S
ssbn743
Visionary
Silver Level
I routinely play tournament poker in the state of Colorado and have done fairly well over the years. I tend to avoid the cash games due to their high variance nature. In fact, the only time I really play them is while killing time waiting for a tournament to start; recently I was doing just that.
Colorado has a $100 maximum bet rule, so the most popular cash game is $1/$2 to $100, but here are $2/$5 to $100 games, and even $30/$60, $50/$100 limit games.
So, I sat down with $500 at a $1/$2 game where the average stack was $150, with only one other player having $500. Most players, simply buy-in for 50BB.
I had been playing for about an hour, mostly just folding and still had my $500 stack. I was on the button with and 8 players limped for $2 each. I raised to $20 – you might consider that to be rather large, but in reality, that’s a standard raise at these games; 6 players called and 7 went to flop.
Pot - $140 - rake
Flop –
They all checked the action to me. Obviously, this is not the greatest flop, but with the pot being so large and with what I hoped to be a tight table image (as if that even matters), I decided to take a shot at this pot and bet the maximum $100. I expected this bet to find out any sets, or possibly two-pair combos – I might get called by medium Jacks and pocket pairs like 77 – or, I may take it down here. All 6 players called, one of them from MP with $30 behind; which really screws up my plan – I have no idea what they have, but I know Ace high isn’t going to win this one.
Ok, so I’m done – even if an Ace or King falls, it’s a bluff catcher.
Pot - $840
Turn –
In addition to my previous read, this is a disaster card. Again, they checked it back to me and I checked behind.
Pot - $840
River -
And yet again, they checked it to me and I checked. The first 2 players didn’t want to turn over the cards and held them face down trying to get someone else to show first. Finally, the MP player with $30 behind rolls over and everyone else quickly mucks and he scopes a large pot.
Now, if it was just this guy, I’d be like “get him a drink”. He obviously employed some profitable decision making on that hand. However, it’s not just him. I think I’m more terrified by 5 players that limp-called/called $120 (which was well over 2/3 or most of their stacks) with hands that couldn’t beat a river'd pair of nines.
I realize that this is just 1 hand, but I suspect that even in a larger sample size, this extremely high variance exists. Coupled with the $100 max bet, rake, and dealer tokes, I’m thinking that this game is unbeatable but am curios what any cash game minded players think about that.
Colorado has a $100 maximum bet rule, so the most popular cash game is $1/$2 to $100, but here are $2/$5 to $100 games, and even $30/$60, $50/$100 limit games.
So, I sat down with $500 at a $1/$2 game where the average stack was $150, with only one other player having $500. Most players, simply buy-in for 50BB.
I had been playing for about an hour, mostly just folding and still had my $500 stack. I was on the button with and 8 players limped for $2 each. I raised to $20 – you might consider that to be rather large, but in reality, that’s a standard raise at these games; 6 players called and 7 went to flop.
Pot - $140 - rake
Flop –
They all checked the action to me. Obviously, this is not the greatest flop, but with the pot being so large and with what I hoped to be a tight table image (as if that even matters), I decided to take a shot at this pot and bet the maximum $100. I expected this bet to find out any sets, or possibly two-pair combos – I might get called by medium Jacks and pocket pairs like 77 – or, I may take it down here. All 6 players called, one of them from MP with $30 behind; which really screws up my plan – I have no idea what they have, but I know Ace high isn’t going to win this one.
Ok, so I’m done – even if an Ace or King falls, it’s a bluff catcher.
Pot - $840
Turn –
In addition to my previous read, this is a disaster card. Again, they checked it back to me and I checked behind.
Pot - $840
River -
And yet again, they checked it to me and I checked. The first 2 players didn’t want to turn over the cards and held them face down trying to get someone else to show first. Finally, the MP player with $30 behind rolls over and everyone else quickly mucks and he scopes a large pot.
Now, if it was just this guy, I’d be like “get him a drink”. He obviously employed some profitable decision making on that hand. However, it’s not just him. I think I’m more terrified by 5 players that limp-called/called $120 (which was well over 2/3 or most of their stacks) with hands that couldn’t beat a river'd pair of nines.
I realize that this is just 1 hand, but I suspect that even in a larger sample size, this extremely high variance exists. Coupled with the $100 max bet, rake, and dealer tokes, I’m thinking that this game is unbeatable but am curios what any cash game minded players think about that.