G. Ed should be posting here, as he wrote a book on $2-$5 poker. As a Colorado player, however, here are some of my observations:


- Yes, pocket pairs do go up in value, especially if you are a player who can easily let go of a pair that misses the flop. You only have to pay $2 to see if you have a made hand on the flop, else you can throw it away.


- (MrGrob) They also have a $5 game too, that I believe is just a $5 blind, then a fixed $5 per round bet (with the 6 bet/$30 cap) till the end.


Actually there's two $5 blinds, and as such the name of the game is "5-5". We also have/used to have 3-5 (not sure if any rooms still spread it), with two blinds ($3, $5) and a fixed $5 bet on all rounds.


- Is this a normal betting structure that I just haven't seen or read about?


It's normal to us in Colorado. [img]/images/smile.gif[/img] I think they also spread this game in South Dakota. I do recall, however, hearing that SD raised their limits to $10 (big money!) and so they now play $2-$10 spread. Can anyone verify this?


Excalibur in Vegas plays a $2-$6 spread.


Those are the only spread games I know of.


Other thoughts:


- A call on the river when you think you are beat is even more correct in CO than other places


- Preflop raises are a lot more likely to make players fold here than in structured games.


- Related: As such, depending on your assessment of your table, you might want to play tighter in early position... as you might find yourself calling $2, then one person raises, everyone folds, and it's up to you to put in $5 to play headsup against him.


- In general, I think structured games offer more value for drawing hands (as Dynasty said) because of the cheap price up front (while your hand is nothing) vs being able to charge a "steep" BB price when you hit your hand. The difference, however, between drawing in 2-5 spread vs structured, is pretty negligible. In a little $5 "no foldem" game, there's usually enough players to justify your draw.


G. Ed wrote a book about $2-$5 poker:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0970546610/qid%3D1018461377/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F0%5F1/102-9986668-3696114


QT