Evolution of a card room

[Al_Capone_Junior]

I have been discussing this with a friend, and with another guy who has plenty of hours of data, and we all agree that 1-2 no limit is probably about the same as 6-12 or 8-16 when it comes to variance. 2-5 no limit is more like an aggressive 10-20 or a typical 15-30.

al

[Al_Capone_Junior]

The primary place I was referring to in my "doomsday speech" was las vegas. There used to be lots of bigger games, now there is primarily small no limit and 4-8 limit (tops) in 97% of the cardrooms in town. The vast majority of the country, which I have played all over, has little or nothing besides very low limit hold'em and small stakes no limit. The 6-12, 8-16, 10-20 and up has died off in most places, most notably, las vegas. I used to find stud in vegas in years past, but now there's almost no stud at all, and little of any other games either. A few places that service a very large number of people, such as atlantic city and some big casinos in california, still have a wide choice of games, but they are the exception by far, not the rule.

al

[InkyWretch]

[ QUOTE ]
I live in Tulsa OK, and about 6-8 months ago, the first card room in the area went up -- Cherokee Casino. It is a decent size room with 20+ tables. When I played there the first month it was open, they were spreading tons of 4/8 HE tables, 3-5 10/20 tables 1-2 20-40 tables, and several 1/2 No limit (maybe a couple of 2/5 no limit) and a smattering of stud and omaha. The room was absolutely packed on weekends.

Now, fast forward 6 months and the scene is quite different. Another smaller card room opened up and now you rarely have to wait to get a seat. But the main problem is that now have trouble even getting a 6/12 game going. Sometimes on saturday night they do, but usually 4/8 is the highest limit game they get going! WTF? It seems crazy to me that the games would dry up so quickly.

So my question.....is this typical of card rooms in small markets? --That is, do they have trouble getting even medium small stakes games going? Or will the consisitency of the bigger games come with time...as the player base grows a bit and the local poker market evolves? I gotta say, I am pretty disappointed that I finally live 15 minutes from a card room (and a decent sized one, at that) and the biggest limit game is 4/8. [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

--Rico

[/ QUOTE ]

It's the same way at Cherokee Casino in Roland.

A few months ago, right after opening, you had to wait an hour most any night of the week. Went there a couple Saturdays ago and I was immediately seated in a 4/8 game.

There was a 1/2 $100 max NLHE game, a 5/10 no max NLHE and four 4/8 tables. By 11 pm, two of the 4/8 tables had broken up, the 5/10 game was down to four players and there were only six at the 1/2 game.

Dealers said it had really slowed down lately. They chalked some of it up to more players in the daily and weekly tournaments. Some of it was blamed on the newbie fish getting cleaned out. I figure it's a little of both.

[Bremen]

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Some of it was blamed on the newbie fish getting cleaned out.

[/ QUOTE ]
Which is why if you have a cardroom without any local competition you refuse to spread NL no matter how much your customers complain.

[RydenStoompala]

Good post.

I think it is happening everywhere, except in Vegas and other major centers where there is still large demand for upper middle limit games. I do not know the LA rooms but I would assume they have no trouble maintaining those limit games because of the enormous customer base. Elsewhere, like your home town and others like it, it's game over.

[edtost]

[ QUOTE ]
I have been discussing this with a friend, and with another guy who has plenty of hours of data, and we all agree that 1-2 no limit is probably about the same as 6-12 or 8-16 when it comes to variance. 2-5 no limit is more like an aggressive 10-20 or a typical 15-30.

al

[/ QUOTE ]

my assumption of 1/2 = 10/20 and 2-5 = somewhere between 15/30 and 20/40 is based on the deeper (300 and 500 max, respectively) AC games, so you're probably right for vegas.

[Georgia Avenue]

It could also be possible that the poker boom inspired more home games so people don't have to come down from Utah or where-ever to find a small tourney or a 1/2nl game. I know here in MD there is a casino quality homegame every single night. And we're only 2.5hrs from AC!

As poker become legal in more places the action will dry up somewhat in the big B&Ms,I think. But when the tourneys come to town...it's like Xmas at Macy's!