Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

Some background, currently we have 4 poker rooms in Kansas City but the lowest NL HE games at all of them is 2-5 NL with a $100-300 buyin and some rooms allow you to buyin for up to 75% of the big stack in an established game

Harrah's is going to add a $1-2 NL HE game with a $100 buyin in early March. The floor said this was in response to 3-6 fish requests to play NL with smaller blinds. Seems -EV for the casino as 3-6 LHE will rake more than any NL HE game. The only thing I can think of with 1-2 NLHE is taht it will take people longer to go broke and therefore pay more rake than if they played the 2-5 game.

Currently on a Friday (and some Saturday) nights there will be 5 3-6 LHE games and 7 2-5 NL HE games (they have 12 tables so its full). I am wondering what will happen to the games once the new 1-2 NLHE is implemented.

At the same time they add the 1-2 NL HE game they are also going to allow you to buyin for up to 75% of the big stack in the 2-5 game but maintain the $100-300 buyin. (I personally wish it would go to $200-500 w. 75% rule)

I am guesing that the 7 NL games might change to 3-4 tables of 1-2 and 3-4 tables of 2-5 but was wondering if anyone has had experience with this happening at their local card room and how the games went.

Also, there will now be unique poker dealers in the poker room and not share with regular floor table games. This was exciting to me as it should hopefully get all of the top dealers permanently in the poker room for their shifts.

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

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Seems -EV for the casino as 3-6 LHE will rake more than any NL HE game.

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How do you figure? Have you played in a live $1-2 game? It doesn't usually involve a lot of blind steals.

Also giving the fish what they want is unlikely to be -EV compared to sending them to whatever room spreads the games they wish to play.

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

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Seems -EV for the casino as 3-6 LHE will rake more than any NL HE game.

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How do you figure? Have you played in a live $1-2 game? It doesn't usually involve a lot of blind steals.

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I am merely stating that a 3-6 game will get out more hands per hour than a 1-2 NLHE game. Also the 3-6 game will hit max rake of $4 (10%) a much higher % of the time as well, thus those two factors cause it to rake more

This is a little off topic of the post though - moreso wondering what will be the prbably distribution of NL games and if it will all drop down to 1-2 or if a good mix will exist

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

That's my point, that $1-2 pots generally hit $40 pretty regularly. The ones that don't don't take that long to play. You can't have it both ways. If everyone's folding preflop (which would be a rare $1-2 game indeed), then more hands should be dealt per hour. There may be a little more time taken for resolution of all-in hands versus people fumbling around trying to get 6 and 12 chips out, but I think that's minor. Maybe someone more knowledgeable will correct me.

As for your OP -- based on rooms with a $1-2 game, I would guess that will attract the passersby who "just want to play NL" and maybe some of the less-talented 2-5 regulars who know they're fish. I certainly would expect the $2-5 to get noticeably tougher.

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

Adding NL1/2 will half-ruin the NL2/5 and could even kill it. People tend to aim for the lowest NL in the room, whatever that may be. If NL1/2 is available, they go there. If NL2/5 is all that's offered, they'll do that. So you're going to have many fewer fish in the NL2/5 game since they will instead be in the 1/2 game.

Rio was NL2/5 as the smallest for a while and it had some nice games. Then they started doing NL1/2 and suddenly the ONLY people ever playing NL2/5 were the locals--every visit to Rio I'd look at the NL2/5 table and recognize like 8 of the 9 players there (if they even had 2/5 going). But there'd be 5 tables of NL1/2 going. Same happened at Mirage...used to be NL2/5 was the bottom of their NL and the games were great, then they added 1/2 and the fish are far less common in 2/5. Rio, at least, had a change of heart and stopped offering 1/2; they're back to 2/5 as the smallest NL game and the games are better.

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

There are multiple 1/2 NL (200 max buy) AND 2/5 NL (500 max, no 75% rule) tables going pretty much every night at the Harrahs here in St.Louis.

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

What will happen? There will be close to 12 tables of 1/2 NL. Prepare for all-in pushfest donkaments. They might keep 1 table of 3/6 which will be super rock nit city and 1 table of 2/5 NL which will be the same 8 guys all the time.
All the rest of the tables will have the game changed from NL Texas Hold 'Em to 1/2 NL Texas All-In 'Em.

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

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There are multiple 1/2 NL (200 max buy) AND 2/5 NL (500 max, no 75% rule) tables going pretty much every night at the Harrahs here in St.Louis.

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The same poker room manager from Harrah's St. Louis is also handling the Harrah's Kansas City room. St. Louis is a bigger (not huge differance though) market than KC. The STL room also has 18-20 tables if I remember right and does have a good variety of limits. It should be interesting to see what happens here.

I think in an ideal world they would open 3 1-2 NL HE games then open 4 2-5 NL HE games on a Friday night and just let the 1-2 list build up really deep and keep the 2-5 list shorter and force some people to move up but that is just me being selfish. It probably wont be the worst thing in the world if the 2-5 gets tougher just so I can be forced to play a little better.

I mainly just dont want the 2-5 to die and I dont want it to get where there is one or two 2-5 games and the list is super deep becuase they cant open another table because of so many 1-2 games running

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

Almost the exact same thing happened at MS2 in Chicago. It used to be that the only NL game was 2/5 with a $50 min/$200 max buy. A few months ago they upped the buy on the 2/5 NL to $100/$300 and they started spreading a 1/2 NL with a $40/$100 buy-in.

The 2/5 NL game still goes strong, but the competition did get tougher. The weakest players moved down to 1/2. However, most of the 1/2 traffic seems like former 3/6 and 6/12 LHE players and new players that wouldn't have even walked in the door if there wasn't the 1/2 NL option. Hopefully the same thing will happen in your room.

The overall effect has been more people in seats on the weekends, which is when I play. That's good for the poker room and good for the poker community. The game that might have suffered is the 6/12 LHE. It seems like its tough for the room to get that game going on the weekend, but I'm not sure because I don't play in that game.

BTW, the room has 21 tables. On a weekend night there are usually 4 or 5 2/5 NL games going 3 or 4 1/2 NL games going occasionally 1 5/10 NL game going and the rest of the tables are filled with different limit games ranging from 3/6 to (occasionally) 10/20 and usually 1 or 2 tables of 3/6 Omaha H/L.

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

How exactly is this scenario worse than having a $2-5 stagnate because the fish don't want to keep losing so much money, but can't go down to $1-2 so they just quit? As always, the fish get to decide what games get spread and the sharks comply if they want to keep playing in good games, not vice versa.

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

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At the same time they add the 1-2 NL HE game they are also going to allow you to buyin for up to 75% of the big stack in the 2-5 game but maintain the $100-300 buyin. (I personally wish it would go to $200-500 w. 75% rule)


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That's an interesting scenario, I think it kinda sucks if they add 1/2 NL, but what can ya do. Also, I was at Harrah's on Sunday, and the max buyin for 2/5 NL was $500. That was the first time I had seen that. But, someone said that was how they were going to proceed. It will be interesting to see if they maintain that.

How do you like the Ameristar games?

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

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At the same time they add the 1-2 NL HE game they are also going to allow you to buyin for up to 75% of the big stack in the 2-5 game but maintain the $100-300 buyin. (I personally wish it would go to $200-500 w. 75% rule)


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That's an interesting scenario, I think it kinda sucks if they add 1/2 NL, but what can ya do. Also, I was at Harrah's on Sunday, and the max buyin for 2/5 NL was $500. That was the first time I had seen that. But, someone said that was how they were going to proceed. It will be interesting to see if they maintain that.

How do you like the Ameristar games?

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When you were there on Sunday were you in a $100-300 game or a 75% game, that could have been why you could sit with $500 (I played on Saturday and it was still $100-300 and there was a full 75% game going also but was shorter stacked)

Normally the weaker players are in $100-300 so I dont bother with the 75% game and have never sat at a new 75% game to know what the initial buyin is (although I thought it was $100-300 but up to $500 could also be logical)

Ameristar is on average tighter in my experience, although occasionally you will get some crazies in there, I was there a week ago when the BBJ was $200k+ and we had a couple people dumping chips like I hadnt ever seen before. I normally play harrah's just due to having up to 7 NL games going where Ameristar has 2-3 going. That trip made me think about going back to Ameristar but for now Harrah's will be my pick as game selection seems better and its easy to hop out of one game and into another if your gmae is playing tight as there are 5+ other games to switch to.

What do you think of Ameristar?

Also, Harrah's mentioned they want to get some non standard games going there such as 10-20 limit holdem and omaha games, I am just not sure if the demand is there. I would be happy to play a 10-20, 15-30 limit or 2-5 pot limit HOE game as those were pretty standard up in Iowa and a good time.

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

Every time I had previously played Harrah's, it was $100-300 buyin. But the floor said, as of Sunday, when I was playing, that the buyin for 2/5 would be $200-500. I don't know if they will still allow for any 75% tables or not. But the $500 max is SO much better for better players. I just asked about Ameristar because I have not really played much there at all. Just wondered if it played similarly to Harrah's. I don't really play limit, so I can't comment much on them adding those other games, but I guess it would be good. I have been playing at Harrah's about once a month, but I plan on going more frequently now.

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

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Every time I had previously played Harrah's, it was $100-300 buyin. But the floor said, as of Sunday, when I was playing, that the buyin for 2/5 would be $200-500. I don't know if they will still allow for any 75% tables or not. But the $500 max is SO much better for better players. I just asked about Ameristar because I have not really played much there at all. Just wondered if it played similarly to Harrah's. I don't really play limit, so I can't comment much on them adding those other games, but I guess it would be good. I have been playing at Harrah's about once a month, but I plan on going more frequently now.

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That is pretty awesome, I will have to go out there on Saturday and check it out. Was the only NL game on the board the 200-500 game? I do like that and can deal without having the 75% rule back (last summer it was so juicy, could walk in to most tables on a Friday or Saturday night and buyin for $1000-1500).

I would personally only visit Ameristar when the BBJ is really big as its normally rocky and its a limit holdem focused poker room vs Harrah's which is more NL focused

I am hoping they try to get a board for the 5/10 NL game again, in the past it was min $300 and upcapped, sometimes the lineup was good and other times it was super rocky but would be fun to see if it could go

A 2-5 PL HO or HOE game would probably interest the most number of people but it will be good to have them proactively starting interest lists to see what the players want to play as that is what it comes down to in the end

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

We've had it before. We used to start a $1-2 N/L about an hour before the $2-5 N/L each morning. The room didn't play terribly different from the way it plays now. Usually kept one, and no more than two $1-2 N/L's going and the $3-6 LHE varied depending on the size of the bad beat jackpot, but about the same number as what we run now.

As for the strength of the games, they were a bit tougher back then, but the Friday/Saturday night crowd usually provides all you can fish that fill more than the 2 tables of $1-2 NL.

Good hearing from you Brandon. Let me know when you're in town and playing. I've been back and forth to Vegas a lot lately, but look forward to meeting you at Harrah's sometime.

Kevin
Good luck.

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

Trip Report:
On Saturday 2/24
1 Table of 1-2 NL HE with $100-200 buyin
5 Tables of 2-5 NL HE with $200-500 buyin

The dealers were all complaining about dealing the 1-2 NL HE as they didnt like dealing with white and red chips and just wanted to deal with one color of chips

Anyway, in another month once the word about 1-2 NL HE has gotten out, should be interesting to see what happens but so far the $2-5 is very much alive

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

Wanted to get down there last night, but it was the wife's birthday. She's pretty easy goin' when it comes to cards, but thought I better not push it.

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

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Wanted to get down there last night, but it was the wife's birthday. She's pretty easy goin' when it comes to cards, but thought I better not push it.

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That's fair, I will be out next Friday night and Saturday during the day next weekend, see what happens then

My table on Sat was split between super aggs and call stations but I couldnt get much help from the deck but you could tell when a call station awoke with AA and raised to $20 and you knew there is no way they were getting away from it, lately it seemed i was on these tight passive tables wo. any agression so it was a good change

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

Lots of good info in this thread. I will have to come check out the Harrah's 2/5 now in a few weekends when I have some free time.

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

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We've had it before. We used to start a $1-2 N/L about an hour before the $2-5 N/L each morning. The room didn't play terribly different from the way it plays now. Usually kept one, and no more than two $1-2 N/L's going and the $3-6 LHE varied depending on the size of the bad beat jackpot, but about the same number as what we run now.

As for the strength of the games, they were a bit tougher back then, but the Friday/Saturday night crowd usually provides all you can fish that fill more than the 2 tables of $1-2 NL.

Good hearing from you Brandon. Let me know when you're in town and playing. I've been back and forth to Vegas a lot lately, but look forward to meeting you at Harrah's sometime.

Kevin
Good luck.

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this was almost exactly what I was going to write

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

please shoot me a pm if they ever get a 5-10 game running regularly

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

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A
Rio was NL2/5 as the smallest for a while and it had some nice games. Then they started doing NL1/2 and suddenly the ONLY people ever playing NL2/5 were the locals--every visit to Rio I'd look at the NL2/5 table and recognize like 8 of the 9 players there (if they even had 2/5 going). But there'd be 5 tables of NL1/2 going. Same happened at Mirage...used to be NL2/5 was the bottom of their NL and the games were great, then they added 1/2 and the fish are far less common in 2/5. Rio, at least, had a change of heart and stopped offering 1/2; they're back to 2/5 as the smallest NL game and the games are better.

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A couple days late on this reply but I just saw your post. I used to play the 2/5 NL game at Mirage back when it was a 100-300 buy in range. The railbirds couldn't wait to get into this game, then it got raised to 500 and I was absolutely loving it. I kept track of my results from here and was a consistant winner for close to a year of regular play here. Then they introduced 1/2 and I could rarely even get a 2/5 game here during the week anymore and maybe 1 table on the weekends. I haven't played here since because of this [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] They killed all the action of the 2/5's just by giving into the 1/2 crowd, when the buy in was essentially the same 100-200 vs 100-300 (early stages of 2/5).

As for the Rio, I remember when they added 1/2 and it did the same exact thing to their 2/5's. Anyways, having only the 2/5 and 4/8 games now keeps the fish at these 2 games, but I haven't really cared for this room since it opened. Something about the vibe there just doesn't seem right or comfortable to me.

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

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They killed all the action of the 2/5's just by giving into the 1/2 crowd, when the buy in was essentially the same 100-200 vs 100-300 (early stages of 2/5).

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Well, first of it it's repetitive to say but it's not the casinos job to keep the money growing on trees for the sharks. Maybe you tacitly accept this but loaded language like giving in to a crowd implies that you think the casino has robbed you here.

Secondly, blinds determine the stakes more than buy-in, although fish may not know that. So players could be rational to stay out of a 100-min $2-5 game but play a 100-min $1-2 game.

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

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please shoot me a pm if they ever get a 5-10 game running regularly

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I would like to see a $5-10 NL game w. $500 min, no cap happen but I doubt that will happen, I know this summer there was one with a $300 min and uncapped but the couple times I played it, it was a terrible rockfest and I moved over to a 75% 2-5 game for more action

I will PM if I see any bigger games going

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

Trip Reprot:
Saturday 3/3
4 tables of $2-5 NL
2 tables of $1-2 NL

Still 6 tables of NL but 1 more moved from 2/5 to 1/2 compared to last Saturday, it will be interesting to see how this trend goes as more and more find out about the 1-2 NL HE game

Also as far as a 5-10 NL HE game, I dont think it will ever happen, there is really no reason to spread it, when it ran this last summer the same 9-10 guys showed up to play against each other and figured out their win rates would be better in the 2-5 games. I guess I will watch and see if lists go and look at names on it but the 2-5 game moving from 100-300 to 200-500 buyin has made that game juicier so I am not sure if a 5-10 would go. If a couple diamond players poped up on the list I am sure I would make my way over

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

Also I am not sure how I forgot to mention this, you can now straddle and chop as of Friday

Some rules I dont know if they have been changed that I need to look into are:
1. Banning of iPods (or any other MP3 player)
2. Not being allowed to turn cards face up even when heads up and other person all in
3. Will they start to drop $1 in NL games for BBJ

If any Harrah's St Louis regulars know the rules there please answer this as we are getting all of the same rules that you have and it would be interesting to know

I think cell phones will remain to also be banned while sitting at the table but can still stand behind your chair with it

Also I believe you can come into the room and sit at any empty table while you are waiting for a seat (or so a dealer told us) although I never saw anyone do that which could be due to lack of communication. I would rather sit in the smoke free room then stand along the outside with all of the smokers. Right along with this is that you can rail games while waiting for a seat which could be good for scouting tables but I am pretty sure I could get annoyed if a lot of people start railing games while waiting for tables.

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

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Some rules I dont know if they have been changed that I need to look into are:
1. Banning of iPods (or any other MP3 player)
2. Not being allowed to turn cards face up even when heads up and other person all in
3. Will they start to drop $1 in NL games for BBJ

If any Harrah's St Louis regulars know the rules there please answer this as we are getting all of the same rules that you have and it would be interesting to know

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I'm a St. Louis regular.

1)You're allowed to have it with you, but I'm pretty sure it can't be on during a hand. Stupid to allow these. It slows down the game.

2)I sometimes turn face cards up when heads-up in ring games. It's allowed for ring play. In tournamnet play they warn you not to and if you do it repeatedly, they will call the floor. They don't like to resort to declaring your hand dead, but if you really pushed it they might.

3) I've heard rumors of starting up the BBJ some time this spring for $1/$2. I hope they don't. It's bad enough being forced to buy a "lottery ticket" in $3/$6 play when many hands see the showdown. Buying the same-priced lottery ticket in $1/$2 when people bet to protect hands makes a BBJ drop from a $1/$2 table -EV (as opposed to neutral). ON the flip side, if you're a $3/$6 player, you have to like the extra padding of your jackpot by people less likely to win it. I personally HATE the idea of BBJ in $1/$2.

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

Thank you for the reply.

I totally agree with you on iPods (or any MP3 player) slowing it down too much (beyond the other things slowing it down)

That is good news about the hands being turned up - That has been a major pet peeve of mine and took me a month to break myself of the habit after moving to KC so I guess I can now go back to it, I was always good enough to keep a very firm grip on my cards when I did do it so none of the dealers had a chance to get them away from me when they had this crappy rule. I will be sure to ask the floor mgrs next weekend before trying it out though.

Interesting news of the BBJ, I typically only play 2-5 NL so I wouldnt mind as much if it came to the 1-2 NL here although I would prefer it didnt for those times I am in that game when waiting for a bigger game. Plus if it gets into the 1-2 NL games, it just makes it one step easier to introduce in the 2-5 NL games

Supposedly they also just ordered new cards for the entire poker room and will now be using the same quality cards as they were using in STL - the last weekend our decks were pretty crappy and we were getting setups with horribly bent cards

Harrah's rooms typically have crappy cards company wide so I will be interested to see what these "new" cards are like, maybe go from very crappy to kind of crappy

Also the 5-10 NL game in STL, is that $500 min/no max? Also if you know how many tables of it have been running on Friday or Saturday nights would be interesting to me. I am guessing it is only one table though and I would be at a disadvantage due to the $500 rule and needing to stock up some chips. Could try to bring some blacks from KC but that seems kinda shady.

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

Please let them spread some sort of Omaha eventually at the KC Harrah's.... PLEASE. Although if I get the job I'm interviewing for at the Harrah's in Las Vegas I won't have to worry about it.

Also, very glad to hear they are allowing a stradle now. It probably has to do with increasing the buy in on the 2/5 game. (No one wants to sit with $100 or $200 and see it straddled and popped to $50 every hand ya know?)

I don't see the 1/2 games hurting the 2/5 action that much. The Fri/Sat night donators that the game really runs on are probably like "wtf $1 chips?"

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

The poker room mgr from Harrah's St Louis is making these changes and changing the buyin and limits along with adding straddle and chop were his idea which is good as he is bringing the two room to one common set of rules

I agree with the omaha statement. I would like to see a split NLHE/PLO just to start but I am not sure if it would happen. I guess all you can do is ask for them to start a list for it, the next time I am in there early on a Friday or Saturday I will talk to the floor about it. I just think that mix has the best chance at getting going.

I was spoiled prior to a year ago being in Iowa where all of the bigger games included at least one form of omaha if not two. I didnt realize how rare this was and I actually never played higher NL in Iowa as it was all PL HO or HOE games along with limit HOE games.

A lot of the dealers have been saying "wtf $1 chips?" after dealing with a big mix of red and white at the $1/2 tables

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

Which poker room mgr from Stl went to KC?

They didn't introduce $1/$2 in St. Louis until they built the new poker room. The old one was just too small for the number of games. They went from 9-10 tables to ~25 and we still managed to get 20 deep on the 1-2 and 3-6 lists last friday PLUS more than 10 on the 2-5 list. I'm hoping that slows down a little. It's been almost a year since the new poker room opened.

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

You guys were seriously playing pot limit Stud 8? The E in HOE usually stands for Stud 8.

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

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Which poker room mgr from Stl went to KC?

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The same person is managing both the Harrah's St Louis and Harrah's North Kansas City poker rooms. They had all of the KC dealers apply to be poker room dealers and hired some of them back to be exclusive poker dealers and keep tips in the room. This was just a few weeks ago so it should be interesting to see what dealers were kept on and which ones will be left out in the main pit.

I am hoping a few of the dealers that they kept can deal Omaha but that is a better question left for the floor mgr for later this month as I will see what he thinks.

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You guys were seriously playing pot limit Stud 8? The E in HOE usually stands for Stud 8.

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In my experience playing HOE in Iowa it was always Holdem, Omaha High, and Omaha H/L. The game has been played 10-20 to 30-60 limits at different times and also 2-5 Pot Limit. There is also a 5-10 PL HO game (no O8) but that hasnt been as popular. The PL games play pretty big as they are all uncapped.

I heard the 2-5 PL HOE had been going strong about a month ago but not sure if it still is now as I havent been back up to see. I think it was going for sure on Thursday nights at Priarie Meadows in Des Moines. I wish I had time to go back up for a weekend and play.

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

Prairie meadows in Iowa by chance? I didn't spend nearly enough time there while I lived in Iowa because I can't stand live $1/2 (I can't take it serious at all). When they did get $2/5 NL games going though they were definitely worth going to. Unfortunately I wasn't primarily an Omaha player like I am now or I'd have jumped in those HOE games they had going.

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

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Prairie meadows in Iowa by chance? I didn't spend nearly enough time there while I lived in Iowa because I can't stand live $1/2 (I can't take it serious at all). When they did get $2/5 NL games going though they were definitely worth going to. Unfortunately I wasn't primarily an Omaha player like I am now or I'd have jumped in those HOE games they had going.

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Yeah Prairie Meadows is in Des Moines, IA

I cashed in playing a lot in the 10-20 and 15-30 limit HOE games but have been absent since moving to KC in May of 2006. When I am back for the holidays I have seen the 2-5 PL HOE game go at both Riverside (south of Iowa City) and Prairie Meadows. The next time I go to Iowa I will call PM, Riverside and Meskwaki (Tama,IA) to see where the action is as the bigger limit players like to move the game around a decent amount. They are still pretty juicy though when they go.

The 2/5 NL is pretty unexciting as well as when I lived up there it had a min/max of $200 buyin which made it play really small and rarely got really deep.

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

Question about 1/2NLHE in KC. Unfotunately for us Chicago bound players, the MS2 charges for time rather than a rake. Are the 1/2 NLHE games in KC rake? I have been playing the 1/2 NLHE at the MS2, and though the play is a donkfest, it has made it difficult to come out behind. However, the most frustrating thing have been the folds I have made which in larger games with better players, are more likely to be correct would have made me a lot of $$$. Has anyone played these games in KC and how has your hand selection as well as calling standards changed. I will be playing out there the weekend of the 24th, hoping to see a full room during March Madness.

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

The 1-2 NL HE at Harrah's KC is 10% $4 rake and NO BBJ drop

I cant say much about the 1-2 here as I havent played it, I did play a lot of $1-2 NL HE at Prairie Meadows in Des Moines with $100 min/max buyin - The main thing I did there was play tight, agressive, and straight forward and really paid attention to people as it is easy to make bad big laydowns when people show a lot of strength but you just have to figure out who the players are that show a lot of strength but in reality are clueless about poker so they think they are strong but are not.

I had a friend put in a session last weekend at the 1-2 NL HE here and he said the biggest thing he saw was people going all in with any flush or straight draw when they were going to get called 100% - He also asked about preflop raising and I told him with any premium hand to go 4BB+1BB per limper which caused some $14-20 preflop raises from him but he said they were pretty ideal as he never took down the pot preflop and was able to build a pot early to get paid off on big hands (with occasional suckout of course) and with the big pot early there was 0% chance of needing to make a big laydown after the pot was built up so much - not saying this is correct once you move up but in 1-2 it seems to fair decently

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

[ QUOTE ]
and with the big pot early there was 0% chance of needing to make a big laydown after the pot was built up so much

[/ QUOTE ]

Did I ever tell you the one where I flopped a set and got stacked for $400 playing $1/$2? I couldn't put the other player on the str8 draw because of the way the betting went down. Trust me, I should have laid it down when he pushed the river. The correct laydown pct lies somewhere north of zero.

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

Just wanted to update this again

Friday, March 23rd

Of the 8 NLHE tables:
4 tables were playing 1/2 NL HE
4 tables were playing 2/5 NL HE

My table wasnt very soft but was still a decent game...

Re: Kansas City: Lowest NL is 2-5, casino adding 1-2, what happens?
 

which table? I may have played with you - some guy that played well was whining about lack of action ;p

tonight there were 4 1/2 tables and 2 2/5 tables. no lists for either. stupid fish were out watching basketball instead. no one was drinking either... basically 3 tough players and 7 meh players.