Harrah's North Kansas City New $2/5 NL Buyin

[TheStation]

So I just moved to Kansas City and in the span of living here for a month Harrah's North KC has restructured the buyin on their $2-5 No Limit Holdem and I am not sure which game I want to play now

The old way:
$2-5 blinds
$100-300 buyin on new games
$100-75% of big stack buyin on running games

The new games:
$2-5 blind no limit
specific tables running one of the folling two:
- tables with $100-300 buyin
- tables with $100 min, 75% of big stack max

The reason they did this is some players (im guessing fish) didnt like players being able to buyin for $1000+ into a game where they bought in for $200 as these bigger players could bust them in any hand, even if they had doubled/triped up their original buyin

So my question comes down to game selection. Would you choose the $100-300 game or the more pseudo-uncapped 75% of big stack game? Both games are well within my bankroll and I dont mind playing deep stacked.

From my experince thus far the better regular players seem to be going towards the 75% game (lets say 2/3rds) with some remaining in the $100-300 game (lets say 1/3rd).

So I am trying to decide which game is better for me (which one will yield the highest $/hr) and looking to everyone on here for their thoughts. I wish I had a ton of time to spend playing each game for 100s of hours to get good data but I dont.

So which game should I play and why? (or which one of these games would you play and why)

[brettkc]

Hey I live in KC Aswell, What are the biggest NL games they have at ameristar and harrahs? Also how good are the games? thanks

[KCFire105]

I play Harrah's NKC frequently and love the 75% buy-in rule. You stated you were sufficiently rolled for both games so I believe it boils down to your game. If you're playing long term winning poker step up to the 75% buy-in game where the game typically plays bigger. If you don't have a high win percentage and play for recreation, stay at the $300max buy-ins. Depending on your style of play, you can always play a short stack at the bigger buy-in tables as well.

Good Luck (until I'm sitting with you) [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]
Kevin

[KCFire105]

[ QUOTE ]
Hey I live in KC Aswell, What are the biggest NL games they have at ameristar and harrahs? Also how good are the games? thanks

[/ QUOTE ]

Ameristar is known as mainly a limit room, where as N/L is the more popular game at Harrah's. You can buy-in for $100-$300 with $2-5 blinds at Harrah's with a unique 75% buy-in of the big stack. You need to remember to take your chips home with you for your poker stash in order to take advantage of the bigger games given the $500 max buy-in every two hours rule (MISSOURI GAMING LAW). You can also arrive just before the even hour (10,12,2...) buy-in for the full $500 and wait until just after the hour and rebuy again for another $500. After your initial trip, it's easier to just take a few chips home and be sufficiently rolled for your next trip.

The games are great (depending on your game). Like most card rooms, it's typically best on Friday/Saturday nights.

[soah]

[ QUOTE ]
You stated you were sufficiently rolled for both games so I believe it boils down to your game. If you're playing long term winning poker step up to the 75% buy-in game where the game typically plays bigger.

[/ QUOTE ]

I believe his question is centered upon the assumption that the tables without the 75% rule will be fishier than the others. I have not been there since this change was made, but I would guess that a lot of the fish are not going to care too much and will just join whichever table has an open seat. So, it will really just be a matter of finding the fishiest table each day.

I was considering going up there today to play, and if I do I will most likely just play at whichever table has the first opening, and see how it goes.

[AKQJ10]

What would game theory tell us?

Seriously, I agree that it's unlikely to matter too much -- but I can see the case for staying in the happy fishing grounds and taking people's money $300 at a time rather than playing against tougher players.

Based on my one trip to Harrah's NKC (technical details wikied here; please edit as needed), I would guess it'll be plenty fishy either way.

I keep meaning to write up this story but I'll just put it here. I played there for about an hour at 1 am Wednesday morning a couple of weeks ago. I had played like one hand the first 45 minutes, doubling up with TT, giving me a stack around $200. Then this hand came up.

I get two black kings in EP and raise to $20, figuring any bigger raise will kill my action given my table image. I get three callers, two behind me and one of the blinds. Flop comes:

J[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 8 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 2 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

The blind checks, I bet $75 or so into a pot of about $80, two cold-callers fold, and the blind raises me all-in, which I consider an easy call. The turn comes the K [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], and he turns over T[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 7[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]. I table my kings and implore the dealer to pair the board. He complies, dealing out the beautiful 2 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] for a river.

Naturally as I'm stacking my chips, Ten-Seven-Suited is telling me how bad I sucked out on him. "You do know that when we put the money in I was the favorite, right?" I didn't think this was true, and in fact it isn't, but with $80 dead in the pot he was right to get his money in as a 47-53 underdog after his suited two-gapper flopped a big draw.

He goes on needling me a few hands later: "You should be broke, Borgata," referring to the chip I sometimes use as a card holder. I try to take it in stride, but it finally gets to me enough to make me mutter under my breath about fish who call short-stacked raises with T7s giving poker lessons. I don't think he heard, and even if he did I had to get back on the road a few minutes later.

I guess the moral of the story is: try to smile and take whatever poker advice you're given. It makes it easier when you'll soon be cashing out your "teacher's" chips.

[soah]

I went up this afternoon and asked about the new structure. It was explained to me as follows:

One game has a $300 capped buy-in. OK. I understand this. In the other game "is no limit, you can buy in for 75%, $500, or whatever else you want to." I have no idea what this means.

There was a bit of a list on the "no limit" games but a $300 game had an open seat, so I took that. There was one LAG at the table, but he played the style poorly and was more of a (minor) nuisance than a threat. Everyone else was loose-passive. One guy used the term pot odds in a manner which suggested that he understood how to use them and made some other comments that sounded like he understood what was going on... yet he still played loose-passive like the others.

That table broke, much to my dismay, and we were merged into one of the "no limit" tables, although somehow only two of our five remaining players actually made it from one table to the other. This table was slightly less loose, and a bit more aggressive, but it was still quite good. For example, two players limp, a third player overlimps with AA, and a fourth player overlimps with KK, and everyone except for me sees the flop. Another hand featured 7-8 players to the flop and someone bets $15, another guy minraises to $30, and the next three players cold call the $30. The original better calls as well, and all five players check the turn.

I'll probably keep targetting the $300 tables, since the fish tend to buy in somewhat shallow regardless of which table they are at... might as well avoid the couple regulars that do buy in deep and know what they are doing.

Ick... nearly forgot to mention this. Heard some players say that Argosy opened a room finally. One guy says that he was up there and they had four tables going: 3/6, 4/8, 4/8 with a kill, and 5/10. No NL games. I only overheard this as one guy mentioned it briefly to another so I'm not 100% sure that this is correct. Would love to get some more information on this.

[t75trc1]

What is the rake on these games? Is it by the hour or pot? I'm taking a trip to K.C. soon and deciding where to play...

[soah]

10%, $4 max.

Got some more info on Argosy today which I will post in a new thread.