. SB folds. I cr to $100. MP shoves all in for $350 and it folds back to me. I tank/call.

He had 7d4d and rivers the flush.

4) MP limps. SB completes. I raise to $35 KdKh BB. MP calls.

Flop ($75) Th8d5c. I check. He bets $35. I call.
Turn ($145) 6d. X/X
River ($145) 4d. I bet $50. He calls and mucks. LOL I have no idea WTF he could have with this action. Maybe he put me on A high based on my screwy line and he called with an 8? I would think he would bet the turn with a T

So my poker room has been going thru lots of changes. The 2/5 games were horrific during the off season (summer) which is why I played lots of 1/2. Other than waiting for a 2/5 table, I havent played 1/2 since November. As expected the 2/5 games got better once the snowbirds arrived in force, but they still havent been as good as last year. The smaller number of players and 2/5 tables open is noticeable.

IMO the Poker Director sucked and I guess other people agreed with me because he was fired several weeks ago. The number of stupid things he did and bad changes he made was incredible.

So fast forward to now. They just raised the max buy in to $1000 in the 2/5 game. Honestly I didnt think it would make much of a difference because even though the room is very big, its reg filled big time. Same people every day and I dont think they are really going to start buying on deep just because they can.

Ive counted a number of times and the avg chips per person on the table when it opens is about $375. One of the floors told me his number is $380. The last 2 days (if you dont count me), the avg was still about the same but I bought in for $700 each day so the avg was a bit higher. However, not only are some people buying back in deeper when they get busted, but Im seeing a good number of new faces already. I assume they mostly play at the Hard Rock and Coconut Creek where $1000 is the max buy in.

These people seem to be loose, gambly and bordering on maniacal. I may get to experience some of the debauchery that Ive seen other players talk about. I fully expect my variance to go up but my win rate should increase as well.

Here are a couple hands I played so far:

1) EP limps. MP raises to $15 and gets 2 calls. I 3 bet to $65 in the BB AcTc. Only MP calls.

Flop ($170) Kc 8d 3s. I bet $55. He folds.

2) 2 hands later...4 limps. I make it $40 AsAc OTB. The same guy from HH1 calls and the cutoff calls.

Flop ($135) 4d3c2s. MP checks. Cutoff bets $100. I call. MP folds
Turn ($335) 3h. He shoves $365. I call and bust his 66.

3) 3 limps. I raise to $35 KhKd. EP and MP limpers call. The smallest stack here is about $900.

Flop ($115) Kc7c3d. EP leads $75 and MP folds. EP is a loose cannon. He will be if he hits any piece of any flop. I call.

Turn ($265) Tc. He checks. He can certainly have a flush here but I dont want to check and give him a free card at another club so I bet $100. He crai. WTF? I guess he could have a smaller set but I dont think he would make this move when I could easily be the one with the flush so I folded. He showed 8c6c.

4) 5 limps. I check Ah6h in the BB.

Flop ($30) QhJd7h. SB bets $25. I call. EP calls. LP raises to $85. SB calls. I call.
Turn ($310) Td. Check around
River ($310) Ks. SB checks. LP has about $135 left. I bet $200. He tank/calls. SB folds. LP mucks his hand.

5) Button straddle. 3 callers. I have KdJc in the cutoff. Normally I would raise this but these guys arent folding to raises so I limp along. Button checks his option.

Flop ($50) QhJh9c. BB bets $25. EP calls. MP calls. I decide to call and wait for a non heart turn to go crazy.

Turn ($150) Tc. BB checks. EP shoves $470. WTF? It folds to me. This is the same guy who crai with the flush vs my set of Kings. I laid it down. This guy just about never raises preflop. I think he either had AK or had a K and one of the flush draws.

6) I open to $20 in EP with KcJh. MP and LP call

Flop ($65) Ts9h3d. I bet $30. MP raised to $75. LP folds. I call.
Turn ($215) 4s. X/X
River ($215) Qc. I bet $150. He tanked....said "I think you have QJ"....tanked some more and then called and mucked.

Here are 2 hands I witnessed.

1) EP limp. MP raises $20. SB 3 bets to $65. EP folds. MP 4 bets to $200. SB calls.

Flop ($410) 7c5d3d. SB checks. MP bets $475 with $250 behind. SB calls.
Turn ($1360) Kh. X/X
River also went X/X and MP won with AA. I guess he was afraid the SB had KK but theres no way Im not shoving that river with only $250 behind and SB checks it twice. SB is a major whale and the same guy who called my river bet in HH4 when it was obvious I had the straight.

2) LP opens to $25. Button calls. I happen to be standing behind my friend sweating him. He lifts his cards from the SB and I see JcJs. He 3 bets to $105. LP calls HU

Flop ($235) 9c8s4d. SB bets $175. LP calls.
Turn ($585) 6c. SB shoves for about $250. LP calls
River Q. JJ is good. Amazing. This kind of hand hasnt happened here for a long time.


Obviously I ran pretty good today other than the set of Kings hand but Im pretty optimistic that I will do well in these new games.

I'm at a strange 2/5 table that happens to have four 10/25 players. Lots of big pots.

I ($1850) limp KsKc UTG. 2 more limps. BB ($1005) raises to $40. I 3 bet to $150. It folds back to the BB who shoves. LOL. I call.

Board is KdJh3sJs8s.

I dont want to be a prick when I know I win but I also want to see his hand since hes playing like a maniac and he is supposed to show first. So I say "I think I win". He tables As4s probably thinking he won.

Wow. Sick slow roll


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