Check it out. This story in PokerListings is probably a bit too kind without any LOLs. But hey, as a guy who’s key flaw in his plan to offer Pokeratizens the best low-stakes action in Vegas was not learning how to fold more often pre-flop, I’ll take the love!
While it is true that nowhere in Vegas could you “run it twice” in a 1/2 game before Pokerati NLH/PLO came to town, now plenty of poker rooms hardly blink when two or more players get it all-in and want to reduce variance by seeing more than one river … just like they used to do it on High Stakes Poker.
So crap now the secret of the Pokerati Game’s success is out:
Offer games people want to play, at stakes they’re comfortable playing
Give preference to poker rooms with skillful, supportive staff (and maybe a really big sign)
Treat low-stakes players no differently than high rollers (h/t Benny Binion)
Suck out often to keep the nits away
That’s pretty much all it takes to host a game that attracts tourists and locals alike. And now that I can expect casinos everywhere to be spreading Pokerati-style live action, I suppose my pioneering days are over and I can go back to being just another poor-man’s Jean-Robert Bellande.
Supposedly the Pokerati Game made on its own this past Tuesday around midnight, with @MattCWaldron duking it out into the wee hours with an unusually drinky Rex the Bald PLOcal. Not sure how the stacks ended up, but from what I hear it was some of the most vigorous song-game action the room had seen in a long time. (The Hard Rock background music tends to shift to nuevo-hip hop and variety metal during late hours, and then late-late pre-sunrise it’s a lot of classic rock.)
At last week’s game, I was pretty unhappy because things were going well until I put myself in my first difficult spot of the night. After I failed to hit my 4-outer running it twice, @JaKatkin tweeted:
And @pokerati’s implosion has begun.
10:47 PM May 6th via TweetDeck
Asshole! Katkin clearly had a read on me, as he sat to my left watching my stack dwindle post-tweet to zero, at which point I rebought and re-lost yet again. (How did he know!?!)
That was also the first week we played with officially published rules. However my one copy I had at the table got ruined when a drunk (but good player … think he mighta been a Mavenite) spilled my glass of champagne all over the nicely printed document en route to his seat in the game.
OK, that subhed might be geographically presumptuous and/or mathematically hard to prove. But hey, that’s how it goes in PLO! So allow me to do a little live poker pimping …
As twitter followers know, I’ve been hosting a new-ish game at the Hard Rock here in Las Vegas. 1/2 no-limit hold’em/pot-limit omaha. While there are plenty of 4-8 mixed games around town, there are, perhaps surprisingly, few if any low-stakes half-and-half games — and none where players have the option of running it twice. So in an effort to create what Dan personally wants to play top-quality action that serious amateurs, local grinders, and late-night drunks can’t find elsewhere in LV, you can now help your poker evolve by playing:
What: The Pokerati Game: 1/2 NLH/PLO (round of each) When: Thursdays 7pm-? or upon request Where:Hard Rock Poker Lounge Buy-in: $100 min/$400 max Who plays: Nitty locals, Euro-tourists, Action Junkies, Poker media geeks, loose-aggressive douchebags, off-duty Vegas dealers, disciples of Isildur1
We know you all know hold’em, but if Omaha’s not yet your game, check out this video of how gloriously painful PLO can be:
Check it out. This story in PokerListings is probably a bit too kind without any LOLs. But hey, as a guy who’s key flaw in his plan to offer Pokeratizens the best low-stakes action in Vegas was not learning how to fold more often pre-flop, I’ll take the love!
