Brick & Mortar noob question

[BoogerFace]

Play until you get tired or bored. It's not uncommon to go a hour or more to get a good hand to play outside of the blinds. Some sessions you will get better cards more often.

The basic problem with B+M poker is speed. You'll be lucky to see 30 hands an hour at a low limit table. The long run is really long at a cardroom.

[pzhon]

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How many hands (how long) should I be playing in one sitting to assume I'm getting a fair run of cards.

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After about 100 hours, the normal swings due to the randomness of a fair deck will be about the same size as the skill advantage of a good player. A good player should expect to be down about 1 time in 6 after 100 hours.

I don't recommend playing for 100 hours at a time. Accept that poker isn't fair in the short run, even with a perfectly random deck.

[ceramist]

I'm pretty new to B&M myself (<1000 hours); I generally sit with 25-30 big bets at 2-4 or 3-6. I don't carry any reserve because right now I'm doing it for recreation. I also want to get a feel for the players, dealers, general atmosphere.

I concur with other posters; if you aren't able to discern between bad luck or bad play, don't plan on reloading. It's too tempting sometimes.

On on ocassion, I bought in for $100 on 2-4, had a bad run (down about half), decided to get up and treat myself to a nice dinner (bad bankroll management, good prime rib).

Enjoy!

c

[Hoss1193]

1. My normal B&M game is 3/6, and I always buy in for a rack ($100), and plan for a 2nd rack if I need it (total; 33.3 BB). I might go for a 3rd rack, but that will be dependent upon my assessment of how I'm playing, strength of the table, etc.

Obviously, if I've already dropped 30+ big bets, I need to be quite sure that it's solely because of bad beats, suckouts, and NOT because I'm playing subpar. As it happens, I rarely get to that decision point...and when I do, I usually just stand up and go home.

My records show that, of 51 sessions (both 3-6 and 4-8) over last 4 months, I've gone for the 3rd rack 4 times (with predictably dreary results), while I threw in the towel at that point 7 times. Unfortunately, my record-keeping doesn't show me the times I buy in for 3rd (or 2nd) rack, and then make a comeback...I think I'll start tracking that a little better. That said, I'm pretty sure that I've lost more than I've gained by going for the 3rd rack.

(for those who are wondering....31 winning sessions, and 10 sessions of modest losses)

2. As someone else mentioned, you're not going to get a statistically significant number of hands even over multiple B&M sessions, however long they are. At 35 hand/hour (OPTIMISTIC, best case scenario), you're still going to see roughly half the number of hands you would online (not multitabling). For us 4-tablers, an 8-hour B&M session equates to something like an hour at the computer.

The flip side is that B&M games are generally much softer, reading people is a bigger factor, it's more fun, and you usually get free food/drinks.

Just my $0.02.

[utmt40]

You can get away with 100 bucks easy.

What about for 2-5 NL? How much would you want to sit down with there. And the blinds are $2 and $5 I'm assuming?

[AKQJ10]

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You can get away with 100 bucks easy.

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Spoken like someone without much first-hand experience of variance at limit poker....

If you're just looking to spend a pleasant afternoon in the cardroom and set a loss-limit in case the game is too tough for you, then sure, 17 big bets will let you play for a little while unless you have bad luck, then you may just play a few second-best hands. For riding out variance, even the variance one expects to find in a session, it's nowhere near enough.

Yesterday at Foxwoods I started out up two stacks (of $2 chips, so +20 BB) at $2/4. Then I hit a lousy run for several hours, and I suddenly I was stuck almost two stacks (a swing of -40 BB). Lo and behold, I hit a couple of big hands and had a couple of pocket pairs hold up surprisingly, and I finished up two stacks (another swing of +40 BB). This was in no way an extraordinary session; just the way things go in a typical 9-to-12-hour session of limit hold'em.

If I had only taken 67 bucks to the cardroom, I would have busted out instead of finished up $80.

[utmt40]

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You can get away with 100 bucks easy.

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Spoken like someone without much first-hand experience of variance at limit poker....

If you're just looking to spend a pleasant afternoon in the cardroom and set a loss-limit in case the game is too tough for you, then sure, 17 big bets will let you play for a little while unless you have bad luck, then you may just play a few second-best hands. For riding out variance, even the variance one expects to find in a session, it's nowhere near enough.

Yesterday at Foxwoods I started out up two stacks (of $2 chips, so +20 BB) at $2/4. Then I hit a lousy run for several hours, and I suddenly I was stuck almost two stacks (a swing of -40 BB). Lo and behold, I hit a couple of big hands and had a couple of pocket pairs hold up surprisingly, and I finished up two stacks (another swing of +40 BB). This was in no way an extraordinary session; just the way things go in a typical 9-to-12-hour session of limit hold'em.

If I had only taken 67 bucks to the cardroom, I would have busted out instead of finished up $80.

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I actually havent had much trouble buying in with 100 bucks at a 3/6 game.

[Holden97]

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If you ever get below 12 BB on the table, just pull some more cash out.

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Great advice. I wish I could say I never needed to buy-in for more than $100 in a 3/6 game, but I have started with $100 several times, ready to buy more. I find it more comfortable to sit down with $150 and not dig into my pocket if I start down a few bucks.

[Benoit]

Yeah I just buy in for $200 for $3/$6. I normally buy in for 50BB online to just play poker without changing my style because I'm worried about my money getting low. But at a B&M $300 in $1 chips is huge, so I just go with $200. The point is I get enough chips so during a hand, I don't become weak/tight because I'm getting low on chips.