As the sun sets on Las Vegas and players bust out of the day’s tournament, the cash games in the Rio’s Amazon Room pick up serious steam. When I walked in tonight to check out the action, I watched the chip colors turn from white to red to green to black as I snaked my way through the tables, passing games ranging from $4-$8 limit hold’em all the way to $600-$1200 B.T.
B.T.? That’s a badugi/triple draw lowball mixed game with a waiting list including “Yosh," “Scotty," “Greg R.," “T.J.," and “Alex B." Badugi not your strongest suit? (Or you don’t know how the fuck to play it?) There’s an open seat in the $25-$50 pot-limit Omaha game right next to Devilfish. The guys playing with him aren’t T.V.-famous, but they sure know how to sling chips into the pot. Bricks of hundred dollar bills line the table next to towers of greens and blacks. Just one player’s stack could wipe out every piece of credit card debt I have. And buy me a new convertible.
How about a little $400-$800 H.O.E.B. with Mike Matusow and Gabe Kaplan? That’s limit hold’em, Omaha hi-lo, stud hi-lo, and badugi. A $100-$200 B.O.T. table features Mimi Tran and Can Kim Hua playing badugi, Omaha and triple draw lowball. (Is badugi is all the rage this Series or what?) WPT Foxwoods Champion Victor Ramdin played $75-$150 Omaha 8 tonight across from Mickey Appleman, who was wait-listed for the $150-$300 game. Men the Master laughed and knocked back his trademark Coronas while arranging his hand in a $150/point Chinese Poker game. Also spread this evening in the high limit section were $10-$25 NLHE and PLO, $25-$50 NLHE, $50-$100 stud 8/b, and $100-$200 LHE. I’m sure if you wanted to play $50-$100 no-limit crazy pineapple 8 or better, they’d find some way to deal it.
The side games at the WSOP aren’t just for players with bankrolls larger than the GDP of a third world country. $2-$5 NLHE and $2-5 PLO (both with $500 max buyins) are spread virtually around the clock, and from everything I hear are “juicy, juicy juicy." The $4-$8 limit hold’em games tend to get going in the mid-afternoon once enough tournament tables have broken and look as loose and wild as anything I’ve seen in the Southern California cardbarns. For middle limit players, there’s $5-$10 NLHE, $10-$20 and $20-$40 Omaha hi-lo and $10-$20 and $20-$40 limit hold’em.
I’m telling you, there are so many WPT fanboys at these tables with their sunglasses and iPods, it’s like online poker come to life. I can’t wait to get in on the action myself.
