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Poker Video: Limit Hold'Em by PygmyHero (Micro/Small Stakes)

Time Link to 00:24:29

I have played at a casino here in cali that if you straddle the straddle it was a blind raise and you do not get an option so watch for that lost some money when my AK flopped trips and got called down by top pair.

Time Link to 00:25:26

watch for kill pot pros. guys how get the kill button and raise with no regard to they get played back at. Key play back on all three streets if your bank roll can handle it.

no chip runners at east coast casinos afaik

did not know that. I only played live in vegas and cali

Here are a few notes I thought of when watching:

Participating or buying out of time pots is just like chopping - you should always do it or never do it. I think you underestimated the effect for a tight player, you should almost NEVER pay time - think about the pot odds preflop

Also I would have noted that time games are like renting your seat, rake games are like paying per pot. A time game benefits a loose player (no rake on lots of small pots you win), a rake game benefits a tight player.

straddles: some casinos allow you to straddle 3 handed or heads up, these are both +EV situations. Good casinos will not allow this but you can find it.

kill games: you should be playing QUITE tight with the leg up button, your pot odds are awful since any pot you win is effectively raked by the size of the kill blind minus your EV for the following hand with a kill blind posted (not that high). Other note is that kill games are great because they make people play larger stakes than they think.

chops: some LA casinos take a $1 drop from the small blind on a chop. Gross I know. I chop in all rake games 40/80 and lower, I do not think I overcome the rake in these spots. I do not chop in time games. I do not chop 5 handed or less. Just figured I'd mention. Oh I chop time pots too.

Time Link to 00:27:00

my local here in cali still takes a dollar for the bad beat jp and if the blinds see a flop they take another dollar. so you could have a $6 pot and rake in $4 for the win

Time Link to 00:44:37

well it is unethical from him to kill his own card he could have called a miss deal or got the extra card

On the allstarrt pronunciation...as he clarifies, I am saying it correctly, so there. For the longest time I thought it was allstart and didn't notice the second 'r' until I tried to add him on Skype. But then I also learned his real name and it all made sense (RT being his initials). Anyway, I guess in the future I'll try to roll the r like VS Ramachandran.

Really sweet vid, Pyg. I learned a bunch. I'll never remember getting reamed out by the crusty regs at the Taj for not saying "raise" before my chips hit the felt. Also, I'd like to impart the wisdom to all that it's a bad idea to charter a deep sea fishing boat after drinking and playing until 4:00am. We had 3/7 of our group hurl over the side.

You know, this brings up one important thing that I probably should have covered - the large chip call rule (probably not the correct technical wording).

If you do NOT say raise and then make more than one trip to your stack that is of course a string raise and is not allowed (you will be forced to just call). But if you first say "raise" - you can nubsauce it up and it doesn't matter how many trips / how long it takes you to get your chips into the middle.

Let's say you're in a 10/20 game and want to raise PF. You could do this by announcing raise and then taking your sweet time selecting the 4 dirtiest red chips in your stack and moving them past the betting line. You could also just smoothly put out 4 chips in one motion and it is still a raise even though you didn't announce it. HOWEVER, if you just put out one green chip (worth $25) and say nothing, that is a CALL.

If you're not comfortable handling your chips I'd probably advise you (not necessarily mikefut - general you here) to announce all your raises verbally (but for calls there's really no need unless you find yourself accidentally putting out too many and then being forced to raise when you don't want to).

At the commerce and some other casinos on the west coast you are going to want to tip the floor people as well. This is a must if you are playing anything where they only have one game going at the high stakes. If you get on the floors good side it can and will show its benefits

Ah see, tipping floor people in AC is strictly disallowed. It would be considered a bribe. Not sure about Foxwoods, but it wouldn't surprise me if the rules were consistent across most/all of the East Coast.

But of course I agree generally - you should curry the favor of the floor in socially acceptable ways.

Also pyg is probably the best person to be making this series. He is probably the most professional person I have ever seen at the poker table.

Thanks!

Apparently you haven't seen me and BBB at the table before.

heh - you mean the time you guys got called over by security after bangaranging the table? Remember, fun is NOT allowed - you just need to sit and pay your time like everyone else.

But on a serious note I think he's talking about my demeanor and table image, which are topics I intend to cover later on in the series.

I think it's probably worth noting that as long as the casino returns 100% of the BBJ to the players, it can be neutral EV or even +EV depending on how you approach it.

Yes, definitely. Good point. Either way though it drives up our variance, so it's a poor trade unless our EV is increased. I mean, I'd rather just have the couple hundred or so dollars in $1 BBJ drops I've paid over the past year.

One thing I have seen a few times is a person not chopping "this hand" because they finally got a good hand and they have been getting nothing for a while. Obviously this is horrible etiquette but I have seen it, although it was a low limit game. But you will see people look at their hand before deciding to chop, which is just rude, imo.

Another thing you'll see, and it's a goofy social thing to do, is showing the hand that you ended up chopping. You get to say silly things like, "You had me out kicked", when you show 72 and they show 82.

Yeah, I've seen that too. I agree it's pretty poor form, though on the bright side (if you're the other blind) they're giving you information about their hand range.

As for the latter part, I have no idea why people choose to focus on so many things that don't matter. Like when there's a misdeal, why does half the table look at their first card? It doesn't matter. I guess ultimately it's just one more thing that I think distracts people from playing well (like the rule mongering), which I am glad for.

I would really discourage anybody from getting the poker room rate. If you must get a reduced rate at all, you should get the casino rate and just play some 500$ coin-in Video Poker at a -20$ EV or some EV neutral blackjack. Poker room rates bind you to a certain play (usually way too much for my taste) and the rate sucks as it's the rack rate.

Huh, I wonder if this is a regional thing. I actually get what I consider pretty reasonable offers from both Borgata and Foxwoods. Also, I know what you're talking about in terms of requirements (e.g., x hours a day minimum), but my offers come without any stipulations.

Wait, you can straddle from ANY position in Foxwoods? Even the button? You realize game conditions where that is extremely profitable?

Looks like I misled you - as far as I know you can only straddle UTG. And yes, DeathDonkey mentioned 3 handed games to me after watching an early version of this video. I believe he added his thoughts later in the thread.

no chip runners at east coast casinos afaik

Borgata has chip runners in the high limit area, though not all the time. I usually just go to the cage since it's not that big a room.