Saturday, February 22, 2014

Mississippi Mud Game

Friend Scott took a trip to Canada and here is his trip report:

Good Evening All,
 
I visited the Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls (Canada) on Wednesday evening.  There was quite a crowd as they were running a bunch of preliminary rounds for a World Poker Tour event during this past week.  I had a comp for slots but decided to try some live poker on night two.  Put my name in for a low stakes game and I was number 82 so I figured it wouldn't happen.
 
Found a Hold-Em table and made some and lost some-leaving up a bit.  I then went to a Mississippi Stud table, watched a few hands and decided to sit for a bit.  About three hours later I cashed +$700 for the night.  Nice game if you are at a casino that offers it.  Payouts vary from casino to casino based on the veteran (who had won a seat in the WPT Event the night before), but this one seemed reasonable.  He and I had similar playing styles for this game -- patience (well, some good cards help) and we saw a few come and bet heavy on everything and leave.
 
Enjoy.
 
Scott
 
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Here is a complete analysis of the game.
Here is a virtual game of the game he played:
 
You can set this to show you make a mistake.
 
Here is a scheme to collude and gain an advantage over the house as well as a ton of more information on the game.
 
 
 
 
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Sunday, February 2, 2014

Ocala

This is a fine poker room for low rollers.  There are three low stakes games:  NL 1-1 with 20-60 buy in, 2-4, and a 1-3 spread limit.
I thought I had moved up to the NL, but I was wrong.  I gave it four days of trying and lost about $500 with never having a winning session.
Last night I went back to my standby 2-4 game and I was much happier.  There was much less stress and after 7 hours of play I walked away with $35 profit.
And that is fine with me.

On Tuesday and Thursday they have a very small and weak bad beat.  I avoid those days.
Every other day they have high hand bonuses offered every half hour or hour depending on the day.  The high hand in the room gets between $100 and $500, depending on the day. Saturdays offer the $500 and that too is the day we can be certain to encounter a 2-4 game, so in my thinking it is the best odds, although Sundays sometimes do better at $300 because there are fewer people in the room.  One Sunday last year I hit twice and one high hand was jacks full, the other kings full.  That would not hold up on a Saturday very often.  Usually, it is a quad or better.
One nice thing is that quads can hit even if the player does not have a pocket pair.  If the kicker ties or beats the board kicker, so in a five card hand both of the player's cards play, then the hand counts. 
Unlike some other places where the high hand awards seems a mystery, Ocala has a screen on the wall which can easily be watched that shows the current high hand and the time to the second left to beat it.  This is important because it can change the way a hand it played.

Obviously, 2-4 games offer a better chance at winning the high hand.
The tightest players seem to go for the 1-3 spread, so I don't often find myself faced with those "rocks" that play the 2-4 at Turning Stone and make it difficult to overcome the rakes over time.

The chance for the bonus also increases the sort of hands players will play.  And that all builds the pots.

The best part is I have my hobby back. I was considering moving on to something else.  Now I know that I just need to stay with the limit, and in Vegas I need to leave tables where I don't seem to be winning.  There too, I like playing for the bonus hands.  At the Golden Nugget they double the bonus amounts between 2 am and 2 pm.  That is my time to play.