Hold 'Em + Lima, Peru = hilarity ensues (moved from LC)

[MindOverMatter]

I was recently in Lima, Peru for a few days and had a chance to stop at a couple of casinos where they spread Hold'em games. Let's see how Latin America plays! There's no strategy here, so I put it in AG.

First stop, Majestic Casino in the Marriott Hotel (Miraflores) ... they were getting ready to have their Wednesday night $100 rebuy tournament. It drew about 50 players that particular evening but I decided not to play. I came back later to see if their one cash game table, which was empty before the donkament started, would fill up at all. They said the donkament lasts usually from 10pm - 2am, so it must have some pretty brutal blind levels.

Anyway, when I returned they were playing $4-$8 LHE. But if you ask them what games they spread, they will tell you either $1-$2 or $2-$4. They seem to describe the games by the blinds and not the bets, which confused me a hell of a lot, especially seeing as no one seemed to have more than about $50 in front of them.

The play there was absolutely terrible, as I quickly figured out, but unfortunately I barely played three orbits. The game, which had been 8 handed, completely broke. However, I was able to discern that the play in general was extremely loose passive. For example, I made an EP raise and got 2 cold callers and both blinds to come, cbet a flop of 632r and bet the 2 turn to win the pot from A7 who disgustedly folded his hand face up, just to make sure that I knew he was an unlucky player. I was about ready to start abusing the hell out of my button and cutoff since nobody seemed to want to bet without AA, just when the game broke...

Some of their dealer procedures were quite different. They used a plastic shoe to keep the muck, just as they do at blackjack tables. They also didn't take the rake on each street, they waited until the end of the hand. Then the dealer stacked the whole pot, announced the amount, took the rake, and finally paid the winner the rest, stacked. They also played a mix of $5 checks and $2 checks at the $4/$8 game, and much time was wasted making change. Also, they required both players to open their hands in an all-in heads up situation.

And as for the next stop...

On Saturday I went to Casino Miami in San Miguel. Casino Miami isn't in as nice of a district as the Marriott and consequently they have a casino host at the door to wand all men for weapons upon entry. Thankfully the dirty looks given got her only to ask me "Porta armas?" instead.

Anyway, Casino Miami spreads a S/.5-S/.10 (S/. means Nuevos Soles(PEN), 3.2 of which buy 1 American dollar) no limit game with a laughable minimum buyin of S/.100. Well, I say laughable just because 10BB is ridiculously short. But given a middle class person's wages in Lima are about S/.800 per month, clearly S/.100 is a monster amount. I really have no idea why they choose to spread games so big.

The game wasn't running at the time, so my fiancee and I were instructed by the floor that we could sit down at the empty table and that the game should begin shortly. They were running a sattelite tournament for the buyin to the Majestic's Wednesday night tourney (they are owned by the Majestic apparently) and I hoped some of the tournadonks would come over to play (even though the low minimum buyin would probably be well-suited for their donkament play style).

We both bought in for S/.320 apiece and soon the game got going 4 handed. After high carding for the button I ended up with the first BB. The other two players had bought in for about S/.150 apiece. The button open limped and I looked down to find [Ts]. I make it S/.40 and he called. The flop came [Th][6s] and I bet out S/.60. He called. I put him in for his last S/.50 or so on the turn and he called with... 33.

The dude rebuys and a few orbits later I found myself in the BB with [2c] limped to me and checked it on in. The flop came [9c][2s] and it goes 3 checks. The muppet from the above hand has limped so I REALLY want him to catch something. The turn is the and it goes check, check, bet S/.20 by the guy who had 33 above. Hallelujiah! The SB calls and I sorta min raise to S/.50, called by both. The river is the and I put him all in for S/.120 or so. He pushes all in very excitedly for actually S/.140. At this point his friend comes over to the table and they start conversing in Spanish. Here's the approximate contents of their conversation, which I learned later:

Friend: "Are you going to be here much longer?"
Muppet: "Yes, after I beat this man in this hand I will be staying for a while."

his K3o didn't quite cut it and he got up and left until I stood up later on. lol! Tres pares is not a ranked hand señor.

I was able to pick up some hilariously glaring tells on a couple of the players at the table. One player on my left looked at his cards before his turn and capped his hand when he intended to play and didn't cap when he was planning to fold. The muppet from above with his strange attraction to threes always looked around the room after looking at the flop if he hated his hand.

In summary, looks like any aspiring pro could kill the games and make a living there no problem, all the while reliving the old west days of worrying about getting mugged and whether or not anyone is packing. Joking aside, it didn't surprise me to find poor players there and the games are definitely good, and are probably where the live US games were about 2 years ago.

[black_knight6]

[emmasdad]

[black_knight6]

[Triple B]

[MindOverMatter]

I think you can fly to Lima for about 500 bux from LAX, can't you emmasdad? The weather is always nice there, but the humidity can be oppressive.

Just for fun, here are some poker terms I learned in Spanish. If anybody can correct or add to this list, please do.

Rank of hands:

Un par -- one pair
Dos pares -- two pair
Tres de un clase -- three of a kind
Escalera -- straight
Flush -- Flush, but sounds like "flooosh"
Full House -- they seem to use the English here, does anybody know any different slangs?

All-in -- they use this English term, but it sounds more like "Eileen"
ciegas -- blinds
ciega grande -- big blind
ciega pequeña -- small blind
carta -- card
ficha -- chip

Raise -- the verb subir which means to go up. e.g. "Sube a ocho" -- he raises to eight, "subo a cuarenta" -- I raise to forty

Call -- the verb pagar which means to pay. e.g. "Pago" -- I call, "Paga" -- he calls

Check -- the verb pasar which means to pass or go through. e.g. "paso" -- I pass/check, "pasa" -- he passes/checks (dealer might say it)

[emmasdad]

[emmasdad]

As for the spanish, Piers is probably the best to answer that one. Those look correct to me, except flush is color here, full house is simply the engilsh "full", quads is poquer. Calling is usually announced as either acepto or calling out the dollar amount of the bet and putting the chips in the middle. I imagine that there are regional variations in the terms.

[ale_k300]

Well i been out of the poker world for a bit, but i'm back, as one of the native latin americans on this forum i will say that the terms are pretty much correct, just the only difference saying that i call will be "llamo" that is the actual translation of call. Anyways in my country "Argentina" inside buenos aires there are a few casinos, but only one with Holdem, that is a NL $5-$10 that as far as i know is pretty weak ( i heard from a friend that a pro made $8000 in one night at that game ) also been on vacation inside my country i've seen the most stupid variations, example a Holdem game where with the exception of the small blind , everyone else is big blind, and the cap on each following street was $50, and when i mean $50 is , that if someone bets $50 , there is no raise, you can either call or fold... Anyways the everyone raised every preflop and capped every street and playing tight i managed to clean that game for $1000 in 3 hs.

My advice is , if u like south america, don't miss argentina, great girls, great exchange, lame poker.

[emmasdad]

MoM:

Did you go to Machu Piccu? If so, how did you handle the logistics? Fly then train? Did you take the Inca Trail? It looks like I will spend more on going there than I will on any other part of the trip.

[MindOverMatter]