Page 13 - April 2008 • Southern California Gaming Guide

Jim Mercurio: Poker
TFhe Difference Between Limit and No Limit
or those of you who are pondering making the move or have recently made the move from limit to no-limit poker, I wanted to look at a comparison between two hands to try to show you how the two games di er.
Consider AJs vs KQs.
ey each have some high-card value and can make Broadway. Against each other, out of position (oop) sucks. If KQ makes two pair, then if KQ bets in limit on the op, the AJ can call a cheap bet or take a free card to draw to the nuts. In no-limit, KQ can’t really make a lot of money oop. If they bet big, they only win the pot. If they bet small, they risk getting stacked.
And if they give a free card and then want to make a big bet on the turn, AJ doesn’t have to put a cent into the pot unless it hit the nuts. How happy is AJ on a
AKQ or KQJ board?
On a J high board, AJ has some showdown value.
It can beat KJ, JQ and TJ. But KQ, if played, always has to pay o to AK and AQ on K-high and Q-high board. AJ can get in trouble with A-high board since it’s behind AK and AQ but is also susceptible to Ax and hidden aces up.
Who can KQ stack? On a 9TJ board, KQ can stack 8Q and maybe 78. AJ can only be up against one other straight on a TQK board: 9J. But in position AJ has better showdown value. When they both miss their draw, AJ has better showdown value, since sometimes A-high is good. KQ has to risk a blu more often to try to get A-high to fold.
In limit, getting cold-decked two pair vs straight or top pair vs two pair will cost you as little as one bet or no more than a few. Even if your K-high ush is up
against an A-high ush, you probably aren’t going to lose your entire stack.
So in limit, these two hands have similar an expected value, but because no limit is a game of implied odds, the hands have a very di erent value in no limit.
Even if we assume parity on AJs and KQs when each has top two against the other’s straight, what happens with ushes? AJs will always make the nut ush, but KQs “once in a while” will lose to the A-high ush.
e question is how scary is that “once in a while”? You might start by thinking that K-high can beat all ushes except one.
But that thought process will get you in trouble. Here’s why. ink about reasonably playable ush hands that you can beat when the K and Q are in your hand: JT, J9, J8, T9, T8, T7, 98, 97, 96, 65, 64, 54, 53, 43. I devalue two-gappers and one-gappers as the highest-ranked card gets really low but possibly you could even take some hands o the list. So there are, barring freak blind hands like J4s, about 14 ushes that you can beat.
But since everyone plays suited aces, how many ushes beat you when you have KQs? Here are the suited combinations: AJ, AT, A9, A8, A7, A6, A5, A4, A3, A2. So if you are playing for a huge pot ush versus ush with a K-high ush, against the cards described here, you are going to lose 10 out of 24 times, more
than 40% of the time. And if you assume that some of the low-suited connectors won’t play or won’t play for all of their chips, then you are in a situation that when you are all in with ush versus ush, your K-high ush will lose 50% of the time.
Even if my numbers are exaggerated, you still see that the number of playable suited aces makes K-high ushes extremely vulnerable. Play K-high ush draws from later positions. And if you know you are going to go down in ames with it oop, make sure you are in a game where your opponents could have J5s and T4s on the button and cuto .
You can buy Jim’s lm Hard Scrambled at www.hardscrambled.com or if you like his column, contact him at jim@jamespmercurio.com.
April 2008 Table Games and Slot Tournaments
HARRAH’S RINCON CASINO & RESORT WEDNESDAY, April 23rd at noon.
Weekday Rewards Slot Tournament
Tournament open to all Total Rewards members. Registration begins at 10 a.m., play begins at noon. Awards from $50 to $1,000 will be announced at 5 p.m.
at the Promotions Center.
MONDAY, April 28th at 4:30 p.m.
$10,000 Rincon Riches Slot Tournament
Tournament is free for all Seven Star, Diamond and Platinum Total Rewards cardholders, and $20 entry fee for Gold cardholders. Cash prizes awarded to the top 20 players, plus a “player in the middle” prize. Register at the Promotions Center from 4 p.m. t0 7:30 p.m. Space is limited. Prizes awarded at 10 p.m., and must be claimed by 11:59 p.m. or else they will be forfeited.
SOBOBA CASINO
TUESDAY, APRIL 29th
$20k Fast Action Slot Tournament
$50 buy-in or 30,000 Club Soboba points. Cash prizes and grand prize trip to Ireland.
WEDNESDAYS at 5 p.m.
$1,500 Weekly Blackjack Tournament
Registration begins at 3 p.m., rst qualifying rounds at
5p.m.$20buy-in/$10re-buys.$1,500guaranteedincash prizes.Onebonuspayoutperhandandperplayeronly.
SUNDAYS from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Kings for Cash
Receive up to $500 in bonus payouts for hands containing Kings on all table games.
MONDAYS and WEDNESDAYS from 12 a.m. to 2 a.m. Midnight Bonus Blackjack
Receive up to $1,000 Bonus Payouts with qualifying hands on Blackjack.
MONDAY through FRIDAY
Blackjack B-I-N-G-O
Pick up your Bingo Card at any table game and ll it in when receiving select qualifying hands. Turn in your completed Bingo Card for a gas card worth up to $100.
VALLEY VIEW CASINO
MONDAY, April 28th at 4 p.m.
The Kings and Queens of Blackjack Tournament
$40 buy in, $20 re-buys, $5,000 guaranteed prize pool. All tournament participants receive $20 in Match Play if they are Players Club members. Entries may be purchased at the casino cashier. Tournament space is limited, so buying entries early is recommended. For more information, please call 1-866-view-win.
April 2008
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
Page 13
Poker: Wired Aces and River Rats Tournaments