First Trip to Trump Indy

[wegs the wegs]

I turned 21 yesterday and I would like to continue the celebration tonight at the Trump in Gary. I want to play in the $100 NL tourney and if I bust out in that some 200NL. I just had a couple of questions.

First of all, what is the structure of this tournament like? Fast blinds? Not many starting chips? Large field? Max entrants? Get there early or is signing up last minute ok? Any info on it would be great.

Second, I'm assuming that the 200NL that is offered is pretty soft. Correct? I only want to bring $300 dollars that I'm willing to battle with and I want to make it worthwile. Should I have any trouble with the players at this level? I play 100NL on many sites and have been winning.

Third, what the heck do I do and where do I go to get to the poker room? Do I have to sign up to be a Trump Club member first? Any advice?

Fourth, thanks for the newbie guide. I read it three times now and should have no trouble with the game itself. I'm just struggling how to get into the games not ever having been to a casino before.

[wegs the wegs]

No one has played in this tourney?

[IronDragon1]

I can't really speak to your concerns about the tournament nor the no-limit ring game (other than you should probably bring more than 1.5 buy-ins) as I have particpated in neither but I can tell you that:

-The poker room is located on the 4th deck of the Trump side of the boat. Its pretty obvious where the poker room is once you get there.
-You don't have to be a Trump club (whatever they call it) member to play. Just give the person at the podium in front the big dry-erase board your name and what game you'd like to play in and they'll take care of it.

[phuc]

If you only plan on bringing $300 to Trump, I would think that playing the $200NL game is a bad idea, especially if you are going to play in the tourney first. I think the tourney has rebuys and add-ons so you will probably end up spending $200 on the tourney alone. I don't really make it to Trump for the tourneys though so I'm not sure. If you only spend $100, ok...this leaves you with only $200 (one buy-in at $200NL). The $200NL game has fairly large blinds ($2/$5) for the size of the buy-in. On top of that, the preflop raises are generally fairly large for this game too (often around $30-$40, sometimes more, sometimes less). If you don't double up on your first hand or two, I would say that you will not make it more than a couple of hours on $200 (probably less).

Of course, this is based on my experience at Trump. I generally play the $500max NL at Resorts. Also, I could be a fish.

[imported_Dozer]

Wegs ... I just returned from Chicago where I went to Trump to play. I had the intention of playing both 3/6 and NL$200, but only played 3/6.

Here's what I can tell you about the NL$200: Preflop raises to $25 are common, which means you'll be spending at least 1/8th of your max buy in on a flop. This is a tough thing to do with KQs or 88 or any other attractive hand that can turn into trouble after a flop. The blinds are $2/$5, which I think is AWFUL for a NL$200 game. They also charge you $6 for every half hour you play, which forces the issue even more. Of course, this would all be better if the blinds were more accomodating (say $1/$2) and the preflop raise average was $8 or $10. But that's not happening.

If you are going to play the NL$200 game, try to get in when they start a new table, or join a table where all the stacks are not dominating. A new $200 stack against a bunch of guys sitting there with $800 or $1,000 is dead money.

The 3/6 game I sat in was loose and had a very good mix of readable players. Only one guy gave me trouble, and unfortunately he was directly to my left (black old guy named Mitch). Furthermore, the rake is pretty steep -- as much as $6 is taken on every pot. I played for only like 3 hours and lost $45.

Trump's poker room is very nice, although they need to wash their chips for sure as they were gross and sticky.

Let us know how you do.

[captZEEbo1]

It's a rebuy tournament that has pretty fast blinds. I suggest you addon right away and addon at break for full amount. You start with like T800 (assuming you addon right away), with blinds of like 5/10. Before the break blinds aren't TOO big, but after break blinds go up crazily fast and you should ALWAYS be aware of how many chips you have and really try not to let yourself get too short. If you have to push in MP with like Q9o, so be it.

The 200 NL is very soft, but blinds are $2/5, so it's not very deep at all. Hopefully you have some concepts of playing not deep. IMO you should not be cold calling too much pf (especially for set value) until you build your stack up and are up against another big stack. You might as well bring more than $300, because if you lose one hand where some guy pushes a draw, do you really wanna be short the whole time? Also, they let you cap your stack at $200 whenever you want, so my advice is to buy $100 extra and just leave the $100 extra chips in your cup holder, then everytime you play a hand (or a blind), replenish your stack.

The poker room is on the 3rd floor (I think), top floor anyways. You don't need a trump card unless you play in the tourny (don't need it for cash games). If you play in the tourny, they'll ask "does anyone not have a trump card", and at that time they'll make one up for you. I wouldn't bother making the trump card ahead of time unless you are just dicking around waiting for the table. Registration usually begins like 2 hours before the tournament starts I think, and it usually fills up (120 people), so make sure to get there a little early.

The Trump tournaments are either liked or hated by people. For $100 ($85 + $15) you start with T400 and can rebuy ($40) anytime during the first hour as long as you are under T400. If you bust, you can do a double rebuy where $80 gets you T800. At the end of the first hour, there is the add-on period and a 15 minute break. The add-on is $60 and gets you T800 regardless of stack size.

Since there are rebuys, people will get in there with a plethora of hands. As a result, you are more likely to get cracked the first hour. I believe the record for rebuys during the first hour is 16 or 17, so the pot can get up there. Usually first is over 10k with it selling out (120 people).

The blinds move up at a brisk pace. As a result, people drop like flies that second hour. When I played 3 weeks ago, 80 people dropped the second hour. To play this tournament, I would bring $300 just in case.

[texasranger]

It's been awhile since I've been there, and I almost always just play in the Main Game (5-10 NL and up), but they only used to let you upgrade your chips when you got down to $100 in your stack. Have they changed this in the 2-5 NL?