Playing poker at a casino.

[MikeMcMann]

from other thread

My experience in live poker is the very lowest limit and some of the higher limit games draw the weakest players. Low level as you say because guys are beginners, not paying attention or drunk and you cannot out play. It becomes show down poker as I say above where you better always have the best hand at the river. Some of the highest limit games draw the ego players. Guys with too much cash who simply do not care if they lose thousands because they are losing less at poker then they typically do out on the table games.

I find the toughest action is in between. Games like 5/5 or 5/10 NLH where a big pot is a couple to a few thousands but most decent pots are around $500-$1000 range. I find you get the most guys trying to make a living at poker and trying to play their A Game at all times because their money means so much to them and they do not have much to waste. Very few big mistakes made at a table full of these guys to capitalize on. They are playing appropriate to their bank roll.

I like playing the big bank roll and ego players the best but you must have a big stomach and good cash reserves you are willing to lose as the swings and variance playing these guys can be so high. Overall if you have the bank roll you can win a ton here but on the wrong night you will get crushed for a ton of money when you get your money in good but suffer a few big suck outs.

 

[MikeMcMann]

Long story sorry. But hopefully of interest to those who want info on live games.

I took almost 2 years off and pursued seeing how far I could go playing poker back in the early 2000's when poker was much more popular with casuals. I was going 3-5 days a week to Fallsview Casino in Niagara Ontario and playing cash games 1/2, 2/5, 5/10 and the very occasional 10/20 NLH.

I play a very strict disciplined grinder/rounder type game. Never a drink at the table and I usually stalk guys who drink too much or are tilting or who have been gambling too long, or who come to the poker table just having lost or won big money playing other casino games. Anything that can impact them making the proper 'odds' decision in a hand.

I logged every dollar won and lost and subtracted off my travel and hotel expenses if I stayed over. I am a pretty good cash player and don't feel out of place at any table I have played with even with some of the known beest guys from the casino. I averaged just over $40K each of the two years. Nowhere near close enough for me to justify trying to make a living at it. Although some of the guys I played with would go to Vegas and make quite a bit more due to so many casual players and they always said I should go as I was better than them.

A typical session for me was either a loss of $800 and done for the day (never let myself lose more in one session in one day) and a typical winning session would see me go home up $1500-$2000. As I pocketed winnings I would play more and more aggressive with what I had on the table.

My biggest 'session' was a Thursday to Sunday session, where I stayed at a hotel near the casino and player non stop all weekend save for eating and sleeping. I would do these type of sessions once every couple of months where the goal was to really push instead of pocketing a decent profit. These were homerun shots. I was running hot and ran up my $800 to $2500 playing 1/2. I then moved to the 2/5 game and pocketed my original $800 and played with the $1700. I ran that up to over $5000.

The next day (Friday) I started right in at the 5/10 game but pocketed enough money to cover my weekend expenses as well. I had a back and forth day but ended up running it up to just over $14,000 playing for early AM right over into Saturday morning only leaving the table for bathroom breaks and food. $14k would have been my biggest session run had i went home there.

Saturday I sat in the 10/20 game with a goal to play pretty tight. A game that does not draw the best players but draws dangerous guys because they just don't care about their money and do not always play logical. Its a game you see many of the Rounder guys, win big or get sucked out on and go home broke. If you are a good player you will almost always get your money in with the best hand at this table but suckout can break you as these guys shove so much money in the pot.

Well I was up and down and up and down, unable to get anything going when in walks a very drunk and well known russian rich dude. A super aggressive terrible poker player known for non stop aggression at the table. He would be flipping out $5K chips at Baccarat and other games like they were nothing, so for him poker was slow and actually slowed his losses. He would buy in for more than the top stack at the table had just to be the chip leader. He would shove all in constantly with nothing daring guys to gamble all their chips. Regulars just waited for one hand where you knew you probably had the best hand and then call him down knowing he would shove and then hope your hand held up.

My hand came after watching others beat him, and him reloading for about an hour. I look down at QQ. He preflop raises which is great as I know he will defend that raise with a massive continuation bet. Flop looks harmless. I lead out with a small raise on the turn assuming and hoping he may shove on me He does and I have to call with all ~$16,000 in front of me. When I call he turns over nothing and says good call. He has a gut shot straight and no other way to win. I am a 90% favorite. Of course his gut shot hits and he rakes the pot.

i pick up and go home with just my original buy in. C'est la vie. It hurt but it is also par for the course in poker. I got All-in in the biggest hand of my cash career, with a massive favorite and only one card to come. That is your goal as a poker player. From there you have to let fate take it and it was just not my night.

 

[kahiljabroni]

Long story sorry. But hopefully of interest to those who want info on live games.

Good read. I'm surprised you didn't play online instead. You could have applied your same system over say 4 tables that were doing 80 hands per hour each. The players on party poker back then were atrocious at all levels.

I used to sit with 200 and try to double up. I'd then then go to another table and sit with 200, banking the other two. I would play 8 hours a night with the goal of making 400 per night. At the end of each night I'd send the profit to my bank so I never had enough in poker account to go on major tilt. I was averaging 1200 a week or so and then of course the feds shut everything down

 

[MikeMcMann]

Good read. I'm surprised you didn't play online instead. You could have applied your same system over say 4 tables that were doing 80 hands per hour each. The players on party poker back then were atrocious at all levels.

I used to sit with 200 and try to double up. I'd then then go to another table and sit with 200, banking the other two. I would play 8 hours a night with the goal of making 400 per night. At the end of each night I'd send the profit to my bank so I never had enough in poker account to go on major tilt. I was averaging 1200 a week or so and then of course the feds shut everything down

i'm old. I got trained on the slow grinding style of live poker. I can play for weeks, months and years with no hand bigger than a full house. In all the hands of poker I have played live I have had only a few Quads or Straight flush hands or better and see them very rarely at the tables. While Boat over Boat cooler hands do happen live quite a bit, much bigger coolers are very rare.

In my live world getting that truly big hand (Boat or bigger) and being lucky enough to be on the top of the cooler is a very rare thing indeed. Same with being on the bottom. Most hands are won bug single paris or bluffs where nobody hits anything. That is the poker I know.

I think I tried online poker for about 4 months before walking away. In that time the number of big hands over big hands I was involved in blew me away. Flushes over straights. Boats over flushes. Quads over Boats. I am meticulous in my poker. I make notes over everything to try and gain an edge. And i had more Quads and straight flushes in 4 months of online then i had in years of live play.

People generally reply to that with 'hand frequency. More hands per hour equals more big hands', which is incorrect. the big hands should be the same whether Live or Online but they come quicker online because you get through more hands quicker. But if I play 10,000 hands over a couple years live, and 10,0000 hands online in a few months, the big hands should be ~equal. I have far more hands live and yet had far bigger hands and crazy action, as so many others had big hands too.

So rightly or wrongly I thought the online game was juiced. that does not mean I think it was rigged for or against any specific players, as I was actually winning enough in those big hands. Juiced just means they add a little tweak to the random card generator that deals the cards at the online table. So instead of all 52 cards coming out in a random distribution to the sitting players they add a program that tightens that distribution so the same 45, 40 or 35 cards appear more frequently in any one deal. By tightening the cards the likelihood more people hit the flop and gamble more is assured. The house wins when people gamble more.

I fully recognize I could be wrong and maybe Variance just hit me such that I got a ton of juiced hands and it would have evened out later but most of the brick and mortar guys I played with said the same. The counter was always "more hands dealt equals more big hands' which again is not right. And while I recognize I could be wrong, I could also be correct as after I quit online we had some very explosive outing of many sites with cheat code built into them (super user accounts and other back doors), so juicing a game is something that certainly could have been built in.

But regardless, as a grinder type my game was honed over hours of play, generally with little action or no good cards, looking to exploit mistakes. I did not find it suited to the fast pace online game so it may have just been on me an inability to adapt.

 

[fordman7795]

Good read. I'm surprised you didn't play online instead. You could have applied your same system over say 4 tables that were doing 80 hands per hour each. The players on party poker back then were atrocious at all levels.

I used to sit with 200 and try to double up. I'd then then go to another table and sit with 200, banking the other two. I would play 8 hours a night with the goal of making 400 per night. At the end of each night I'd send the profit to my bank so I never had enough in poker account to go on major tilt. I was averaging 1200 a week or so and then of course the feds shut everything down

This was exactly me. Im an omaha specialist (specifically O8) and the omaha games were fucking amazing back in the day. Youd have 8 players who didnt have a clue. I was in a hand with nut nut and it was capped on all streets and not a single player folded. This was at .50/1.00 limit. The low hand was split 3 ways but i still had the high locked up with nut flush. I was making more money playing poker than I did working my 9-5. And this was at low limits. $5-$10 Sngs or at most $1/$2 limit. But ever since that fateful day where my netteller account was shut down.....

 

[kahiljabroni]

This was exactly me. Im an omaha specialist (specifically O8) and the omaha games were fucking amazing back in the day. Youd have 8 players who didnt have a clue. I was in a hand with nut nut and it was capped on all streets and not a single player folded. This was at .50/1.00 limit. The low hand was split 3 ways but i still had the high locked up with nut flush. I was making more money playing poker than I did working my 9-5. And this was at low limits. $5-$10 Sngs or at most $1/$2 limit. But ever since that fateful day where my netteller account was shut down.....

It's was really an awesome time to be a poker player. The poker boom created an army of people from all over the world that had tons of money and no skill. And party poker allowed access to all of them.

I remember almost every night I could find a guy sitting in a 200 buyin table with 1500-2k, just giving it away. Literally going all in every other hand until they went broke.

It's absolute horse shit that Congress got off their fatass to agree to shut it down. Just shows how corrupt they are. Eventually the dead money would have dried up anyway but could've made a lot more in the mean time. I just wish I upped my stakes a lot earlier because the players were just as bad

 

[fordman7795]

It's was really an awesome time to be a poker player. The poker boom created an army of people from all over the world that had tons of money and no skill. And party poker allowed access to all of them.

I remember almost every night I could find a guy sitting in a 200 buyin table with 1500-2k, just giving it away. Literally going all in every other hand until they went broke.

It's absolute horse shit that Congress got off their fatass to agree to shut it down. Just shows how corrupt they are. Eventually the dead money would have dried up anyway but could've made a lot more in the mean time. I just wish I upped my stakes a lot earlier because the players were just as bad

The casino nearest to me was awesome too. It was right next to a college and all the kids with their parents money would blow it all. The casino had 18 tables and they were full 24/7. Now theres 1-2 tables and its hard to get omaha going

 

[SamSchmidt]

I've never played at a casino. Do you think being good at online poker crosses over well to casino poker or does it take some getting used to?

Yes. It's two completely different animals. Online players basically have no inhibition and those that bet like they do online in live tables get laughed out of the Casino. You got to be cold and calculating. Can't bust a nut on the first pocket pair you get

 

[SamSchmidt]

The casino nearest to me was awesome too. It was right next to a college and all the kids with their parents money would blow it all. The casino had 18 tables and they were full 24/7. Now theres 1-2 tables and its hard to get omaha going

I just can't get into Omaha. Is it fun?

 

[TidWell]

I used to play at commerce casino and bicycle club, stopped playing because too many violent degenerates there.

 

[Mondo Freaks]

How many times did you get a straight flush?

tree fiddy

 

[fordman7795]

I just can't get into Omaha. Is it fun?

I love omaha. Mostly because it takes a bit of thought and there are a lot of people who dont understand the game and just throw money away. I was playing with some friends a few weeks ago and this dude moved all in on the turn with bare pocket jacks. Another guy called and said I have two pair, a straight and a flush. Pocket jacks may be decent in holdem but are garbage in omaha.

 

[SamSchmidt]

I love omaha. Mostly because it takes a bit of thought and there are a lot of people who dont understand the game and just throw money away. I was playing with some friends a few weeks ago and this dude moved all in on the turn with bare pocket jacks. Another guy called and said I have two pair, a straight and a flush. Pocket jacks may be decent in holdem but are garbage in omaha.

I have to get into it at some point. I'm good enough at texas I need to get all the tournament games down. Eventually try my hand in the big leagues. I just remember it feeling like 7 card no peak

 

[SamSchmidt]

I used to play at commerce casino and bicycle club, stopped playing because too many violent degenerates there.

There is a race track in Portland or. Portland meadows. All the lowlifes play poker there. I play poker there lol. Seriously tho, I feel like it's a game run by the mob.

None of the dealers are professional. They rotate members.

 

[DaysOfThunder]

House games always have a built in edge. Poker is not a house game. They just charge you for time, so you are not playing against the house but other private individuals. Best chance to make steady money.

 

[Fishmonger]

I've seen gambling on tv.

 

[SamSchmidt]

I've seen gambling on tv.

 

[Fishmonger]

 

[SamSchmidt]

House games always have a built in edge. Poker is not a house game. They just charge you for time, so you are not playing against the house but other private individuals. Best chance to make steady money.

Yep it's why I like it more than BJs .....

..
Black jack

 

[SamSchmidt]

Aces