Last Friday night we made history at Diamond Lil's, here in Renton, Washington. (Renton is to Seattle as Henderson is to Las Vegas. South end..)
For the first time ever, just about midnight, they spread a FOURTH $20/40 Hold 'Em game. They'd been peaking at three games most nights for a couple weeks, and that in itself is noteworthy enough. But now they're pretty much the only Washington room spreading this limit, and Lil's has established herself as *the* place to play 20/40.
So I've had a clear choice to make lately. Always great to have options, ain't it? I can drive 15 miles to the huge Muckleshoots tribal casino in Auburn, Tuesday or Thursday, and play in a $50/100 game that sometimes features a couple ding dongs, but pretty much always includes several of the toughest players in Washington, guys that I would, well, just as soon not see in my game.
Or I can drive 2 miles to Diamond Lil's any day, and play their $20/40 Party Game. Well, it starts out half-serious in the morning, but by early evening the liquor starts flowing, and the players start tilting, and you know the rest. These are 'fasten your seatbelt' games. These often are 'matchstick' games, where, hey, no matter how late it is, or how tired you are, can't afford to leave, so prop your eyes open with matchsticks if necessary, and play on!
Our state law changed last Spring, and now allows this higher limit outside the tribal rooms. I think it was around that same time Lil's started paying $500 for high hand every 2 hours Mon, Tues and Weds, and $300 other days. They also have both a bad beat jackpot and a harder-to-hit super jackpot. So they rake $3, then drop another $2 to fund those "incentives." This means that in their $4/8 game, they're dropping 1.25 small bets per hand! In the 20/40 it becomes 0.25 small bets, somewhat more overcomeable. Is that a word?
Ego says that I should want to play in the bigger game. My years of experience, and (what I should like to think is) my reputation in the local poker community, says that I should want to play in the bigger game. Yeah? Well, screw that. Sure the Mucks' 50 game is 2.5 times bigger than Lil's 20 game, but I actually think that, for me, potential expectation, bets per hour, may be more than 2.5 times better at Lil's !
Last night I raised there with 2 red Queens, and by the turn I was head up with a drunken maniac, while the King and two other Diamonds were on board. We both checked. Then another Diamond hits the river, and he checkraises me and shows me Ah 5h, for a pair of fives, then seems surprised when it doesn't win the pot. Huh? Thing is, this is not unusual in these games. Daytime games are sometimes medium snug, but nearly all the tighties leave by dinnertime, and the evening and late night games are just awesome!
Meanwhile, I hear the Mucks rarely spreads any limit between that twice-a-week 50/100 and their now weak 10/20 game. As is so common everywhere, their big thing now is the spread limit game, and that is strong, with a couple tables of a couple levels going daily. I sure would love to learn how to play no limit, or spread limit. Great potential, I'm sure. But currently, I have no frickin' clue how to play those games, how to size my bets, how to not lose my whole damn stack to one stoopid mistake. I accept that PL and NL games are the "Real Poker." I understand how limit games were invented by cardrooms to prevent the suckers from going broke instantly, and to keep them around, paying rake, longer. But until I get a clue about the spread games, I have to stick to limit, and right now I'm just loving Diamond Lil's.
Often times ALL the other players are ESL folks, and especially evenings and late night, I'm often the ethnic minority at the table. But we all know each other all too well, and get along great, with just a couple notable exceptions. There's lots of animated but friendly trash talk in the game. There also are cliqués of friends who don't bet against each other once they get heads up, and the "English Only" rule -- three signs posted -- is mentioned frequently by staff, and ignored universally by players. 98% of the time someone speaks a particular Southeast Asian language during a hand, it's completely innocent. The other 2% of the time, it's an intolerable cheat, where they tell their friend(s) what they hold. But these things don't happen often enough, and are handled so ineptly when they do happen, that I think of it more as an annoyance than a serious threat.
The Turncoat
One morning I arrived to start the game and ran into Treebark, a seasoned player I wrote about in an RGP post nearly 10 years ago. This guy is about my age, but has been around the game at least twice as long as I have. Anyway, he had been there all night, just finished breakfast, and was tired and headed home. We chatted a couple minutes, and he stood up to go, but I asked him to listen to something first, then go away and think about it.
"Next time we're both in the game with these guys who seem to think that poker is a team sport, let's do what they do," I tell him. "Let's show them what it feels like."
"Let's each take half of the other, and I'll see you later in the parking lot."
"And if we're both in a hand, we'll jam it to knock the other guy out, then just check it down once we get heads-up ."
"After the hand we'll give each other back a bet or two, essentially 'chopping up' what 'the other guy' lost."
I guess we both knew that I was just venting a little, and wasn't quite serious. I laughed, and he laughed, and he went on home.
Couple days later I'm in the game and Tree comes into the room. As soon as he sees me, he comes right over.
"Hey, remember what you were talking about the other day?"
"Yeah, sure."
"Well forget about it," he tells me, with a perfectly straight face. "I can't do it. I'm with them now."
