i've never played B&M poker...

[Jay36489]

Been discussed a million times before. I've never heard of the lowest limit at any B&M being anything but very soft. Get out of the house and go play.

As for my experience I don't find that many drunk people at Trump's 3/6. I find about 2-3 ppl per table drinking at all and about 6 or 7 to the flop...

[yecul]

Sorry to bump up an old thread, but didn't want to bother with a new one...

I live in VT so I'm in the same boat as this guy, no live cardroom poker for me -- I think there's a few weekly games, but I'm not sure about the legality of the way they're run. Play the low stakes online and am relatively new. Will be heading to Vegas in May.

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I don't know about the chicago area, but 2/4 and 4/8 games at Foxwoods and in AC are looser than party .50/1.

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Will this (and the limit comparison a few posts below) be comparable out there? Better later at night when the liquor kicks in?

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

[ QUOTE ]
Sorry to bump up an old thread, but didn't want to bother with a new one...

I live in VT so I'm in the same boat as this guy, no live cardroom poker for me -- I think there's a few weekly games, but I'm not sure about the legality of the way they're run. Play the low stakes online and am relatively new. Will be heading to Vegas in May.

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I don't know about the chicago area, but 2/4 and 4/8 games at Foxwoods and in AC are looser than party .50/1.

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Will this (and the limit comparison a few posts below) be comparable out there? Better later at night when the liquor kicks in?

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If you can handle .5/1 online, I'd have no problem putting you on any 3/6 or 4/8 table in Vegas, provided you have the bankroll. Nights and weekends are better than daytime and weekdays, but no time is 'bad'. You may also consider something like the 2-6 at Excalibur. Don't bother with any of the stupid 2/4 or 1/2 games you might find - they're not worth it.

[yecul]

I'll probably observe a little bit to get the flavor -- convenient thing to do since a wait is possible. Plus reviewing this part of the forum further.

I figured 3/6 would be where I'd sit down. Bankroll isn't an issue.

Thanks.

[ricochet420]

I don't know about Chicago area, but in arizona it would be more like 3.33 BB/hour.[ QUOTE ]


After your session, take your buyin and your 1 BB/hour and put it in your underwear drawer, repeat as necessary. You're on the road to 10/20. [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

Good luck!

-Matt

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[TomBrooks]

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Have fun. Focus on playing the best you can. Don't get your hopes up that you will do much better than breakeven. The rake is a killer.

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What do you mean by not much better than breakeven? 3-4BB/100? I guess at a B&M that would come out to about 1BB/Hr so that would only be about $4.00/hr at a 2/4 table. Is that what you mean? How much is the rake on these tables anyway?

[frozenhops]

The rake at harrah's in east chicago is 10% up to $5 max I believe, which I consider pretty killer.

I started off at Harrah's last summer, only playing sit n go's and $.5-$1 online and decided to 'take a shot' at the $5/$10 once w/ $200 of my roomates money. It was my first live casino action and I had no idea what to expect, at the very least thinking the $5/$10 players were nothing but pros. To my surprise I averaged ~3BB/hour, and had over 85% winning sessions. I could not believe how soft the games were, although I stopped going. Its a shame I had to take my whole built up bankroll and spend it on real life.

I played in the Trump $200 NL game, it had 2-3 passive boobs who were just waiting to give away their money. The rest was a mix of a couple knowledgeable young studs, and a few loosies.

I'd like to start heading out to the B&M's more, and combined with me getting cut to 2 days of work, should have the time. PM me if interested.

[threadkiller]

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Will this (and the limit comparison a few posts below) be comparable out there? Better later at night when the liquor kicks in?

[/ QUOTE ]
Go to the Aladdin on Saturday afternoon and get in a 2/4 game. One guy didn't know the order of hands. Another guy didn't realize that you could check - dealer would say "2 to you" and he'd obediently throw 2 in. A third would drop 10BB on a hand with nothing about every fifth or sixth hand, he was taking a break from craps. At one point, I was laughing so hard, I cost myself $4 by not 4-betting on the river and saying "I'm callling because I'm on vacation and it's worth the $4 to me for the amusement of seeing what kind of crap you had to raise the river."

I play .05/.10 limit, and I was really upset that I had to leave for dinner after five hours - made about $70 with only about four good hands.

[Al_Capone_Junior]

Once again, here's my generic response to all internet players who are going to play live for the first time...

Yes, I have advice. But I feel slightly RANTY tonight, so bear with me....

Please do not be one of those internet players who can play poker well in a strategic sense, but has no idea how to conduct themselves in a live cardroom. These internet wanna-bees are everywhere these days, and they are just annoying as hell for us B&M regulars. It's like they get used to the internet doing all the work for them, and like a child who cannot entertain themselves without watching TV, they are inept and unable to function without the beeps and buzzes they are used to getting online.

Pay attention! Gawk at the waitress BETWEEN hands, not while everyone is waiting for you to act.

If you are going to wear glasses, make sure your eyesight is sufficient that you can actually SEE the cards, suits, etc.

Don't blow smoke in other people's faces if it's a smoking room. Be polite with your smokes. If it's a non-smoking room, buy some listerine strips (or something) to keep your neighbors from gagging on your breath when you come back from smoking!

Play fast and learn the mechanics of live cardroom play before you sit down and irritate the dealer and other players in the game. If you have to sign up for "lessons" then do it. Lee Jones book does have some good advice on cardroom ettiquette. Read it if you aren't sure.

don't friggin' count out your chips one at a friggin' time out of your rack (which of course most internet wanna-be cardroom players insist on keeping on the table). Take the chips out of your rack and cut them like you know what you are doing. Single chip counters bug me, particularly if they are obviously internet players. Us B&M regulars are already aware that three comes after four, four comes after five, etc etc and don't need a fresh physical demonstration EVERY SINGLE TIME IT IS YOUR TURN TO BET/RAISE/CALL. Six chips are stacked 3 and 3, eight chips are stacked 4 and 4, ten chips are stacked 5 and 5, etc. Stacks of seven or nine or eleven or seventeen are completely useless, and the dealer will break them down anyway, thus wasting time counting chips you could have already properly stacked in the first place.

Stacks of chips on the table are in stacks of TWENTY. It's much easier to verify stacks for change/color up if you don't stack them by 23 or 39 or 14. If you are all-in in a no limit game, having your chips already stacked in a convenient manner will speed up the game immensely. Remember, the dealer MUST count your chips when you go all-in, so make it EASY for them.

Use basic courtesy and common sense when dealing and speaking to others involved in the game, including the dealer. I understand that the internet is a free-for-all contest to see who can be the most obnoxious, and I was sometimes guilty of this myself when I used to (GAG) play online. However, in a live cardroom this crap doesn't fly. While there are 50,000,000,000,001 idiot moron fish waiting to take the place of anyone who you piss off on the internet, in a live game, if you piss off the fish you may wind up in a game full of rocks with a profitability margin of 0.000000000000000001%.

Let the DEALER run the game. Listen to them and follow their commands/prompts. While some dealers these days are inept and incompetent, most can run the game efficiently enough. They are ALL much better if you don't make their job difficult.

Tip the dealers when you win a pot. An extremely large tip is not required, but don't be a friggin' stiff either. I generally tip 2% of the pot, but usually try to tip a buck even if the pot is less than $50. If it's REALLY small I don't tip a buck, but might tip a half dollar or couple or three quarters anyway. Stealing the blinds does not require a tip. Tip your waitress for your drinks, and give the chip runner a buck when they bring you your chips! Live cardrooms require tipping! If the floorperson or brush does something particularly nice, it never hurts to tip them as well (most cardrooms allow tipping floorpeople, tho a few don't, obviously they will tell you if it's not allowed).

Protect your hand! This is more important than what beats what! Cup your hands around your cards and lift up the corners, peeking in the little "window" to see what you have. Don't remove your cards from the felt! They should never leave the table! Don't let go of them until A) they have killed all the losing hands and are pushing the chips your direction, or B) you are certain your hand is a loser. Once your cards touch the muck pile, THEY ARE COMPLETELY AND FOREVER DEAD AND YOU HAVE NO FURTHER RIGHT TO THE POT REGARDLESS OF WHAT YOU HAVE.

FLOORMAN'S DECISIONS ARE FINAL. Don't argue with the floorman!

If you want to raise, say "RAISE" loudly and clearly. Then you may count the chips out at your leisure. If you try to raise (without saying it out loud) and make multiple motions towards your chips, you have made a "string bet" and it won't be allowed to stand. Multiple motions for bets or raises are just not kosher in a live cardroom. Just say it out loud "RAISE" and you'll be fine. If you are playing no limit, you might say "raise to fifty" or "make it $110." Then you can count them out as you wish without fear of being guilty of a string raise (which a dealer won't allow to stand, and correctly so).

Oversized chip rule: If you are going to call with an oversized chip, just tossing it in the pot indicates a CALL. Say the bb is $2 and you wish to make it $5. Well, if you just toss in a red chip and don't say anything, YOU HAVE CALLED. If you say "RAISE" and toss in a red chip, now the bet is legitimately $5. Another way to deal with this is to just use five $1 chips instead of a $5 chip.

When you fold, push your cards to where the dealer doesn't have to do the friggin limbo stretch across the table to retrieve them. Same thing for when you place a bet.

Place your bet in front of you, and far enough where the dealer can easily collect it, and in the proper stack configuration for the bet you are making (see above paragraph on stacking bets). Don't splash the friggin' pot! It's cool when teddy-kgb does it, but it is a real annoyance when some moron does it in a live game and the dealer has to count down the pot to verify the bets.

In general, do everything you can to get that game going fast and to make the fish feel comfortable! Live play is slower than internet play, like usually almost 50% slower. You need to do everything in the world that you can to act quickly and efficiently.

Rant completed!

al

[toots]

Shouldn't the mods just make that post a sticky?