Florida poker

As some of you know -- I've relocated to Tampa, which in the poker realm is sort of a good news/bad news scenario. The bad news first - I will no longer be donating $150 a month to Jay or Greg's bank account. The good news - I live about 20 minutes from the Seminole Hard Rock Casino and their 50 poker tables.

The Seminole used to offer $1/1 LIMIT, and $2/2 LIMIT Hold'em and Stud. Now however, due to the infinite wisdom of the Florida legislature they spread $1/2 No limit, $2/5 no limit, $1-5 Stud and $1/2 Omaha. Sounds terrific right...not as terrific as you'd think...the buy-in is capped @ $100. That's right...$2/5 with a hundo limit, 20x the big blind.

Let's look @ how this might play out...or for that matter actually did. I sit, 2/5, ten handed right behind the button. I muck the first 6 or 7 hands and learn a few things...

• There exist only a few kind of players @ the Seminole...old men who are classic tight and aggressive, young kids from SFU (South Florida University) who are loose and aggressive and about 10% passive calling stations
• The average price to see a flop is $20
• That means I can see 5 flops and lose my buy-in, or be crazy tight and crazy almost Melvin-style aggressive

Lucky me I get KK under the gun. I make it $20 to go. I get raised to $40 by a late position, and the $40 is called by the button. I call -- so it's 3 to the flop for $120ish. I spike a set and push, get a caller and the last 2 cards are uneventful. So I collect around $140 in profit after the rake.

A happy ending for me; but I hate this kind of poker...I think the buy in is simply too small to play right @ the $2/5 level. So my question for you guys...how much of a difference does initial buy in make? Keep in mind, some stacks @ this table were 6 or 8x the max buy in.

Responsible Poker?

For those of you that know me, you know that I had made a deal with myself not to step foot in a casino until my family could recover from some financial downfalls. For those of you that do not; here is the deal. In June of last year I was in Vegas when my wife called to tell me that our German Shepherd was sick and at the vets for all kinds of testing; to make a long story short she was diagnosed with hemangiosarcoma a.k.a. “BAD CANCER”. These tests were not on the cheap side; 3 mortgage payments. After getting home I was able to spend a few hours with our “Sadie Girl” until I took the dreaded ride for her to cross over to the Rainbow Bridge. After mourning our loss that weekend (fathers day), my wife noticed a “Nat” at our front door, she said it looked like an ant with wings, my checkbook screamed or it was me not sure which one; FYI ants with wings are TERMITES, hiring an exterminator and replacing our front door, let’s say another 3 mortgage payments. Well things happed in threes right; here comes the next one, 3 weeks later our A/C goes out in July when it is 102 degrees “great” outcome; new A/C 4 mortgage payments; are you keeping track that is 10 mortgage payments in less that 2 months. On top of all that my wife and I had to bail out a family member earlier in the year. With all of this I had to make a tough choice and curtail my poker until I could recover financially.

The deal was that I would only play in my monthly home game that I run, no other poker until I could pay my self back. Well 8 months later I am back and taking me first trip to Atlantic City on Saturday March 15, my budget is lower than it was before, but I am looking forward to playing in a real casino. If you have a passion for poker like myself and my friends you might understand how it felt, but you should also understand that responsibilities come first and foremost.

I have to agree! Poker is a game of skills, one layered on top of the other. There are the odds, betting appropriately, playing position, knowing your opponent and making the right decisions. For example - Kevin laying down A-Q to my all-in bet (I was holding A-K); most people can't do that, and 72% of the time they will lose.
I also feel that getting cards is also very important in this game. But!! once you get the cards - you have to know how to play them in order to get as much money as possible from your opponent.
There is a great web-site, CardPlayer.com where you can actually calcuate the odds of each hand. Check it out.