Pirana Poker Tour Review
Last night my wife had a house full of ladies for the evening and asked me to make myself scarce. (I guess it is the shirtless, burping, scratching and farting in front of the TV that she wanted to hide 
) So I said, "What if I go play poker?" Her reply "For money?!?!" "I said, no, I will go try this free poker thing down in Kitchener at a bar" Her reply "What if you play badly and have to come home early then what will you do?" Just kidding, she didn't say that last one, but I know that is what she was thinking.
Anyway, so I went down to the St. Louis Bar and Grill for this Pirana Poker Tour. I have no excuse to ever go to that end of town, so I must say that the buildup of stores and stuff down there is impressive. This restaurant is brand new, so it was nice and clean, but a little small. Inside a guy had a laptop for registrations and 4 poker table tops put on top of normal tables, each with a deck of cards and the chips already counted out.
Pretty simple format, you start out with 800 chips and the blinds are 10/20 to start. Blinds go up really fast however, every fifteen minutes! That worked out to 3 hands since there weren't dealers and many around the table were rookies. So one rotation of the table = 2 blind levels.
The blinds went: 10/20; 15/30; 20/40; 25/50; ** 25/50/100; 50/100/200; 100/200/400 (ante/small/big)
So what is the **? This was the strangest part of the night for me. ** is end of the rebuy period. How do you do a rebuy when the game is free? This is how the bar/restaurant makes it's money! Every time you buy a pop/beer/food you get a little ticket. This ticket entitles you to a rebuy if you bust out. Some guys started the night off with an order for 4 beers, which basically meant every hand they played they went all-in trying to double up or at least buy what was in there. And because everyone else understood this strategy, usually there were no less than 2 more callers. REBUY! I didn't really catch on what it was going to be like since it was my first time there. The regulars all knew what was going on and played that way too. If you still have any rebuy tickets left at the end of the rebuy period you get one $1000 chip for all of them.
After the rebuy period things tightened up. People were starting to actually "play poker". However, because of the insanity previously some had grown their stack of 800 chips to over 6000 (2 at my table). I put the quotes above because it was still some of the silliest calls I had ever seen. If anyone wants to practice with the fishes, this is the place to go. For example ....
My final hand was in the 100/200 blind level, I had 1600 in chips left. Dealt KK in LP. Entire table limps, so I go all-in. All fold except one caller who has Q3
: Flop comes A : 9 : K :d: Turn is a rag, River 2 : giving the ridiculous call the flush and sending me home.
Conclusion: Not as much fun as a night at the Bristol, but I will probably go again to practice playing against un-bluffable opponents. Buy a couple drinks and the start, strap in and go for a ride and try to get past the rebuy period with many many more chips than this time. So I guess it is kinda like Score poker, but live. See you there?
) So I said, "What if I go play poker?" Her reply "For money?!?!" "I said, no, I will go try this free poker thing down in Kitchener at a bar" Her reply "What if you play badly and have to come home early then what will you do?" Just kidding, she didn't say that last one, but I know that is what she was thinking.Anyway, so I went down to the St. Louis Bar and Grill for this Pirana Poker Tour. I have no excuse to ever go to that end of town, so I must say that the buildup of stores and stuff down there is impressive. This restaurant is brand new, so it was nice and clean, but a little small. Inside a guy had a laptop for registrations and 4 poker table tops put on top of normal tables, each with a deck of cards and the chips already counted out.
Pretty simple format, you start out with 800 chips and the blinds are 10/20 to start. Blinds go up really fast however, every fifteen minutes! That worked out to 3 hands since there weren't dealers and many around the table were rookies. So one rotation of the table = 2 blind levels.
The blinds went: 10/20; 15/30; 20/40; 25/50; ** 25/50/100; 50/100/200; 100/200/400 (ante/small/big)
So what is the **? This was the strangest part of the night for me. ** is end of the rebuy period. How do you do a rebuy when the game is free? This is how the bar/restaurant makes it's money! Every time you buy a pop/beer/food you get a little ticket. This ticket entitles you to a rebuy if you bust out. Some guys started the night off with an order for 4 beers, which basically meant every hand they played they went all-in trying to double up or at least buy what was in there. And because everyone else understood this strategy, usually there were no less than 2 more callers. REBUY! I didn't really catch on what it was going to be like since it was my first time there. The regulars all knew what was going on and played that way too. If you still have any rebuy tickets left at the end of the rebuy period you get one $1000 chip for all of them.
After the rebuy period things tightened up. People were starting to actually "play poker". However, because of the insanity previously some had grown their stack of 800 chips to over 6000 (2 at my table). I put the quotes above because it was still some of the silliest calls I had ever seen. If anyone wants to practice with the fishes, this is the place to go. For example ....
My final hand was in the 100/200 blind level, I had 1600 in chips left. Dealt KK in LP. Entire table limps, so I go all-in. All fold except one caller who has Q3
: Flop comes A : 9 : K :d: Turn is a rag, River 2 : giving the ridiculous call the flush and sending me home.Conclusion: Not as much fun as a night at the Bristol, but I will probably go again to practice playing against un-bluffable opponents. Buy a couple drinks and the start, strap in and go for a ride and try to get past the rebuy period with many many more chips than this time. So I guess it is kinda like Score poker, but live. See you there?
Comments
I'd probably trip down there with you...so, there'll be one more fish.
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Having rookies deal is sometimes a pain, true. At least one of the pirana poker tour tournament directors deals the final table though.
And about the rebuys...to be honest, I thought it was a stupid idea and was ready to be proven correct the first time I went. I thought it was just going to be an hour of people playing like idiots (oh man do I hate not playing for money/prizes). HOWEVER, I must say, I stand corrected. It's somewhat catered to rookies, but that's ok because it's kind of like "Ok, lets let everyone play for one hour. Ok an hour is up, only the good players get to stay from now on!". It lets everyone play and socialize and have some fun before singling out the better players.
Pirana Poker Tour tends to attract a few more females because of their friendlier format, e.g., bonus points for top female, top hand, soul chips and knocking out last week's winner. Having some girls in a bar is a lot better than 100% males. It's hilarious when the aggressive males tries to bully the cute "fish" :fish: and ends up giving her all his chips.
YEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!
Wasn't ready for the rebuy all-in fest, and combine that with getting crappy cards, I was in a total of zero hands after the flop. I didn't see a card higher than 9 in that first hour.
Girl at our table, never played before. 2nd hand, she checks after the flop, two guys go all-in, she calls. She flips quad-tens. Next hand she flops a full boat. Next hand, another guy gets quads. I was just happy to be there
Great table except for a guy that apparently thought the louder you talk, the "righter" you are. ;-)
Enjoyed it, got busted on with trips to someone that hit higher trips on the river (nice guy, part of the pirana company)
Silly poker, but still fun, and the price is right :-)
Scott