So my wife and I headed off to check out the Weymouth game a few weeks ago. As expected, the Friday night traffic on the motorway was pretty bad and we crawled along, taking 55 minutes for what should have been a 20 minute trip to the Weymouth Cossie. The game was pretty good, with about 30 players in attendance, and although neither of us won anything, we had an enjoyable evening. But my wife was seriously put off by the traffic and didn't really want to go back. As it happens, our regular game was cancelled the following week so we went back to Weymouth again anyway. This time we tried a different route and we actually got there in 35 minutes, which is much better. But my wife was still not keen on going out there every week and playing for $40 plus, and as we are a one vehicle family, I gave the idea away. Using public transport was not an option because of the late finish time for the tourney and in the end I just couldn't figure out a way to make it work.
All this got me thinking about what it takes to make a good poker game. It used to be that I had little if any ch
oice in what live games I played, but these days there seem to be a lot more games around and I have a number of options available to me. My search for the perfect game involves the following criteria (in no particular order):1. Convenience. Both the location and the time need to be right. There are certain evenings that are more convenient than others and of course, I'm looking for a game that's easy to get to.
2. Structure. For tournaments, I want to know what the blind/stack ratio is, whether it's a rebuy or add-on, how quickly the blinds increase and so on. For ring games, the size of the starting stack and the betting limits are of particular interest.
3. The Rake. Tournaments usually have a fee on top of the buy-in. 10 % is pretty standard and I don't want to be paying more than that if I can help it.
4. The Buy-in. I have maximum amounts for tournament and ring game buy-ins. I don't want to exceed these limits but I also don't want the buy-in to be too low.
5. Fishiness. Can I beat this game? I'm looking for a game with lots of poor players in it. I don't want to be playing against sharks.
THE GAMES I PLAY
I regularly play in three live tournaments and one online tournament at the moment. The one I play on Wednesday night is pretty good (see The Rebuy Tournament, 01/10/2015). Wednesday is good for me because it's the night my wife usually goes out and the venue is just a couple of kilometers down the road. It's a turbo tournament but because of the unusual rebuy structure, which tends to inflate the prize-pool, it actually works out pretty well for me. I don't rebuy, so it's only $20 to play and there is no money taken out of the prize-pool. What's more, the management throws in a couple of bar tabs on top of the cash prizes. This is probably the easiest game of all those that I usually play so all in all, it ticks all the boxes.
The Friday night tournament (The Friday-nighter, 05/11/2015) is also pretty good overall. Even though it's on a Friday night it's across town so the traffic is fine and it's not too far to go. Although the organiser likes to change the starting stacks (and sometimes the starting blinds) from week to week it's basically a mid to deep stacked freeze-out tournament with a $25 buy-in. The players are generally loose/passive, with the odd exception, and this game has been quite profitable for me over the last three years of play.
The only problem with this game (and one factor in my decision to change games earlier this year) is the tournament fee. It used to be a $20 buy-in with 10% taken out of the prize-pool, which works out to about 11% on top. But this year the buy-in has been increased to $25 with an 18% rake. This actually works out to about a 22% fee on top. That's pretty steep. But there's a complicating factor. As well as having four ten-week points tables with cash prizes for the highest point scorers, the organiser has added a yearly points table with some serious prizes. This is the main reason for the increased rake. First prize is $1000, second is $500 and third is $250. So although the rake is very high, there is the opportunity to get some of that cash back at the end of the year, provided you keep turning up regularly. But the organiser hasn't posted the yearly points table yet, so I don't know if I have a realistic chance of taking out the big prize. Once I see where I stand on the table I'll be able to make an informed decision on this game.
The one online game I currently play is on at 12.30 pm each day on 888 Poker. I play most weeks on a Saturday or Sunday and this game has a lot going for it. Obviously access is no problem and the rake is a comfortable 10% on top. The structure is good, the buy-in is very low (due to my super-cautious approach to online games) and the standard of play is generally fairly poor. So all in all, a very good game to play.
Once a month I play in the Auckland Interclub Tournament (Interclub, 22/11/2015). This is held on a Sunday at a different venue each month. Most of the aspects of this game are pretty good except for one thing: about 25% of the prize-pool is not paid out. This money goes towards the end-of-year prizes. It is that factor, coupled with the fact that it is a team game where collusion between team-mates is allowed, that has led me to play this game strictly as a non-bankroll event. So, even though I don't consider this to be a good game to play under normal circumstances, I continue to play in it more as a social event than anything else, and I don't play with my poker bankroll. So this is the poker game I play when I'm not playing a poker game.
GAMES I WON'T PLAY
There are some games that have one or more aspects to them that push them off my list of playable games. I won't play in any National Pub Poker League games (Increasing the Luck Factor, 13/07/2012) for a variety of reasons, mostly to do with the poor payout. There is also a cash game organised by the Poker Meetup Group that somehow manages to tick all the wrong boxes: it's played on a Friday night, which is no good for me; it's mostly Omaha, which I don't like to play; and the standard of play is quite high, and I don't want to be the fish.
Then there are the Sky City Casino tournaments. The one factor that puts me off these games is the size of the rake. At the buy-in level that I can afford the tournament fees are ridiculously high. The $60 game allocates $45 to the prize-pool and $15 goes to the casino. That's 33% on top. I've checked out some of the other tournaments that Sky City offers and I see that the higher the buy-in gets, the lower the fees are. If I could afford to play in the $550 tournament, I'd only be paying 10%. But I'm a long, long way off being able to play at that level.
There are a lot more poker tournaments available now than there were when I first started playing and quite a few of these are games that I could play in, if the circumstances were right. Obviously, the Weymouth game is one of these, and although I haven't completely given up on being able to play in this tournament, it's dropped off the top of the list for now.
Another possibility is the Thursday tourney at the Clare Inn. There's no rake on this game and the location is Ok but Thursday night is not ideal for me. But the biggest thing is that there is just one prize paid out, winner takes all. I don't think I like this structure; I'd prefer to have the chance to win something if I go deep in a tournament without actually having to make the top spot. Another Thursday game is played at the Mangere Cosmopolitan Club. The location is not too bad if I wanted to play on a Thursday. But I've heard a few unflattering revues of this game and would rather not take a chance on it.
One game type that I have been playing in but have now backed off from somewhat is the casual ring games that sometimes pop up during and after tournaments. I've been giving these games some thought and have decided to only play when the circumstances are in my favour. These are invariably short-stacked games and I've realised that trying to play Omaha short-stacked is a very bad idea. So I'll only play if it's Texas Holdem and even then, only if I have enough time to give me some chance of coming out ahead.
Another possibility is the Avengers League tournaments. The Avengers are a new group that has sprung up recently and is running poker tournaments at a number of bars around Auckland (www.meetup.com/Auckland-Central-Poker/). I've looked into these games and there is no rake taken out of the prize-pool and they are usually re-buy tourneys with total buy-ins between $40 and $60. I've been flirting with the idea of trying out one of these games in addition to the games I'm currently playing. There are a number of different venues and there are games being played on every day of the week except Sunday and Monday, so there are plenty of options.
All this game analysis started with my long term plan for moving up to a higher buy-in level. As it turns out, the games I'm currently playing in are the best options available, so I'm sticking to this relatively low buy-in level for now. But that doesn't stop me from considering my future options. I've been thinking about what games I might be able to play if my bankroll continues to grow. One possible option is the Texas Holdem ring game at the Sky City Casino. This is a $2/$4 no-limit game. I figure that I could get away with buying in for 50 big blinds, or $200. But the one major concern with this game is the high rake. The casino rakes 10% of every pot, with a cap of $20. This is a very high rake for a ring game and I'm not even sure that I could win in the long run with so much coming out of each pot. But there aren't many options available for live games at the higher levels, so it's a game I would definitely want to have a go at.
However, my bankroll would have to grow by at least 50% from where it is currently for me to even contemplate making this move. So that's part of the long term plan, and only assuming that I can keep my bankroll moving in an upward direction. Meanwhile. I'll keep on playing in my regular games. While they may not be perfect, they're the best games I can find for now.
