Yet another "first time live" report: The Taj in AC

[Marc Desjardins]

Hello all,

I've been playing online for about a year and I was really looking forward to playing live for the first time. We stayed at the Fairfield resort and it turned out that was just two blocks from the Taj, so that's where I spent the week playing. I did go visit the Borgota as everybody suggested, it was really nice but the waiting list was way too long so I didn't play.

I arrived last thursday and after dinner I went to check out the place, I didn't plan on playing but as I got there, there was no names on the waiting list for 3/6 so I said why not. I asked about getting a Taj card, they explained how to get it, but didn't tell me I needed to checkout, so the first two nights I didn't do it and got nothing. Then they told me to buy my chips at the cashier, but I later saw that many people were buying them directly at the table. I wasn't sure how much to start with, I decided for 200$ and I had some cash in my pockets in case. I didn't know which denominations to get so I just told them I was going to play 3/6. The guy gave me two racks of 1$ chips, so 200 chips, I sat down and everybody looked at me, I then noticed that nobody had much more than a hundred in front of them and nobody had more than 20-30 1$ chips, so I guess I really looked like a newbie right away.

I wasn't really impressed with the dealers, most of them barely speak english, didn't notice the raises half the time and some of them would stare at the board at showdown until the players told them who won.

I was told the caliber was pretty bad, even at 3/6, but I didn't expect it to be this bad, it was really loose and really passive. There was almost no raise pre-flop so when they happened, you pretty much knew you were against AA or KK, but many times I've seen people limp with KK and AK, they weren't trapping, they just never raised. Unfortunatly, it plays the same as micro-limit, you can't make anybody fold with raises and people will stay to the end with any pocket pair, actually any pair, even bottom pair. So I lost some money at first raising with AK or AQ and then trying to make continuation bets. So I figured I had to play ABC poker, showdown the best hand. So I played tight, but this can get pretty boring when you only play 25-30 hands an hour and if you go card dead for 2-3 hours, it can really hurt. I played about 20 hours of 3/6 during the week, I lost 16BB, not so bad considering I got two major bad beats, flopping a TT3 with pocket 3s and vilain rivered a K to make a better full with KT. And then flopping trips with KK on a board of AK8. Turned a full when it came another A, unfortunatly vilain had A8. Each of those pots were worth about 16-17BB, so if I had won any of those I would have come out ahead.

One night there was 6 names on the 3/6 list so I played a few hours of 2/4, the caliber was pretty much the same as 3/6, maybe slighty looser, I made about 10BB that night, not enough to cover my losses of 3/6, but still, the whole week was a lot of fun so it was well worth the money.

I saw all kinds of entertaining players, most of them were eldery people or WPT wannabes. There was the old woman who fell asleep in between hands, sometime even in hands she was involved with. The dealer would deal her out while she slept and wake up her when it was her big blind. There were many table coach, telling the other players how to play and analysing play after each hand. Of course the drunks are very fun to play with. Then there was the players who only bought it for 20-30$ and got all-in abour every other hands and then rebought again for 20-30$ more.

The one night I lost the most (26BB in about 7 hours), I was at a table with a lot of rocks, most of them seemed to be regulars. I should have asked for a table change, but I didn't, I didn't know if what was proper etiquette and how to do so, but then at the end, I saw the one guy do it, was simple enough, lesson learned.

The last night, I tried the multi-table tournament at 6pm, 50+15$ buy-in. We had 244 players. I finished about 50th, they were paying 27 players. We started with 5000 chips and I was at 15000 at the first break. But then the blinds started going up very fast and I played stupid, with 800-1600 blinds with 200 ante, I made open-raised to 5k with A5s in middle position, but with the blinds that high, I guess I should have gone all-in. The player to my left called all-in with about 3.5k and the player to his left cold-called. He seemed to have pretty much the same amount of chips as I did. The flop came K83. I checked, the other guy went all-in. I folded. He turned JJ, the small stack showed A4, of course the turn was an A and I would have won the hand (actually I would have split with the short stack, but still). I was pretty upset and I was blinded out to 4k when I went all-in on 1000-2000 blinds with KT. I got to call, KK and AQ, I didn't improve and that was it. It sucked because I had read HOH II just before I left and I knew I had to go all-in with my A5s, but I couldn't pull the trigger... Too bad it was my last night, I would have really liked to try it again.

All in all a very fun trip and there's a good chance I will go back soon with my home-game buddies. Unless they really open a poker room here at the Montreal Casino like the rumors says.

[JacksonTens]

I play live only, never online. For some weird reason, most decent online players get rolled B&M. Not sure why, I personally attribute it too their terrible lack of reading skills. And their innability to put people into appropiate categories without a trail of computer generated stats to back it up. But good luck B&Ming in the future. The games are so loose, I firmly believe that its where the money is.

JT [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

[Marc Desjardins]

[ QUOTE ]
I play live only, never online. For some weird reason, most decent online players get rolled B&M. Not sure why, I personally attribute it too their terrible lack of reading skills. And their innability to put people into appropiate categories without a trail of computer generated stats to back it up. But good luck B&Ming in the future. The games are so loose, I firmly believe that its where the money is.

JT [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, reading was pretty hard as most of the players played any two cards, but I agree, if I concentrated more, I should at least being able to put people on range of hands by their style of play, who plays any two, who playes any two suited, who playes any aces, ect. I also should have been better at figuring it out betting patterns.

I was really disapointed in myself as I really wanted to enjoy that part of playing live more, since I can't do that playing four tables online, but I just couldn't find the discipline. I mean going from playing 240 hands an hour online to only playing 20-30 live, that was the hardest, folding hands after hands after hands for 3 hours was very hard...

But I still enjoyed it a lot and I'm looking forward to next time, in the meantime I have a lot of thinking to do about the adjustements I need to make from online to live...

[domester]

Marc,

If you want to win back your losses and know how to play Omaha 8/B, next time you're at the Taj, take a seat at either of the Omaha games going (2/4 or 5/10) and hope there's a bored, action-loving Hold 'Em player at the table. Unless you run totally card-dead, the game is easily beatable and the Hold 'Em player will increase your winnings (though the variance might be slightly higher.) Yes, you'll fold many, many hands, but when the flop hits you, the chip stacks that come your way make the wait well worth it. IMHO, there's only two regulars who play 5/10 aside from myself to worry about and they're very easy to spot since they enjoy talking to each other when not involved in a hand.

[Falker11]

What is the blind and timing structure of the tournament you played at the taj. 5k seems like a lot of chips to start with if the blinds are not too out of hand.

Falker

[sfer]

[ QUOTE ]
For some weird reason, most decent online players get rolled B&M.

[/ QUOTE ]

Whatever.

[Marc Desjardins]

[ QUOTE ]
What is the blind and timing structure of the tournament you played at the taj. 5k seems like a lot of chips to start with if the blinds are not too out of hand.

Falker

[/ QUOTE ]

You can find the structure here, just scroll down a bit passed the schedule:

Taj blind structure

The levels are 20 minutes, but the play is quite slow so you only get about 10 hands per level. It's not so bad in the first 5 rounds, but after the break, it became an all-in fest.

[AKQJ10]

[ QUOTE ]
If you want to win back your losses and know how to play Omaha 8/B, next time you're at the Taj, take a seat at either of the Omaha games going (2/4 or 5/10) and hope there's a bored, action-loving Hold 'Em player at the table.

[/ QUOTE ]

Slightly on topic -- though I doubt he was primarily a HE player -- I saw a guy show down trips-in-hand twice during a 2-3 hour O8 session at the Taj last week, and both time he hit the case card for a set on the flop.

The only relevance being, the players REEEEEEALLY suck. Still took some of my money though.

[PotatoStew]

[ QUOTE ]
The guy gave me two racks of 1$ chips, so 200 chips, I sat down and everybody looked at me, I then noticed that nobody had much more than a hundred in front of them and nobody had more than 20-30 1$ chips, so I guess I really looked like a newbie right away.

[/ QUOTE ]

I was there two weekends ago and sat down with $180 in white and the dealer gave me grief about it. Other players at the table chimed in on my behalf though, asking why she cared how much I had. They probably thought I was going to be nice and fishy. I usually buy in for around 30 BB, and that's the first time I ever got grief for it -- though I've only played live a half dozen times, so maybe over time I'll get ragged on more for it. I just don't want to have to be bothered with rebuying if I start out on a downswing.

Maybe next time I'll get one stack of red and 4 white to cut down on the number of chips, even though their sign at the cashier specifies "buy only white chips for 3-6".

[Marc Desjardins]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
If you want to win back your losses and know how to play Omaha 8/B, next time you're at the Taj, take a seat at either of the Omaha games going (2/4 or 5/10) and hope there's a bored, action-loving Hold 'Em player at the table.

[/ QUOTE ]

Slightly on topic -- though I doubt he was primarily a HE player -- I saw a guy show down trips-in-hand twice during a 2-3 hour O8 session at the Taj last week, and both time he hit the case card for a set on the flop.

The only relevance being, the players REEEEEEALLY suck. Still took some of my money though.

[/ QUOTE ]

I just played hold'em at the Taj and it seemed like some of the dealers have a really hard time reading the board and in some case they just would let the players tell them where to push the pot. It must get pretty ugly sometimes with O8...