First-ever $2-$4 casino game

[johnb]

Here is a 5 step process for playing your first live casino game:

1) Play for 30 minutes.

2) At the end of 30 minutes ask yourself - Who is the fish in this game?

3) If you can answer question 2, adjust your play accordingly and continue on.

4) If you cannot answer question 2, the fish is probably you. Take the remainder of your money
and go play blackjack.

5) Return in the near future and repeat...

John B

[Stu Pidasso]

[ QUOTE ]
Any advice you can give this semi-newb?

[/ QUOTE ]

It may actually be easier to beat a higher limit game as the rake has much less of an influence on your earn.

Stu

[mosch]

I usually have about 100 big bets on me. I like knowing that I can probably weather a really bad day.

[ArchAngel71857]

Welcome to the fourm, kramerj,

Whatlimits do you play online?

Protect your cards. use a lighter, a 5 dollar chip, a monopoly piece, a clay statuette of a man having a siesta, what not.

Another thing, within 45 minutes you will either be up or down (duh). If you are up, do not think that you have absolute total control and dominance over the game and you can just roll over everybody. the reason you are up is because you have been playing well. If you are down, think of hands that affected your bank roll, did you get sucked out on? di you play badly, it won't be that many hands so it should be easy to keep track.

Its called "No fold 'em Hold 'em," and not just because it rhymes. Be used to 9 to see the flop and you are the tenth sitting, watching, waiting, judging, always judging. Look at the baby!


Keep track of tips to the dealer (a dollar on every pot you win on the turn or river) and drinks. many times i am surprised that I am only up so much because i have won like 15 pots and had 3 or 4 drinks (20 bucks at 2/4is 5 BB). you may even just want to buy a seperate rack of 20 white. use this for your tips and do not include it in your bankroll.

As far as bankroll goes, 150-200 should be plenty.

talk to people at the table. they will be gabbing on about whatever, and if you sit there and be silent, it will make them uneasy. joke withthem, talk, but do not let it affect your play, just make it look like you are there to have fun. Because winning money is fun.

Be amazed at the power of the semibluff, but if in MP, be amazed at the amount of coldcalling.


The Musketeer is really an awful movie.

Depending on the strictness of the casino, say "raise" before you move your chips in if you want to raise, this will stop the penalty of a string bet. If you don't want to talk, then get the two (or 3) bets in your hand and extend your hand, placing all the bets down, then drawing it back.
I know in AC, they go Catholic Schoolteaching Nun on that.

Good Playing and let us know how it turns out,


AA

[Mike Gallo]

Excellent advice.

[Mike Gallo]

Since this is the lowest limit at the casino, i'm assuming i should play tight, not bluff, etc. Real straightforward poker, right?

Huh?

I offered some very simple strategies. Play all pocket pairs. I say this because of the implied odds.Very few players raise preflop in the usual 2-4 game.

Perhaps I should have given a bit more clarification there. Too much to cover. [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

[jacki]

re:tipping

What's the standard etiquette on tipping? every pot? every sizable pot? every monster pot?

[Mike Gallo]

$1 for every hand that you win, unless you win just the blinds.

[rkiray]

This varies by location. In CO tipping is very generous. Even in 2/5 games almost everyone tips at least $1 for hands that go beyond the flop. In the 5/5 game, tips $3 or even $5 are common in big pots. In LV it's different. Generally any decent pot gets a tip. Believe it or not, you generally see bigger tips in the smaller games. At the Mirage for example, the cheapest tippers are the rocks that inhabit the 10/20 game. They often ask the dealer to chop a $1 chip with them in fairly good size pots. Too many semi-pros trying to grind out a living I guess. Every time I played in that game I was the biggest tipper, and I was tipping less than I would in a CO 5/5 game so I didn't stick out too much. But still if the pot was very large (say > $400) I'd toss a red chip to the dealer. Never saw anyone else do that. The first time I played in this game I was very lucky I got run over by the deck and I think a bunch of the locals thought I total tourist fish and they paid me off big time. I won over $1200 in 4.5 hours even tipping much better than anyone else. Best time I ever had at a poker table. Of course I almost never get cards that good. Many posters here tip a standard amount (say $1) to the dealer at the end of their down whether they won a pot or not (unless they thought the dealer was not doing a good job). This probably makes sense, but it would not make you very popular in a CO 5/5 game.

[lil']

I can't imagine tipping a BB for a pot. That's nuts.