LOW COST POKER TOURNAMENTS AT PECHANGA CASINO IN TEMECULA

I'm a big fan of low cost poker tournaments.  I like to play in poker tournaments but I'm not good enough to buy into expensive tournaments or big tournaments and so I look for the low cost buy-ins.

There are some low-cost tourneys in the Los Angeles area, but these are usually "re-buy" tournaments, meaning a player can bust out, and buy-in again... and again.  The trouble with these "re-buy" tourneys is that aggressive players will play too aggressively and even recklessly trying to force out other players and trying to survive only from their own fat wallets.  I don't like to play that way.

So I was very pleased to find out about the newest schedule of low cost daily tournaments at the Pechanga Casino in Temecula, just off the 15 Freeway.  Pechanga has daily no limit hold'em tournaments starting at 10-AM.  On Monday the cost of entering is a total of $20.  The prize pool isn't big but you're getting to play in a tournament, get the practice, and enjoy the game at a low price.  Heck, $20 is about what a movie ticket costs these days.

And on Tuesday the entertainment value is even better -- it's buy one entry and get one entry free, so bring a friend, or bring your spouse for a low cost day playing poker.  The cost of Tuesday is $25 for one or get two entries for the same $25-- and that's better than a movie.

On Wednesday and Thursday the price is $30 but you collect a $5 bounty for every player you knock out of the tourney.  Bounty tournaments are fun but I don't do well in bounty tournaments because I'm not aggressive enough to go all-in on many hands.

Friday and Saturday are also $25 tournaments, and Sunday is a $35 tournament.  Pechanga also has low cost tournaments in the evenings with slightly higher prices.   

DAILY POKER TOURNAMENTS AT THE BIKE 7 DAYS A WEEK

The Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens is expanding its tournament schedule to 7 days a week.  All of the tournaments will run seven days a week including the noon tournanment, the midnight tournament and the 7-PM tournament.  These are generally low cost tournaments, where you can get a full day or full evening of play for under one-hundred dollars.  The Bike (as The Bicycle Casino is known) has moved its tournaments back into its Event Center which is the large tournament room.  For several months while the Event Center was under construction and undergoing renovations, the tournaments at The Bike were held on the regular poker casino floor which was loud and full of distractions.  Now, The Bike is back to its regular tournament environment which is one of the best in Southern California.

CAESARS PALACE MAKES A BIG CHANGE IN ITS TOURNAMENTS

Caesars Palace in Las Vegas has made a very big change in its popular 7-PM poker tournament.  This tournament is popular with tourists as well as Vegas locals.  And the change allows players who bust out prior to the first break to buy into the tournament again.  The initial buy-in for the tournament is $160, and prior to this rule change once you lost all of your chips you were out of the tournament.  And now, players who lose all of their chips before the first break can buy in again.

This means that players can make a mistake and get a second chance, or a third chance or a fourth chance prior to the first break.  The change in the rules also means that the prize pool might be larger than in a regular "no re-buy tournament."

Now we have to wonder if other casinos will follow the lead of Caesars Palace and also allow re-entries and second chance buy-ins?  It's really not a bad idea for Caesars to do this to cater to its tourist market.  Because normally once a tourist/poker player busts out of a tourney he is out of the action for several hours until the next tourney comes along-- and Caesars does have multiple tournaments each day.  But by allowing re-entries players can stay in the action longer.

Of course the casinos also get a cut out of every entry fee and this is also a way for them to gain more revenue, and with casino revenue down because of the recession this idea might clearly benefit other casinos as well.  I think there is a very good chance this idea will spread to other casinos.

WHY THE BEST HAND DOESN'T WIN IN ONLINE POKER TOURNAMENTS

Don't be frustrated by those "bad beats" in online poker tournaments -- especially the tournaments that are free and cost no money to enter.  All of the online poker web sites have free tournaments from time to time, and in those free tournaments the "best hands" can easily lose to inferior hands.  Let me tell you why.  It's because in a free online poker tournament, some players will play "any two cards" and hope to get lucky, and sometimes they do get lucky.

Let me give you an example:  in one free tournament (the online casino offered a prize pool of $50 to be shared by the top 18 finishers) there were five players in the hand.  Some of the players had "good hands" including high pairs, or suited connectors.  In this particular hand the flop comes three clubs.  In the next round of betting, four players are all-in, and the cards are exposed.  One player flopped the flush, another player had a pair, a third player had high cards but no club, and the fourth player had 6-6, pocket sixes, and without a club.  

So at this point you have to ask why did the player with two high cards and no club go all-in after the flop?  You can understand why a player with one pair might gamble.  The player who flopped the flush is probably thinking "this pot is mine" after all of the cards are exposed.  But -- hold on.

Then comes the turn, and it's a 6 of clubs.  And then the river, another 6.  The player who went all-in with a pair of sixes and no club had just made quads.  So you're asking: why did this player go all in without a club?  Well, online players tell me things like this happen all the time because the tournament is "free" and no real money is at risk.  Players will gamble when there is no money involved -- and this was certainly a gamble (though it paid off).

In another tournament, in the very first hand of the tournament, a player with pocket aces, AA, raises the big blind of 10 to 200.  Another player goes all-in and the player with AA calls, going all in as well.  When the other player's cards are revealed he has an unsuited 7 and a Jack.  And you're thinking, "all in with an unsuited 7 and Jack?"  Yeah, that's what I would be thinking also-- but wait.

After the flop and the turn and the river, the player with J-7 makes a jack-high straight, beating the pocket aces.  So, what would make the player with the unsuited Jack-7 go all-in pre-flop?  Yes, it could have been a bluff and he might have been shocked to see the caller have pocket aces.  But a bluff might not be the motivation and the player with J-7 off suit might have decided to go all-in just because he liked the combination of Jack-7 or perhaps he had a face card, or maybe just because he wanted to.  Well, online players tell me, it's a free tournament, so why not go all-in?  What do you have to lose?  Nothing especially when another free tournament might be an hour later.

So what's the bottom line here?  It's that anyone with any two cards is likely to play them in a free tournament with no money at risk and getting a player to fold with a big bet can be awfully difficult in online poker when players can see that "any two cards" can certainly win.

IS IT TIME TO BAN CELL PHONES FROM ALL POKER GAMES?

In most casinos, use of cell phones is not allowed during tournament play.  Some casinos have a strict rule about this, but in other casinos you are asked to leave the table to use your cell phone.  And then there are some casinos who have no rule at all -- or objection -- to using cell phones during tournament play.  And every casino allows the use of cell phones in cash games.

But perhaps the time has come to ban cell phones from all games -- cash games as well as tournaments?  Cell phone use is now banned in many blackjack pits because there are programs (or apps or applications) that can be used to determine player strategy.  Now, there are similar programs (or apps or applications) that can be used to determine player strategy in poker.

The other night I was at a casino where a player showed me his cell phone, and the app that let him not only rank his  hand, but also determine the chance of winning the pot based on the cards that have flopped and the number of other players in the hand.  He used his cell phone app during critical hands in a no-limit Texas Hold'Em game.  And he was winning.

Perhaps it is time for the casinos to ban the use of cell phones now that these poker strategy applications are so freely used and are as near as someone's smart cell phone.  And even if you don't have the app or program loaded onto your cell phone, many cell phones today also have Internet access so a player with quick fingers could easily enter his hand to determine if he should raise, call, fold or check.

That's right -- the next "call" at a poker table could be to a web site that can help with player strategy or a click onto an application or program that can tell the user the same thing.  Perhaps there is no room for this technology at the poker table?  Or pretty soon, everyone will be on their phones letting the computers decide their next move.

THERE ARE SO MANY PROFESSIONAL POKER PLAYERS, BUT...

Yes, there are so many professional poker players, but there are so few who actually make a living at the game.  In fact, there is a joke about professional poker players that goes like this:  

Question:  How do you get a professional poker player to leave your front door?

Answer:  You pay him for the pizzas.

Of course the root of this joke is that many so-called professional poker players have other jobs to give them the money to play poker.  Over the past couple of years that I've been playing poker (not as a "professional" but for recreation in low priced tournaments) I've come to know many poker players who do not have "other jobs" to pay for their poker.  In fact, these players need borrowed money or gift money to play their games.

At first, I thought that these players were "short" ten or twenty bucks to make the $40 or $50 buy-in, but I soon found out that they needed that ten or twenty to pool with the other money that others would give them.  In exchange, you were promised a percentage of the player's win for making your contribution.  If you gave money to a player to help him buy into a tournament it is said that you have a "horse in the race."

Sometimes the player you help into a tournament makes the money, and you get paid back with a profit.  But too often the player does not make the money and you're out the cash.

Now I am hearing some real hard luck stories.  There is the player who never has enough cash to buy his own tournament entry.  He has to "ask around" for buy in money.  If he gets it, he has to pay out a percentage -- often a big percentage -- of his winnings at that tournament.  Now I found out that this player lives out of his car -- which is parked in the casino parking lot.  When he does make some money, he rewards himself with a hotel room at the casino (discounted because of his play) and takes a shower.  He eats his meals at the casino, because the meals are discounted and sometimes the meals are free or only cost two or three dollars because of the tournament entry.

No real job.  No real income.  No health insurance.  No pension.  No roof over his head -- except for the roof of his car.  It really is sad.

And this player is not the only one who lives like this.  I play tournaments at one local casino in the Los Angeles area where there are about sixty "regular players" who take part in the $40 to $60 tournaments.  And darn, I found out that about a third of them don't have jobs and make their living from playing poker.  Only poker.

When I first started playing poker I didn't like playing "cash games" because it meant taking money out of the pockets of other players, with no limit to how much money they could lose.  I liked tournaments better because of the limited liability of a tournament -- you paid $40 or $60 for your entry and that's all you could lose.

Now I am finding out that $40 or $60 might be all the money in the world for some of the other players in the tournament.  It's not only sad-- it also takes some of the fun out of playing.

For you Hold'em Poker players...

Here's a question for you hold'em poker players.  But before I ask the question, think carefully.  Because I've been asking this question at various card clubs in the Los Angeles area over the past few weeks and surprisingly almost all of the players and even some of the dealers gave me the wrong answer.

Okay, here's the question:  You are playing Texas Hold'em and at your table two players get a royal flush.  One player gets a Royal Flush in hearts, while the second player gets a Royal Flush in spades.  Who wins?

Think carefully before you answer.  Among the things to consider:  the ranks of the suits, and the number of cards being played.

Are you thinking carefully?  Because I just gave you a vital hint about the correct answer...

Okay, here is the correct answer:  It is impossible in Texas Hold'em to have two players both with a Royal Flush.  The reason is--- there are not enough cards in play.  Each player has two "hole cards," and there are five "community cards" from which to make your hand.  That's a total of seven cards.  For two players to both have a Royal Flush, at least eight cards must be in play.

As I mentioned above, almost all of the players that I put this question to gave me the incorrect answer.  Nearly all of the players said the Royal with Spades would win.  While spades is the highest suit, the true answer is there can't be two royals at one table simultaneously.  Surprisingly several dealers also gave me the wrong answer.  But a few "sharp dealers" knew the correct answer -- there can only be one Royal Flush at a time in Texas Hold'em.

Try this question on your own poker buddies.