I am writing this post sort of to think out loud when there is no one to listen. Maybe some of you more experienced B&M players can comment on this.
Background:
I am relatively new to B&M poker (past 6 mo or so) and have tracked my time and P&L etc. I have been averaging about 2 sessions per week at the local B&M which for me happens to be Canterbury just south of the Twin Cities in MN. Before that I played on line quite a bit (about 100k hands over the past 2 yrs, but less and less lately) and of course at home games occasionally. I have and have read quite a few poker books such as the Harrington books and many of the Sklansky' books but when I started I sort of bounced around between tourney and NL cash and only more recently have been playing limit cash. I really wish I had started the other way around as I am now a firm believer that everyone that is actually serious about learning the game should learn limit first.
My B&M History:
I am a winning player, but not by a lot. It's a little harder to put a number on B&M stats than online with PT, but I do keep track of time. I have counted hands a few times and usually it comes up between 30-40 hands per hour so I will guess 33 just to make that go into 100 easier. Usually I play 3-6 and based 33 hands/hr I win at the rate of 2 BB/100 hands. Lets do the math: 3 hours to get 100 hands so 2 *$6 = $12/3 hrs = $4/hr. hmmm.... not so good. I think I would be better off working more and playing poker less.
The Scene:
I just finished re-reading SSHE by Sklansky again and am feeling pretty good about my small stakes limit game. Right now Canterbury in in the middle of this thing that they call the Fall Classic which is a 2 week, 17 event deal where they have all these tourneys , kind of like the wsop, but it is a bit smaller.
Obviously, but it is kind of a big deal. Yesterday's event was a NL tourney with a $500 + $50 buy in and about 30 tables. Canterbury is actually a really big card room. They normally have 40 tables and they add more for this tourney. On Friday night when I showed up around 5:00pm or so there were around 50 people on the waiting list for each of all the smaller games 2/4, 3/6, 4/8 and only a few tables of each. They had 7 tables of 6/12 and 6 tables of 8/16 going with only a short waiting list. They even had 5 tables of 30/60 going! I knew this event was going on and it would be packed with fish and of course it did not disappoint.
This weekend:
The wife and kids went down to see her brother and their kids in Chicago. I got lucky and was able to stay at home. Of course I have a huge honey-do list and what do I do............. You guessed it, off to the card room both Friday night and again last night. Like I mentioned above the lower limit tables were packed with huge waiting lists so I opted to put my name on the 6/12 list and give that a try.
Friday night:
I was a bit unprepared to play at such a game as I only had $200 on me which is what I always go with for my usual 3/6 game. I will usually buy in for 1 rack of $1's and maybe 25% of the time I will have to buy in for another rack. More often than not I make a comeback, but If I go through the second rack I just leave as I know it just isn't my day. So here I am at a 6/12 table with my 1 rack of $2 chips and no back up. Better play tight right, I don't want to be gone in an hour when I have a whole night to play with no time limit at all. Of course what happens is that I am at a super loose agressive table where it is getting capped pf 1/2 of the time with 2 or 3 of the players clearly pushing the table. I am pretty sure I only played 4 hands making the nut flush once and making a Full House 2x and I didn't even win a pot. Bye, bye 9:30pm.
Saturday Night:
I am not about to go again without more cash this time so off to the bank I go yesterday afternoon and I go with $500 this time planning on leaving if I go down 2 racks. I would have gone earlier, but the tourney event started at noon and I figured lots of tables would have opened up by 5:00 or so. I head down there and the scene is about the same. It was a pretty nice day yesterday here so there weren't quite as many people there, but still it was crowded. Again I get on the 6/12 list and get seated pretty quickly. The table is about the same with a couple guys clearly pushing the action. It turns out that 3 of these guys are friends that are down here from Canada for the Event. Shortly after I get there 1 of these Canadians gets up and heads off to the 15/30 table with his 6 racks of $2's that he has extracted from the table. So now there are two of these Canadians at the table, one of which was pretty solid and the other was a total maniac on FIRE along with the usual assortment of loose passive fish. I got in a couple of hands and again was soon down to about $50 of my original $200. Arg, I buy in again for another rack of $2's and am somewhat bummed at the way this is going. Well, he cooled off and things turned around. I was there until about 2:30am, but walked up to the cashier with 4+ racks and walked out the door +$443 for the night. Not bad, eh?
Thinking about the rake:
I got to thinking about the rake and I since this is what the title was about, I guess I ought to get to the point. Canterbury rake at 3/6 is 10% with a max of $5 and the rake at 6/12 is 5% with a max of $5. I have always known the rake at the bigger games was less percentage wise, but had never really considered the effect until now. Does this seem reasonable? Maybe you are in 4 hands per hour that you get to the river and 1/2 of them you win. Obviously we are going to have to do some major estimating here, but in a 3/6 game that is $10/hr out of my pocket and at 3 hrs to play 100 hands that is $30 or 5 BB/100 hands. Holy smokes that is a lot! Using the same logic @ 6/12 and the same $10/hr or $30/100 hands becomes 2.5 BB/100. Now obviously I can improve my game, but it seems to me that the easiest way in the world to improve approximately 2.5BB/100 hands would be to just play in this higher limit game. I do realize that theoretically there are going to be better players in the higher limit games and it is going to be somewhat tougher. btw, it is absolutely crazy how a 25/50¢ limit game @ p* is waaaay tighter than the $6/12 game live. I have never played, but I have been told numerous times that the 8/16 game at Canterbury is even looser and more maniacs. I just don't get it............................
Do my rake assumptions seem about right?
Nanook
Linear Mode
