RE: [ba-poker] Baby No-Limit Hold'em Game at Lucky Chances

["Bill Chen" <wchen_8369(deleted the rest)>]

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-ba-poker(deleted the rest) [mailto:owner-ba-poker(deleted the 
rest)] On
Behalf Of James Kittock
Sent: Saturday, April 10, 2004 4:02 PM
To: ba-poker(deleted the rest)
Subject: Re: [ba-poker] Baby No-Limit Hold'em Game at Lucky Chances

Alan Bostick:

> The structure is $1 blind on the dealer button, $1 middle blind and
> $2 big blind, with action starting at $4 to go.  The minimum buy-in
> is $40 and the maximum is $100.  
 
> Except for the blind structure, peculiar to Northern California
lowball
> and NLHE games, the game is structured identically to the no-limit
> games one finds at online poker sites, such as PokerStars or 
> UltimateBet.

As Stephen Landrum pointed out, this is actually a bit different
than UB, PartyPoker, etc., since you can't limp for the amount
of the big blind.

Also, from the above, it looks like at LC the buy-in:BB ratio is 50:1,
whereas at UltimateBet the buy-in:BB ratio is 100:1 ($1/$2 blinds,
$200 buy-in).  LC is more like PartyPoker ($1/$2 blinds, $100 buy-in).
However, with the $4 to go, the buy-in:minimum opening bet ratio is much
lower at LC (25:1, compared to 100:1 at UB and 50:1 at Party).
-------------------------

To clear up a point, James is comparing two different things.  In the
live games, the amounts quoted are for the *minimum* buy-in, and there
is no cap on maximum buy-in.  At LC for example the min for the 10-10-20
game is $1K, while sme players buy in for $5K or more.  The amounts
quoted for online (Party, UB) at 100:1 are for *maximum* buy-in.   The
$25-$50 game at UB actually has a max buy of $5K.   The *min* buy for UB
is quite small.  It's $1K for the 25-50 game (I played today) if it
scales accordingly, it should be $40 for the 1-2.   

The effect of all-this is that the LC games have a higher stack to
buy-in ratio, as it's not unusual to see someone buy-in for $5K or more
when they sit down in the 10-10-20.   The online games are much more
like a tournament where you have to win your way to a big stack.   

As to the effect on the games, there is actually more room for playing
out the hand at LC than online typically.   In fact for 1K in the 25-50
game, you can wait for someone else to raise and play a pretty
successful all-in preflop strategy.   

With taller stacks post-flop play is much more important.  In fact if
you're a good post-flop player, you should be willing to call early
raisers who have a narrow range of hands, especially in position.  Also
you yourself should not have a narrow range of hands when you open
raise.  Don't confuse this with playing more hands percentage-wise.   It
still may be right to fold 90% of your hands preflop for example, but
the 10% you play shouldn't be just the hands generally considered "top
10%."   

Bill