Casinos & Pokers

I admit it, I am a supporter of Phil Hellmuth and wish him nothing but the greatest future in this game. With that being said, I also used to look forward to visiting his website for hands of the week and high limit results. The last update seems to have been done in April. He came on here a while ago and promised a new posting in the hand of the week section, but I never saw one. Anyone know what gives?

Answer 1:

I’m guessing that as with many new websites, the owners are very excited about doing it at first and update and add new content often. Then after a while it kind of loses its fun and just becomes a lot of work.

Answer 2:

I like the high limit results but he only updates it every couple of months. Maybe if he did a better job he would get more hits and be able to get some advertisers. That would make it worth his time

Answer 3:

I saw Phils face & a few brief words, what fascinated me was what they said about Barbara Streisand playing $5 Blackjack, and requesting all new toilet lids in her suite. The program was good, but not enough about poker.

You are on the button with A2 suited with KK. 5 players in, all call a preflop raise from the BB. The flop comes 4 6 7…two suited, but not your suit. SB opens, call, call raise. It’s on you. What do you do? Raise? Fold? Call? Would your action differ at higher limits? Or even PL? Personally, I think this is a dangerous situation that probably is a chip burner. But find myself reaching for chips nevertheless. Anyone out there disciplined enough to toss this hand? Or is calling or raising better here?

Answer 1:

We probably need more information about the players. Note, the pre-flop raiser probably doesn’t have A-2 unless he’s tricky (we don’t know) and the texture of the flop is one which hits many hands — gives them the nut straight or draw to the nut straight with possible low backup. I would not fold here (probably just call) I have a question for you. Why have you chosen not to raise pre-flop in Omaha? If you can’t raise with this hand on the button, I’m assuming you never raise. Even a newbie, weak/tight guppie like Badger would raise with this hand. This is a more serious leak in your game than any decision you make on flopping the nut low with five-way action and some chance of being counterfeited.

Answer 2:

Lee’s right. You’re on the button with A-2 suited-K-K. Reraise. Hope the original raiser reraises. If you can 4 bet, cap it. Here’s your chance to get a bunch of dead money in the pot. After the flop it appears you still have four players, so reraising again is certainly in order. Get as much money as you can from anyone drawing to second and probably worse nuts. Make them pay and hope they never learn the error of their ways. This is the beauty of Omaha HiLo. These people never seem to learn. So what if you can win only half the pot. If you are using the late position to build the pot there ill be more than enough money to go around even if you have to share the nut low. Scooping the pot is what you should play for in Omaha8. That’s where you make your big wins. However, maximizing small wins like this one is what can keep you competitive while waiting on that big scoop.

Answer 3:

In 3-6: Raise preflop. Cap it if the BB reraises. On the flop, I’d probably reraise here. If you think a reraise will knock out the two callers, you might just call. In 75-150: Raise preflop. Cap it if the BB reraises. On the flop, a reraise will knock out players drawing dead, so just call here. In pot-limit: Just limp preflop and call the raise. If there is a pot bet, two calls, and a large raise, you should probably fold with just the current nut low and no high draw or counterfeit insurance. What do all those people have? It’s almost inconceivable that many good players all hit this flop.

I will be playing in a multi-game poker tournament in a couple of months, of which one of the games is Canadian Stud, which I have never played or even heard of before, though I understand it is a variant of 5CS. Can someone help me with some strategy?

Answer 1:

I only know of John Scarne who ever came up with this game. It’s your regular Stud, except that a fourflush (and maybe even an outside straight) beats a pair, but is beaten by two pair. Everything else is the same. As a Canadian, I assure you that nobody here plays Stud this way.

Answer 2:

I’ve heard of the game, which I believe also travels with the name “new York stud”. A four flush beats a four straight beats a pair, which is correct in ranking terms I think. It’s an attempt to introduce sequences/flushes into 5cs and it makes a lot of sense in some ways, though if it was taken to its logical conclusion a three-card straight flush would beat a pair (at least) and a 4-str8 flush would beat a full house, since there are only 1610 of them. Can’t help you with strategy though: presumably they are only worth going for if the cards are of sufficient size to make a pair worthwhile if you hit it. If it’s played with limit betting it would be a waste, because 5cs is all about bluff.

Answer 3:

If that is how the game is played, it is also called “soko”, and is regularly played at Casino Ray, Helsinki. The last major tournament there, www.european-poker.com/tournaments/2000/midnight_sun.htm saw 107 entries with 242 re-buys in the FIM 1,000 ($160) Soko event. This was the largest field for any tournament that week, prize pool FIM 349,000 ($56,000)

Holdem and Omaha and even seven-card stud are unfamiliar to most pit players. But everyone knows draw poker. Would low buy-in draw tournaments bring many new players into poker?

Answer 1:

Recreational players frequently play draw. Offering this in casinos could tempt them into public poker play and they could then be taught the more popular games.

Answer 2:

Yes, I think it would. I have met no men and very few women who don’t know the rules to 5-card draw. Non-serious players, on the other hand, generally had never heard of Hold’em before Rounders. Playing a familiar game cuts the intimidation factor in half, and brings all of the wannabe Kenny Rogers’ in from Blackjack.

Answer 3:

 The casino is filled with players who haven’t played real poker; but many of them play “video poker”, which is loosely modeled on draw poker. If you wanted non-poker players in the poker game, draw poker has advantages. “Carribean Stud” is essentially a very structured game of heads-up straight poker. I read somewhere that David Sklansky invented a somewhat more complex version in the early 80s. But when casinos learned that a perfect strategy would nullify the house edge, they weren’t interested, although the average hold was similar to the present game, which was “invented” and patented after Sklansky had given up on his game. The slowness of draw could be overcome somewhat by the same techniques used in table games, including Carribean Stud: alternating two decks in a shuffling machine.

Where are some good places to play middle to upper limit holdem?  How is the action?  Any other comments about Seattle poker are welcome.

Answer 1:

For 10-20 check out the Hideaway, the action is usually very good but seems to have slowed down since the weather got nice. It’s in North Seattle. For higher limits there’s Muckleshoot casino in Auburn, they spread one 20-40, I hear it’s not that good. There’s also New Sonny’s in Federal Way, they usually spread a 8-16 and a 12-24 daily and sometimes get a 15-25 game going.  For more info do a search, I feel like there’s a question about Seattle poker at least once a week.  So there should be more info in the archives.

Answer 2:

Try the Tuyalip (sp?) casino near Marysville. Always packed till closing which is I believe 3am. Three or Four 4-8 games. One or two 8- 16 games. Almost always at least two 20-40 games. 5-8 tables still going at closing.

Answer 3:

Try the Hideaway at 145th and Aurora. It has several jamming $10-$20 hold’em games but you’d better buckle up! They are FAST!

You are on the button with A2 suited with KK. 5 players in, all call a preflop raise from the BB.  The flop comes 4 6 7…two suited, but not your suit.  SB opens, call, call raise.  It’s on you.  What do you do? Raise? Fold? Call?  Would your action differ at higher limits? Or even PL? Personally, I think this is a dangerous situation that probably is a chip burner. But find myself reaching for chips nevertheless.  Anyone out there disciplined enough to toss this hand? Or is calling or raising better here?

We probably need more information about the players.  Note, the pre-flop raiser probably doesn’t have A-2 unless he’s tricky (we don’t know) and the texture of the flop is one which hits many hands — gives them the nut straight or draw to the nut straight with possible low backup.  I would not fold here (probably just call) I have a question for you.  Why have you chosen not to raise pre-flop in Omaha?  If you can’t raise with this hand on the button, I’m assuming you never raise.  Even a newbie, weak/tight guppie like Badger would raise with this hand.  This is a more serious leak in your game than any decision you make on flopping the nut low with five-way action and some chance of being counterfeited.

Answer 2:

Lee’s right. You’re on the button with A-2 suited-K-K. Reraise. Hope the original raiser reraises. If you can 4 bet, cap it. Here’s your chance to get a bunch of dead money in the pot. After the flop it appears you still have four players, so reraising again is certainly in order. Get as much money as you can from anyone drawing to second and probably worse nuts. Make them pay and hope they never learn the error of their ways. This is the beauty of Omaha HiLo. These people never seem to learn. So what if you can win only half the pot. If you are using the late position to build the pot there ill be more than enough money to go around even if you have to share the nut low. Scooping the pot is what you should play for in Omaha8. That’s where you make your big wins. However, maximizing small wins like this one is what can keep you competitive while waiting on that big scoop.

Answer 3:

In 3-6: Raise preflop. Cap it if the BB reraises. On the flop, I’d probably reraise here. If you think a reraise will knock out the two callers, you might just call. In 75-150: Raise preflop. Cap it if the BB reraises. On the flop, a reraise will knock out players drawing dead, so just call here. In pot-limit: Just limp preflop and call the raise. If there is a pot bet, two calls, and a large raise, you should probably fold with just the current nut low and no high draw or counterfeit insurance. What do all those people have? It’s almost inconceivable that many good players all hit this flop.

Has anyone read “Psychology of Poker” by Alan N. Schoonmaker, published by 2+2, and is it good?  Also, I noted one generally positive review of “Inside the Poker Mind” by John Feeny.  Any other comments on that book?

I haven’t read the Shoonmaker book yet.  Haven’t bought it yet either.  In fact, if anybody has not bought my book because you wanted to use a credit card (and you can’t use paypal), email me about buying me the Shoonmaker book and trading. I liked the Feeny book.  There are parts where I disagree with what he says, but he gives a good enough backgroun/reason for his conclusions that the reader can easily see when some of his conclusions might not have as broad application as Feeny suggests.  I recommend it.

Answer 2:

I did not get the Schoonmaker book because I didn’t like his articles in Poker World. I DID buy Feeney’s book and was utterly disappointed because of his constant re-hashing of Sklansky and Malmuth. Do yourself a favor and just buy S&M’s material and skip Feeney’s book.

Answer 3:

I would suggest the opposite.  Buy Feeney’s book, and skip HEFAP.
Of course, you should still get Sklansky’s Theory of Poker, but I think that Feeney presents most of the critical concepts in HEFAP much more clearly.