Low Limit Casino Hold'Em is Still Good

I had to pick up my wife from the airport in New Orleans on Sunday evening July 15. Since I had nothing better to do that day and probably would have spent it playing poker online, I decided to go down to the city in mid-afternoon and play poker at Harrah's until it was time to pick her up at the airport.

Even though the passage of the online gambling bill last year has certainly put a dent into how good the online games are, it has apparently done nothing to dissuade bad poker players from going to the actual casinos and donating their money there.

I arrived at the poker room at about 3:00 after spending 45 minutes looking for a parking space in the Harrah's garage. I was absolutely pouring rain outside and when it rains, everyone in New Orleans apparently goes to the casino to gamble. Or maybe they offset their Sunday morning church with a little homage to the wheel of fortune. Whatever it is, the entire place was packed like it was Saturday evening.

The wait list for $1/$2 No Limit Hold'Em was 18 players long, so I put my name on the list and sat in a $3/$6 Limit Hold'Em game to pass the time until my name was called for the NL game.

It has been quite some time since I played a hand of limit poker when i was sober. If I want to play poker, but I'm drunk, I'll just play limit because you can play like a robot and still win in limit poker, whereas a foolish, intoxicated move might cost you all of your money at a NL table. It's kind of like playing blackjack after a night of drinking. You're probably not going to make all of the best decisions, but if you're playing $25 blackjack and you split tens against a 6 it will only cost you a fraction of that $25 bet because even though it is not the best choice you could make, you're still going to win the two hands a significant amount of the time.

Anyway, I sat at $3/$6 for about 2.5 hours and ran hotter than the sun, racking up a $250 win. Just for a point of reference, a $100 win over 3-4 hours, which would be 16 big bets, should be considered a solid win. Winning over 40 big bets in half the time is ridiculous. It was not anything that I did, and most good limit players would have played my hands the same way, it is just that every time i was in a pot, I managed to flop a good hand or excellent draw. And if I flopped a draw, it got there. I even took a pretty bad beat on one hand and still booked that large win.

Here's my favorite hand from the day. Anytime you flop a straight-flush and there is heavy four-way action, you are certainly living right.

Harrah's New Orleans $3/$6 Limit Hold'em

Hero is Button with 4d 3d
UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, MP1 calls, MP2 calls, CO calls, Hero calls, SB completes, BB checks

Flop (8 sb): 5d 6d 7d
SB bets, BB folds, UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, MP1 folds, MP2 folds, CO calls, Hero raises, SB calls, UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, CO calls

Turn (9 bb): 4c
SB checks, UTG bets, UTG+1 calls, CO raises, Hero 3-bets, SB folds, UTG caps, UTG+1 calls, CO calls, Hero calls

River (25 bb): 7h
UTG checks, UTG+1 bets, CO calls, Hero raises, UTG calls, UTG+1 3-bets, CO calls, Hero caps, UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, CO calls

Final Pot (41 bb)

UTG shows Ad 8c (Straight, Four to Eight)
UTG+1 shows 6s 6c (Full House, Sixes full of Sevens)
CO shows 8d 7s (Straight, Four to Eight)
Hero shows 3d 4d (Straight Flush, Three to Seven)

Hero wins $246