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

["James Kittock" <james(deleted the rest)>]

Bill Chen:
> 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.  

Actually, what Alan described for the LC $100 game is like
the online situation, not like a "typical" live game situation
such as your 10-10-20 example.

To re-quote Alan:
> The minimum buy-in is $40 and the maximum is $100.  You can only buy
> more chips if you have less than $100 in front of you, and only enough
> to bring your stack up to $100.  

In convenient tabular form:

Location        Blinds   Min buy-in  Max buy-in
-------------   ------   ----------  ----------
Lucky Chances   1/1/2    40          100
PartyPoker      1/2      20          100
UltimateBet     1/2      40          200
Paradise Poker  1/2      40          200
PokerStars      1/2      40          200

Back to my point: 

The LC and Party games are tied for the smallest
buy-in:BB ratio, while LC has the smallest
buy-in:opening bet ratio (because of the $4 to
go rule with the 1/1/2 blinds).

One thought: with 33% more blinds per round plus a
time charge, one cannot afford to play as tight
in the LC game as in, say the, PartyPoker game.
Now, in both cases, many of the hands will be all-in
pre-flop, so if you are forced to play more hands,
my gut tells me that the LC game has a higher
luck:skill ratio than Party (which, in turn, has a
higher luck:skill ratio than UB, Paradise, or PS).

On the other hand, since there is more gamb00ling,
it may still be the case that the overlay is *higher*
in the LC or Party games, at least for a moderately
skilled player.

--j