Four Dogs
Legend
Silver Level
I played my first session of $5/$10 NL last night and being an important milestone in my poker career I thought I might just log it here for posterity. For some time now my usual game has been $2/$5 with some $1/$2 thrown in when there's nothing bigger running, or just because I still like to splash around sometimes without having to sweat a big break-the-bank decision.
Recently I've been playing a pretty wild 2/5 game at Harrahs Casino in Joliet IL with a $1000 max buy-in. In this game almost every pot is straddled to $10 to $50 from UTG or the Button with a bomb pot every dealer change. For those of you not familiar with bomb pots, it's when everyone at the table agrees to ante $15 (at 2/5) but the first betting action doesn't occur until the flop. It's neutral EV and its fun and seems to create an actiony environment even in non bomb pots. Everyone wants to play in this game and you can sometimes wait hours to get a seat.
Anyway, this game plays a lot bigger than your normal 2/5 $500 max game so stepping up to the 5/10 game at the Horseshoe wasn't as great a leap as it might seem. I bought in for the max $2000 which to be honest is all I had. Ok bankroll nits, I can hear your thoughts now but you can just keep them to yourselves. I'm not a pro, I don't have a bankroll, I have a good job and my children aren't going to have to pick through dumpsters for their next meal if I bust.
And the money didn't effect my play at all. Every chip I had was in play and I did have to put them on the line several times. Most notibly with top pair tens with a king kicker when a bluffy lag put me to the test and bricked his draw. I also ran a 4 street bluff where I raised HJ with 56s and barrelled flop turn and river with a straight flush draw and got called down by a weak flopped Ace. Yes I lost the hand but was amazed that somone at this level would get his whole stack in with just a pair. I was happy to see that the $1/$2 poker mentality exits at $5?$10. I know what you're thinking, I just did that with my KT so who am I to talk? Well, without getting into all the dynamics of the game, there are times it's right and times it's wrong. I claim moral superiority.
So, I played for about 3.5 hours and finished up about $4000. Getting all-in with Aces vs Kings for like $1200 helped. Still, not to shabby right? This was just for fun and I have no intention of making it my regular game. For now I'm off to a $200 tournament.
WML
Recently I've been playing a pretty wild 2/5 game at Harrahs Casino in Joliet IL with a $1000 max buy-in. In this game almost every pot is straddled to $10 to $50 from UTG or the Button with a bomb pot every dealer change. For those of you not familiar with bomb pots, it's when everyone at the table agrees to ante $15 (at 2/5) but the first betting action doesn't occur until the flop. It's neutral EV and its fun and seems to create an actiony environment even in non bomb pots. Everyone wants to play in this game and you can sometimes wait hours to get a seat.
Anyway, this game plays a lot bigger than your normal 2/5 $500 max game so stepping up to the 5/10 game at the Horseshoe wasn't as great a leap as it might seem. I bought in for the max $2000 which to be honest is all I had. Ok bankroll nits, I can hear your thoughts now but you can just keep them to yourselves. I'm not a pro, I don't have a bankroll, I have a good job and my children aren't going to have to pick through dumpsters for their next meal if I bust.
And the money didn't effect my play at all. Every chip I had was in play and I did have to put them on the line several times. Most notibly with top pair tens with a king kicker when a bluffy lag put me to the test and bricked his draw. I also ran a 4 street bluff where I raised HJ with 56s and barrelled flop turn and river with a straight flush draw and got called down by a weak flopped Ace. Yes I lost the hand but was amazed that somone at this level would get his whole stack in with just a pair. I was happy to see that the $1/$2 poker mentality exits at $5?$10. I know what you're thinking, I just did that with my KT so who am I to talk? Well, without getting into all the dynamics of the game, there are times it's right and times it's wrong. I claim moral superiority.
So, I played for about 3.5 hours and finished up about $4000. Getting all-in with Aces vs Kings for like $1200 helped. Still, not to shabby right? This was just for fun and I have no intention of making it my regular game. For now I'm off to a $200 tournament.
WML
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