Hollywood Perryville and River Play

So Hollywood Perryville opened a few weeks ago to great fanfare here in MD.  I really anticipated not going there much if at all.  It is a small room with currently only 8 tables; most of which are small stakes games (ie 1/2 NLHE).  I figured even if their was a 2/5 game that would be the largest game in the room and if the lineup sucked I just would rather drive the extra half-hour to Charles Town to play with the fishies out there.

Well I have to give them credit, they are trying. They have petitioned and (I believe) have been granted permission for 4 or 5 more tables in the next few weeks.  They also have started to try and attract larger games with a 5/10 game every Tuesday and Thursday night and a 5/5 PLO offering every Monday evening.  These have met with decent games on those nights and consequently I have been there 3 times in the last 2 weeks.  The coup-de-grace is that it only takes me 45 mins door to door for me and driving home at 2 or 3 in the morning that extra 30 minutes is enormous. 

I have spent my time more or less equally between the 2/5 and 5/10 NLHE games.  Both are really good with the 5/10 obviously being a bit more aggro.  Even still there are only 3 or 4 tough players that I have experienced at 5/10 in my 3 sessions.  The 2/5 play is probably worse than Charles Town but there aren't as many tables and there tend to be more shortstackers in my experience.  All that said the regs at 2/5 in Perryville are laughably bad, generally weak passive and not hard to beat if you have half a brain and can fold or bet/fold on occasion. 


People often ask me what are some of the things I should be looking for to assess my opponents.  One thing I have really started to take note of that can help a player develop his game is how he plays the turn and the river.  I am talking specifically about reasonably decent stacked (100BB+) cash games.  Tournament play is often simply a math equation largely dictated by stack sizes, etc.  I constantly look for how well a player plays the turn and, in particular, the river to determine how good he is.  A player that can squeeze the extra few BB on the river will see a huge difference in his winrate.  Preflop I don't really care.  Anyone can raise any two cards in any position if the situation is right.  Flop play is pretty standard as well; we c-bet a lot if we are the pre-flop raiser, we call sometimes in position if a timid player bets the flop but will give up certain turn cards.  But if you are a good player you will understand how to play turns and rivers to maximize wins and/or minimize losses. 

Here is a hand 2 baddish 5/10 regs played the other night that if I dropped in to see them play I would have known they were both terrible.  A weak passive old nit raised over a limper to 55 from late position, BTN called, BB called and limper called (pot ~225).  Flop comes T77.  Old nit c-bets 150, all fold to limper who then decides to check raise to 400...stacks are probably 1500+ to start the hand.  Old nit calls and pot is suddenly a bit over 1k.  Turn is a 4 and it goes check-check.  River is a 7..and now limper checks.  Old nit then checks it back...wtf just happened here?  How in the world can old nit ever not value bet this river? 

He obviously has a pair greater than 10 and the other dude either has AT or like 99, 88, JJ.  As expected the limper shows 88 and states he c/r to "see where he was at"...and of course the old nit has KK but didn't want to bet because he thought limper had A7 and was trapping....loooooooool.  Nice hand sirs.

Watch how your opponents play turns and rivers and you will learn a ton about how good, bad, weak, spewy, aggressive, etc. they are.