Can a newbie play Vegas without getting cleaned out?

[Kopefire]

Krieger will be the first to admit that his start chart is loose. He's suggest tightening up for different table situations frequently. He also stresses that once you see the flop, if you don't have something to play, lay it down!

What many people forget is those starting hands say "this is what you can start with." As soon as one bet hits the felt, it's no longer a deciding if you can start, but should you continue?!

Just because you can enter a hand with something like JTo in mid-position, doesn't mean you always should, or that you should continue after your first bet if it gets raised.

If you have 3 or 4 callers in front of you, you aren't going to enter the pot. If you have a raiser behind you you aren't going to call. But if you have zero or only 1 caller before you and only a call or two to the button, then it's worth it to see the flop.

Every hand is situational, and any start-chart is only good for the first decission -- should you enter the hand or not. But just because you should enter a hand, doesn't mean you should stay with it to the flop . .. let alone further.

[RydenStoompala]

1) There are a few spots that are user-friendly for beginners but in my experience (introducing friends to the game without risking horror) I found Luxor to be as gentle as they get. There's a 2-4 game there spread just for newbies. It will be of little/no interest to anyone with experience.
2) Yes you can play without getting hammered. You will be surprised at how many people you will play against who will have no concept of the most basic strategy, like good starting hands.

Just go and have fun. If anyone gives you a hard time, remind them they are in Vegas.

[PotatoStew]

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If you have 3 or 4 callers in front of you, you aren't going to enter the pot. If you have a raiser behind you you aren't going to call. But if you have zero or only 1 caller before you and only a call or two to the button, then it's worth it to see the flop.

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Huh? With a hand like JTo, don't you want a few callers in the pot with you, to give you better odds?

[jimswarthow]

Why don't you rephrase the question? How much can I reasonably expect to win (knowing that I may indeed lose), after reading and studying this game for many hours without actually playing much?
If you expect to lose you will. Chances are, if you have the ability to truly play tight and stick to some general starting hand/position guidelines you will be leap years ahead of most players at the tables. Within 2 laps of the button you will not be intimidated in the least by the structure of the game. You will however be forced to look within ourself to determine if you can APPLY what you have read. Read the Pshychology of Poker, and Inside the poker mind.

[GuyOnTilt]

Hey Kopefire,

Your thinking is completely backward.

GoT

[Kopefire]

Yes I am... that'll teach me to write a response after being up all night. Just delete the paragraph starting with "If" . . . the point I was trying to make is still valid even if I did a horrible job of explaining it.

Ok .. where's my latte . ..

[lefty rosen]

Jack ten is a drawing hand essentially so the more the merrier with that hand. Same with most of the other weak hands except for King Jack without many callers and A10 off they can be dominators or drawers.......

[jtr]

I did the same thing you're about to do -- it was a couple of years ago now. Yes, if you've got a basic understanding of good strategy you'll do fine. You must go and have a look at the Bellagio and the Mirage because they're larger rooms but for a beginner one of the smaller poker rooms will often have a very soft, passive game or two. I ended up playing most of my week at the Monte Carlo of all places -- small room, but a great 4-8 game. Having said that, I was probably being a coward and should have stayed on at the Bellagio where there was a lot more aggression (almost all of it far out of proportion to the players' cards).

[MisterKing]

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Hold'em Excellence is worth the asking price just for the Start Chart alone.

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Krieger says that A10o and KJo are playable from any position. Maybe I am too tight but unless the game is unbelieveable, I am throwing those into the muck UTG and UTG+1.

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You're only mucking ATo/KJo in the first two seats? While everyone has different standards, I'm tossing these in every position except CO and Button. S&M have AT as a group 6 hand, which if I recall correctly is recommended only for use in late position, or in MP in uber-loose/passive games. As Mike Sexton said at one point during a WPT broadcast "you don't know what you're rooting for with AT -- if you flop an Ace, you don't know where you're at, and with a Ten, you're likely to be behind to a J, Q, or K."

More on topic, Excalibur is a great place for newbie players in Vegas, both because of the free lessons and the 1-3, which is much cheaper to play than the standard 2-4 seen elsewhere. Sure, the rake is RIDICULOUS, but I don't think anyone is playing that game for real profit anyhow.

For cheap tourney experience, I'd recommend the $25's at Luxor, or the $30 AM tourneys at Mandalay. Both suck in terms of starting stacks, but they're playable nonetheless.

My question is, how long til some room in Vegas starts spreading $50 NL tables like in California (and the fake Luxor NL$50, which is really NL$100, doesn't count). These games would get a lot more people into NL, at a much lower cost than the NL$100's you see around.

[Slacker13]

I agree with Milo on the excalabur games. My first day in Vegas i went to Binions and was suprised the biggest spread was 4-8 w/ a kill but i played anyway and did extremely well. 5 rocks at the table with a steady stream of bad players keeping the seats filled. I think if you play at the excalabur or mirage you will find a steady mix of players and good juicy games considering you know how to play.