I want to put NLHE on the back burner for a while, and study some other poker games. With my 21st birthday coming up, I am really excited to start playing live at Oaks. What games are juiciest there? I have heard great things about the LHE games, but what about the stud or the draw games?

Any recommendations on what days of the week and what time of day to play at would be much appreciated as well. Thanks in advance.

I live down the street from Oaks (plural, not possessive). There's never any shortage of entertaining characters at the tables.

15/30 on a Friday night is the juiciest game I've ever seen, but you need to be rolled deep for it. 6/12 is pretty good. 3/6 is break-even, but it's still fun to play. The draw game runs weekends mostly, but it's mainly a few oooold regulars and higher stakes than I can afford. Stud sadly doesn't seem to run all the time.

Avoid 1/2 FLHE like it's the plague.

I apologize for the misspelling. I should have clarified that I am in no way rolled for anything higher than 3/6 or 4/8 lol (I am a student).

From what you said, looks like LHE is the game I should concentrate on. Why do you feel the 3/6 is break even??

Drop and tips.

For sure. I thought I would ask even though I said I wasn't interested, but how is that spread limit no limit game? I'm sure it's pretty wild.

And does O8b run? I saw it on PokerWiki...don't know how up to date that is though.

6-12 FTW. This is assuming you've read Small Stakes Hold'em. Cuz no one else at the table has

6/12 is your best bet... 3/6 is break even like they say, and omaha table is tough. i like the stud games but the rake is just so high... $4/8 stud is cool though, but the older regs are not so shabby at this game. Oaks is somewhat tough, it's elusive, u might just get hustled. the folk act like they don't know what's goin on but they're actually quite good.

I like the FL 1-1-2 $100 max table... i'm going there to buy-in for $40 and see if i can't leave with at least $300. it's new there and the guys don't seem to know what they're doin.

play the 100 or 200$ buyin spread limit games: the blinds are 1-1-2, which is WAY cheaper than 6-12. The players are insanely horrible, ie. you shove preflop with AK, they snap call you w/ A5 cuz it's suited. You will show a profit if you are patient and competent. Just fold in the blinds unless you can raise. some of these players are so easy to read you will just laugh, so being in position seems to go way up in value in this game. good luck, and do avoid 3-6 LHE, if you can beat it it will be for 4$ an hour. I've won up to 8 buyins in the 200 game, and routinely win 3 or 4. 90% of the players are clueless, and you can spot them instantly.

1/2 LHE has a rake of $3 on the flop (1.5 BB) and contrary to popular belief, I think it can be beaten (as in, you can make money even after that huge rake) because the people who play it are complete idiots with the disclaimer I've never actually played it - just watched it while waiting.

3/6 LHE has a rake of $4 on the flop (0.7 BB) and SSHE-style tactics will easily net +1 BB/hr. Learn who the regs are, because they're honestly the only players who you need to worry about.

6/12 LHE (rake $4, 0.3 BB) is said by everyone to be a really juicy game, but I dispute that. The players are very clearly better than the 3/6 LHE players, or at the very least different (LAG rather than LP, for instance). I'm a +1-2 BB/hr winner at 3/6 and a clear loser at 6/12. You will need more than SSHE skills to win at 6/12 - at the very least you'll need the blind steal section of WITHG.

to be continued ...

... continued.

15/30 LHE and higher (30/60 spreads regularly) are significantly tougher than 6/12 by all accounts.

There's a 5-100 SLHE game which is supposedly very good, and a 5-200 SLHE game which is supposedly okay. I have played neither but know of a few people who have moved to 5-200 from 6/12 claiming better win rates.

There's 2/4 stud and 4/8 stud, both of seem really weak-tight and nitty from what I've observed. Seems like a lot of regs play the game. There are no draw games that are popular elsewhere. They spread Pan, which apparently is "like gin rummy" according to the dealer I asked, but I doubt it's similar to draw poker.

There are NL tourneys on Monday and Wednesday nights and Saturday afternoons which tend to be popular. The 3/6 and 6/12 LHE games tend to swell about an hour before the tournaments start and about an hour after the tournaments start from people arriving early and busting out early.

Friday and Saturday evenings are popular as always, and on weekdays from my limited sample there tends to be a rush around 5 pm from people coming off of work and another at 7pm from the evening crowd. In my opinion (and many people who are better than me disagree) the weekend 6/12 crowd is more loose-passive than the weekday 6/12 crowd.

The $100 and $200 spread limit games are awesome. Lots of gamblers, lots of draw chasers, and big pots with multiple people pushing.

It's a game of sets and runs, with a discard/draw pile.

I believe Oaks does have a 40/80 2-7 draw game, or something similar? It's player-dealt, runs only occasionally.

I've never seen it running, but I've only played there for a few months and I play at pretty selected times week to week, so it's quite possible I've missed it.

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One thing I forgot to mention is that the Oaks is generally good (if anything, too good) at starting new games when a list builds up. One of the reasons to be aware of the tourneys is that because they reserve a large number of tables for the beginning of a tourney, those are generally the only times when the waiting lists build up past 12-13 people. I've only seen them run out of dealers once, on a Friday night when they had some absurd number of 3/6-6/12 games running (they almost never run out of tables because they have the whole back section available, but those tables don't have autoshufflers so they are only used as a last resort).

at any new room you go to. start small and work your way up. you need to learn the house rules and customs before they hit you in big pots.

I'm not sure why I missed this before, but here's some unsolicited life advice.

The most EV+ play you'll make in your life is finishing your education strong.

- Most fundamentally, you'll need a bankroll for playing poker, and that won't appear out of thin air for most people. You might have scraped together $1,000 working campus jobs or summer jobs; if you play your cards correctly, you could land a pretty sweet job and use that $5,000 signing bonus as a bankroll for honestly a lot less work than flipping hamburgers at $10/hr.

- Whether you intend to play poker as a hobby, a second job, or a first job, it's really nice to have something to fall back on so that you can play fearlessly. The worst scenario you want to be in is to have to make a large withdrawal from your bankroll for whatever life emergency, then suddenly hit a downswing and you're ****ed for 7 years because your contingency plan is credit card debt.

- There's a lot of stuff you can learn. There's no better time to take a random math class on probability and statistics or learn how the financial markets work so you can keep your bankroll in an interest-bearing account. These sorts of educational tidbits are going be rare after you graduate, and more often than not, you'll have to pay through the nose for questionable advice.

- There are a lot of contacts you should keep up with. College friends are often the best friends you have because you spend a lot of time together and because you formed your friendships before certain things were set; these are people you'll never wonder if they're just trying to mooch off of your $10 million WSOP ME winnings or whether you're just a card in their rolodex.

My advice is to make sure you kick ass at something when you graduate, and convince someone to pay you to kick ass at that thing. Pay off your debts, save enough money to last you through a 25th percentile job search (3-12 months), and then save a poker bankroll for playing.

Make sure that any shot you take is a well-aimed, well-planned shot. And then take it.

Very good point. Unfortunately, those most in need of heeding this advice tend to feel they're the exceptions who don't need it.

Interesting turn of phrase, considering the context.

lol totally unintentional

Good lookin out, man...much appreciated.