Live Poker is my Favorite

So I played at my new favorite card room on Saturday night. The President on the Landing in downtown St. Louis. the game is 4/8 LHE (technically its 2/4/8) with a 10% rake up to $4 max. I don't know if/what the BBJ drop is. Sorry Felicia I didn't pay that close of attention. The BBJ is 180K and the qualifying hand is Aces Full of Jacks beat (both hole cards must play for both players) winner (loser) gets 50% other player (winner) 25% and table splits 25%. ACES FULL OF JACKS! Word has it that the jackpot hasn't been hit for 14 months and the backup jackpot is 120K.

That means every Ace/Face, pocket pair and suited connector is seeing the flop. We'll most of them.

Why is the President my new favorite card room. A couple of reasons. First the dealers are better than at Harrahs. They are friendlier too. Second, the structure of the game is better. Third the players are more colorfull. Less drunken frat boy and more grinders of every shape. Do not take the meaning of Grinder to mean pro/good. Some are and some aren't.

One guy plays top 10 hands and rams with them. He can also lay them down. One guy plays any two in posisiton (usually has the odds) and plays them passivly even when he flops quads. The nice thing was that the table was a good mix of fish, rockish solids, LAGs and recreational players. The other nice thing is that the solids and regular lags gave me immediate respect. A check raise on the flop let me show down for one big bet. Continuation bets were effective in 2 or 3 way pots.

My only leaks were being to excited about playing live, playing too many hands and being card dead. I had plenty of starting cards and my preflop raises were a little to effective winning me the blinds 75% of the time. The play was actually solid until around mid-night when everyone started to get tired and fall into passive call station mode.

Three hands of note.

I am in ep with AQo and I pop it. Only the button calls (1seat passive calling station) and we see a flop of 257? rainbow. I bet out and get called. All the way. On the river I still have Ace high and my bet is at least met with a hint of hesitation but he calls. His A5s holds.

I get Aces cracked. Im in the big blind and see it limp 6 times in front of me. I ram and jam but the river is a Q that pairs the board and I drop it. Good thing I did. The 1 seat had the queen. He called all the way down. Never a raise . I might have tried to checkraise the flop there. I thought about after my bet got called 4 times.

Back to battling the 1 seat one last time. I am in the cut-off with 97o and I limp with 6 of my brothers. The flop is seven high. It checks to the 1 seat and he bets. 2 seat calls. I am in the 4 seat and I pop it. Folds back to the 1 seat who calls. 2 seat goes in the tank. He folds. I get check called all the way down. My TP is good. The 1 seat mucks. My table image is destroyed, but in a good way.

My only complaint from the President would be the lack of reasonable cocktail service. Once the waitress just brought a trough of beers down. That rocked, but we didn't see her again for at least an hour. The floor is friendly and the dealers were personable. Also the have $60 NL SNGs going off all the time. I think they are 20% juice (50+10) and per Felicia's advice I'll pass. I don't know the current payout structure but that last time I checked they were winner takes all. Also, no shuffle masters so the pace can be a bit slow depending on the dealer. Downs are 60-80 minutes, so make friends because that dealer isn't going anywhere for a while.