I mentioned Four Color Decks to the game runner at a pot limit game and they agreed to try them on a trial basis…now the question is, where to get them? Specifically looking for Kem decks…standard or bridge size.

Answer 1:

IIRC, the 4-color Kem decks are the wrong colors. Mike Caro got the colors right: Green Clubs, Blue Diamonds, Red Hearts, Black Spades. The Kem decks are strange colors.

Answer 2:

Actually, I think its PINK hearts, yellow moons, orange stars, green clovers, and blue diamonds.

Answer 3:

The four color deck at Paradise is simply marvelous! What do we have to do to get casinos to start using them? It would certainly prevent my most embarassing moment last Saturday. I’m ready to scoop with a nice Ace high diamond flush in a Omaha8 kill pot when the guy next to me lays down an 8 high flush with a busted low. “I got the ace,” I said laying the cards out. “Oops, that ace of hearts used to be a diamond. How did that happen?” He scoops huge pot including my raise on the river that he called. ARGHHH!!!!!

Planning a ski trip — yeah, I know it’s early — to Lake Tahoe area next January. Never been there. Anybody tell me where the best HE action is? Also, the best way to get back and forth from slopes to action?

Answer 1:

I went to Reno in November and played holdem at the Circus Circus, Peppermill, and El Dorado…I think the Peppermill was my favorite out of those three (Must be because i was on fire at their 10-20 table). I was also lucky enough to be dealt in when the bad beat was hit at the Circus Circus (The friend i went with hit it!). I heard also that the Reno Hilton is good, as well as Boomtown casino right outside the city of Reno. Missed Tahoe…next time I will head over there…

Answer 2:

The only current action at Lake Tahoe is at Harvey’s on the South Shore. They almost always have 1-5 7CS and a 2-6 HE game. During the weekends or when there is a reasonable influx of out of town players they get all kinds of games down. I’ve seen 5-10 kill & 10-20 1/2 kill O/8 games, 15-30 and 25-50 HE games, a 7/8 game, and small PLH games. I’m sure others get started. There was a North Shore game but it’s closed for Casino renovations. Check Card Player to see if it’s reopened in Jan. As far as transport: it’s a lake. The roads around it make a big circle. Your options as to how to get anywhere are limited to the point it’s usu. hard to be wrong. From the west/north shore Reno isn’t more than an hour way. Your options in Reno are significantly more varied. If you are skiing the day away on Mt. Rose and want to play poker it’s probably worth it to stay in Reno. But then I’m not entirely sure. My idea of a good time in the winter is to stay close to the fire with a good book.

Answer 3:
If you are staying at South Shore, there is a shuttle bus that runs to Heavenly Ski Area from the casinos and larger motels. There is also shuttle service (for a fee) that will take you to Kirkwood (about 35 miles from South Tahoe) or around the lake to Squaw Valley (also about 35 miles from South Tahoe). Harveys at South Shore is the only place with action, mostly low limit except on weekends or during their tournaments. Reno will have better poker action (Peppermill for middle limit), but you would be better off renting a car and driving to the various ski areas if you stay in Reno. If flying in to the area, you will be going to Reno since commercial air traffic to South Lake Tahoe has been missing for the most part since Air al was bought out by American Airlines (about 12 years ago).

I would like some advice from some more seasoned tournament players on the following: I recently played in a HE tournament with the structure as outlined below:
$100 buy in receives T2000 in chips – one $100 re-buy gets T4000
20 minute rounds as follows
25-50 blinds 50-100 limits
50-100 blinds 100-200 limits
100-200 blinds 200-400 limits
200-400 blinds 400-800 limits
BREAK
500-1000 blinds 1000-2000 limits
1000-2000 blinds 2000-4000 limits
2000-4000 blinds 4000-8000 limits
4000-8000 blinds 8000-16000 limits
5th – 10th pays $200 – remainder is 50% 1st, 25% 2nd, 15% 3rd, 10% 4th.
Changes to no limit at final table…
After playing I felt a bit disappointed, not necessarily because of my performance, but because of the structure of the tourney itself. Note the HUGE jump in blinds/limits from the round immediately before the break to immediately after the break. (200/400/800 to 500/1000/2000). In my particular case, before the break I had played well and had managed to build my stack up from T6000 (initial buy-in + rebuy) to about T10, 000. However, immediately after the break, I realize that although I am 2nd chip leader at my table, I still have enough to barely play 2 hands to completion. In my opinion this took any room for skill out of the tournament and turned it into little more than a crap shoot (i.e. Let’s see who can catch a lucky hand right after the break…). Ironically enough, I busted out a few hands later when the blinds had moved up to 1000-2000, and I had only T2000 left. I was 2 hands away from being blinded off when I got “Jesus” suited (Ac-9c) and went all-in, only to get called by, you guessed it, A-Q. My prayers weren’t answered, however, and I went down with the board of 7-8-J/6-2. So my QUESTIONS for everyone:
a). Would you those of you who consider yourselves to be good tournament players invest in this tournament, or is it too much luck and not enough skill?
b). what strategies work well when almost the whole table is short stacked?
Answer 1:

One of the most crucial skills in tournament poker is the ability to make good decisions at the critical time when you have chips to play between 1 and 2 1/2 pots. The skill in this is HUGE. Do you play 44, A9, a player raises you have KQ, passed to you on the bottom with 98s…. bad players make bad decisions. There is still a lot of skill in what you describe, and over time the good players get the money. The correctly playing players get the money. Obviously this structure has a lot of luck to it, but it also involves a lot of skills because crucial decisions will take place *all the time.* Play.

Answer 2:

I was going to reply to your question, but Badger has already said what I wanted to say. I agree with him fully. Also, playing these little tournaments is valuable practice, experience never hurt anyone. You still have a better shot at winning than the average player, it’s just not as big an advantage as a regular paced tournament. When you do play a big tournament though, you’ll welcome the change.

Answer 3:

You played the hand the only way you could. When Badger said you must sell your soul to AJo, you may have misunderstood. He was talking about situations late in a tournament like that, where certain hands become automatic. First one in, you can’t fold the AJ, but if it gets raised that doesn’t mean you have to call. What Badger is saying here, is that in order to WIN these types of tournaments you’ll have to gamble. You won’t get A-A and K-K enough to let you coast to victory. All you can do is put yourself in position to get lucky. Once you’ve done that, TRY to get lucky! Don’t just sit there and let your chips dwindle away because of the blind increases, go to war!! If you keep blasting away, one day it might be your day. Nobody can consistently win a tournament like this, like you said it is a crapshoot…so roll the dice!

Lately I’ve had a chance to play some pot limit and no limit Hold’em and Omaha. I definitely like both of these better then structured limit, but I’m pretty new to these forms of poker, and was wondering what skills are unique to each form of betting. Which one do most people (who’ve played both) prefer, and why.

Answer 1:

I certainly prefer NL (even PL) over structured limit games. Primarily because you can protect good hands with big bets and collect from people who like to hang in there with draws. But in general these are purer forms of poker where there are subtler forms of manipulation of your opponents available as well.

Answer 2:

Indeed! Much more mental action than grinding it out at limit! As for NL vs POT, depends on the game. Pot is fine for Holdem, but I prefer NL for Omaha. Omaha is a draw out game. What you are trying to do is to make your opponent make mistakes; either putting his money in there when he shouldn’t, or not putting his money in there when he should. When you bet the pot with the best hand, he is getting 2 to 1 odds to call, and given the nature of the 4 card game, he probably has enough outs to justify calling. You need to be able to over bet the pot. In Holdem you don’t have that problem as the guy with the best hand usually has much the best of it.

Answer 3:

I have been playing pot limit holdem for about 4 months and it has become my favorite game. In some ways it is more complex then no limit, while you are trying to trap your opponent you still have to some how build the pot blending both of these actions is the
true art of pot limit.

I am making a trip to Vegas and would like to learn how to play Omaha8. Is there a card room that spreads 2-4 or 3-6 Omaha8? I vaguely remember an ad in Card Player that advertised a 2-4 game, but I don’t see it in the most recent issue.

Answer 1:

Yes you will find low limit Omaha 8 and better at the Horseshoe, Orleans, Mirage and many other casinos, have fun hope to play a few hands with you. I like the Orleans best for Omaha 8 and better the blinds or 1 and 2 and you can play lose or tight as you wish the others have 2 and 4 blinds.

Answer 2:

Santa Fe in Las Vegas deals 1-4 Omaha-8 everyday. That’s about the lowest limit you are going to find for O/8. They start the game around 10:00 AM and it breaks up around 6:00 PM every day. A great place to get your feet wet if you don’t mind playing during the day and you don’t mind driving.

Answer 3:

The O/8 at the Orleans is $4-8 (with or without 1/2 kill) with $1-2 blinds.

You sit down at a 4-8 hold’em game and come in right away on the big blind. You get KQo, no raise, 5 see the flop of KT8 rainbow. SB checks, you bet, 2 fold, one late position caller, SB calls. Turn another 8 putting 2 hearts on the board. SB bets out. Raise, call, or fold?

Answer 1:

Well, you should have raised pre-flop…as for the turn, you can’t worry about the hearts, but you can worry about the small blind having an 8 (he only had to pay two bucks to see the flop). I would call him down. My point of raising pre-flop is that if you raise pre flop, then bet out on the flop (after he checks), he probably isn’t going to keep his pair of 8′s (if that is what he had)…But I guess a flush is coming since you say two hearts on the board…even though you are in trouble playing this game if you are scared of two suited cards on the turn after a rainbow flop. Like I said, call him down. Bet the river if he checks.

Answer 2:

It depends completely on the player, and the players behind you. Against some, I’d raise it for sure. Against others I wouldn’t put in another cent! Then if I didn’t really know the player, I might just call. The correct decision isn’t clear, no one can you give you an absolutely correct answer with the information you presented.

Answer 3:

Until you know more about the player, assume he’s a typical low limit player (loose-passive), which means he’s betting because he has trips. Muck this hand, and wait for a better opportunity to get your chips in. And while you’re waiting, learn as much as you can about the players at your table.

Can we get some more clarification on this? Here is what I’m thinking and doing regarding tournament wins and losses, is it wrong? Live play is easy – take the session win or loss and add that to either the “Other Income” (Gambling Winnings) or Gambling losses (to the extent of winnings) sections on the 1040 and the schedule A. For a tournament, if my buy-in is $220, with $200 to the prize pool and $20 to the house, and I cash out $1000, my net win would be $780.
I “Lost” $220 by entering but “won” $1000 in the single session. Even if in the above example an additional $10 was taken out for the dealers, my “loss” was still $220. Assuming all tips are declared as income by all dealers (don’t know here, but for pooled tips it’s probably the case), and all tournament tips are reported, what is the additional tax implication on the dealers by taking it out up front? I don’t see any, assuming the up frot amount is the same as the winners tip amounts. Please explain.
Answer 1:
I agree. Unless there’s some complicated procedure to get around the simple and obvious (nah, the IRS wouldn’t do that, would they?) Mark: here’s a tip … get a receipt for tips for backend (normal) tipping arrangement like the Sam Boyd Poker Classic.
Answer 2:
You don’t have a “net win”, the IRS doesn’t recognize that. You have two entries in your tax records, a $1000 win, and a $220 loss. But you payout would then be something less than $1000. Unfortunately the TOC is not a casino entity. The simpler and more appropriate way to do this is for the entry to be $230. The took pool should come from the entry fee and not the prize pool. If done that way the tax implications are even easier to deal with. The tip money never goes into the prize pool. I don’t know how it could be clearer, but here goes again. Assume the total amount tipped is $5000. You can either give that $5000 to the winning players, have them sign W2G’s for the amount, have them tip, then have them have to pay some percentage of that $5000 in taxes at the end of the year……. or, you don’t make the players sign for the $5000, you give the money directly to the dealers. If you enter a $1500 tournament, win $100,000 and tip $5000, you have to pay taxes on $98,500 (the 100,000 with a 1500 “loss” deduction). When you walk out of the casino, you will have $95,000 in your pocket, but a tax liability for $98,500. If the $5000 tip money is part of the entry fee or a percentage of the prize pool, if you win, you will win $95,000 and you will pay taxes on $93,500 (95,000 with still a 1500 loss deduction). You walk out of the casino with $95,000 in your pocket, but a tax liability of $93,5000 — $5000 less than the above. Again, this is a pure no brainer for players. The same amount of money goes from the players to the dealers. Less money goes from the winners to the IRS. More money is kept in the poker community.
Answer 3:
There is a little more to this as well. The area where you declare other income, is fully taxable as part of your adjusted gross. Your schedule a deduction while not subjected to the 2% adjusted gross income limitation can be limited by the total amount of your overall deductions. In other words it is not always a dollar for dollar trade off. Please consult your own tax adviser for details.

I use Word and have the suit symbols available as “one-stroke” macros. I used that in a word document and then pasted the symbols in above. I’m posting this to see if they show up properly on rgp.
Answer 1:
None of these (this and next two posts) will work if the characters are first changed to straight ASCII text, either deliberately or peripherally by the software. On my newsreader, the symbols appear as question marks — and this might be the same for everyone, depending on whether the translation failure is done at your end or when downloaded. I think it’s possible to use the symbols, but only some readers having the right software and fonts will be able to see them correctly.
Answer 2:
Usenet is a lowest-common-denominator medium, and that denominator is the 7-bit ASCII character set. Other things *might* work in *some* circumstances, but not all, and many people will see them as some form of garbage.
Answer 3:
Weird uses 16-bit “Unicode” characters. Your newsreader (and most everybody else’s) uses 8-bit ASCII characters. So your idea am not going to work. But you get points for trying.

I have a copy of Brunson’s book, with Mike Caro’s odds table in the back. I’m trying to work these problems myself so I can do more complicated ones in the future. There is a chart that says if your first three cards are the T, J, Q of clubs, your odds of getting a straight if you stay to the river are 14.91 (expressed in percent). I have tried to figure this out, but I’m not getting what I believe to be the right answer. Please explain how this is determined.
Answer 1:
I figure four ways to get an 8, 3 ways to get a 9 without a flush times 703 2 card combinations without getting a flush, all divided by 211876 (the number of 4 card combinations possible drawing from 49 cards.
Answer 2:
To get a QUEEN-high straight, you need an 8 and a 9, but no flush, and no KING, and not ‘double-counting’ combinations like 9-9-8-x and 9-9-8-8 and 9-9-9-8…and then also king-high and ace-high straights…
Answer 3:
For QUEEN-high straights ranks combinations from 10c-Jc-Qc, you could get: 9-8, and (any two Q’s,J’s,10′s)
9-8, and (any Q,J,10, and any A,2,3,4,5,6,7)
9-8, and (any two different ranks, A,2,3,4,5,6,7)
9-8, and (pair of any rank, A,2,3,4,5,6,7)
9-9-8 or 9-8-8, and (any Q,J,10)
9-9-8 or 9-8-8, and (any A,2,3,4,5,6,7)
9-9-8-8
9-9-9-8 or 9-8-8-8
Then just add up the combinations for these cases, excluding those with five or more clubs, and you should get 9,854 queen-high straights, and then add king-high straights (which should be the same number as queen-high), and ace-high straights…

I have a question. I live near a casino where there are always games of $1-$5 7-card stud but rarely any higher limit games (a couple of times a week there may be a $5 & $10 game). There is generally Texas hold ‘em games of various limits but I prefer stud. I feel like I have a fairly strong grasp of the basics of 7-card stud but I find myself consistently losing money at these tables when I know I know the game better than most of the players. Would anybody care to share some insights on playing this low-limit stud game and how to make money consistently with it?
Answer 1:
You can’t make money at 1-5 studs unless the opponents are really, really bad (and sometimes they are). The typically high rake and lack of antes makes this game inherently unbeatable.
If it’s the only stud game in town, and unfortunately this is often the case, then look for a table where everybody always calls the bring-in. This at least gets some money in the pot on 3rd street, making up for the lack of antes.
Answer 2:
In the games I’m talking about nearly everyone (except for me) calls the $1 forced bet on 3rd street. Figure out of a table of 8, an average of 6 people will call the bring-in. The way I’ve been deciding whether or not to call the bring-in would be with hands such as 3 to a live flush (2 or fewer of my suit out), 3 to a live straight 8-9-10 or higher (using Roy West’s 2-point rule), premium pairs, 3 live premium cards (10 or higher) and, of course, trips. The problem I’ve been running into is the number of people who are willing to call $5 bet after $5 bet to chase my premium pair. Most of the literature suggests that a premium pair vs. a single drawing hand is the odds-on favorite to win the hand but becomes the underdog against multiple drawing hands. Well if four know-nothing players are all willing to call a string of $5 bets to chase my pocket aces or kings then what do I do? I lose. A single player playing poorly at a table is a dream come true. But a pack of idiots all whipping their $5 chips around like tomorrow will never come becomes a nightmare.
Answer 3:
I just made $600 playing 1-5 stud at turning stone casino over a 24hr period-by reading your post im guessing you play way too many hands-it’s not the quantity of wins that is imp bit the size of the pots in the hands you win ( i won$150 in one pot with a king on board and the other 3 in the hole-had a guy keep re-raising me till he finally called) -a little advice is that if you have a playable first 3 cards and low card bets a dollar-raise it to $3 or more-this will drive most of the players looking to fish cheaply for a dollar out and will start a nice pot with less players- lastly dump the gerbage cards and never hunt for inside straight for you seldom hit and it can be
expensive.