[99%evil]

So our usual friday game was changed to tonight, so last night...I needed to play poker. I called up one of the regulars and we headed to Rockingham Park, it's a horsetrack in Salem, NH. They hold "charity" poker there. According to state laws they can have tournaments (ranging from multitable to single table SNG's) and 1/2 limit (shudder) poker.

So we walk in, there's about 300-400 people here, wow. I wish they'd open a real card room in this place, all these folks would be there.

Anyway, since I had not played here I figured I should enter a low $ sit n go to see what the action is like. So I enter a $40 single table, payouts are $150/$90/$60 with tables of 10 people. So from the get go it sucks. So I sit down and get handed T3000 in chips, 5- $100 chips, 1- $500, and 2- $1000. Blinds start at 100/100 and progress to 100/200, 200/400, 300/600..then I don't know probably 400/800 I was gone by this point. Blind levels are set for ....10 minutes. First hand I'm UTG and fold garbage 3rd to act raises to $1500 and get 3 callers. Flop comes with a Q and the raiser goes all in and is called by a guy with AQ who wins. So next hand I'm BB...I look down at 9,9. It appears that everyone is content to limp and it gets to me with 8 callers, I raise to $300 thinking this is 10% of our stacks, a healthy raise for the BB...nope 6 callers....so I bail when the flop comes K,Q, 6. Suffice to say, this structure the blinds went so fast I could not play solid poker and nevr had a hand I would even consider gambling with (and I like to gamble). I can;t see any flops and I lay down a couple hands when I get no help. I win one or two pots lose a few and it's down to 5 of us blinds at 300/600, I'm short stack with $1500, I've been card dead for two rotations and am in the BB and get dealt A,8 of spades...best cards for two rotations, there are two limpers and I push hoping to tak eit down, but alas they both call, I go out when I miss everything.

Amazing what a bad structure can do to you. You can't play smart, you have to get lucky. Suffic eto say I did not play any of the sit n gos after that. I sat down at a crappy 1/2 limit won my first two hands and won my $40 back from the sit n go, made another $30 and split. I really wish we had a real poker room where I could sit at a 1/2 or 2/5 no limit game......anyone on here from NH and of Native American ancestry? We need to talk.

[Buzzerbeater]

Yeah, Seabrook's pretty f***ed up too. I heard they have a really good Friday night tourney though with a decent structure. I might check that one out some time. They just opened a new room in Dover and I heard it's terrible. The commercial is hilarious. "I see you, and I RAISE you!" Yeah, I want to play in a room where there's a friggin string bet in the advertisement! lol

But real poker rooms with the player's better interests in mind are illegal because they're 'wrong'.

[JM]

Yeah I've played at the rock before and didn't mind the SNGs once I got the feel for them. Basically, half the people at the table are nuts and don't know how to play real poker. So you gotta sit back and wait till the herd thins a bit (I prefer the $60 table since its kind of the difference between $5 and $10 minimum blackjack at a casino). Then just pick your spots and lay traps. Raises really don't mean much to them and the later you get there, the more drunk most of the table is. Haven't tried seabrook yet, but everyone has said it is SO much better lol. I suppose it couldn't be a whole lot worse.