In early spring, I visited Prague, Czech Republic, which is truly one of the most beautiful and civilized cities in the world. It has wonderful old architecture and vibrant, modern night life. And no-limit Texas hold'em is played at the Banco Casino near Wenceslas Square. (Was that square named after the same "Good King Wenceslas" of Christmas carol fame?) Most of the other casinos in Prague (and there are many) do not have live poker.
I played live no-limit hold'em for several hours at a 2,000 krona buy-in table (slightly more than $100) with two 50 krona blinds. The game appeared to be somewhat tight at first, but about once a round, the table seemed to come alive and many players would go all in at the same time. I was involved in only two of those huge eruptions, and fortunately, my pocket kings held up in one of them, so I spent the rest of the session with a mass of chips in front of me.
At 7 o'clock every night, the casino hosts a 1,000 krona (hereinafter referred to as K) buy-in no-limit hold'em tournament, with 1,000 K rebuys during the first hour, and an "offer-you-can't-refuse" 1,000 K add-on (4,000 K in chips instead of 2,000 K).
I entered the tournament, and played and won only one small hand during the first 45 minutes. The table was somewhat tight, but the guy on my immediate left frequently raised before the flop with hands as light as J-8 offsuit. Three times when I limped in from my small blind, he made large raises, and I had to fold. In my next 100 K small blind, I picked up the A
5
, and everyone folded around to me. I strongly suspected that if I limped in, the guy on my left, who now had a large stack, would make a big raise. I had about 2,400 K in chips, about 20 percent more than the starting amount. What would you do in this situation?
This is the kind of hand that I prefer to play slowly in the early stages of a no-limit hold'em tournament, especially when in the presence of players who like to see the flop cheaply. But here, if I did limp in and he made a big raise, it would be quite speculative to call - and that's not the kind of game I like to play. My hand wasn't really good enough to trap, although I thought that he probably would raise with many hands worse than mine.
So, I decided on the "fight-fire-with-fire" approach - and made it 600 K to go. He thought about it a bit, then finally folded. Note that my 500 K investment not only won the 300 K in the pot, but also won some psychological equity that could be converted to chips in a future hand. As fate would have it, we had almost an exact replay in my next small blind. Everyone folded around to us, and I had A-8 offsuit. I made it 700 K to go and he again folded, quite unhappily.
Two rounds later, after the rebuy period had ended, in my 300 K small blind, I picked up pocket queens. With one middle-position limper who had only a few chips, what would you do in this situation? I had about 8,000 K in chips and the guy on my left now had about 10,000 K.
Yeah - I was ready for my big move. I limped in and hoped. Sure enough, he couldn't wait to raise it to 2,500 K. The player in front of me called with his few remaining chips (less than 1,000 K), and I went all in, raising it about 5,500 K. The guy on my left muttered some words under his breath - then proceeded to call me with his 10-8 suited. I suspect that he probably would not have made such a bad call (he most certainly had to be a big underdog) if it hadn't been for the two earlier hands.
My queens did manage to hold up against his 10-8 suited for the bulk of the pot (I was about a 4-to-1 favorite), but the all-in player hit a king on the river and took about 4,500 K from my 17,500 K pot. However, my operation had succeeded and put me in a very good chip position. Note that quite often, you can discern that an opponent has been psychologically influenced by the results of previous hands, and you can almost predict how he will react - enabling you to "set him up" for a big score.
I won't bore you with the two bad beats that eventually knocked me out. All in all, I really enjoyed playing there at the Hungry Poker Club in the Banco Casino, and I certainly recommend it to anyone visiting Prague. By the way, the Banco Casino also provides free drinks (including mellow cognac served in elegant crystal) served by beautiful waitresses, and it distributes
Card Player Europe.
Formerly a career lawyer with the U.S. Department of Justice, Mike Cappelletti has written numerous books on poker and bridge, and is considered to be one of the leading authorities on Omaha. Mike has also represented the U.S. in international bridge competition, and he and his wife were featured in a four-page Couples Section in People magazine. His books include Cappelletti on Omaha, Poker at the Millennium (with Mike Caro), and Omaha High Low Poker.
