Posted Wed Aug 17, 2005 1:13 pm GMT by NickFlynn
I spent a week in Vancouver recently and played at the River Rock Casino in Richmond (near the airport). They have a pretty decent poker room (advertised as "Canada's largest") - 30 tables. Hold'em games from 2/4 to 30/60, NL games at 1/2 and 3/6, an occasional Omaha table.
The NL 1/2 is $200 max buyin and I spent quite a bit of time watching them. Crazy game, lots of people pushing the flop with draws (often pretty poor ones like Jack high flushes, etc...)
I played 2/4 hold'em. The game is similar in texture to the .25/.50 tables on Stars (6+ people seeing the flop, somewhat passive pre-flop, aggressive post flop) except that there are more good players per table. The typical table had 6-7 decent players and a couple of gambooler types. The typical hand pre-flop is (limp, limp, limp, fold, limp, limp, check) and then everyone with any kind of a draw bets the living crap out of it post-flop. It was almost like Omaha in that if the board paired, someone had a boat, if there was a reasonable straight out there, someone had it, and three to a flush meant there was at least one player with a flush.
I played pretty mediocre poker and ended up down $500 over 5 sessions. Pretty embarrassing to admit, but there it is. I don't have very much experience playing live and it took me out of my comfort zone. I made some mistakes that really surprised me later when I thought about them. On the other hand, I had a good time, so it wasn't a total loss.
- Nick
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Posted Wed Aug 17, 2005 1:46 pm GMT by matthewardo
I actually just spent a week playing there as well during the first week of August. I was playing 4/8 Hold'em and 4/8 Omaha when it was open.
I actually found that most of the Canadian players are very weak compared to American players. Almost all of the non-regulars are extremely tight and it is very easy to push them around. One of their problems was that they were all buying in for only $100 at a 4/8 table, which in my opinion is too low to really play out all of the ups and downs. And since they had very little bets to play with, they played extremely tight. The way I won at the tables was I started by showing a couple of bluffs when I first got to a table to throw everyone into tilt, then when I did make strong hands I was able to get all of them to call. I raised every hand I played if I was in the right position which kept them guessing all night long what I had, and I played everything that was suited and almost connected. Normally, this type of play would burn my buy-in online or at Morongo (Indian casino in California, I'm only 19), but it worked perfectly at River Rock because the players were generally too scared to call down with anything less than top pair with Ace kicker.
The regulars on the other hand are very good. They aren't afraid to bet out when they miss their draws or call with second or third pair if they feel it is the best hand. I eventually recognized which players knew all of the dealers and I tried to avoid confrontations with them, and if I did get into a pot with them, I made sure I had a pretty strong hand.
The Omaha game that they had going on two of the nights was Hi 4/8 Kill. I realized that they hardly had this game running, because a lot of the regulars who played with me really didn't understand the game and the rules, so they were relatively easy to beat. Online, I have spent almost all of my time in the past 6 months playing PL Omaha Hi, so I consider it my specialty. There was one hand where the board showed 8,8,8,K,5, and the person I was against had one K in his hand and he thought he had a full house, which he didn't because you can only play three cards from the board. I had Q-Q-x-x and I knew I won, but the guy kept trying to argue that he had the best hand. The dealer just chuckled and pushed the pot my way and explained to him the rules. There was also another player who kept betting out and raising with only a set on the river when there were both flush and straight draws and two or three other players in the pot.
Overall in four sessions I was up about $1350 (Canadian though), and I wasn't down after any session. Part of it of course was luck (I did catch one straight flush and got a free keychain for it), but I also think I was able to win a lot because of the weak play which allowed me to easily read most of the players and push a lot of them out with my aggressive style. About five days later I came back to school in California and was playing at Morongo where I usually play, and I had a much harder time playing and was only able to break even after 4 hours, which is how I usually do.
I didn't watch the 2/4 games so I'm not sure about the way people were playing, but keep in mind that with the exchange rate, it's only about 1.5/3 American dollars, so the people playing probably were looser than regular 2/4 in American currency. I normally don't like to play higher than 3/6, but I knew 4/8 in Canada is practically the same value as 3/6 US.
Posted Wed Aug 17, 2005 2:53 pm GMT by NickFlynn
Maybe I should have played 4/8. It sounds like there was a higher percentage of tourist types at those tables. The 2/4 tables were definitely LAG-tastic. Since I played there all week, I saw a lot of the same players at the table - the typical table was 80% regulars. Some of the regulars were pretty good, most were ok - they tended to err on the side of "too aggressive" if anything.
- Nick
Posted Thu Aug 18, 2005 11:46 am GMT by suitedaces84
Things can get pretty sloppy when you're up agaisnt a table full of maniacs.
Posted Sat Aug 20, 2005 12:56 pm GMT by Fetterhoff39
hey matthew it wasnt 8 dead players feeding you blinds all night was it lol (referring to the last THP event at party)
Posted Sat Aug 20, 2005 1:16 pm GMT by suitedaces84
Let it go already.
Posted Sat Aug 20, 2005 1:29 pm GMT by matthewardo
Lol. No, it wasn't. But the play was so tight that I did steal the blinds a number of times.
Posted Mon Aug 22, 2005 10:26 am GMT by cayouche
Wow I know what you mean. I went to Halifax last week to play some 5/10. I've seen some of the worst players in my life. Seriously.
It was a while since last time I played there, like 3 years ago. Back then, I was kinda impressed by the aggressiveness of some, and I also remembered seeing bad players. But now that I am a better player, I miss those days when I could've made much much more money out of them.
I have to share a hand from last Thursday. It was a 8-handed game at a 5/10 table. I'm in the BB with 10  10  . There's 4 callers, back to me, I raise. UTG reraise, all call to me, I cap, all call. There's 5 players, $105 pot already.
Flop 7  9 10 
It's a dangerous flop I know, it's either one that's gonna make me or break me.
I lead bet, someone raises, I reraise, and it caps. All called. Pot $205.
Turn 7 BINGO!
Same thing, I lead, and it will cap. UTG drops at $20 I think. 4 players, pot is $375+
River 8
Again, but it doesn't cap. One player was all-in, the other 3 calls. Pot was $400+.
Me: TT (full house)
UTG: AK
Caller 2: AA (2 pairs)
Caller 3: J8 offsuit (?!?) but flopped the straight. So proud I broke the guy
Caller 4: AT offsuit, (2 pairs top kicker)
Now. The guy with AA, he never raised, and of course he was pissed that he lost. If it wasn't of my good etiquette, I would've LOL at him so hard... The thing is, 2 or 3 hands before, he also had AA and never raised.
Now. The guy with J8o, WTF??!! need I say more?? And I guess he never learned, he then cashed in another $200 and lost it later.
Now. AT is better, but still... calling it all the way, iiissh...
I know I was a dog to win until the turn showed (there was only one T left in the deck, and it flopped, but giving the guy a straight), but that's not the point. Those players are bad...
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