Dealers Choice, Auburn

3020 Views 10 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Rob, Aug 30, 2004

jkramer5

Discussion Starter · Aug 28, 2004

Friday August 27 7:00 pm tournament at Dealers Choice in Auburn

I decided to get my feet wet tonight and play in my first card room tournament. Dealers choice is located just off I 80 in Auburn near the Forresthill exit on Bowman road. It's in the same building as Maria's Taco's if anyone is familiar with the area.

The Tournament starts at 7:00 pm on Fridays. It's a $20 buy in for $300 in chips. Unlimited rebuy's for the first 3 rounds with a twist. A rebuy is $10 for $300 first round $400 2nd round and $500 3rd. You can rebuy any time your stack goes below $200. They also allow a "Double" rebuy if you go to the felt, costs $20 and you get double the chip counts listed above. They also had, I may have this somewhat wrong" a $20 add on at rd. 3 for $1500 in chips. I may have that wrong, but it was something like that.

I met Robert from the BYOC group there after hooking up with him in the forum,and altho I didn't get much of a chance to talk with him, I enjoyed the little conversation we were able to have. They have 2 tables seating 9 players each and all the seats were taken by the time the game started. Cards were drawn and seats assigned to begin the game.

I'll add here that I was a little dissapointed with the original chip count of $300. Plus the $300 was handed out in 8 $25 chips and 1 $100. Blinds started at $25/$25.Seemed a little sparse and being my first time in a cardroom I was already plenty nervous. I planned to play duck butt tight.

On the first hand there were like 2 or 3 all in's, I folded. After the winner was declared, those that needed to did rebuy's, usually choosing the double. This was the norm for the 45+ mins I lasted in the game. I won a mid size pot early, with 2 pairs on the board, pulling my already blind dwindled stack all in. I had hi kicker and in fact said "shit" out loud thinking I'd lost. The other pot I won came from a $200 raise with the table folding to me. That was it. I went all in in desperation somewhere late in round 3 and lost. Best I remember I had a king and a pretty crappy kicker and lost to the bigger stacks that my $250 meant nothing to. I brough $40 bucks with me figuring on an initial buy in and 2 rebuys would give me a decent nights fun and maybe a shot. Not here, these guys rebuy like crazy and with the small starting chip count I was helpless to begin with.

I said my goodbyes not long after busting out as did 3 or so other players. Robert looked like he was holding his own, having played pretty solid early on, and was coloring up a decent stack as I left.

All in all I didn't really enjoy myself there at all. The small starting chip count plus the frequent rebuy's just isn't my style. I need a little bigger buffer than $300 in 9 chips. If I'd a wanted to enter a $100 tournament I would have done so.

Thay have a cash game after the tourney but I don't remember the particulars. There is also another tournament on sunday's at 3:00 but I noticed on the flyer it said unlimited rebuy's. I think I'll pass, practice a little self discipline playing online tonight and give er a go on the 4th with you guy's.

Jon

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Quads

· #2 · Aug 28, 2004

Good information to know.

I'll be sure to cross that off my "Tourney's to hit in Auburn on a Friday night at 7PM where you only start with 300 in chips" ....list.

Thanks for the posting. Good / helpful information for all to use.

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· #3 · Aug 28, 2004

Hey Cosmo...What did you think of the caliber of the player? Could it be a place ripe for picking at a ring game?

That's a pretty jacked up tourney format. I think they need to read our forum thread about "when you're out, you're out!"

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Robert

· #4 · Aug 28, 2004

My take on the Auburn casino experience:

I also wished there was more time to sit & chat w/ jkramer5, but we only got there a few minutes before the tourney started. John -- I'll see you on 9/4 at Hagars!

John got a nickname while we were there: Little John. John is a big fella, & some guy sitting to his left decided to call him that & it stuck. I thought it was kinda cool, but don't know what John thought of it. Since we walked in together & I am getting into archery, I declared myself Robert Hood. Since I only stole from the rich a couple of times that night, I'm not sure that will stay my nickname or not...

Anyway, before going into to how things went for me, here are my thoughts on the casino itself. The employees are friendly & pay close attention to what's going on. I like that, but maybe that's normal. It was my first cardroom experience. I didn't mind the tourney format because I just like poker in general. What I did not like is the cheep-o chips they have. They actually had those diamond plastic chips for the tourney in green, red & pink. Unmarked. This seems unwise to me. I'd never do this myself, but if someone knows they use this, they need only bring a few extra of their own. Easy to get a hold of.

The tournament:

There were a couple of tables w/ I think 9 people each at the start. There were (as John said) a LOT of rebuys. I thought I played pretty well. I got below 200 once & went ahead & did a rebuy for an additional 400, then I did the optional last option to rebuy for an additional 1500 (everyone did that). I never did hit the felt before rebuys were no longer an option. I survived until they were just going down to one table. I'd love to have done better, but I don't think I did badly.

I had some good wins & some bad beats, but no big mistakes that I know of. I went all in when I thought I had the best hand, but someone had one slightly better. Ah, well.

By the way, I don't have the detailed memory some of you have for individual hands. I only recall a couple of specific hands. The very first hand John mentioned where a bunch of people went all in was interesting. One person had KK & the other QQ.

The cash game:

The cash game started w/in a few minutes of the table freeing up. It was a $100 buy in no limit game. I've played nothing but no limit for so long I was actually looking forward to a limit game, but I was right there & decided to go ahead & play. My other option was driving to Grass Valley to play their 3/6 limit game. I'd rather keep playing than drive around.

The chips for the cash game were not much better than the tournament. They were generic chips marked only w/ the denomination. I didn't recognize them (I'd seen the plastic tourney chips on the web but not these). I got a stack of $5 chips & a stack of $1 chips. Blinds were $2 & $3, w/ a $3 drop.

I played ok there, too, but got a little low & went all-in w/ AdKd. Flop came AKx. I'm thinking cool. But, in the end, someone else had a flush & that was the end of my stack. I thought about heading to Grass Valley at this point, but I was getting a slight headache (I have blood sugar issues & hadn't eaten for a while) so I decided to call it a night, go home & eat.

One thing humorous. A lady walked in for the cash game (wasn't in the tourney). I was more focussed on the game & only half paid attention to her, so my interpretation of all this may be a little off but here's what I saw. She was acting like she was new at this & people, including the dealer, were carefully explaining how all this worked. She was eating it up. A couple of hands after she sat down, I looked over & saw her doing the chip-riffle thing like the pros on TV. We didn't make eye contact, but I saw her look down & realize what she was doing, stop, & look around. I don't know if anyone else saw this. Three hands later she had the biggest chip stack. She's also the one who got the flush that ended my evening in this casino.

A final note for others who haven't been in a casino: I'm not the timid type so going into a casino wasn't making me nervous, but I was feeling a little like a fish out of water at first. Didn't take long to realize I wasn't (a fish out of water that is). It's just a bunch of people playing cards just like a BYOC event. Only difference is in the cash game the dealer takes a few chips out of the pot to pay the bills. My advice -- if you're in the mood for cards & there's no BYOC game going on, just walk into a nearby cardroom & sit down. Enjoy...

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· #5 · Aug 28, 2004

Robin Hood & Little Jon...I like it!

Sounds like a cheap ass casino though, that's for sure!

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Quads

· #6 · Aug 28, 2004

It was a $100 buy in no limit game

Just to confirm, this was a NO LIMIT game with $2/3 blinds?

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Hagar

· #7 · Aug 28, 2004

It's a $20 buy in for $300 in chips. Unlimited rebuy's for the first 3 rounds with a twist. A rebuy is $10 for $300 first round $400 2nd round and $500 3rd. You can rebuy any time your stack goes below $200. They also allow a "Double" rebuy if you go to the felt, costs $20 and you get double the chip counts listed above. They also had, I may have this somewhat wrong" a $20 add on at rd. 3 for $1500 in chips. I may have that wrong, but it was something like that.

This is not an unusual rebuy format. You have real incentive to keep investing in the tourney because every rebuy is a better value. IMO, this would be the way I'd do a rebuy/add-on tourney; as you get deeper in rounds, you need more chips to compete. Coming in with a "starter" rebuy is not really worth it in the 3rd round - you're so far behind the chip leaders that you have to get real lucky, real quick to have any shot of getting in the money.

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jkramer5

Discussion Starter · #8 · Aug 28, 2004

I guess these unlimited rebuy games aren't my bag. the game I host allows 1 in the first hour (3 rounds) but we also start off with a higher chip count and a much less agressive blind structure. T$300 in 9 chips was just itching to start a shove fest and for me there was no setteling in period to the game, just all in after all in. The guy sitting to my left must have been up to at least $100 to $130 in rebuy's alone in the first 45 mins of the game.

And ya, my ego was stung hard leaving so soon. It's not that I'm a tightwad I just wasn't willing to risk any more $$ playing in a game of this type for the first time I'd ever been in a cardroom game. Thinking back over it, I probably should have gone back for the cash game. Seems a little more my speed.

Doc: I'd be a bad judge of the calliber of play. I'm too new to the game and to be honest, since I've played mostly online and at my house, It was almost like sensory overload. There was a TV blaring ESPN, I was seated next to the dealer and had to contend with my cards not being caught up in the muk pile, and for a while 2 foothill geezers were talking across the table about cutting tree limbs and some road trip lol.

Robert was right about the staff, very friendly and kept good track of the action. I thnk his story about the chip shuffeling story is great. I've always looked at that place as somewhere to drop a paychek real quick lol.

It was still a fun night and I'm even thinking about playing in the sunday game now that I have a little info on the structure and style of play.

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Hagar

· #9 · Aug 28, 2004

As you may have read, I'm not a fan of rebuy tourneys either. It's gerenally considered good strategy to plan to invest the max if you get into one. I guess that's one reason I don't care for them. But....if I was going to get into a rebuy tourney, it would be of a similar structure to what you describe.

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Robert

· #10 · Aug 29, 2004

Confirming: Yes it was a $2/$3 NO LIMIT cash game w/ a $100 MAX buy-in. You could rebuy any time to get your chips back up to $100, but never above that. Of course, if you win big your stack can go above $100...

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Rob

· #11 · Aug 30, 2004

I visited the Dealers Choice on Sunday afternoon. I missed the tourney which started at 3pm, but played for several hours in the cash game that followed.

Note: If you use the internet to find the address for Dealers Choice, check the address by phone. The site I used to locate it gave an address on Copperpenny lane in Auburn, which turned out to be in a nice residential neiborhood.

The name of the club should be taken seriously. A button passes to the first dealer of each orbit who can choose Omaha H/L or Holdem, and can change the game once during the orbit. Our table agreed to only play Holdem, (as noone wanted to learn Omaha at 4/8) the other table apparently agreed to only play Omaha. Both table were playing 4/8.

The owner (Phil?) and his wife Linda were there. Linda was dealing, Phil was playing Omaha for a while before joining us. Really nice people, Phil takes time to ask new folks where they're from and such, as did the other dealer.

Our inital table was made up of the final 4 plus three of us who walked in. The other table (there are 2 total) was made up from the early 'all outs' from the tourney, and were playing Omaha.

The action was good, and people were playing pretty loose (one guy won a pot with a 73o...). But, unfortunately my cards were cold for most of the night, and when I thought I was getting something going, I found myself on the loosing end of several suckouts, and a couple of sets busted by larger sets. Dragged one pot early but nothing for a couple of hours. The last couple of hours were a bit better for me. I dragged several pots, including a river suckout when a diamond arrived making my nut flush.

One of the dealers said that to get in on the tourneys, call at least a couple of hours in advance, and leave a message on the answering machine or you wont get in.

Rob

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