Sunday, May 10, 2015

A big starting stack works for me

Above: Derby Lane is a dog track that also has a great poker room. It's located in St. Petersburg FL.

I was looking at the Derby Lane poker schedule (see here) and noticed there was a Second Sunday Superstack today. It had a $350 buyin, offered 30-minute levels and 20K starting chip stacks -- tasty.

The attendance was lousy for some reason. Maybe it was that thing called Mother's Day, and the players wanted to take mom out for Sunday Dinner? The structure was good, however, and I was able to play nitty old man style conservatively until other players wanted to give me their chips.

Twice I raised with suited A-K and was shoved on. Twice I shrugged my shoulders and called, and twice I was shown A-Q, the so-called "Hand of the Devil." Basically, I just chipped up or played to conserve my stack other than these two hands.

When there were four of us, a chop was suggested. (I had the second-most chips.) The short-stack agreed to give the big stack $400 and me $100 from his share. I collected $2325 and we called it a tournament.

At Derby Lane, they have some funny rules. Even though we had agreed on the chop, the Tournament Director had us all go all-in in the blind to determine a winner. He came and gave us the payouts. Then we went to another table and divided it according to our agreement. In a casino, they will facilitate the chop, but it works differently there.

I'm getting excited about the WSOP -- leaving in 31 days.

14 comments:

  1. We do it the same way here at Live/Horseshoe. The management is not involved in the chop discussion, they would stop the clock and let us do our thing.

    Once it is finalized all the players go AI and the Tournament Winner (the one who gets the lion's share) will hold his cards and everyone else muck their cards. I guess it is one way to identify a single winner for the camera's.

    Congrats, building your bankroll before WSOP is a good thing!

    GolfPro

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  2. They do the same thing at my local casino here in Iowa. I've never seen the actual rule, but the management says they're required to play down to a winner and can't facilitate chops due to the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission rules. They know the players to it, but don't even want to know what is decided.

    If it gets to the point where the players are interested in a chop they just ask if it's okay if they take a "break" and then go out in the hall and hash things out. Then they all just shove every hand until it's decided. I've never heard of anybody not coming through on the deal, but it's a danger of doing it that way. (I suppose the threat of a butt kicking prevents most people from reneging.)

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    1. The other three were friendly guys who play regularly and I can't imagine there ever being a problem. Two play in a league together and won seats to WSOP events through it for this summer. The other guy (an old guy, yes even older than I) has also played in the WSOP, something he was proud of.

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    2. Chopped at the old Showboat in AC a few times; and always worked the same there. Casino pays you for your actual finish, and players are left to deal with their deal on their own.

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    3. Yeah, apparently it is more common than I thought.

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  3. Did you like Derby Lane? I was unimpressed the last time I was there. It felt very much like a locals casino - players know each other and dealers are very 'known player' friendly. I can't point to any event in particular, but I did not like the feeling that I wouldn't be backed up by the floor if there was an issue.

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    1. I like it just fine for tournaments. They have plenty of them with good structure (although also many that are a complete waste of time). I left a comment on your blog about the 'player friendly' issue.

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  4. My goodness... just a month. Good luck and good that you are getting rid of the cobwebs.

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    1. Cobwebs and rust. I've been studying using training videos and the like, but it's not the same as actual time at the tables.

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  5. Getting ready for another deep run at WSOP, I see ... : o )

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  6. Nice cash again Mojo, well done indeed. Enjoy Vegas in the summer. Come back with another big score if you can.

    Poker Meister, while my wife and I are locals to Derby Lane, we are far from regulars. We both have never felt we would have a problem with the staff deciding for players who were regulars there and I find them at least as professional if not more so than the staff at the Hard Rock. But in neither place have I ever seen and issue that I felt was decided in a fishy way.

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