In need of professional advice...

[Loci]

Being invited to a backroom card game this week seemed like a great revival to a long haitus of my game. I've spent the last three months hacking away at 18 credit hours after 3 years of being out of college, so I haven't had the time to drive to the no-lim games in Detroit(formerly 30 minutes, now three hours away.)
I played absolutely terrible. For those of you that read my semi-eloquent semi-lunatic "confession" to the all powerful gods of poker a few days ago, I confessed my sins there.
My question is this: Being a no-lim player who is used to Casino card rooms, should I be playing in illegal back room games? I play a little on-line, but the majority of my experience comes from the live games at greektown and Mo-Cy, and in a past life soaring eagle when I was a limit player. The differences that I found were as follows:

1. While poker is about money, I felt that being an overly aggressive player would be rude my first time sitting in this backroom casino. (I know that is completely insane, but that's part of the problem.) Since the players are basically going to be the same every time I play, should I care if they "like" me as an individual? Am I jepordizing coming back? Am I running the risk of making permanent enemies among them that will hunt me in future expeditions?

2. Security. I did not feel the comfort zone that I find comes so naturally from a building with five hundred gaurds and ten thousand cameras. While the game ran fairly smooth the majority of the time (the manager did a fair job of handling minor disputes) a verbal fight did break out among three of the regulars and play stopped for almost a half an hour. Furthermore, I couldn't get my nerves to settle down about the fact that there was low security against a heist (I'm sure this is just paranoia, but with ten grand in a room and nobody watching the door, this causes me a certain level of alarm) and there is the natural fear of the police parading in. (two of the regulars are drug dealers, 2 were pro/semi-pro gamblers like me, while 4-5 were very wealthy business men who range from contractors to restranteurs)

Despite all this, the majority of the players appeared to be beatable in the game. I doubtfew if any of them have ever heard of this forum, let alone use it(although we'll see, I guess, depending on the responses here!)

For people who have been in this position before, do the nerves generally calm with familiarity to the surroundings/players? Honestly, I'm not used to being uneasy in any game, and it was a bit of a rattling experience.
Thanks for your input!
E.

[schwza]

i'm the restauranteur.


and you raised too much - we're not inviting you back.

[Loci]

lol. Fair enough.
Hard to believe there's no love of my money since I only won three pots in 6 hours... all of my donations had to have paid for that spectacular shrimp.....

[turnipmonster]

yes it gets easier. playing in games like this seems really sketchy at first but gets much more comfortable once you know the players. if you still feel sketchy after a while, maybe it really is sketchy [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img].

--turnipmonster

[lapoker17]

My advice: Lose a little to the drug dealers, and take a lot from the businessmen.

[Post-Oak]

Sounds like the place is poorly managed. Under no circumstances should a dispute at the table cause a 30 minute cessation of play. That is way too long. The floor makes a ruling (yes, a backroom place should have someone with this responsibility) and play goes on. If the players are not willing to abide by the final ruling, I wouldn't play there. That could be a dangerous or at least uncomfortable situation. Basically, if there are hotheads in this game, the "floorman" should be backed by some muscle who will "enforce" the ruling. If this is not the case, you could have a bit of a problem. And if the drug dealers are the type who don't like to be told what to do by someone who is unarmed, then it is not worth it to play there.

Don't worry about if they like you or not. I used to play in a cardroom which was 5 tables. You would see the same people over and over again, and would know their game because people usually stick to the same limits/games. This place sounds even smaller (1 table?). They will just be happy to have enough people to get a game going. Whether they like you is immaterial. They want your money.

[PlanoPoker]

Low security isn't going to affect my game. If I'm playing somewhere that I realize is at risk of being robbed, the likelihood of that happening on any given night is very low, so it won't make me nervous. I would choose not to go back to that game however.

I'll tell you about a recent robbery in Austin, Texas of which a friend of a friend was playing. 6 armed guys robbed the game. They made everyone strip naked. They were unhappy to find only $900 on the table, so they tried to make two guys have sex with each other for their own amusement. One guy got his skull cracked after refusing. After hearing this story I decided to only play in safe locations. This means a secure double entrance and someone who actually uses it properly. I live near Dallas, and here there are several relatively safe games to choose from that run 7 days a week.

[Loci]

Just to clarify for readers, the fight was not directly linked to the game... it was an external problem between them that escalated, so there wasn't a "ruling" to be made; still though, the loss of control was a little unnerving.

[Loci]

While I don't feel like there was any cheating going on at the table, and the players were generally amiable, does anyone have any advice on how to handle a grifter? My thoughts are basically that it's best to bring it to the managers attention and not come back if it's not handled properly. I know I'm paranoid, but these are things I want to have a course of action planned out in advance in the case they ever do occur.
thanks for the comments!
E

[Loci]

Or win a little from the drug dealers and invest that money in a bullet proof vest! lol!