Trip Report (5/10 at Potawatomi, last night/this morning)

[uw_madtown]

Made the trek to Milwaukee the week before finals to get some relaxing live 5/10 full kill action at the Potawatomi card closet. Been playing a lot of online hands this month in an effort to teach Entity who owns him (that's me), and needed a bit of a break from the somewhat tight, somewhat aggressive 3/6 Party games. That means Potawatomi 5/10 with full kill.

Starting out, the table actually played a lot like a Party 2/4 table. Probably average of 4 people to the flop, with a fair amount of pre-flop raising. Not near as loose-passive as the games have been other times I've been there. The 10/20 looked better than the 5/10, to be honest, but I had come down on a whim and only had 25 BB for 5/10 anyway. Swore to myself that if I doubled up early, I'd get a table change if the 10/20 was still nice and loose. Sadly, I went on a big downswing early and by the time I doubled up, the 10/20 had long broken up.

I'll try to describe some hands but the details may be off, I'm still pretty bad at remembering hands in detail.

After a series of open-enders and four-flushes not coming in after betting them aggressively, I was down to my last $36 or so. I raise from UTG+1 with 99, get about 5 callers. Flop comes 97x rainbow. UTG bets out, I call and two callers behind me. Turn is 9. UTG bets, I raise, only one of the looseys call behind, the UTG calls all-in. River is a 7, I bet my last dollar, loosey calls for a $2 sidepot. I show my quad nines and say goodnight to the kind lady who's now busted out in UTG.

Right about now is when things really got a bit crazy. About twenty, thirty minutes after this hand, I'd won a few more and was back to around $150 -- still stuck 10 bets, but had some ammo. Let me lay out the table for you (I make a few comparisons to players on the WSOP -- don't know why. They're visual comparisons, usually not related to play style or skill).

Seat 1: Asian? Guy, loose-passive. Seemed to know the guy in Seat 3.
Seat 2: Me, the mild-mannered college TAG wearing a backwards cap and regular glasses (not sunglasses -- I'm blind, but I'm not a jerkwad)
Seat 3: Blond Guy, loose-passive. Capable of slightly tricky play, like a check-raise. Seemed to know Asian? Guy.
Seat 4: Nicky Frangos lookalike, slightly loose-aggressive. Also capable of somewhat tricky play.
Seat 5: Ken the older guy. Pleasant conversation. Slightly loose, passive with mediocre and bad hands, capable of aggression with above average and good hands.
Seat 6: TAG who looks a bit like the guy who was harassing Sammy Farhaa in the main event this year, but acts nothing him. I kept waiting for him to say "SAMMY~!" but he didn't. Did a lot of folding, and had second-best hand a few times.
Seat 7: Random Joe 5/10 player, loose-passive mostly
Seat 8: Regular player (knew the dealers, floor), not very good. Similar to Ken -- these two were cold-calling with mediocre junk a lot, but could put some aggression on with decent-solid hands.
Seat 9: Hispanic? Guy. The LAG that started it all. Seemed to know Seat 8. Seemed like what happens when some of the SS forum regulars sit down in a live 2/4 or 3/6 game -- knows how to play (or at least knows that his LAGgy style is bad) but is just having fun. Wins a few big pots runner-runner, starts posting straddles, playing his hand aggressively blind without looking until the turn or river, that kind of thing.
Seat 10: Another Random Joe 5/10 player.


Craziness ensues. Hispanic? Guy's lag-fever is contagious, and causes Asian? Guy, Blond Guy, Nicky Frangos, and Ken to play a bit more LAG as well. Frangos capped one pot pre-flop with 54s when it was 3-bet (only one bet for him to call, he'd already cold-called a raise) because "it was going to be capped anyway, and I'd already called two bets". He took it down with a flopped two pair and a rivered full house against my TPTK.

Memorable hand 1: Hispanic? LAG wins another hand and it's the third kill pot in a row. Thankfully I've had garbage the last few hands, so I haven't been close to involved in the previous two kill pots, where it got capped with 6 people preflop and lots of them calling down to the river. Anyway, LAG posts a kill, I'm in the BB with KK. Several callers, Hispanic? Guy raises his option, another caller inbetween us. I 3-bet it, Frangos and Blonde Guy call, Ken caps it, and it's like 6 or 7 people in the hand. The flop comes something like T-high. Blonde Guy or Frangos bet, Ken raised, all call to me, I reraise, all call to Ken who caps the flop, all call. I know Ken's either got a set or AA, pot's so ginormous that I'm going to just call down one-bet on the turn and river and fold to anything more than that. I believe the turn was a J, Ken bets and all but one or two call. 4 or 5 to the river, another blank. There are some garbage straight draws and maybe even a flush draw by now. Same thing, Ken bets and 3 of us call. His AA holds up unimproved against a massive field for something like a $440 pot.


Hispanic? Guy and the table continue to LAG it up. I take down a few decent pots just playing decent cards, although I muck a couple of potential winners (22 and A7s) preflop from UTG+1 when Asian? Guy raises from UTG. I figure that neither hand is worth 2 bets unless I know it won't be 3-bet or capped behind me -- and at this table, it's more likely that it WOULD be than that it wouldn't be. Wasn't afraid of getting 4 or 5 people cold-calling, just afraid of putting in 4 bets with mediocre hands. Both times, my hand would have been good.

Anyway, Hispanic? Guy, who sat down with probably $800, ran it up to about $1300 before dropping most of it back, with interest. I think he left down $300-500. At this point, I'm up around the $450 mark for a nice profit, Ken's up real big (he ended up with three racks, definitely up $1000+), and the other guys at my end were up a bit too. Hispanic? Guy leaves and the table action dies a bit. We actually see two flops in a row without a PF raise, and then the entire field folds for one bet on the flop. I can sense the LAG-fever dying out, and he's only been gone for 2 hands or so. What to do?

Memorable hand 2: I post a live-straddle. Blonde Guy asks if he can restraddle, so the dealer calls the floor. Blonde Guy is allowed to raise blind, but he doesn't get an option to raise and the betting PF is limited to 5 bets. Fair enough. Cards are in the air and Frangos announces that if he has anything like Ace-high or so, anything remotely decent, and he's 4-betting. He glances and chucks in a 4-bet. One Sucky McSuckerson cold-called four from MP, everyone else including blinds fold back to me, I look down and see 82s so I call two more bets, Blonde Guy calls as well. Flop comes J8K rainbow, check to Frangos. He bets, all call. Four to the turn, which produces a 2. I bet out with my two pair, Blonde Guy mucks, Frangos laughs and mucks, MP douche calls. River is another J and I die a little inside. Check, check, my middle pair no kicker is GOOT for a nice pot.

I resume normal TAG play and everyone starts giving lots of laggy action once more. Frangos leaves about 20 minutes later, and a guy who looked about 19 moves over from a 2/4 table with $100 in chips. We inform him that he's missed some good stuff, and that he may want more chips. He doesn't believe us, and he's busted in about one orbit. Loose-passive. Anyway, tables stays good for awhile, as Asian? Guy and Blonde Guy are continuing the LAG, and everyone else (except "SAMMY!" TAG and a bigger black guy who sat down in Seat 8 about half an hour ago) is playing loose-passive. I continue playing until about 3 AM, fluctuating between $450 and $550. Decide I'm going to get breakfast soon, it's just a matter of whether I'm getting breakfast and going home for a $250 profit, or getting breakfast and then returning to try and milk another hundred or two from the table. Ken gets up with his three racks, Asian? Guy and Blonde Guy leave too. One or two players fill in but there's still 2 empty seats and no list (there was another 5/10 full kill table, still playing 10-handed). Couple of players start moving around, and I decide that's it for me. I take my $502 and call it a night. $250 in profit, $2 to tip the waiter down at the bar/grill for my eggs, bacon, potatoes and onion rings breakfast, bought with comps.

For those that play the Potawatomi 10/20 and 20/40, how are they, compared to Party tables? The 10/20 looked fairly loose-passive, and other times I've watched a little 20/40 and it looked no tougher than a Party 3/6 table, probably less. They had 15/30 last night because they couldn't get a 20/40 game going, but I didn't see whether it was any good or not.


Also, if you were in this game and were anybody who's play was described negatively or as non-descript loose-passive, I apologize. It was a very fun game -- but the only good player at the table was the older-twenties "SAMMY!" TAG in Seat 6 who made an escape when an unshowered guy sat down in Seat 7.

[fishman]

Nice report. I play the 5/10 there about once a week. Have to say I've never seen it quite that laggy. Of course I tend to go after work (4pm) and stay till around 9 or 10 at the latest. Maybe I should start going a little later. I'll be there tonight actually. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[uw_madtown]

[ QUOTE ]
Nice report. I play the 5/10 there about once a week. Have to say I've never seen it quite that laggy. Of course I tend to go after work (4pm) and stay till around 9 or 10 at the latest. Maybe I should start going a little later. I'll be there tonight actually. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

Say "hi" if you ever see a college kid wearing a backwards black UNC or UW cap. I also may or may not be wearing glasses and have a tan A&F coat. I don't get down too often, although I may try to get down a couple times in January before classes start up again (I'm a student at UW-Madison).

[fishman]

I'll do that. I'm early 40's, brown/graying hair, brown/graying beard. MSOE grad [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] Good luck !

[uw_madtown]

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I'll do that. I'm early 40's, brown/graying hair, brown/graying beard. MSOE grad [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] Good luck !

[/ QUOTE ]

There's a lot of 40ish guys with graying hair/beards, so I probably won't realize you're there unless you spot me. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[Profit]

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(I'm a student at UW-Madison).

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i too am a student at uw-madison. Havent made it down to milwaukee yet, not really sure why. I went to ho-chunk last year a few times, wasn't really impressed. Is milwaukee pretty similar to what ho chunk was like?

You ever play in the badger poker tourneys at local bars?

[mblax10]

Good Report. I also play the $5/$10 their about once a month. I'd usually compare it favorably to the .25/.50 on Stars. From what I've heard and seen, the $10/20, $15/30 aren't much tougher, but I haven't sat at either of those limits yet.

As fishman mentioned, your game does seem like a change from the very loose/passive players I usually sit with. My table usually seems to have 4-7 players seeing a flop, and maybe 1-2 players besides me who will raise with less than Kings pre-flop. I once recieved a lecture for raising with just Jacks when folded to me in MP.

You forgot to mention how the night was well worth your long wait for a table. In my dozen visits I've never been seated in less than an hour, but I only go Fridays & Saturdays.

I think I recognize some charecters from your table. A couple sessions ago, I flopped 9's full vs. Seat 1's wife in a kill pot. She made 7's full on the turn. I had already put most of my chips in a rack content to go home about even after a rough session. We went heads up for about 6 bets on the river and I went home happy.

If seat 6 is who I think it is, he hit an incredible rush a couple sessions ago and went from all-in to cashing out a rack and a half in about an hour and a half.

Fishman, I wonder if I've sat with you. When I play I'm the only kid in the room under 30 without a baseball hat or sunglasses, just regular glasses, short dark hair usually sitting quietly with a T-shirt and lot of chips. Like madtown mentioned, there are a lot of guys around 40 playing there. If either of you run across a guy you think is me on a Friday or Saturday, come say hi.

[uw_madtown]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
(I'm a student at UW-Madison).

[/ QUOTE ]

i too am a student at uw-madison. Havent made it down to milwaukee yet, not really sure why. I went to ho-chunk last year a few times, wasn't really impressed. Is milwaukee pretty similar to what ho chunk was like?

You ever play in the badger poker tourneys at local bars?

[/ QUOTE ]

I can't really comment on Ho-Chunk, as I never got the chance to go. Potawatomi is pretty small and while it's the only casino/cardroom I've been to, I'd imagine it's not very nice compared to, well, anywhere. But the games are real juicy, from what I've seen.

I played in a couple of the Badger Poker things, but I've gotten pretty wrapped up in playing online, currently multitabling 4-6 tables of $3/$6 on Party and Empire. Playing in free tourneys is less appealing when you're making good money online, you know?

[Profit]

regarding badger poker, ya i agree, its just nice for a change of pace. I'll def have to check out milwaukee during the break.

[uw_madtown]

You're right -- it was somewhat abnormal. However, I've noticed that in the evenings / early mornings, you'll often see a table transformed by a single LAG running hot. People start complaining, then they beat him in a pot and it becomes fun, and everyone gets into it. If the LAG has a sense of humor, even better. But yes, generally, the 2/4 and 5/10 are ultra loose-passive.

Also, the wait was fine. I didn't even have much of one, only one guy ahead of me on the list, maybe a ten minute wait? I usually go down though without eating so I can grab dinner in the bar/grill while I wait, reading SSH over a meal.

[ QUOTE ]
I think I recognize some charecters from your table. A couple sessions ago, I flopped 9's full vs. Seat 1's wife in a kill pot. She made 7's full on the turn. I had already put most of my chips in a rack content to go home about even after a rough session. We went heads up for about 6 bets on the river and I went home happy.

If seat 6 is who I think it is, he hit an incredible rush a couple sessions ago and went from all-in to cashing out a rack and a half in about an hour and a half.

Fishman, I wonder if I've sat with you. When I play I'm the only kid in the room under 30 without a baseball hat or sunglasses, just regular glasses, short dark hair usually sitting quietly with a T-shirt and lot of chips. Like madtown mentioned, there are a lot of guys around 40 playing there. If either of you run across a guy you think is me on a Friday or Saturday, come say hi.

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I dunno if you've played with Seat 1 or Seat 6. Seat 1 (Asian? Guy) could be a lot of people, since I described him pretty vaguely. He doesn't have an accent or anything, younger guy (mid-late twenties maybe? maybe early thirties?). He did mention he had a wife and kids. Believe he also wore regular glasses. Good guy, sense of humor.

Seat 6, I dunno. He seemed like a regular, so you may have played with him before.

Anyway, just keep an eye out for a backward black UNC or UW cap, and say hey. And yeah, playing the mild-mannered college kid who's just trying out some quiet poker for fun is a good image. People seem to simultaneously give me respect (in word) and no respect (in action). I think I've been complimented either explicitly or implicitly on my play every time I've been there -- I change the subject or make some dumb fish "just catching some cards, FINALLY" type comment -- but people will do it WHILE CALLING ME DOWN. Like, not just one person, but the entire table. Fine with me.