Desert Diamond Jim Follis asked me to call Lee Kraft a fellow Valley resident about possible chip trading. Lee is the source of the Back Room chips in the ChipGuide. I procrastinated until Lee tried to call me and we played phone tag until Sunday . It turned out I had a chip Lee needed and he had one I did not have. We live at least thirty miles apart so how to complete the trade? While talking Lee said he frequents THE BACK ROOM and Monday is Murder night in THE BACK ROOM could I meet him there. I have been curious about this Murder game so I agreed to meet Lee for the trade. I practiced with a deck of cards Monday afternoon to get a little experience. The rules for this game are that ANY five cards can be used to make your hand which include the five cards you are dealt and the five cards on the board. For some reason I thought it was high only game. From my first trip to THE BACK ROOM I should have known better these people love split games and it turns out there is no qualifier for low the game plays like Omaha on steroids. Lee told me to get there early so I arrived about 4:30 the poker starts at 5:00 we completed our trade and Lee showed me some chip displays he brought along to show me along with a stack of photos of his displays in his home.
The game started early because the first table was full and the players were eager to get started. Murder is limited to nine players for the obvious reason that there are only 52 cards in a deck. What happens is unless the table is short there is only one burn card before the flop and one card left when all the hands are dealt and the board is laid out. Surprisingly the high hands seem to be pretty close to Omaha high hands I had expected a lot more Quads and straight flushes to win high. Straights were worthless when you can use five cards from your hand there was a flush just about every hand. Flushes are not worth the risk just about all of mine lost to a full house. My best high results came when I was rolled up with set in my hand or with two pair. With the set you need to pair one of you other two cards or flop a pair to fill you up. With two pair in your hand you need fill up or your hand is trash. With five hold cards anything is possible, but there was only one monster down hand that I witnessed. The woman playing next to me had queen high straight flush for her down cards the funny thing was she had forgotten her debit card and ran out of money half way through the hand (the rule at THE BACK ROOM is you can take money out of your pocket) it goes to show always have enough money to play a hand.

The low winning hand is a wheel more than half the hands if there was a raise you were sure to see ABC in the raisers hand at the show down. One of the nicer pots I won was with A2335 in my hand and a 4 came on the flop with two face cards pure heaven bet until the cows come home. My best pot came when I had A2357 and the flop came 775 it does not get any better scoop time getting me well after a terrible start.

It seems to me the best strategy is play with sets pairs and all low cards straights are hopeless and flushes are losers.

How did I do? I started out with a couple bone head plays that got me stuck and had work hard to quit a tiny winner, but on the whole it was fun.