Quick, name one poker player who has become wealthy from playing spread limit hold 'em?

In fairness, I should point out that I have only played 1 hour of it (Tuesday 4-20 at RA) but it was exceptionally painful. There was one gentleman in the game wearing sunglasses, which pleased me. There were also two guys in the game who were writing down every hand that they played. One of them had a simple notebook, the other had a chart that he must have made on Word, with columns labeled "preflop", "flop", "read", and some other things that I cannot recall but were rather amusing.

Someone asked the guy with the notebook what the deal with the writing was, and was told "Well, he (pointing at the fellow with the customized hand recording sheet) enters them in a database at home. He does it for a living." This of course was too much for me and so I asked, "He enters poker hands onto a computer for a living?" I think this humored them. Not because they thought it was funny, for they had to have known I was being sarcastic, but because I think they felt that their little operation was on a level that mere mortals like myself simply could not understand. (I must admit that I did find their record keeping useful, for whenever I wondered what they were misplaying in a previous hand, I could just glance at their paper and it would be there in column 1 for me.)

The guy with the custom sheets felt that he needed to speak to his opponent before each action as if to get a read or who the hell knows what. The bottom line was that any time that this guy was in a pot the hand took at least 2 minutes. He apparently was a professional from LA but currently living in Vegas. 1 hour was enough to decipher that he was just horrible at this game. I laughed.

I cant name a player. I only played in my 1st spread limit game less than a year ago at treasure island. The pots were so big at 4-20 and the players so bad that I just kept playing it when I would go to play cards.

I did like those wild 8-16 games at canterbury when i used to play there. I am going to do some research and try and find out why spread limit is not held in high regard. I am interested now.

I personally like the games where the players dont know wtf they are doing. If players will pay me $20 on every street trying to hit their 2 outs, I am definately in the right game. Thats what I find in the spread games, the players (generally speaking) like to gamble. And since I have very little gamble in me, it has worked well for me so far.

QFT,

I've watch spread limit kill a couple of poker rooms that I used to play in frequently. During the poker boom the rooms would regularly have 6-8 games going, all limit. Eventually spread limit was introduced and the games started dying. Don't get me wrong, poker is less popular now than it was a couple of years ago, but these rooms now are lucky to get 2 games going at once. I can't count the number of times someone would come in with $50-$100 wanting to play poker only to find out that 2-20 was the only game going (full of the same 10-15 regulars) and would promptly leave.

In fact, correct me if i'm wrong, but didn't Grand Casino Hinckley enact a policy that they would not open a spread limit game if there was not a 2-4/3-6 game already going?

It's because the fish lose their money too fast and oftentimes will not come back.

Think about it, someone who has never played live poker before and has $200 to play with could literally play for hours and hours in a limit game. He has a long time to figure out if he likes the game, maybe he'll suckout and win a little money, that will keep him coming back.

Put that same person into a 4-20 game and that $200 can be gone in an instant, especially if the game is wild. Now the fish lost $200 in 30 mins and never plays again.

I don't think this has anything to do with it at all. If this were true, NL would have killed poker everywhere.

But Bob, everyone knows you can win at NL...

Why, I just saw some people winning at no limit on TV just the other day!!

interesting topic for sure.

For a lot of people limit is just downright boring.

And limit tends to be a tilt activator for nl players. I mean, how the hell could you call one bet with a 12 outs, you donkey? <sarcasm ldo>


and to the folks like Bob, limit is their bread and butter and pwn everyone so they have every right to be upset that limit is on the verge of dying.


When I go back, i'll be playing limit. Not because I'm a huge fish( still a fish) but because thats where the majority of bigger fish then me are playing.

I'd rather play with the having fun poker players then the ***** newb sunglass hoody wearing espn imitator poker book reading at the table dickwads anyway.

Put that same person into a 4-20 game and that $200 can be gone in an instant, especially if the game is wild. Now the fish lost $200 in 30 mins and never plays again.

*********
I don't think this has anything to do with it at all. If this were true, NL would have killed poker everywhere.

I think it's different. There's something about spread that makes guys who should be playing 2/4 and would never play 5/10 play 2-10, guys who should be playing 4/8 and would never play 10/20 play 4-20, etc. It's like they only see the first number, and they get chewed up pretty fast going limp-callmaxraise. I only play cash NL in Vegas, where the tourist dynamic makes things totally different.

It makes for v. profitable games if you can stand the pace, and soon becomes a test of whether the room can keep bringing in new traffic to at least match the rate at which it is burning out people who should be good regulars. In the little rooms up north in MN, the answer has been a resounding no. In the metro, who knows, but I'm a little concerned.

On my way to take my first look myself today/tonight.....

Limit poker is only boring if you dont know how to play it. It is a blast if you see some online NL nit raise w/ AK and you call w/ 97 knowing that you will just steal when he blanks the flop, it is constant entertainment.

I havent been to RA yet, but I dont see it surviving. CBY has experienced a downturn in the last 18 months. It still gets lots of action 24/7, but no more waiting for games (nice for people like me).

I just dont think the market will support 2 large rooms.

LHE>>>>>NLHE>Spread Limit>not playing at all.

And SL is only marginally better than not playing.

It's interesting that the CP regulars feel threatened enough by the poplarity of SL that they have to lash out against it. Perhaps they should play in LA instead of CP if their limit games are drying up.

I don't mean to be rude but the statement in bold tells many of us otherwise at first glance. I know it's not your first inclination to trust Bob's "I hate spread limit" posts but he really does have a valid point (even if he is being a bit of a jerk when he says it). In modern times spread limit games rarely last, they usually implode on them selves, eventually the players return to standard limit. The only modern spread limit game with some legs is the Casino Arizona 5-150, this is a game that plays barely big enough that is becomes a viable alternative but in the end its still 30BB maximum bets which means most players would be better served playing 40/80 or 75/150 limit because there is much more money to be made in these games. Of the three limits that RA is spreading only 2-60 has a similar 30BB spread (5-60 would have been a 12BB spread, thats just ******ed) but as many players discovered at Casino Arizona its a novelty that wears thin fast.

The reason why 2+2 doesn't provide much in the way of spread limit strategy is because there is virtually zero demand in the poker community (outside of the twin cities and Phoenix that is) and as previously mentioned most players wouls be better served playing in a standard limit game provided at the same card clubs. There are a few pages of discussion of this Hold'em Poker for Advanced Players but thats all thats ever been released, and likely all that will ever be released (unless laws change nationwide).

i think the thing that attracts me to spread is charging the dummies $20 to chase.. i know how to play poker..


I just find it amazing that people constantly call a $20 bet knowing they are beat and not having no where near the right odds to call, all the way to the river. Dummies was a harsh word though.

I am not too familiar with poker history and know even less about the history of spread limit. The effect it has on card clubs and how it compares to other games I have no idea.

Personally, I like having an option. I live very close to canterbury but I think its nice to have an option to go somewhere not too far away if I want to play spread limit.

I have holdem for advanced players. I have not opened it in about 3 years and was not aware about the spread limit part. I will definately be giving that a read, thanks.

There are a couple of spread games in san Jose where nl is illegal but they are very small. If I remember correctly there was a big spread game @ bay 101 but it died.

Threatened. That is funny.

Spread limit doesn't scare me in the least. I know that if I had to I could play it and maul the games, for the bottom line is that it is still poker, and most people simply are bad at poker of any kind. I hate it because it is just an attempt to make a limit game kinda sorta into a no limit game, but results in a game that showcases the positive attributes of neither.

Spread limit is going to eventually kill all games, not just the limit ones. It ultimately will end up killing itself, which it probably should because it sucks.

Nice contradiction. BTW, funny you should be first to answer my post...

one of the things that makes SL dumb is that the blinds arent worth fighting for and dont encourage action. Though this is true in NL the massive implied odds help the game along. This is not the case in SL.

30 60 HOE is the game of the future.

I wouldn't object, but it won't be at Canterbury Park with the current administration in place.

They spread it gleefully at Running Aces.

I don't get it. Please explain.

So people prefer to play spread limit, but you`d rather force them all to play limit... because... oh you`re a limit expert, it all comes together now.

Yes, I am a limit expert, but that has nothing to do with the fact that the SL games are going to cannibalize everything and ultimately there will be fewer games going. That is bad for a card room, whose ultimate goal is to make money, not give the people what they want.

I do not care what Running Aces spreads. What they spread will not affect me one bit.

By "gleefully" do you mean that they actually have $30/60 HOE?