Really, I've seen people use tactics to avoid two dollar blinds, but maybe not at TS. I'm so used to it and only a once a year TS visitor I can't remember. Players who do this are just marginal and not worth my time to worry about anyway.

I was playing in a 3-5 and 2-3 players were comming over getting in free behind the button play to thier blind then go home. Two people did that before leaving , came over and got 7 free shots at our money and not one 3 5 player said a word.

Well that is within the silly low limit rules.

Forgive me - it's been a while since I've played in Phoenix. I have managed to learn the new location of "CAZ" - but the website is absolutely hopelessly behind the times and I can't find such basic info as: what games are running NOW - or what games even try to run on a) weekends, and b) weekdays. So, I appeal for help. What games am I likely to find Tuesday through Friday of this coming week? My usual games are in the range of 5-10 NL (I know at least that I'll only find spread limit - given my game, that probably won't matter too much), or 10-20 Limit. Cash games, Texas Holdem only. Willing, but not eager, to play lower. Would take some serious convincing to play higher. So...what can I expect? Rake (how much?) or time (how much/often?) Don't care one iota about jackpots, etc. Oh yeah - as someone who is likely to play in Phoenix once every 2-3 years or so, but then for 4-5 days straight - is there any advantage to signing up for the Players Advantage card?

Again - I would have expected to find all of this on the website, but it seems mostly hopeless. I apologize if all this is boring to the regulars.

And...last time I was at CAZ, it was so relentlessly air conditioned that a jacket was more or less mandatory - still true? [Why are you packing sweaters for a trip to Phoenix, dear?]

See you Tuesday night... One free drink to the first person who identifies me.

Well, there is no 10/20 limit? Games currently running are 2/3 3/5 spread, maybe a 5/T spread (I wasn't really paying attention tbh), LHE 3/6, 4/8, 8/16 and 20/40, 8/16 and 20/40 OE, and 40 mix w/draw. Most of those games go every day, bigger games are the only thing you're likely to not walk in and always find.

8/16 LHE will do - thanks very much for the reply.

There are usually two games and even though it's pretty good action you should keep an eye on the size of the other game's pots bec you might want to table change.

The card gets you $1/hr, takes a couple of minutes right across from the poker room, so it's worth it even if just for a couple of meals.

I don't mean to bitch too much.... but could someone seriously look into getting better chairs for this place. I love playing here. I like the atmosphere... but dammit the chairs are uncomfortable.

I bring a cushion for my back. Other than that the chairs are great for me.

Would love if TSR was on Bravo and yes, better chairs. But they have a stronghold on the poker community and can do whatever they want since it's the only reasonable place to play. They need competition

Haven't played much lately but there have been some new rule changes.

1) No more leaving without posting your kill. If you owe a kill and quit game you are banned, either for 24 hours or 1 week. This is more in line with games in Vegas and other locations, and I think a good rule change. My concern has been players skipping kill to move to different games, wasn't that concerned about players going home to skip, but it's the same difference.

When you play in a kill game and everyone takes the risk of posting kills, leaving to avoid posting a kill is just stealing from other players either way. Fairness in the room took a big step forward back with this change.

2) Now in kill pots if there is a raise before it gets to killer, the killer acts in order. If there isn't a raise, the killer acts last. I found this very confusing, there is some reason for it I'm unaware of and maybe it makes it worth while, but this seems like a step backwards. Lots of confused action so far in games I played, I prefer either Killer should always act in turn or always act last, just far simpler to understand/follow.

3) Added the Super versions of the Stud games, 5 card 08, and Archie to mix rotations. I'm not a big fan of any of these games, but it's always nice when room allows for more games. I'll play em without complaint (ok a little whining). A nice step forward.

Those are the rule changes I've noticed so far, there might be others I haven't heard of yet. Overall, my games have been negatively impacted by the confusion, but positively impacted by the new games. I expect the confusion to mostly go away over time.

One area of confusion I saw was how to do a reshuffle in the Super Stud. Dealer explained what he thought should do, players objected saying it was wrong, floor was called, told dealer to do it in another way, players objected saying it was wrong, another floor came and corrected first floor, players objected saying they were both wrong. Floor allows players to have reshuffle done "their way", which was way it was being done previous to that shift.

The problem was new rule, confusion over application, the players who are there all day every day had already learned the rule but this was a new spot where floor hadn't caught up yet. The "new" rule is to reshuffle in Super games exactly like a draw game, which I think is least confusing option, but there still is some confusion since standard Stud games have a different reshuffle method.

Another problem occurred when an new dealer comes into the box in the mix games and a Super stud variant is being played. They are taught/expected to get the hand out fast so they deal 2 down to everyone then start dealing up-cards and the whole table says "wait!". This one is on the players since we are still using regular Stud8 buttons for Super games, obviously there is no way a dealer can read our minds to know it's a Super. This problem will go away if the room can make fresh buttons for all the new games (Super Stud8, Super Razzducey, Super RazzDacey, Archie, Big O, etc) which would lead to fewer player mistakes as well.

Nice to see the room actively working to improve the games. i expect the rough edges to get ironed out/fixed over time, as has been happened with all the other rule changes since the new poker room manager came on.

I'm still a big advocate of moving players by position in the time games to fill seats immediately, reduce waiting lists, and reducing the amount of work created for the floor when players linger to play "free hands" and leave seats open that accidentally get filled or stay open forever because the player decides not to move. That along with coming up with some sort of posting requirement in rake games would eliminate pretty much any angling of avoiding blinds. I'm hoping the room does something in this area once they get through the retraining/implementation of this round.

DC, for rule #2, the only reason you find it confusing is because CAZ has been doing it that way forever. This is more of the standard way to handle kills.

DesertCat:

If you are such a fan of the affable gent and his new bride maybe you could discuss proper table ethics and decorum with the newlyweds. Clearly someone should. There is a good reason they were asked not to play together and I imagine it has nothing to do with a rule regarding husbands and wives.

Dear person hiding behind sockpuppet account, I could not care less about what you imagine. I go by what the CAZ floor tells me.

Please share with the class.

Damn Desertcat! You've been attacked by a guy with two posts and a guy with one post all in one day.

Who are you Jake? I think DesertCat is not only a good guy but also a proponent of fairness in all games. And his attitude is the same whether it is a low or high limit game. I've also seen him do his best to advocate for fairness in games when he wasn't even playing at Talking Stick. What you've done above is seize upon the minority opinions of a few inconsistent posters and attacked a good guy who looks out for everyone.

Anyone know if u can buy into the daily 11 am tourney using a credit card like AMEX? Trying to boost my credit cart points

I'm pretty sure you cannot as I'd have played a lot more tournaments if you could.

I think I remember that you could for the State Championship, but I never heard that that was expanded to other tourneys.

Lol

I'm no nit.

I've played with the players in question (at the same time) many times and have not had an inkling of unethical behavior. The fact is that the 20-40 OE game is full of the most insufferable nits in the poker room. It's certainly not everyone but it is enough to make the game really unpleasant to play in.

Thread gets injection of utter buffoonery.

That's good, it was a pretty stale thread recently.