9/18... WTF?

[Dale Dough]

Seriously. Why do such limits exist? WTF is the point? 3/6 seems logical - no $2.50 chips. But what on earth prevents people from playing just 5/10 and 10/20 like normal people? (This bash is aimed at 4/8 and 8/16 as well)

Somebody once told me that his 80/160 game has pots about the same size of 100/200, becaus the huge pile of chips in the middle causes bad players to gamble more. I can see why, then, good players would want to play this at high stakes. Well, that and the possibility to 'Kelly criterion' your way up most efficiently. I guess this is also a reason why 30/60 is so much more common than 25/50.

But WTF? We're talking live games here, low stakes. WTF does it matter?. 9/18 tops the list for me as the most ridiculous limit ever. Anyone who can give me more interesting, colorful reasons as to why these games exist, please, amuse me [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[FCBLComish]

9-18 is played mostly in California with $3.00 chips. The game runs very well. There are a lot of people who think that $10-$20 is a lot of money. Some of these same people are the ones that are fooled by prices ending in $.99.

Another great thing about 9-18 is with the 3-6 structure, the pots seem much larger than the pots for 10-20, which has a 2-4 structure.

Don't knock it until you try it!

[LasVegasMichael]

Just to change things up a bit. 9/18 uses $3 chips, which means that the blinds are 2 and 3 chip, respectively, whereas 10/20 is a 1 and 2 chip blind structure. For some reason, this is why 9/18 tends to be more action then 10/20 generally (especially in Vegas).

I play low stakes and have played everything from 3/6 to 20/40, and found that the 9/18 was a lot more action then the 10/20, and the 6/12 was tighter then the 5/10 or the 9/18.

Just different options, that's all.

[hoopsie44]

Dale,
Many AC regulars will tell you the pink chip game(7.50-15) at the Trop is the best game in town. The 3 chip-6 chip structure can result in very loose play and huge pots. Never played the 9-18 but I would think it would be similar to the pink game.

[steamboatin]

Multiple chip structures are > single chip structures and it is not even close.

[tom10167]

In my opinion FW has some of the worst chip structured games out there.

1-3 stud - People always want half red half white(should be all white)
1-5 stud - People always want all red when they buy and freak out at all the white in the pot.(I still color out red in the pot because it makes hella action)(should be 80% white 20% red)
2-4 hold em with $2 chips....... disgusting(should be all white)
4-8 with $2 chips(should be all white)
5-10 with red chips(should not exist)
10-20 with all red(should either use pink $2.50 chips or not exist and spread an 8-16 with $2 chips
20-40 perfect

The 4-8 gets 10x as much action as the 2-4, with all white chips those games would be great.

[jba]

tom I agree with you 100%. a 15/30 with reds would be acceptable also. I think you guys really need to get some $10 chips and replace the 10/20 and 20/40 with 15/30 and 30/60.

[Mike Burchett]

Because 3/6 and 4/8 chips structures generate more action because pots "look" big for the same reason that people are more willing to risk chips than cold hard cash.

Quick example:

10/20: medium pot of $100 has 20 chips in it.

That same pot has 30-31 chips in it at 9-18 and is just as easy to reach. For the 8-16, it's 50 chips! And yet it's been my experience that, on average, the 8-16 has avg pots about the same or bigger than the 9-18, and both are usually bigger than the 10-20. It's not always the case; there are some loose 10-20 games out there. But there is a reason most 20-40 games are with $5 chips instead of $10 chips when there is no other compelling reason.

One other reason for these games in California is that games below 10/20 are often jackpot games, and those at or above 10/20 are not. For whatever reason, some people don't mind the extra $1 drop for their tiny chance at hitting the big-time, so they play 9-18 or 8-16.

[tom10167]

I think replacing a 20 with a 30 might go just a tad too far, however:

4-8
8-16
15-30
40-80

would work pretty damn good. A 20-40 player could play the even more comfortable 15 game or they could play the 40-80.
A 10-20 player now has the 8 or the 15 to choose from and a 5-10 player now has the 4 or the 8 to choose from, I actually like that a lot. A 40 might be a bit too far of a jump, but there's always people asking for a 40 anyways so who knows. I should show this to my boss so she gets a raise. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

I'm real big on 4chip-8chip, that much more so than 3-6 games.

[jba]

tom,

the 5/10 w/kill plays pretty close to 8/16 or 9/18 as is. and I do think the 15/30 -> 40/80 jump is too big, especially since they can't even get a 40 going now with less of a jump.