New New England Poker Venue

BY: Ashley Adams
Contact at: (Asha34@aol.com)
Author of Winning 7-Card Stud

Poker abhors a vacuum. That's what I've found over the years. If there isn't a casino poker room somewhere in your neighborhood, there's a good chance that there's an underground club somewhere nearby. If there aren't any clubs, there are probably plenty of home games.

This has proven to be true for New England. That's good news for us poker players. In addition to Foxwoods Resort in Ledyard, Connecticut, the only casino poker room in New England, there is now a legal poker room at the Seabrook Greyhound track in Seabrook, New Hampshire - just over the Massachusetts line off of route 95. It's only 50 minutes from downtown Boston.

I had the pleasure of playing there this Sunday evening, driving up there from Boston to play in their 7PM no limit hold 'em tournament. Let me tell you about the place and then a little about some of the hands I played in the tournament. I hope it will be instructive.

Seacoast Fundraising, as it is formally known, is the brainchild of Tony Capone. Tony is from nearby northeastern, Massachusetts and started out a few years ago as a poker table manufacturer. He figured out the labyrinthine path to legal charity tournaments in Massachusetts and successfully brought no limit hold 'em tournaments to thousands of eager poker fans while at the same time raising money for charities in Lowell and throughout eastern Massachusetts. He applied his knowledge of state gambling laws to develop a legal poker product at the Seabrook, New Hampshire dog track, founded Seacoast Fundraising, and eleven weeks ago opened up an extraordinary poker room.

The room is open Saturday and Sunday from noon to midnight. They offer four different types of hold 'em poker games. The least appealing to me is what I consider to be a New Hampshire staple - found in small private clubs and other charity rooms throughout the southern part of the state for the last 15 years: $1/2 blind limit hold 'em. Most players buy in for $20 or $40, and play very, very, very loosely and passively. I suppose there is an optimum strategy for a game like this - but for me it plays a lot like the lottery. Its $5.00 maximum rake makes it a tough game to beat no matter how skilled a player you are. Locals swear by it. There were three or four full tables when I arrived at the room Saturday evening.

There are three other types of hold 'em games that the customer can choose from. They have what appears to be a regular $1/2 no limit hold 'em game. But it's structured like a tournament to comply with state law. Here's how it works (it's ingenious in my humble opinion). Players buy into a $60 one hour tournament, receiving $5,000 in tournament chips. At the end of an hour they are awarded cash prizes according to their chip stacks. All prizes are 1% of their stack at the end of the hour. So, the "winner" gets 1% of his stack. If he has $10,000 in tournament chips he gets $100. If he has $40,800 he gets $408.00. The same is true for every other finisher. If you get knocked out you get nothing. If you have only $100 at the end of the first hour you get $1.00. The blinds start off at $100/200 in tournament chips (which translates into $1/2 in "real" dollars. At the end of the hour players can sign up for another tournament.

In essence it's a $50 buy-in $1/2 cash game with a $10/hour charge for playing. But technically, officially, and legally it's a legal tournament. Ingenious, no?

They also have one table "Sit and Go" tournaments - just like they have at Foxwoods or on line. The house charges 25% of the buy-in and the players play for the rest. There were three or four of them going when I arrived.

Finally, four times a day, they have multi-table tournaments. At 1PM they have a $40 buy-in with $20 rebuys and a $20 add-on. At 4PM there's a $70 buy-in tournament with no rebuys or add-ons. At 7PM there's a $100 buy-in tourney with a $35 entry fee, no re-buys and no add-ons. And then at 8PM their tourneys vary. When I was there it was a $20 buy-in with unlimited $20 rebuys the first hour and a $20 add-on at the end of the first hour. Unless otherwise noted, the tournaments pay 75% of the buy-ins back to the players - paying roughly 10% of the entrants.

My friend Jim and I entered the 7PM $100+$35 tournament. There were 41 of us. We started with $4,000 in tournament chips. Blinds started at $25/50 and doubled every 20 minutes until they got to $200/400, after which they went up to $300/600, $400/800 and then $500/1,000. There were breaks of 15 minutes after each full hour of play.

The room has a nice snack bar right next to it - offering a typical bar food menu, with $1.00 hot dogs, $6.50 chicken tenders and fries, and the like. Beer was $3.50 for domestic beer. There was table side food and drink service. Nearly all of the players in the tournament seemed to be regulars. Everyone I spoke with had been up there before - though the place had only been open for eleven weeks. This proves the rule that if you have an attractive product people will come back - especially if it's the only decent game in town!

Jim and I made our standard $5.00 last longer bet (high rollers that we are) and took a 10% piece of each other. It's an arrangement that serves to ramp up and quiet our natural competitiveness at the same time. On the one hand I want him to be knocked out before me. But on the other hand, if I'm already knocked out I'm rooting for him to win it so I can make the money. And vice versa I believe.

I had a splendid time. I had three hands that caused me to think for more than a few seconds. My first was when my stack was getting down to about half par after about 120 minutes of play. I had KhJh on the button in a pot that had been raised by one player for double the 400/800 blind. There were about 15 players left. I had about $2,800. The player who made the raise was not a tricky player, and he was in relatively early position. He had a very large stack. I figured that he was trying for a steal, risking the minimum number of chips in the process. This is a move made by many pretty good players who think they'll take a stab at the pot when others are playing tightly - but who don't want to lose a lot if they're challenged by someone who happens to have a legitimate hand.

I figured him for something weak that I might get him to release. My stack was getting pretty low. So I raised all-in - re-raising him by another $1,000 or $1,200. Everyone else folded and he called. I was sorry he did.

We flipped over our cards. Same exact hand: KJ off. No flush hit either of us and we chopped the pot. There was an odd $100 chip which he got since he was closest to my left. I won $100 on my "brilliant move". Better than losing.

Seven or so hands later I doubled up when I was the Big Blind with QhTc, no one raised, and the flop hit me with a Queen and a T. Someone raised me all in and I called. Surprise! Not a lot of thought but a lot of fun.

My toughest hand came shortly thereafter. I was the big blind with JJ. The four seat made it $1,600. Another player, a solid player, made it $3,200 two seats after him. I thought long and hard. One raise in front of me and I'm probably going over the top with an all in re-raise. But the two raises caused me to pause and think about folding. I figured that at best I was a small favorite to a big Ace, or a huge dog to a big pair. I reluctantly folded.

I shouldn't have watched the hand develop. But I did. The flop was AKJ. The winner had KJ and took in an enormous pot. I went out shortly thereafter when my stack had dwindled. I raised all in with Jh5h when the flop came Th9h5s. I was called by someone with 88. My hand didn't improve. Good night Ashley.

An interesting aside. My friend Jim got knocked out at the same time as me - so we pushed on our last longer bet. The final table was formed just as we were knocked out. Frustrating a little, but still a fun evening at Seabrook Greyhound Park. My only regret is that they only run on Saturday and Sunday. With any luck maybe they'll open nightly or, bet yet, find a way to expand to the two racetracks in the Boston area.

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