March 20-23
Arrived on Tuesday Night. One memorable hand while playing at Ballys. In a 1/2 game, I bought in for 100 and this hand happened around the 5th hand I was dealt.I was in big blind and we had a straddle. I had pocket 5's and the player straddling had 6c/8c and another player had pocket 9's. The whole table called the straddle. On the flop came 9-5-7. Player with flopped straight bets out 25 with 2 other callers( me and pocket 9's) Being the donk that I am I go all in and have 2 callers who both have short stacks and they are all in. Pot is around 340. Turn is a 3 and the miraculous river is a 5. In a domino effect player with straight shows his hand in a confident manner and then hears the excitement from the player in late position with a full house. Players are giving him high fives and then I lay down my pocket 5's giving me a quads. A nice pot around 340 and a bonus of 250 for having quad 5's. Not a bad night. Bally's has a nice high hand jackpot which includes straight flushes and quads. When I left on Friday the highest payout for quads was pocket 8's near $570. After each quads is hit, the jackpot is reset. Interesting side note. I hit quad jacks the night before against pocket A's for a nice pot and a bonus of 80. Enjoyed the Ballys poker room. Worst memory was at Mandalay Bay. I buy in for a 100 in a 1/2 game and in first hand I call a bet of 10 with suited AQ. Flop comes 10-A-10. I bet 15 and one player calls. The turn is 2 and I check and other player checks. On the river comes a 9. I bet 20. Other player goes all in and I call. He flopped a full house A-10 and I find the atm after one hand. Oh well!.
I haven't played NL at a casino yet. I'd be interested in what people think of how Croc played the hand. Mistake not to bet the turn (1/2 to an amount equal to the pot?) and see where he was? Would you have called the all in on the river? I know....it depends......
I assume you are asking about the AQ versus 10A10 board?
Personally, I do not like my AQ in this hand against more then one opponant. As soon as someone called my flop bet, I would all but shut down most of the time. They are probably not calling with a dry ace. Most players (that are not morons) would call in this spot with a made hand like AA, 10x, or possibly AK (speaking specifically of NL, of course).
In the first hand he mentioned, with the 55 and straddle, in my opinion, he is committed to an all in or fold situation in pretty much every hand. You are stuck in that rut when you choose to short buy (something I do not recommend to any low limit NL players).
By only buying in for $100 in a $300 max game, you are opening the door to not only being pushed around, but having to commit it all or nothing much more often. The all in was absolutely correct here. Once you commit $15-20 of you stack, you are pushing next time, pretty much no matter what. With a set on this flop, it is pushing all the way, with a short stack. It would play completely differently with bigger stacks, no question.
I agree with Michael (surprise!)
Buying in short does limit your loses if things go bad, but they also greatly restrict your strategic and tactical options in NL. It puts you into a big disadvantage against bigger stacks, especially when people are open raising to 10% (or more) of your stack.
As far as the pocket 5 hand, I agree that with $100 I'm all in. If I bought in for $300 I might play it more conservatively, since this is a new table and I don't know anybody's tendency.
As far as the AQ, this is a dangerous flop. If someone bets hard they probably have you beat, so it is a pot I want to play as small as possible, and if someone starts overbetting, I'm going to get away from it. Again, tough to do if you only buy in for $100, much easier if you buy in for $300.