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An "underground" poker room in Brantford I found
I found this on [url]www.homepokergames.com:[/url]
Location: Brantford, Ontario, 7 Erie Ave. above J's Place Restaraunt across from casino
When: Thursday, Sunday 6pm -???
Cash Games: No Limit Hold'em, min $20 buy-in , blinds $1\$2 subject to change upon players request
Tourneys: Every other week
# Players: 40 max
Play Quality: hold'em tables, 11.5g chips, lots of space, free soda, restaraunt located down stairs
House Rules: common rules
Openings: contact for a seat
E-mail List: venom_no_limit@hotmail.com
Contact: 24 hour info line 519-751-6074
Website: http://members.rogers.com/venomnolimit/
Check out the website.
Location: Brantford, Ontario, 7 Erie Ave. above J's Place Restaraunt across from casino
When: Thursday, Sunday 6pm -???
Cash Games: No Limit Hold'em, min $20 buy-in , blinds $1\$2 subject to change upon players request
Tourneys: Every other week
# Players: 40 max
Play Quality: hold'em tables, 11.5g chips, lots of space, free soda, restaraunt located down stairs
House Rules: common rules
Openings: contact for a seat
E-mail List: venom_no_limit@hotmail.com
Contact: 24 hour info line 519-751-6074
Website: http://members.rogers.com/venomnolimit/
Check out the website.
Comments
stp
sounds interesting
what's a Bounty Tournament? what's up with the Bounty Chips?
This is described in the flyer in the paragraph entitled "Bounty Tournament". The only thing they failed to mention is that you may cash in your bounty chips for $25 each after you bust out of the tournament.
ScottyZ
so i guess this Bounty Chip doesn't really have anything play in the tourney :shock:
That's right. The bounty chips do not count as tournament chips.
ScottyZ
LMAO
now less confused
I'm assuming that you've played there before? Is the place legit and all? How is the competition?
I want to enter that May 30th tourney, do you think there are any more seats?
stp
stpboy, feel free to yell 'all_aces' a few times if you encounter any suspicious activity yourself. Be sure to say 'all underscore aces' though, so I know you mean me.
We got each other's backs, man.
Regards,
all underscore aces
A good question, and one I wish I knew the answer to. If I decide not to ask them in advance, I'll let you know after the tournament.
I may be a little behind the times, but this whole 'bounty chip' thing is new to me. And, I gotta say, I think it's pretty cool. It's like you're playing two seperate tournaments at once.
I'm trying to figure out if the bounty chips will/should change my strategy at all. I really don't think so. If a very short stack goes all-in, and nobody raises, and I have a lot of chips, I guess I'd be more inclined to call with any two cards than I usually would.
But really, I can't imagine a situation where I'd compromise my whole tournament to win a bounty chip. I guess it's just a bonus.
Is it safe to assume that the person who wins the tournament will also collect the most bounty chips, making for an even bigger payday?
Regards,
all_aces
you bust me out, and win the tourney.
you get my original bounty chip, and i cash in the other 18 i won.
not likely, but a possibility.
Three payouts for 20 people is already a bit odd, in my opinion. Add to this the 'bounty chip' factor, and it gets even more lopsided.
But, then again, it's not my tournament...
Regards,
all_aces
I'm not sure the tournament winner will be likely to get the most bounty chips, although he/she would be very likely to end up with at least a few (including his/her own) picked up during the late stages. The way I see it, the eventual winner will probably be playing somewhat more conservatively than usual during the early and mid stages where a lot of busting out is going to take place.
ScottyZ
I just checked their website, and found this:
"$1500 IN CHIPS PER PLAYER
BLINDS INCREASED EVERY 15 MINUTES
10/20
15/30
20/40
25/50
50/100
75/150
100/200
150/300
200/400
300/600
400/800
600/1200
1000/2000
1500/3000
2000/4000
3000/6000
4000/8000
6000/12000
10000/20000"
That is a very reasonable blind structure, IMHO. It's almost exactly like the one I use for my single-table tourneys. As an aside, you can usually tell when a poker player makes up a structure instead of a tournament director who may or may not be a player. A player's structure generally places more emphasis on skill, as this one does.
I run 20 minutes/level, but I often toy with the idea of changing it to 15.
By the way, thanks to Jay for finding this.
Regards,
all_aces
I messaged the guy over MSN and he said that there isn't a rake. They do however ask for a $5 donation every half hour to help pay for drinks, expense, etc.
all_aces: If you win, I still get a cut, right?
Of course! I thought that was assumed...
I will try and start up a conversation at my tables along the line of "hey, where did you guys hear about this tourny?". That way if you are at my table I will know who you are by you stating pokerforum...otherwise you can just yell out STPBOY and I will come running
stp
Basically they axed any sort of rake and ask for donations instead to keep it legit, or so they feel.
I will check out the game before May 30th and let you know how it is.
3rd hand of the tourny, up to this point noone has raised and only the blinds and buttons have played. Everyone basically has what we started with, 1500 chips. We havent seen a turn or river.
3rd hand. Blinds 10/20.
Early position raiser makes it 60, we'll call him Uha (looks like him).
Guy right beside him calls 60.
Everyone else folds and Im in Small blind with two black Aces, I make it another 300..to 360.
To my surprise they both call without hesitation.
Flop 7H 9D QD
I bet 500
Uha quickly calls my 500
Other dude folds.
I thnk to myself "what can this guy have to call that bet". My thoughts are KQ or AQ or he has hit his set of any of the three on the board, Im not putting him on a diamond draw.
Turn KC
I check in fear of his possible KQ or set
He pushes all-in
I sit for a good five minutes, count my chips (about 575 left I figure).
Do I fold or call, or should I have played this hand differently to not be in this predicament at all?
I will post later.
I might have simply gone with my personal favorite of pushing all-in pre-flop. I don't really want any action, even with AA, on hand #3 of a tournament that seems to have a lot of play in it.
Also, the fact that an early postion player raised, means he might either have a legitimate hand like QQ, KK, or AKs and may call. You said there were some inexperienced players... maybe this is one of them? But the important thing is that I think getting *no* action with your Aces on hand #3 is an excellent result too. With this play, you are *never* going to get into a situation that you hate as much as the one that turned up here.
In the *ultra* early stages of a long play tournament, if someone's going to crack my Aces, they're going to be putting all of their chips in pre-flop to do so.
As it turns out, you instead have about 2,000 in the pot with 575 remaining and a board that pretty much makes AA sick.
I think you certainly either bet too much or not enough on the flop. My thinking is too much. You've left yourself in a difficult spot on the turn because of the exact size of your flop bet.
After making it 360 pre-flop, my preference on the flop would be checking and trying to take off a free turn card, or folding to a large bet. A small flop bet from an opponent behind you is going to leave you with a tougher decision. There some threats on the flop, and at this stage in the tournament getting away from dangerous spots is a *far* greater priority than making your opponents "pay for their draws".
This is simply not a good flop for your Aces. And the board on the turn is a disaster.
ScottyZ
The buy-in was $80 including the $25 bounty chip, not 'in addition to' unfortunately. The blind structure is reasonable, but 15 minutes a level combined with fairly slow action make it tough to play if you aren't getting any cards. It was like: Geez, 50/100 ALREADY? I would suggest that they make the levels 20 minutes long, and start the tournament an hour earlier.
The dealers/organizers were very friendly, and the tournament was well-run. Overall, an enjoyable experience, and I will likely return to play another one at some point.
There isn't much to say about my tournament play... I busted 8th of 19 I think. Same old story: I think I played as well as I could given the cards I was getting. It all ended for me when I went in with pocket jacks (looked like quad aces to me) against ace king preflop, and lost the coin flip.
However, it was my friend Mike's birthday, and I brought him along and paid his entry as his present. He actually made it to the money, and finished third. He doesn't play much at all, so it was a real treat for me to see him walk away with some cash, especially on his birthday. He didn't play *a single hand* at the final table until he *had* to. And by 'had to', I mean he played because the big blind put him all-in, several times in a row. He arrived at the final table with a decent but not huge stack, and sat on it. Amazingly, people were playing loose around the bubble, so he just sat back with what became a tiny stack, and watched people get knocked out.
He was all-in with 52o, 92o, etc... in his big blind and survived every time except the last time. Good for him!
The Hellmuth kid was a bit overbearing... one might think it's the first time he's sat behind a mountain of chips, and maybe that got him going a bit. I'm not sure... I thought he was entertaining, but if I was losing again and again to the bluffs he was showing I might not have been too impressed.
Some people take poker tournaments a little too seriously sometimes, I think. Oh well, he was clearly having a good time, and that's the important thing.
stpboy: I know the outcome of the hand you described, so I can't offer an unbiased opinion. I think you played it much the same way that I would have, FWIW.
Regards,
all_aces
Agreed 100%. Even such a seemingly small change is going to make a *world* of difference in terms of the amount of play.
ScottyZ
That Hellmuth kid, what did he look like if you guys remember? I might know him because some of my friends play like that.
Very attractive dealer but slow. I agree that the levels should be 20 mins or more b/c they were barely getting the puck around once per level if there were some involved hands. Luck increases while skill and patience decreases.
I think I dropped the ball with AJo but other than that I dealt with a bunch of unsuited garbage and was basically blinded out.
As for winner with the big chains around his neck, he did show too many but he did play an aggressive game. Be fun to go against another time.
All in all for my first live tourny, a fun experience, anyone who is considering it should go for it. It's a fine enough place and the staff is cool. It makes Monday morning pretty tough for a regular job guy though.
I called after five minutes (approx.) and said "you hit your set?" he politely said yep and showed me his Q's. Going all in pre flop would have likely had the same result. Only play I can think to better the outcome would be to fold. Thanks for your input.
As for the kid...he was a good player, I wish I had more time to play with him. I am obviously more partial to players that show more respect for eachother then what I thought he showed. Yes, it is all in fun though and I'm sure he meant no harm. Perhaps I was still bitter about my early exit
That dealer was cute...slow yes but cute. For some reason I wish she dealt those 3 hands for me a liitle slower, try to get my money's worth.
stp