Any of you play LHE? I'm guessing a majority of you are NLHEers.

I was up at Tulalip a week and a half ago on Friday and the poker room was pretty dead. It looks like they're remodeling or something; all the walls were bare and the TVs weren't there.

I play whatever has the most fish. NL/SL is obviously best for separating the cash from the fish as fast as possible, but it sucks for game health.

Personally I love split-pot games. The best public game running in town for a long time was the 10/20 HORSE at Parker's. Had so many fish you'd think it was a river during salmon upstream season. 30/60 O8 at Muck was good too for awhile until the old nits complained a bunch about playing "shorthanded." 6 people was not enough apparently, because all the money is just getting chopped up and no one is winning. Yeah, OK grandpa.

ETA: added "public" descriptor, there were at least two more really ridiculous private games I played in that were out of this world

I play 4/8 LE @ Muck mostly. Don't have the roll for spread limit games atm, and can no longer grind one up online.

aren't the bankroll requirements for spread limit lower than for fixed limit? spread limit should have less variance hence smaller swings hence lower risk of ruin hence less required bankroll. what am i missing?

No kidding. There wasn't 5/10 on Friday because of HA, but the 3/5 game was pretty sick. $1k was the smaller stack at the table, and one of the old dudes cashed out over 4.5k.

5/10 on Saturday was pretty darn sick, too. Some guy came on the table and pretty much played his $2k stack, which he kept on rebuying, blind.

Speaking of smaller card rooms. I drove by Caribbean in Kirkland on Friday after Tulalip and there wasn't any game at 2am on Black Friday.

The outlook of these small poker rooms that mainly spread LHE is looking very dimmed.

Depends on the size of the spread, I guess. He could probably play like a 2- (<20) spread game and be fine, but 2-40 will be significantly swongier, depending on who's playing, and he needs to be rolled like 4x or 5x what he'd need for a 4/8 game for a 5-500 spread. He could probably make it off 10 $400 BIs at the 2-40 game given how terrible the competition is.

Actually, considering how terrible people are at limit hold'em around here, a competent player could probably play with like 150 or 200 BBs.

These, of course, are all numbers I've fabricated.

Sorry, can't read the whole thread. I used to live in WA state 2001-2004, pre NLH cash game days. Wondering where the 2/5 and 5/10 games are running regularly now (guessing Muck is still the best room? Is Diamond Lils still around?)?

Still $500 max per street?

Club Hollywood is a joke. They always seem to have a game going, but the rake is ridiculous and the room looks like crap, imo.

Regarding WA being an opt out state if online poker is legalized on the federal level, am I the only one that is a bit optimistic? Even if WA opt outs initially, I think we can get that changed with some work, maybe an initiative. First, WA budget is f'd. State would be stupid to turn down any revenue stream. Second, I may be wrong, but I think it would be easy to show that the detractors are not concerned about anything moral but are concerned w/ doing the bidding of the tribes. This type of self-dealing usually pisses the average voter off. Third, who doesn't like poker especially if it is legal in other states? The hypocrisy of having all these b&m cardrooms and saying that online is evil at the same time is mind boggling.

Sadly, I'm concerned the rake will be high online as well.

Two things:

The pit is now gone at Parker's. I don't think it was making a whole lot of money to begin with, considering it had a max of three or four tables open at once and those tables were generally sparsely populated with gamboolers. I'm hoping a deal goes through and the new owners want to invest to make pit reasonable so that the poker room stays open. I don't see that place staying open a whole lot longer without the pit to support the place, because I don't think the poker room makes a ton of money considering their high hand structure and the fact that they have the most generous rake ever - the last $1 is at $60.

The Drift is reopening soon, but from what I hear, there won't be poker there.

I played at Hollywood last night for the first time in maybe a month, and I had no clue they were dropping $4 + $2. That's ridiculous. Doesn't Hideaway drop the same for their 3-12 spread games?

ben, I think it's foolishly optimistic.

Poker is under attack from every angle from legality to profitability. Sorry to be negative but I think all you have to do is look at the facts and see what has happened, is happening, to see what will happen, rather than be hopeful for a gut shot in the future.

Most likely not me kyleb... i used to be a reg at Parkers when i first started playing in 05 early 06 and if you played with me then you were happy to have me at your table (terribad). Later, when i improved i was playing 10/20 a lot at the muck and then i was invited to this amazing 1/2nl private game in Burien that used to run 2 tables every Fri & Sat and was made up of about 30% dealers from card rooms in the south end. I mainly played there and online for about two years until i heard everyone talking about about the new 500$ spread game at the muck which killed that private game in like a month (also confirming your big bet poker hurts the game theory). Now i work too much so i bounce around a lot just looking for easy games and never really playing the same place too often.

I used to think you were Chinese Brandon for a long time but i know you're not. If i ever played with you it was in Georges hilariously awesome 0/8 game that he organized by phone list at the drift about 3 or so years ago.

If i had known there was a HORSE game at Parkers back in the day i would have gone back. Up until last February i hadn't been there since they were in the pool room section of the house if that gives you an idea of how long i was away. I think Uncle Jeff still worked there then.

If i was back to lhe exclusively i would want a 300bb bankroll for the stakes i was playing... minimum. Every time i go back to lhe i forget how swingy it can be. Which i now realize is great for the health of the player pool as opposed to the 3/5 spread games where a bad player can get felted in 10 minutes and head for the exits. I also think weaker players can more easily get a sense of the skill disparity in those games since they will very rarely have a winning session in a game full of average to good players.

Muck has one to four 3/5 spread limit games per day. Usually 24/7, though they tend to break down early Monday and Tuesday mornings.

Snoqualmie has 2/5 SLH daily and 5/10 SLH on Monday nights. PLO is played Tuesdays and frequently on Thursdays.

Diamond Lil's is still there. 20/40 LHE daily.

$500 /bet limit still in effect in WA.

I always call Club Hollywood before going over it's a short drive and ask them if there are any open seats and they always say yes. So i ask them to lock me up one and usually when i get there there is a full game with a list. So recently i called them from the casino floor as they had one game going and a list of two/ I called them from the floor and asked if there were open seats the guy says two.

They are liars to get you in the door. SCUM.. tell the truth one time. You raised the rake b/c you are the only game in town... telling the truth to customers wouldn't hurt.

In my experience, pretty much all poker room staff will not be straight with you about what is going on in their room. They almost always exaggerate, if not outright lie. Basically they will tell you whatever they think will get you in the room.

Examples:

• There's only one game going, with a list --> "They'll get you right in the game." (How???)
• Room is dead, not many games and no action --> "It was crazy last night, or, Usually it's way busier." (I know the poker economy is shrinking and you are scrambling for the dwindling player pool. Don't try to make me think you're busier than you are because I'll figure out the truth pretty quickly.)
• There's one game, and a list of 9 --> "We'll be starting a new game in a minute." (Yeah right.)
• Rake is ridiculous --> "We have the best promos/comps in town!" (Look, I wasn't born yesterday, I know there's no such thing as a free lunch.)
• Etc., etc.

There are some floors and dealers (more dealers than floors) who shoot you straight and I give props to them. I just wish the others would realize we're not idiots and respect us enough to just tell the truth.

I believe they raised the rake (at the 40- and 100-max games) so they could offer $499 high hands every hour from 9AM to 3PM and every three hours starting at 6PM and ending at midnight. They are making some money off of it, but not to the tune of a full dollar per fully-raked pot.

FWIW, nobody, including the regs, really know they raised the rake. I've never seen the floor purposely lie to get people into the door - it's probably more due to the floor being disorganized.

Hey whats the Mon-Thur $65 buy in tourney like at the muckleshoot like? starting stack and round times? start at 25/50 or 100/200? just recently turned 21 and want to get some experiance in a more better structered tourny, tired of the 12 min rounds and doubled blinds structure at the local indian casinos...and dont wanna drive 30mi for just another ridiculous tourny

If it's a $65 tournament at a local casino, the odds of it having a good structure are about 0%. It might get as high as 2 or 3%.

Read some poker books, get a job, build/work a roll, play cash games, then play higher BI tournaments if that's your thing.

IIRC, the Thursday $125 tournament at Tulalip wasn't terrible (20 min lvl?). I remember playing the $65 Muckleshoot once, and it felt like every other low BI tournament.

Parker's in Seattle has a $45 ($40 + $5) every Sunday. They add $500 and it usually attracts around 80-90 players. Typical shovefest, but it's good if you're on a limited budget and the added money takes care of juice. If you memorize your charts and just want to get some experience, it's probably worth it.

carribean casinos run some lolfun 35$ tourneys every day. the one in kingsgate usually gets around ~40 players a day on avg, filled w/ bad regs/passive nits.

We will agree to disagree!!

Snoqualmie was somehow able to get a 4-handed $50/$100 HORE game going from Wednesday night to Thursday afternoon.

Wut??!! Missed it. Pref 30/60 but I would've been the 5th player. Why no stud high?

Are there any HORSE games going regularly in the Seattle area?