notes from my first trip to AC

Thanks to Paul Talbot and Jeffage for the responses to my first post.


I'd like to be able to say that I had a big session my first time out, or at least came out ahead, but it wasn't so. I lost $36 in about 3 hours at the 2-4 Hold'em tables. This was in spite of the poor quality of my opponents, who all seemed to fit so neatly into the loose-passive category, with 1 or 2 exceptions.


The cards weren't good at all. I only showed down 1 winner the entire time. I did successfully execute a couple bluffs, but only picked up small pots with them.


Didn't really suffer any bad beats. The worst that happened was losing a big pot on bottom two pair when the board paired on the river.


It took about a half hour to adjust from internet poker and home game poker to casino poker. On the internet, it's so easy to calculate pot odds and figure out who's in and who raised. You have to pay closer attenton when you're there.


I'm really trying to exercise the material from Caro's Book of Tells. I can't say that I really found a lot of those tells when I was there, but it was definitely useful to watch people instead of the cards as they were dealt out. One girl had 2 clear facial expressions, one when she really liked the board and one when she really didn't.


I suspect a lot of the players at the 2-4 tables aren't even experienced enough to exhibit Caro's tells, or at least the tells from actors. One woman studied the flop every hand, just because it took her about 20 seconds to figure out what she had.


One question: How can one read the players who are sitting next to him? It's so awkward to look at the facial or body reactions of players to the immediate right or left if you are sitting on one of the long sides of the table, and when I did this anyway it was blatantly obvious that I was looking at them. It seems that one way to help this is by sitting on an end, but are there other ways to get around this?


Anyway, the trip was a success because I was in a casino as I turned 21. Of course, during the night I wasn't once asked for a card. I realized pretty quickly that AC casinos don't bother to card much if at all, though I suspect when I do have a big session (which I know is coming soon) it'll be better to have the law on my side.

There has been a whole written about the value of tells. You might want to check out Mason's essays on them (In Poker Essays I or II I believe).


The thing is, with limited time and energy of concentration you should probaly be focusing on other things before looking for tells (hand reading being the best one). Since you mentioned you have to concentrate just to keep track of the odds, tell searching is probably not your best use of mental energy. When the pot size, odds and a range of hands become automatic things for your mind to do, then start looking for the non-obvious tells.


As far as the guys next to you, you can sit back in your chair a bit to observe them or look at their hands while you watch what they are looking at out of peripheral vision.


But as I said, you probably want to make sure the rest of your game is sound first. Remember, a tell is only valuable if it alters your action from what the logic of the play of the hand tells you.


Anyway, congrats on your first B&M game,


Paul Talbot

Sit in seat 3 or 8 (2 or 8 at a nine handed table) if available. You get to see almost everyone.

Definitely you're right. I should make sure to concentrate on other areas first.


I'd just been looking so much forward to playing with live players, and that's the one thing you really can't practice when you're playing on the Internet. For a while, though, it'll have to take a back seat to other stuff.