more low-limit no-limit in cardrooms

Thanks to the WPT and WSOP coverage, interest in no-limit hold'em is generating a huge influx of new players who want to play no-limit. Cardrooms across the US are starting to spread low-limit no-limit games that a year or two ago were virtually unheard of in most casinos. Alan Bostick writes about a 3-blind $1-2-4 no-limit game at Lucky Chances, a cardroom I had pleasant experiences in about a year ago (Update: see first comment below; Alan corrects that there are blinds of $1 and $2, and $1 on the button, with an opening bet of $4).

I am told that they began to spread the game last Wednesday (April 7). On Friday night, the game was lively and spirited, with a significant list of players waiting to get in. The quality of play was about what you might expect, i.e. terrible – not quite as bad as you'd find in the dime-and-quarter-blind games on PokerStars, but still pretty easy to beat over time. Be prepared to weather some outrageous beats, but on the whole and overall solid play is going to win the money.

I have no clue whether or not the game is going to be sustainable. No-limit poker is notorious for the ease with which the better players can take the poorer players' money. The game might burn out its player base really quickly. On the other hand, if no-limit hold'em on television continues to attract new players into cardrooms, this game might turn out to be sustainable over the long haul.

Alan has raised what is the ultimate question for these games -- will they be sustainable? Based on the influx of out-of-towners I saw playing in the 2-4 NLH game at the Bellagio when I was out there, I think that game will be sustainable. Whether NLH is sustainable in regional cardrooms is a bigger question though.

Small correction: the blinds aren't $1, $2, and $4; they are $1 (on the button), $1, and $2. The opening bet must be at least the value of what's already in the pot, i.e. $4.

This structure is unique to Northern California, and I have never found a live NLHE game here that didn't use it. (Tournaments are another matter; and they use the standard two-blind structure.)

It requires some adjustment. It is completely possible to limp in and take the blinds. A "pot-sized raise" (opening for twice the size of the limp plus what's behind in the pot) means you're laying 3:1 to take the blinds, compared to a straight $1-$2, $2-to-go game, where one lays 2.33:1. And, unlike in the standard $2-to-go game, you can open for $5, $6, or $7; the first action is considered to be the opening bet, not a call of a blind bet.

It's the way we do things here in the Bay Area; it's a holdover from the old days when this was the structure for the local draw and lowball games, both limit and no-limit.