Wednesday, June 27, 2012

2-4 Limit Hold 'Em In Las Vegas - August 2012

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to my 125th post at 'Bikini Hill'.  I have said here before that one of the many things that will be good about returning to the desert is that I will have fresh poker material to post about.  Even if I'm busy and have to go find a 2-4 limit table where I play for 5 minutes so that I have something to write about, it will be available to me.  This is what that post might look like in just over a month from now:

'Good afternoon everyone.  Last night I stopped by Big Strip Casino (BSC) to play a few hands of 2-4 limit hold 'em so that I could give you a blog entry today.  I was at a full 10-seat table, and I knew that it was a tight 2-4 table when only 8 of us saw the flop.  I came into the game in the big blind, sitting in the 3-seat, and only the 5 and 10-seats folded their hands.  Actually, I think that the 10-seat was away from the table when the hand was dealt, and the 5-seat was too distracted by the cocktail waitress taking his order to participate in the hand.  Either way, I went to the flop with the seven other players who limped into the pot, who surely limping in an attempt to conceal the strength of their hands.  I was dealt Q 10 offsuit (a.k.a. the 'evil hand', so I wasn't feeling very good about my prospects from the get-go)...  The flop came As 4c 9s, so I immediately knew that this flop would succeed in thinning the field since no one ever plays a ragged ace or suited cards in 2-4 limit hold 'em...  Players tend to shy away from chasing draws in 2-4 also...  After the flop, the guy in the small-blind folds his hand.  At this point, the dealer pushes his cards back to him and tells him that he doesn't have to fold because no one has bet yet (by the way, THIS IS one of my MAJOR pet peeves at a poker table - I have lost before to hands that have been pushed back to players when they made miraculous catches.  Dealers, if a player, however inexperienced, wants to fold, TAKE THEIR HAND!).  The small blind insists on folding, so I go ahead and check.  The 4-seat then exclaims "Raise" - the dealer tells them that they can't raise because no one has bet - disappointed, they put 2 chips into the pot.  Being a strong 2-4 game, every ensuing player to act just calls the 2-dollar bet until the action returns to me, at which point I fold, JUST IN CASE a player at THIS 2-4 table actually has an ace.  There are now 6 players going to the turn (for those of you new to limit poker, the hint that this story has some fabrications is that NO ONE ever folds for 2 bucks in a limit game)...  The turn card is the 5h, and immediately the 4-seat says, "RAISE" - the dealer informs them again that they mean 'bet', and 4 chips go into the pot.  The 6 and 7 seats call, and then we wait on the 8-seat, who is staring at the board...  After a pause, the 8-seat asks the dealer, "whose turn is it?, and then calls the 4 dollars after being apprised of the situation.  The remaining 2 players call, so 6 players go to the river.  The river card is the 3d, giving us a final board of  As 4c 9s 5h 3d.  The 4-seat now decides to check their hand, the 6-seat bets 4 dollars, and then the 7-seat, with about 70 dollars of chips in front of them, announces, "ALL-IN!"  After being informed that they can only raise 4 dollars, the 7-seat just calls, naturally...  The 8-seat then goes into the tank for like 2 minutes, and then finally decides to fold their hand, which is totally understandable, seeing that they surely had an excruciating 4-dollar decision to make.  This was followed by calls from the 9 and 1 seats, and then the 4-seat, who had been betting-out and trying to raise throughout the hand, proceeds to fold, naturally.  Then at showdown, the 6-seat tables A 7.  The 7-seat, who had tried to shove, now folds without showing, seeing that the pair of aces has him beat...  The 9-seat says, "I've got that beat" before proudly tabling A K.  And then the 1-seat shows the winning hand, 7 2, for the 5-high straight.  At this point, the 9-seat is INCREDULOUS, and asks how the 1-seat could play 7 2.  "Well, I'm 27 years old, so it seemed like a lucky hand..."  The 9-seat responds with, "but how could you stay in after the flop?"  While raking in the pot, the 1-seat answers, "well, I only needed a 5 and a 3 to make a straight after the flop..."

I hope that you read the summary above with a grain of salt, because none of the scenario mentioned above would EVER HAPPEN in a 2-4 limit game...  ;)  Have a great day and I'll see you on Friday.
                      

6 comments:

  1. I knew that it was a tight 2-4 table when only 8 of us saw the flop.

    When I first played casino poker, I cut my teeth on $3/6 limit. The game had a four-raise limit (unless heads up), and I saw a pot raised and re-raised the max to $15 and all 10 players stayed. There was $150 in the pot pre-flop (minus some rake)!!

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  2. I have yet to be lucky in one of those loose low-limit games. WELL..., except for the five-deuce suited hand in the 4-8 game that I wrote about before... ;)

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  3. I've played in similar games when I first started playing poker about a decade ago... 2/4 limit and no one liked to fold.
    I loved the game but I really really really hated playing limit even thing.
    It's a good thing my casino started up a 1/1 blind $40 buy-in No Limit game so I could cut my teeth cheaply and get addicted

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  4. Similar? This post was based on totally fictional characters and no facts whatsoever... ;)

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  5. unrelated to the post, is this the year of the pitcher? perfect games, no hitters, one hitters keep on coming!

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  6. That's a clever way to needle me for not putting up my Friday sports post (which I will do tomorrow when I'm off all day). :) It has been pretty impressive so far - maybe they ran out of 'juiced' baseballs and players...

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