Page 10 - May 2007 • Southern California Gaming Guide

Jim Mercurio: Poker
IHighStakesPokerfor$300or$3
f gamblers have Gamblers Anonymous, what do I get if I am addicted to watching gamblers? I ’fess up. I have every single episode of High Stakes Poker on my TiVo. The young new-school players like Brian Townsend and Brad Booth have been clashing
against the young old-school players like Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu. And, boy, has it been fun to watch.
One of the reasons HSP has become so popular is because, unlike the nal table at the WPT, the stacks are deep enough and players can rebuy, so there is actually play after the op. You get to see maneuvers like a re-re-raise blu in the Esfandiari-Benyamine hand. If this style of play interests you, then listen up: I found a few places where you can play it. For as little as $300 live and for $3 online.
On High Stakes Poker, the blinds are 300/600 with $100 ante to stimulate action. Although the minimum buy-in is $100,000, many of the players have a quarter of a million on the table. So with the $1,800 in the pot to begin with, they have about 140 times the starting pot. Well, I found a “deep-stacked” low-limit game at the Venetian (rumor has it, there is one at the Wynn, too) where the blinds are only 1/2 yet you can buy in for up to $300. at means the stacks are 100 times the total of the blinds.
Let me warn you. e reason Los Angeles and local casinos have a low cap on the buy-ins at these games is so the sh don’t go broke too fast. At Hollywood Park, a bad player has to be on a losing streak for
3–4 hours in a 1/2 blind game to lose $300. At these games, a second-nut straight against a nut straight can
be a $300 hit before you can say “outclassed.” Or “cold- decked,” whichever the case might be.
Low-level pros scope out these games, because they can make a living as long as they can nd games that aren’t full of other Dwarf Lantern shes (I Googled
“smallest shark”). However if you are playing within your means, and you want to give it a shot, here are a few pointers. Make sure to charge players pre- op when you have premium hands. Don’t go down in ames with an overpair unless you have a strong reason/read. If a player overvalues his overpair, then you can call pretty big raises with any pocket pair to try to op a set and bust him.
If you like the dynamics of deep stack poker, yet you don’t have the skill or bankroll for this game or the 2/5 ($1,000 max) game at the Venetian, hop online. Most
of the sites have .01/.02 no-limit poker with a buy-in of $5 max. I played a little bit at Pokerstars with a $3 buy-in to research this article, and I was amazed to see that players were actually playing in a somewhat sane fashion. e little bit of money involved was less important than their pride. It was reasonable poker, completely di erent than if it were for play money.
Kill Phil, but don’t kill your bankroll!
Buy Jim’s lm Hard Scrambled at www.hardscrambled.com or if you like his column, contact him at jim@jamespmercurio.com.
Page 10
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
May 2007
Poker: Wired Aces and River Rats