Taking stab at 15/30 tonight, wish luck, good play

[egocidal]

cliff notes: I puss out


I got there and signed up for the 6 game to either A) get comfy before I moved or B) find a great game, run hot, etc, see what happens. The opposite of that happened and I dropped a rack at 6 in like an hour. Not fun. The insano black guy chatterbox thats in that wheelchair? He was like 2 ft away from me ranting and spitting and trying to be like chris tucker, it was really annoying. I didn't play badly, I got my AQ into AK twice on an A high board, set of fours runs into open ender and chockes, set of jacks loses to one card K high straight (which I might've been able to save money on, I called a river bet on a board of [T J 9 5 K]....) But anyway, I buyin again, still eyeing the 15 but now not so very comfortable at ALL with the idea of taking a shot with 300 bucks. I only brought 500. At this point I decide that I will probably not play the 15 unless we get a jackpot or I run sick hot. Once again the same [censored] happens. I am close to giving up life, taking a cigarrette break every beat to calm down which led to a massive cough. I have 50 in front of me. Meekly I raise my last c note and call chips.


Why the [censored] didn't I play 3/6 to get warmed up. Sweet jesus tonight is going off track.

Then, a miracle occurs. I've just won a small pot w/o showdown and we are about to move tables (its late in the morning). I am UTG and fold and move my chips to the other table like the floor is telling us to. Everyone moves except the really tilty guy who was on my right and the tiny mexican man playing him HU in the hand. Tilty man starts saying something low, like jackpot, and he's all serious. The players converge to the table, jockying to position to prove they were there. On a board of

85x 5 5
Tilty shows down J5o and mexican dude shows 88. Boom. jackpot. Table share is small, but its 188 dollars back. So now I'm at like 280, feeling alright. The feeling continues as I rake mid sized pot after midsized pot w/o showdown. Walter is yelling "Goddammit young man, dealer what the HELL you doin?" and slamming chips in furious checks to me. It all gets blurry and I walked out at 8 a.m. this mornign with 483 dollars in my pocket, dazed and exhausted. I come back to my apartment, smoke (5 minutes ago) and get on 2p2. This needs to be better thought out.

[jesse8888]

well done sir, well done

[SNOWBALL]

HOW IS IT THAT YOU GET 2 JACKPOTS AND EVERYONE ELSE GETS A JACKPOT BUT I'VE NEVER GOTTEN A JACKPOT??????

[egocidal]

i dunno man, i dunno. Probably the ~8 hours a day I put in on average there during the weekdays.

[SNOWBALL]

[ QUOTE ]

i dunno man, i dunno. Probably the ~8 hours a day I put in on average there during the weekdays.


[/ QUOTE ]

That's it. I'm gonna have Gabriel card you.

[Hyperrrprank]

Nice story [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

On the original post - the 15/30 is my absolutely favorite game right now. The limit is just high enough to really cut your teeth on, but low enough to attract some really marginal players who want to feel like they play high stakes or tilty morons who are either "moving up because you can't protect your hand" at lower limits or because they've racked out twice and want to win big quickly.

You need at least $750 to play properly at a 15/30 table. Forget as quickly as you can the value of the chips in front of you and play as if you're playing 3/6 until you're comfortable. Don't count your chips and translate into dollars.

Watch out for hyper aggressive players who think limit poker is about bluffing people out of hands. There are more of them at this level than I see even at 20/40. For sure there are a few more decent players at these tables, try to determine which are ABC players and which are tricky, it'll help you a lot.

Good luck!

[SNOWBALL]

[ QUOTE ]

You need at least $750 to play properly at a 15/30 table.

[/ QUOTE ]

Everyone always says stuff like this and never gives a reason. Why can't I play "properly" with $150 spaced out over 3-4 buyins?
Playing short in any loose game where the rake isn't murderous can be pretty awesome if you are on a small roll. You just get in with hands that you think can win unimproved and watch all the equity roll in.

[Hyperrrprank]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

You need at least $750 to play properly at a 15/30 table.

[/ QUOTE ]

Everyone always says stuff like this and never gives a reason. Why can't I play "properly" with $150 spaced out over 3-4 buyins?
Playing short in any loose game where the rake isn't murderous can be pretty awesome if you are on a small roll. You just get in with hands that you think can win unimproved and watch all the equity roll in.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is ignoring all those times that you hit the nuts or a monster and don't have enough chips to maximize your winnings. With $150 in front of you at the 15/30 you've got less than you'd need to play one good hand. When you run out of ammo while holding the winning hand, you're surrendering value.

This is especially bad at a limit like 15/30. People here notice a short stack, I know I do, and will take advantage of your inability to fire back. You'll get lots of blinds stolen, and in a couple rotations you'll be afraid to limp in with anything short of a premium hand because someone is going to raise you every time. As soon as that happens, the good players will start ducking when you do come in knowing that your hand is a potential monster because you won't want to endanger your stake. Those that do come in will be planning a resteal raise on the flop or turn if it looks like you missed the flop.

To summarize, coming in short stacked at this limit gives your opponents too much information and too much leverage. You limit the amount you can win when you do make a hand, and encourage many players to get tricky and put you in tough spots.

[SNOWBALL]

Hyperrrr,

Of course it's bad to have the nuts and not have money to fire back. However, my point was you don't need a certain amount to play right or profitably in a game. See Barry's comment in ace on the river that he likes to make his initial buy a short-buy because it gives you a mathematical edge.

Also, LOL at your comments about how the "good players will adjust"
First of all, it's rare to find too many good players at 15/30. Second of all, if you are playing with 5bb, you pretty much will never be openlimping anyway (except with AA looking to LRR) so you're not afraid of getting isolation raised.
Furthermore, even if there were all these "good players" at 15/30, it wouldn't matter. I would sit against any line up in the entire world if they would let me buy in for 1bb, while they all played their normal regular stacked games. There is a reason that tables have min-buy requirements.

[Hyperrrprank]

Note I never said "good players will adjust" I said people will notice and become more aggressive. The only thing I said about good players is that they will opt out of hands you come in on at a higher frequency than they would someone sitting with a standard buy-in. Sure, you don't really mind if the good players stay out of hands with you, but if enough people do this then your pots will stay smaller and bad players won't have odds/incentive to pay you off.

Note that I didn't say "Never play short stacked", I advised the OP that he'd want $750 to take his first stab at 15/30. The last thing he'd want is to look and feel like a little fish in a pond with a bunch of sharks, and unless he's familiar and comfortable with short stack play I assumed that would be the case.