Texas Holdem Poker
why did the Golden Eagle change their game from 4-8 to 3-6? I used to play there quite a bit but I dont want to play 3-6, 4-8 was about my lower limit. Also when sitting at Ameristar in KC you can turn a 3-6 game into a real blood game if you so choose. Last weekend I was playing 3-6 waiting on the 15-30 game and it was a very intersting game. We played 3-6 with a full kill and "overs" buttons. The "overs" button is handed out to people that choose to take it. It means that when only those people with these buttons are in the hand the stakes double. A few times we got into a 12-24 game sitting at a 3-6 table!!! Thats a lot of money for the novice player and it makes for some really good pots.
It is a little bit of a drive but you can head to a couple of the Indian Casinos. Harrahs is a nice place but be prepared to wait an hour or two on the weekends. They only have 4-8 games.
A little farther and you will be at Golden Eagle Casino. They play 3-6 and it is really soft. Mostly older retired gentlemen (no offense) looking for entertainment during the days.
Both of these places are a drive, but you will have better luck getting on a table, and Golden Eagle is easy pickins.
Low Limit hold'em varies also. Some games are really tight if there are a bunch of regulars at the table. There are many times you don't have a showdown at the end because the regulars don't try and bluff each other.
A lot of games, on the other hand are very loose and the table plays No Fold'em hold'em. Ususally these are the tables that have the drinkers, and a few young poker players. You will often see the pre-flop raises capped. These are great games to play in if you are very patient and only play strong pocket pairs (AA,KK,QQ,JJ and occassionally TT), big slick and high suited connectors. Be careful. If someone catches any part of the flop, even if it is low pair, or they hold a weak pocket pair, they will usually stay in it until the end and it seems like someone ends up catching a card that will either give them a set, flush, straight, etc, which will beat your strong pocket hand.
The only poker room in town is the Ameristar Poker room. They play $3/$6 Hold'em w/kill, $5/$10 Hold'em (Monday-Thursday), $6/$12 Hold'em (Friday-Sunday), and either a $10/$20, $15/$30, or $20/$40 Hold'em game and the occassional Omaha game. The limits on the Omaha game depends on what the table feels like playing that day and it sometimes is Hi/Low (the same 20 people are always playing Omaha.)
They do not play any no limit but occassionally have a pot limit Omaha game going.
Beware, Missouri has some goofy laws that only allows you to buy in with $500 every 2 hours. Most players color up to black chips and take those home with them to get aroud this rule. If you are going to play in the bigger games, get there 2 or 4 hours early so you can buy at least $1000 worth of chips. Most of the guys that play the $15/$30 and up have a few thousand dollars worth of chips with them.
Also, be prepared to wait up to 5 hours for a table on the weekend afternoons and evenings and up to 2 hours on the weekday after 4:00. The best times to go are before 8:00 AM on Saturday and Sunday and before 4:00 PM Monday - Thursday. The waits are ususally less than 30 minutes at these times.
I was just curious to know where you guys feel the cut-off point is in low limit hold'em where you can use good low-limit strategy (Low Limit Hold'em by Lee Jones) to consistently win? Would you say that $2-$4 would be the lowest game amount? That just seems to be what I have gathered from trying to play $.25/.50, .50/1 and 1/2 online poker using the guidelines in that book -- and i have been getting burned in all three levels from people constantly drawing out on me on the turn and river...and I think it's because it's so cheap just to stay even on inside straight draws (i couldnt even count the number of times where only 3 or 4 outs remained for a player and they kept calling and would make it on 5th street). anyone have any advice on this?
