I think it's the gas cards more than anything. I showed up, saw the mess, and immediately walked out

I'd say $300 is a better strategy than $200. Yeah, it's an extra c-note from the bankroll each buy-in, but 40 bbs and under is just blech. A lot of the time you're not even getting the right odds to set-mine any pairs for a standard open raise, you can forget about playing suited connectors for more than a limp (profitably anyway), and it's much harder to get away from top-top and overpairs-- even when you feel beat-- when you end up committed after the flop in most cases.

But most importantly, when you DO get your big hands-- and almost ALL of the profit here is made from being a tour guide through Value Town-- you're minimizing your wins with a min-buy. If you're going to play few hands and be tight/solid (which you should be when first starting at 2/5), then you need to get paid when you get those hands, cuz they don't come often enough.

$300. My recommendation.

And no, I'm not just trying to get more money on the table! (Though I do prefer it, of course.)

Word is one of the regs that has been collecting poker players email addresses for years sent out a mass email to 6,000 poker players in the Tampa area about the gas card promo. lol

"Dear Fellow Poker Player:

I thought you might want to know that the Hard Rock in Tampa is giving away gas cards again for the month of September. Each week for 20 hours of play, you will get a $150.00 gas card. Weekdays only.

Since they do not do emails to poker players and it might takes weeks to hear about their promotions, I thought I would let you know. Hopefully they will staff more dealers, since this email is going out to 6,000 ++ The room should be packed!!

Take care and may your flops be quads!
Warmest regards,
Bill, The Poker Guy"

Yeah, every single table I've been in, there's always a bunch of old people obsessing over the bad beat and how high it is. For some, it's their sole reason of playing.



^^^^^^^^^^^
this x100

If they flop ANYTHING at all, they turn into passive call stations on all 3 streets regardless of board composition.

I've also noticed they don't pay attention to the pot, just the actual bet amount. So if there's like a 50 dollar pot and I bet 1/2 pot to pot the whole table freaks out "whooooa relax high roller" and just snap folds unless they have like an absolute monster hand. Or they'll make some ridiculous donk bet on the river like a 10 dollar bet in to a 60 dollar pot to "bluff me off". Some of the bets just didn't make any sense to me at all.

I left with 575 from 1/2 today. Peaked at like 650ish, but got put on a cooler a couple times, o well, still a good day and totally worth the ridiculous wait time they had(40+ people ).

Also, met parrisron and some other 2+2ers while waiting so that was cool

Not complaining, just disappointed I can't get a piece of it before they bust

Yeah, I forgot to mention I ****ing HATE money ughhhhhhhh


Sometimes, I actually feel really bad for some of the players and every once in a while I try to explain some rudimentary poker theory like pot odds/implied pot odds or something. So they can understand why their play was right/wrong, but usually they either just forget/don't care or its just too much for the recreational player to take in.

I probably shouldn't try to educate/help the people paying me off, but I'm such a softy

Seriously.... Shortstackers = jokes for the game

Yea the bbj has got ppl crazy here. Within 5 mins of sitting down at a table ill hear" yea i had to see that flop, i had a jackpot hand!!!" Lol love it

Agree with the bad beat hilarity. Had a guy call off $400 in 2/5 with TT preflop, knowing he was up against KK+, just to "take a shot at the bad beat". The game is too good to pass up right now, I almost feel like a sucker for working a 9-5 during the week. Made $4500 this weekend.

There will be an open-limp from the cutoff with the remaining players limping along. Two aces and two kings will roll off on the board, and people are commenting and getting antsy, seriously thinking it's possible that two people in this hand would be holding AA and KK. (You know, what with all the pre-flop fireworks and all.)

Bless their little hearts.

I used to think like this, but I appreciate 1-2 at the table now. Example: There was a shortstacking woman Monday that easily lost $3k, buying in for $200 at a time. If she had ANYTHING on the flop, she went all in. If she has A3 on a 3JK flop, you'd call $180 with any pair and hope to hold.

I find that most short stackers know they're bad, and only buy in short to limit the most they can lose in a given hand. It's only when I see a GOOD player shortstacking that I'm bothered by it.

That is a fair point, and you might be right to argue the average skill of a shortstacker is less relative to the average skill of someone who buys in for 600 everytime.
That said, at higher games, and in particular the 2-5, people who short stack it, tend to be much tighter, and are not just donking off the 200 every round or so. Rather, they fold, and fold, and fold, and balance their openlimping ranges with small pairs, AK, or big pairs, which makes raising their limps possible, and likely profitable, but a bit more tricky versus the folks who open limp trash every pot and raise to 35 with JJ utg. There are several of these players I can name off the top of my head who are at the rock everysingle day, and drawing to entice more to play the 2-5 seems like a bad call imo.

Quick reminder: please reread the B&M Forum guidelines before posting again. I just had to delete quite a few posts that mentioned cardroom employees by name and that discussed financial transactions that should take place within the Marketplace Forum. Please direct any questions/comments to me via PM or to the Moderation Discussion Thread. Thank you.

Anyone know what time they will start signing up players for the $220 turbos this weekend? Going to try to make it out for the Saturday 7 pm. Only allowing 300 players so my guess is it will fill easily and so I'd like to get there in plenty of time.

350 is the cap then there is alternates. Tickets have been on sale for a week or so for all events.

Got my Gas Card Last night (Tuesday) about 8pm...

I was around the 20th person to do it...

Somehow managed to play the same table for 11.5 hours...

Biggest trick seems to be living through the "table doesn't work for me" times for that long...

Is there a cap to the 450 event, or the main event?

Heh... you were probably right before me. Played 19 hours on Labor Day, without realizing it was a Monday and I could have just stayed another hour. Came in yesterday, flopped a set vs. QQ. Doubled up and got my gas card .

Is it gonna be ridiculously hard to get a cash seat during the tourny week?

Good news!, next month is $150 visa cards. It will either be 20 hours Monday thru Thursday or 25 hours Sunday thru Thursday, they don't know which yet. Can earn $600 for month.

Thanks for the heads up. This month and next months promo beats HR Hollywood's $500 for 120 hours (although you get every day of the month to accumulate for HR Holly). It is my hope they keep it at 20 hrs M-Th. Keep up the good work parisron. I no longer will needle you.

On a serious note, it's terrible to talk about strategy and different situations in a hand IMO. I mean I usually nod my head and agree if they're talking to me. If anything better to say something ridiculous about the hand lol.

Example, yesterday (at 1/2) I called an AI on the turn (pot size bet) and was way behind. A couple players to my right started to talk about the hand and why I would call when it was obvious I was beat. I simply shrugged and said "yea I know I was beat...just a bad call". While in actuality it was a bad call I seriously thought he was bluffing.

Basically I tried to give the perception that I was a station and would call when behind and not that I was trying to actually use player and bet history. While I was wrong in the particular spot I didn't feel like saying: here is truly why I called. Better to be thought a donkey. And if I make a donkey move (which I've done/am currently doing), if anything instead of shying away from a bad play on my part I would either not say anything or try to capitalize on my image as a bad player.

Just have to be careful and not truly take it to heart and believe I'm a bad player. Usually when spreading misinformation it's easy to believe falsehoods. I find it difficult anyway.

Good to meet you the other night Danny, see you there in the upcoming weeks. Good luck!

Wtf stubborn bull. Don't believe the misinformation you spread? Our opposition is clueless. I talk strategy all the time with people. Its hilarious. I see the theory behind not wanting to improve my opponent's game, but its pretty clear that my opponents, folks in their 40s or 50s, they don't get better. They might run hot and win more, or run bad and get crushed, but I find them rarely improving, and their prospect of doing so is very low.
I also always try to engage a young player whenever I play with one I am not familiar with. Its really important finding out if they are taking a shot, if they usually play online, if they are drunk, etc. Being a recluse and just blasting your ipod costs people money imo.
Very ready for the tourney saturday. GL to all playing.

Well, I find it easy to fall into the mindset "I'm playing well" or "I'm not playing well" and keep telling yourself or others until you believe it. Or telling yourself or others you're a winning player, and believing it when it's not the truth. I suppose it's a pyschological thing. Like a gambler who believes they can win at some table game or machine and manipulate the #'s if they keep track, eventually not realizing they're consciously doing so. Poker players can do this too if they keep track yet manipulate a win or loss. Or manufacture a bunch of small wins and don't mention/record the losses. I know of players who do this hehe.

The social aspect and finding out your opponents is a good idea. I feel as though being more social / enjoyable to play against allows for players possibly to not mind losing to you and more willing to stay than if you are a silent serious type. I tend to find myself trying to talk about off-topic non-poker things when conversing. Although its hard since interesting hands occur and people will converse about it and strategy tends to come up.

hearing what others say strategy could help if they believe a hand should be played a certain way. I guess you're right, whether I tell them the truth of what I think, or not, wont matter if they're not using it against me in a future hand.