[jmc]

Cliff's notes at the bottom for those of you that want the quick and dirty summary.

For those of you that don't know, Casino Del Sol is in Tucson. I was there on Tuesday night to check it out. In addition to having a small, but nice nice poker room, Casino Del Sol offers slots, bingo, blackjack ($5 on Tuesday night), pai gow, 3 card poker, and Texas Hold'em Bonus game (i think).

They will spread 2/4 limit, but it seems that 3/6 limit is the preferred game (no tables of 2/4 running Tuesday night). They play it with a "kill", meaning that if someone wins two pots in a row (and the 2nd pot is at least $45), the "kill" is in effect. This means that the $1/$3 blinds are posted by the appropriate players, and the "killer" posts $6 and gets last action preflop. In addition, the game is played at $6/$12 until someone else besides the "killer" wins the pot.

There were 4 full tables playing 3/6, one table playing 2-20 spread limit, and one running 6/12 limit when I got there. I got on the list and had a table within 20 minutes. I don't think they allow NL hold'em in Tucson, but they do allow 5-150 spread limit (wasn't running), which I'd imagine would be pretty close.

Players tended to be more aggressive than what I'm used to -- I'd imagine this was because it's Tuesday night and mostly regulars play there. There were more loose-aggro players, some tight players, and fewer awful players than I was used to seeing. Even the loose-passive types tended to fold the turn. However, it seemed that players still tended to play too loose preflop (i.e. calling 2 bets with hands they should fold), called down with middle pair a little too much and didn't value bet their decent hands on the river (sometimes I saw people check straights -- "I don't bet my friends" ). Some of the players that knew each other and tried to run weird bluffs on the river (betting when a 3-flush came with a busted straight draw).

I was up and down for most of the night. Got A A early and won a nice pot when I got to cap preflop, but the board came a nasty 345 rainbow. I lost with a flopped K-high flush (bet/called the flop, c/r the turn, and should have c/c the river instead of bet/calling) when the board paired on the river. A bunch of times I was in a multi-way raised pot with a small pair but flopped no sets. Oh well.

Late in the night, some other weirdo decided to 3-bet a couple of times when I raised preflop. One time I had TT, got it capped preflop, saw a K flop, but decided to hang on for dear life in a 3 way pot (the preflop 3-bettor was kinda laggy), and my and was good even though a J came on the river. Another time, we capped it preflop and I had AT. I missed the flop, but got to value bet the turn and river when it came T T on the turn and river. In the end I ended up +42 and was grateful that the poker gods didn't punish me more for chasing a little too hard early in the night.

Cliff's Notes:
Played 3/6 limit and was +42.
There was a reasonable amount of action for a Tuesday night, and competition tended to be a little tougher than expected.