[bodie]

hi templar,

I'm in Southern Cal. - and many games are aggressive enough so that you will see the betting capped before the flop. Many of these players just love the thrill of it in my opinion because at the showdown you can see they weren't betting with premium starting hands in the first place. It's the best way to win monster pots, but it is a little nervewracking. My favorite story was one day when I had just won a kill pot, so I posted $6.00 - of course someone raised it. Since I already had the six dollars in I called the raise. then it got raised again, well, since I already had twelve dollars in I called that raise too. I remember I had a pair of nines in my hand and at that time they had a $50,000 jackpot for nines or better beaten, so I sort of wanted to see the flop anyway - otherwise I wouldn't have played that hand. Well, it got capped before the flop (and it was a kill pot, don't forget!) - to make a long story short I won an absolutely monster pot with a set of nines and there was no low. It was ridiculous, but the pot odds kept everybody drawing til nearly the end. I must say I wasn't very happy before the flop,having put $24.00 dollars in on a hand I wouldn't normally play. I felt a little better after a nine came on the flop, though not that much I must say. What I usually do in those very aggressive games is wait for premium starting hands so that if I enter the pot I'm okay if it gets capped before the flop.

So, yes though you will see some passive games more often the games can be pretty aggressive out here. In Las Vegas I played at Palace Station and the game was aggressive there as well.