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Best times to go the the Brantford Charity Casino?
I guess I'm basically asking what time do all the fish play during the week?
I'm trying to round for part of the summer outside of my part-time job, to make money for school. 8)
I'm trying to round for part of the summer outside of my part-time job, to make money for school. 8)
Comments
Ok, here's the deal. The $5/$10 is rarely tough. It's just a matter of you being able to adjust your game based upon the texture of the game you're currently in. You have to play very differently against a bunch of calling stations than you do against a bunch of maniacs. You also have to change your starting hand requirements if most pots are raised and possibly re-raised pre-flop.
The easiest game to beat is loose and passive. Luckily, this describes the majority of the $5/$10 players. They just want to put the minimum possible amount of money into the pot, and turn their hands over at the end, and see if they win. They are playing bingo. They will rarely bet or raise without the goods. Many of them will not raise on the flop without at least 2 pair (eg they have AK and the flop comes Kxx, they will just call a bet instead of raising). When a player like this bets into you, or worse yet, raises someone else's bet, stop and think. Are you really winning? It's ok to throw away your top pair with a weak kicker. It's ok to throw away your straight when they have OBVIOUSLY made a flush. Luckily these people play very predictably and are easy to read. The pots in these games tend NOT to be too big, but then again they are not tiny either. You can actually loosen up a fair bit in this type of game (but don't go overboard) since you are not being charged a lot to see the flop and they will call you down with real trash when you make a hand, giving you decent implied odds for a lot of hands. Don't bother making plays to disguise your hand... they are thinking about what they have, NOT what you have. Just bet your hand... you can't afford to leave bets on the table when you have a hand... they will call with some strange holdings. Save your fancy plays and bluffs for another day, or in the rare situations when you are heads up against a player who is actually capable of folding when he has some piece of the board.
The great thing about these games is that the variance is low. You can just play your game, and the money will slowly but surely flow your way.
Then there are the loose aggressive games. The maniacs. You generally have to pay at least $10 or $15 to see a flop in these games. Some people think that "implied odds" hands like mid-suited connectors go up in value in games like this, because the pots tend to be multi-way, but the problem is that you are paying so much to see the flop that your implied odds are wrecked. The way to beat these games is to tighten up and play your premium hands against these people. If you're going to pay $15 or $20 to see the flop you really want to have the best hand going in. A lot fo your big hands will get cracked, which can be frustrating, but when they hold up you will win a mountain of chips. If you flop a big set, multiple people will be calling you drawing completely dead (there is no better situation in poker) because of the size of the pot. Don't try to get fancy.. pound your good hands. No one is folding in a big pot with anything at all, because they are absolutely terrified of folding the best hand. So they overcall 3 people on the end with their 2nd pair.
These games have a huge variance, but good EV too. You need a bit of a bankroll... you are losing $50-$70 each time you get rivered. If you show up with $200 in your pocket you could easily be going home after 2 or 3 orbits.
Then there are the tight passive games. These are my least favourite. One problem is the rake. When most pots are less than $50, the rake becomes much much more significant. You can try to run a game like this over by just being aggressive, but the problem here is that you tend to end up playing a lot of hands heads up against the best hand at the table. This is not a good situation to be in. In a game like this, you REALLY have to tighten up in early position, because if someone comes in after you, chances are good that they have a better hand than you. You CAN bluff in these games, particularly when scare cards hit, although even the old rocks will figure out what you're up to if you do it constantly.
These games suck. I'd say, try to find another table.
And, of course, if you are at a table full of tight aggressive players... well, you can definitely do better than that. This is really rare.. but a lot of higher stakes players play $5/$10 if they are waiting for the game of their choice, or if they just don't feel like playing at the higher limit that day, for whatever reason. There are also some higher stakes players who are down on their luck and trying to ride it out at $5/$10 until they are feeling confident again.
Anyway, the key is just being able to change your game based on how everyone else at the table is playing. Read this article: http://www.cardplayer.com/poker_magazine/archives/?a_id=12953. Roy Cooke is da man, and this might be the best poker article I have EVER read, in terms of pure genius per square inch.
Now, to answer your initial question: If you like the loose passive games, show up during the week, particularly during the day. If you want to play against the maniacs, show up on the weekends, particularly at night. But, really, you should be able to beat BOTH games if you are a good player. A good player is someone who is capable of recognizing the type of game he is currently in, recognizing how he needs to play to beat that game, and playing that way.
Good luck
Keith
Just to re-inforce this, I used play a lot at Brantford myself when I lived in KW, and I'd say that over 90% of the $5-$10 games I played in were best described as the loose-passive type. Unless you are sitting with several *major* fish, get on the table change list right away if you detect that you're in some other kind of $5-$10 game. [Note that a game can still have a couple of solid players in it and still turn out to be generally loose-passive.]
ScottyZ
Now, to answer your initial question: If you like the loose passive games, show up during the week, particularly during the day. If you want to play against the maniacs, show up on the weekends, particularly at night. But, really, you should be able to beat BOTH games if you are a good player. A good player is someone who is capable of recognizing the type of game he is currently in, recognizing how he needs to play to beat that game, and playing that way.
Hey Keith: Tell me how you would play J-4s in EP?