Wednesday, March 30, 2011

CAP Ring Games

So, did anyone manage to cash in a Milestone hand at Pokerstars? I didn’t - though not for a lack of trying. I played more cash tables this past week than in my last three years combined! I had some big swings both up and down, and ended up pretty much break even. I split my time between 9 man PLO HiLo 0,10/0,25 tables and NLHE tables. Yesterday, I came across a ring game that I hadn’t noticed before: No Limit Holdem CAP. MrSmith and I played a bit together on one of these yesterday.

These tables place a 20 BB cap on the betting. In other words, even if you have a 100BB stack, you can’t wager more than 20 BB in a single hand!? It seemed a bit strange at first, but I really liked it. Firstly, the cap made it a push/fold type of preflop game rather than the deep stack set mining, suited connector play typical of the normal cash tables. For me this change fit my style well since it is more like tourney play where all your decisions are preflop.

Secondly, the cap allowed me to play at higher stakes than normal. This is good if you want to gamble at higher stakes and good for collecting VPPs. I played 0,50/1,00 tables yesterday and was quite comfortable since the most I was risking on a single hand was $20. At a normal 0,50/1,00 table I would probably buy in for 80 or 100 dollars. I’m not rolled to risk that much on a single hand!

Furthermore, several times at regular tables I’ve built up a stack double or triple what I started with that session with only to lose it all on one big hand gone bad. With the cap, you can build your stack as much as possible, yet you still can’t wager more than the 20 BB on a single hand. If you are an inexperienced cash tabler, or just want to take a shot at higher stakes, then this safety net might be the thing.

I might play some more of these. They were high action and plenty of fun. Post your thoughts if you have played them.

That is about it for now. I’ll be setting up the next Home Game in a day or two. You can find me grinding the $10 Fifty50s for the time being if you want to join me for a game. Finally, I played the TurboTakedown on Sunday and cashed for $110  :)

Roland GTX

2 comments:

  1. UPDATE: I played a set of capped tables last night. One 0,50/1,00 and three 0,25/0,50. I played for just over an hour, got in more than 500 hands and accrued about 110 VPPS. The vpps are good because I'm trying to clear a bonus at the moment.

    Anyway, I lost a $20 stack on the 0,50/1,00 early when I reraised all in preflop with JJ. The villian called with AQo and flopped an A. I slowly recouped most of it but ended down 6 bucks on this table.

    The three 0,25/0,50 tables went better. I ended my session up 5 bucks on one table, 7 on another and up 16 on the final table. So, 22 bucks profit plus a $10 bonus made for a good session for me.

    I was down $3 on the final 0,25/0,50 table until late in the session. I shoved the cap $10 on an early minraiser. The sb called and so did the original raiser. I had AKs, the sb had QQ and the OR had JJ. An A on the flop and a K on the river made for a nice pot :)

    Roland GTX

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  2. 2nd update: I 4 tabled another session last night getting in about 500 hands and 75 VPPs. All my tables were 0,25/0,50 this time. By the end of the session I down $17 on one table, down $2 on the second, up $2 on the third and up $14 on the forth putting me down a few bucks for session. Luckily I cleared another $10 bonus so my bankroll actually increased a bit nonetheless :)

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