Rudy Edwards

I headed over to Bally's Friday to try out their poker room. It's very straightforward and simple. A little cramped compared to the nicer rooms, and mostly lower limits, but they had a reasonable crowd of non-pros.

I felt pretty good about my play. I flopped a set of 4s on one hand, and after getting pot sized calls from the guy to my left on the flop and turn, was able to switch to the check-call his small value bet on the river when he made a straight. A few hands later i'm straddling and have two callers and AKs, so I send it up preflop. I get only one caller, a tipsy frat-boy. The board comes down AQ7 with one of my suit. I lead out for 2/3 pot, (about $40) and frat boy moves in on the pot like it's a passed out sorority girl, for another $200. My first instinct was that he had AQ, but as I'm watching him, he stares straight at me and holds his breath, so I give it a call. He has A2, and while he hits a 2 on the river, I feel pretty good about having made the call, and get another example of people playing over-aggressively at a straddler.

My friends were all over at Caeser's, and their tables were terrible, so we agreed to move over to MGM. I played there a lot last year, and it's a good looking room with clunky, annoying tables and uncomfortable chairs, but only a $3 rake with no jackpot. I sit at a 4-8 limit table while waiting for a NL seat, and get two sets in the 9 hands I played.

Once on a 1-2 NL table, circumstances prevent me from straddling the first two laps (me moving to a better seat, and the guy to my right leaving) so I establish a very tight image quickly, playing zero pots in my first 20 hands or so. The other side of the table is five friends, all putting about a beer down per lap. One of their group is a straddler, and very aggressive, putting big raises in towards the side of the table that is not made up of his friends. He's shaved bald with a goatee,wearing a Detroit Tigers ball cap and Jersey, and I judge him pretty quickly to take a lot of pride in being a bully at the table.

I get a chance to take advantage of my tight image before getting any straddles in, when Detroit straddles, and there are two callers, i put in a pot sized raise with QTs. The flop misses me completely, A9x, but my tight image clears out the competition with one 2/3 pot bet after the flop. I note the Tigers fan looks like he wanted to pop me with a raise, but thinks better of it.

It's possible that once I've established a great tight image, that the plan should be to go LAGgro rather than straddlicious, but I couldn't help it, I'm so excited about learning more about this strategy that I took the next opportunity, to the obvious surprise of everyone at the table.

I get four callers, including Detroit, and when I check my hole cards I discover a cute lil' JJ waiting for me and send the pot up to $40. It folds to Detroit who pushes all in, and begins staring at the dealer, trying hard to hold a stone face. After a little consideration, I put in the call, and he says I've got him crushed without even seeing my cards. He never shows, although he does say he's got a flush draw when two spades hit, and cedes me the pot when the third doesn't fall.

These two examples seem to clarify the point I've been making about straddling. When I play straightforward, I just don't get these kind of opportunities, and it isn't very expensive. I'm just not the kind of player people feel comfortable putting their stack in when they have top pair no kicker, but when I'm a straddler, everything changes.

I did a bit of the math, and i'm confident that we're making a mistake regularly playing at Caeser's so far. I'm going to toy with all of the card rooms, but while MGM's might be less comfortable and the marble ring around the tables sucks balls, the $1 discount on rake, and the lack of a $1 jackpot pull more than makes up for it. This would be even more true if I were playing small stakes limit.

One last hand to discuss, I'm in the small blind with Axs, and limp in with 4 other players. The flop comes down AKK with one spade, and it checks around. The turn comes Js, giving me top pair, and a flush draw, although i'm a bit worried about the flush draw hitting as I can't put much money in on that board. I bet $10 into the pot, and get raised another $15 by a slightly aggressive player with a smaller stack (he started the hand with about $100)

I call, and the Qs hits, making my flush but making a full house more likely than not. I decide to check and call any reasonable bet, and he puts in a $25 bet. I say "I want to raise you, but am too afraid of the full house" and just call. After he tells me he has the T for the straight, I tell him I've got a flush and flip my hand over, making a complete jackass out of myself.

You see, my Axs was really ATs, giving me the Royal Flush, and I obviously wanted nothing more than for him to have the full house. I didn't really lose any money, as he made it clear he wouldn't have called a raise at all.

So that's the story of how I just called my royal flush on a board that was magical for a royal. Also of interest is that the MGM was the first Casino I'd played at so far that didn't have a high hand jackpot. If I had hit the Royal at Caeser's or Bally's I'd have hit a high hand jackpot in the thousands. So much for how much money we could be saving by playing at MGM.

6.6.7 1 hour 10-20 limit at the Rio +$275
6.6.7 4 hours 1-3 NL at Caeser's Palace -$9
6.7.7 5 hours 1-3 NL at Caeser's Palace -$350
6.7.7 1/2 hour 2-5 NL at Caeser's Palace +$175
6.8.7 2 hours 1-2 NL at Bally's -$350
6.8.7 10 minutes 4-8 limit MGM +$85
6.8.7 2 hours 1-2 NL at MGM +$230