Wait a Minute, How Do You Play Pot-Limit Again?

ALT HED: Who\’s More Stupid, the Batfaces or CardPlayer?

You\’d think at this point, in late 2006, that just about anyone reading this site would have the basics of poker figured out. Especially the dip-ass crowd I poker with … after all, we all play regularly, have competed in tournaments major and minor, have read dozens of books … and shit … among the group of us, we\’ve experienced 5-figure wins and losses, and of the 12 Batfaces who played this past Thursday, six of us have written about poker in at least a semi-professional capacity.

Anyhow, we were kicking it old school last night … playing $.50/$1 pot-limit hold\’em, in the backroom of a fantastic Chinese restaurant … known in pre-Pokerati days as the RC. Pot limit? Kinda funny, really, because that\’s all we used to play. Even in the underground back in the day, it was hard to find a no-limit game … it was all PLH. So bringing it back last week, for a couple hours, I found myself wondering if we had played it wrong all these years. Here\’s what I\’m talking about … what constitutes \”pot!\”

For us, betting \”pot\” — the max allowed — entailed calling the bet, then raising what is at that point in the pot … with the small blind counting as a full bet. So if the blinds are $.50/$1, and I, under the gun, wanted to bet pot … that meant making it $4 to go — $1 to call, $3 raise. If the next player re-pots it, then that means 4+(4+4+1+1) … $14 to go.

But that doesn\’t jibe with the way it works on the PlayStation 2 — WSOP Tournament of Champions.

On the PS2 WSOP game, if the blinds are, say, 10/20, and you raise pot UTG, 50 is the most you can put in. So essentially, you don\’t call and then raise the pot … you simply bet the pot as it really is. So in a Batface home game, we\’d be making it 80 … but in the Playstation World Series, pot in that position is just 50.

I\’m inclined to think the Playstation has it right. After all, that game is LOADED with CardPlayer branding, and CP is, after all, \”the poker authority.\” The whole Shulman family is represented in this game, and surely they would never attach their names to any egregious poker mistakes, right? [Insert sarcasm drip pan here.]

Wrong, of course. Because CP-laden video game has one obvious mistake on every hand … when you make a \”bet\”, the game automatically refers to it as a \”raise.\” insignificant, I know … but if it\’s gonna get that wrong, then surely it could be wrong about the max bet in PL tourneys. Interestingly enough, I actually pressed appropriate buttons to view Chris Ferguson\’s explanation of game rules. And while he skillfully explains limit betting and no-limit betting, there is no comment on pot-limit. So for now, that\’s my excuse for being stuck $100k in that stupid game.

Oh, and how did I do upon the BF return to PL? Pretty badly. But by the time we switched to no-limit, I got probably the best run of cards I\’ll see for two years. AQ, AQ, AK … all in a row, followed a few minutes later by QQ, QQ, KK, 77, JJ … I think I flopped four sets within a few hours. And then, once I got some chips, just to piss off Robert who was complaining about \”getting no cards,\” I started calling pretty much every pre-flop bet saying, \”huh, whaddya know? I\’ve got two cards.\” Made it extra fun to call a sizable pre-flop reraise with J-2o, then seeing a flop of J-J-4 to overbet the pot with a declaration of \”All in!\” only to get called by angry Shane\’s soon-to-be-cracked aces.

Tee-hee.

But I shouldn\’t boast. Because really, I played pretty crappy very sake-y. Considering the ridiculous cards I got, I shoulda been up about $9,000.

Buy-in(s): $250 (3)
Cash out: $547
Net: +$297

Now if I can just get all those PLH games we used to play declared invalid (if indeed we have been playing pot-limit incorrectly) … then I will be rich, Schlogger-wise, at least.