There is something about the old country western music that has attached itself to my soul. Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, George Jones, Glen Campbell, Charlie Pride, Hank Williams Jr., Don Gibson and some of the other legends sang about women, whiskey, old friends, blue days and traveling. Always traveling.
I can still hear their songs in my inner mind. Songs like 'Gotta Travel On,' 'It's a Blue, Blue Day,' 'On The Road Again,' 'By The Time I Get to Phoenix,' 'Amarillo By Morning' and many others.
Over the past several months...
...I have done a lot of traveling myself, just me, my car and a couple of suitcases. Phoenix. Albuquerque. Las Vegas. Tulsa. Joplin. Jacksonville and Washington, PA. All my old stomping grounds, in search of the perfect poker game which, of course, doesn't exist.
As I sit here in a public library in Charleston, S.C. -- I am back spending some quality time with my daughter, Rossana -- I can report to you that the game of poker is changing.
Today's poker players...
...aren't much interested in limit poker. It isn't exciting enough for them. They want action and they are after the big money.
Some of my favorite casinos are moving away from $4-8 limit games. Poker room managers tell me players aren't that interested in those games. They want pot limit, no limit or the small limit games like $2-4 or $1-3 stud.
Huh? Excuse me, folks, but when a game gets that small, it turns into a house game.
Poker room managers always go with the crowd. They rarely fight public opinion even though they talk a good game when you bring the subject up to them.
It was a bit of a shock to discover, for example:
Pot limit Big O is now one of the favorite games being spread at BestBet in Jacksonville, FL. ANOTHER POPULAR GAME IS $1-3 seven card stud. Bah, humbug!
But a fellow has to go with what is available so I ponied up $100 and bought into a game I have not played much -- pot limit Big 0.
If you don't know this game, it is Omaha High Low, but instead of four cards, you are dealt five cards. And let me tell you that some of those pots can be huge because of the pot limit.
To say it was wild action would be understating the obvious. Some of those pots ran anywhere from $800 to $1,200.
Now I have been playing poker for a long time and I am not a coward when it comes to pushing in chips. But I can tell you this for a fact: if you choose to play $1-2 pot limit Big O, you had better prepare yourself for a rush. And you had better get blooded early in the game or you will let the other players run over you.
Players regularly raise the stakes...
...to $5 and all of the players at the table will call it, meaning the pot contains around $40 before the flop. After the flop, someone will bet $40, someone else will make it $80 and then all hell will break loose. If you don't have the nuts or a powerful drawing hand, you had better muck your cards. It's either that or watch your bankroll decimate.
My Recommendation
Approach any pot limit game like you are walking through a minefield -- very carefully. You can flop a nut straight and lose to a flush or full house very easily.
I did well the first day I played this game. The second day did not go nearly as well, but I picked up a lot of knowledge for subsequent games. And I am still shaking from the action.
No, the economy is rising and people have deep pockets. They crave action and action in poker translates to big money. It's as simple as that. Bennie Binion would just be shaking his head at the way his favorite card game has changed.
In the Future
I will be playing many more tournaments. There for $100, I can buy into a tournament where the dealer hands me anywhere from $5,000 to $20,000 in tournament chips, depending on the tournament. That gives some protection to the way I play. I strongly recommend that you consider this route the next time you sit down at a poker table.
As for Binion, he never thought his World Series of Poker, with its $10,000 buy-in, would attract more than a couple hundred players. He was wrong. Boy, was he wrong!
Author: Geno Lawrenzi Jr.
(Geno Lawrenzi Jr. is an international journalist, magazine author and ghostwriter and poker player who lives in Phoenx, AZ. He has published 2,000 articles in 50 magazines and 125 newspapers. If you want to share a gambling story or book idea with him, send an email to glawrenzi@gmail.com ).
