Play variance by day and time, AC Cardrooms

[Diggslick]

Hello,
Been lurking here for about two week before posting. I came to the site after reading SSH. Learned far more from it than anything I have ever read before. I've tried to study the game as much as possible during my short time playing.

I've been playing for about 3 months in the AC cardrooms.(Borgata, Trop., Harrahs and Taj) I've been sticking to 2-4 and 3-6 games because I'm in grad school and I'm dealing with a limited bankroll.

I'm working as a waiter and therefore don't usually play on the typical weekend nights like it seems most here do. I play alot of Sundays during football and a couple of weekdays/nights. I have yet to see the reckless play that some describe on this site or even in SSH at higher limits.(Hands with two players calling raises with 86s and 97o in a 10-20 game. etc)

The couple times that I have been able to get to play on weekend nights play has been more wild and I have been successful in executing profitable plays. Also, I've feel like my instincts and reads have been better . At the times I mostly play, most of the players are rocks and I feel like it comes down to strickly the cards. Also, I don't feel like I can get any reads on these players.(Age may have something to do with it.) I had the worst run of cards I ever had yesterday and bled out a 40BB loss. Is it possible that the quality of play is much tighter and possibly better at these times for theses limits? What would your advice on this be? Would the action be better at a higher limit at these times? Am I better off sticking to weekends? Also, are certain "off times" better than others?

Thanks

[FatMan]

I'm also a relative newbie here as well, but I have noticed the same at the B&M I play at (Harrahs in Council Bluffs, IA). During the weekdays you get the "regulars" which are usually retirees (the rocks). On the weekends you get the first time players, wild players, etc. So I think your read on certains times having differing play is valid.

[27offsooot]

Hey Diggs,
I'm in a similar situation. Relative Newbie (with some online experience), read SSH a couple of times and benefited tremendously from it. Made first trip to Borgata last Sunday and played from 12 pm - 3 am straight @ 3/6. Noticed the play was tight, passive from ~12-6 or 7 with better than expected players. Was just treading water and staying around even. Then, once 7 or 8 rolled around, a wave of LAGs (few younger guys (though i'm just 21)blind raising, playing any two cards, etc.) and calling stations seemed to stroll in. I made all of my money (+200) towards the end of the evening.

Wondering if this is typical? Perhaps more experienced B+M players could chime in.

[midas]

Digg:

You are experiencing typical B&M play - depending on the time of day and the season you'll get different results. In general - no matter were I have played (Foxwoods, AC, Vegas or LA) the following has always been true - daytime games during the week generally have the most retired rocks. These weekday games get slightly better as people get off work but not much. Summer and winter vacations can also improve B&M play during the week. In my opinion, the best times to play are late evenings Friday through Saturday when the young newbies come out to play. Another great time to play is during/after any tournament - as the players start to bust out and sit down the games generally get better and no-limit players are generally looser than people who just play limit.

Another strategy is to play the high limits 5-10, 10-20 on the weekends, if the lines are short because the fish playing $25 per hand blackjack just want to play and those limits don't seem that big.

Good luck and don't always believe that certain low limits at "fill-in the blank" casino are beatable.

[betgo]

I find 8PM-6AM is the best. Weekends are somewhat better than weekdays.

[Diggslick]

First off, let me say thanks to all for replying to the newbie.

It seems that I may want to focus more on the weekend games for a little while.

Are there any good guides for dealing with the rock type of players? I can't imaging them being that profitable at the low limts even with great poker.

[Terry]

[ QUOTE ]
Age may have something to do with it.

[/ QUOTE ]

A good general rule: The older the player, the bigger the kicker.

[AKQJ10]

Excellent thread because it addresses a couple of issues that interest me as a relative newbie (~8 months):

Table characteristics by time-of-day

I don't have the experience to opine seriously on this, but everything i've ever observed at Foxwoods bears out the thesis that time of day really does make a difference. My absolute favorites are the twentysomething guys (usually) who make repeated dubious bluffs at 2/4 or 4/8, unaware why the daring plays they see on TV don't pan out at the low limits. Best times for those are Friday and Saturday from say 9 pm to 2 am or so. However, the problem is you won't be able to get a seat for hours at FW at those times, so you pretty much have to show up during the day to get a table by evening.

Why new players feel like their results don't reflect their ability

I was particularly intrigued by this quote:
[ QUOTE ]

Good luck and don't always believe that certain low limits at "fill-in the blank" casino are beatable.

[/ QUOTE ]

midas, could you elaborate on this with specifics? What low-limit games have you found to differ from their reputation?

Here are the reasons i see why my B&M results haven't caught up to my feeling of understanding the game, at least relative to my opponents:

1) Dumb luck -- Of course this is always a big factor in short-term results. Unfortunately i can't find any opinions on how to tell whether your results are just bad luck or poor play. Everyone says, "Make the right decisions and in the end you'll take the money," but if you're inexperienced you may not know that you're making wrong decisions. That said, i'm pretty sure that much though not all of my recent run of form (down several hundred dollars at various games across the country running from 1/2 to 4/8) is variance.

2) Inability to adjust to different games -- However, i'm open to critiquing my own play, and this is one big area that i've found. I tend to play poorly in tight games because i overcompensate by semibluffing too much, etc. Also it dawned on me that i had practically ignored the "tight" starting hand recs in SSH because they seemed so irrelevant to the games i was playing, Pacific micro-limits and Foxwoods 2/4. Now i'm going back paying a lot more attention to those adjustments.

3) Higher variance associated with playing more aggressively -- This is perhaps a special case of dumb luck, and one that's specific to playing an aggressive style such as advocated in SSH. Plays such as raising to buy outs or waiting for the turn to push a bigger advantage add to variance. They add even more when, like me, you're only beginning to learn how to use them.