Garden City (San Jose): 20-40 first-timer's trip report

[Christmas Steve]

Wednesday night to Thursday 8/8 - 8/9 (yeah, I pulled a 24-hour session!), I took a shot at the 20-40 LHE at Garden City Casino in San Jose, CA. I'm normally a 3-6 & 6-12 player, but my game, and consequently my bankroll, has steadily improved over the past year, so I wanted to see what it was like. Are the players that much better/tighter at the higher buy-in level?

Somewhat to my surprise, I found that the answer is NO. While the table I sat down at was initially fairly tight (what do you expect, 7- to 8-handed at 1AM on Thursday morning), over that session I saw the same variety of tight, loose, and donkey play as I'm accustomed to witnessing at the lower levels. There were perhaps slightly fewer people staying with weak offsuit Aces from early position, but that's just my gut feel.

I ended up doing fairly well overall. After losing my initial $500 buyin, I re-bought for the same amount and ended up walking away with $2500, so $1500 for one day's work. I probably won't do this again for a while, as I know I don't have the bankroll at this point to support the variance. However, this did teach me that if I keep my head (I made a couple of great laydowns that I normally wouldn't at lower levels) and stick to my game, I can compete at any level.

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There was some discussion that the recent addition of 40-80 games had killed the 20-40 action, which I didn't understand. Anyone have further insight?