Let's talk about 1/2 and 2/5 live (mostly Vegas rooms)

Red and Blue chip games, player pool is a mix of aware onlinish folks, other weakies, gamblers, people who just want to play hands, really bad "pros", etc.

First, anyone claiming to destroy these games?

I've been playing 1/2 live at the local horsetrack in Michigan, these games are pretty soft but I'm running into a whole lot of variance. At my skill level right now, I would never sit down at a 1/2 online.

I am a loser in the 1/2 NL game at Red Rock in Vegas. It's on the west side in Summerlin and has a bunch of dealers and other casino employees in it. The game is bad (as in not easy), at a 9 handed table I would say there were 2 maybe 3 poor players and no huge donators.

Now, go down to Bellagio, Wynn, Venetian and I could beat those games but I played limit at those rooms.

*Last edited by Fnord on Tue, 26 Jun 2007, 3:51pm; edited 1 time in total*

I will have to check back with you after experiencing the increased limits here in Florida after July 1st (woot!). My only other live NL experience was playing a 1/2 NL game in Curacao. Very easy to read and should have shown a big profit, but I went busto when my A,K lost all in to A,3 after a flop of A,x,x, and he hit his 3 on the river.

I started a $500 bankroll in April for my 1/2 game here in niagara falls. Played three times: gain of $200, gain of $100, and a loss of $500.

First of all, the games are really soft on the weekends, which are the only times I will play. I've tried the during week crew a couple times and found it was a lot tighter with more aware players.

Secondly, Variance of my roll is huge because you start off with a max buy-in of 50bb, and I didn't want to have an initial investment of more than $500 (250 big blinds).... wow that's small.

I have never played in the 2/5 because 1/2 is too big for the roll. I assume it's generally the same except more postflop raises and tighter preflop play.

Bank, your roll is way too small.

A live 1/2 game is often going to play like it's really 50bb deep or less. Then figure you're pretty often going to be playing a $400+ stack. $5000 would be a more reasonable roll.

Your rathole approach to the game just doesn't sound very fun and is certainly leaving lots of money on the table.

Re-raise, shove any flop is one of the best plays in these games.

*Last edited by Fnord on Tue, 26 Jun 2007, 6:24pm; edited 1 time in total*

Here is another one where weak/tight leaves way too much money on the table.

Excalibur 1/3 200 cap. Spin the wheel for cash and prizes if you lose with quads or pocket aces, wheee!

I open for 15 with AK
LAggy kid re-raises to 30
Old Man who plays wayyyy to many hands calls
ZOMG, AK no good right? Call to hit a flop? FUCK THAT
Folded to me and I re-raise to $200
Kid calls off his stack with 8 Spade

7

Old Man folds.

Kid sez: I wanted to double up
Fnord sez: GIVE ME A DEUCE!

Ship it!

I was just there 2 weeks ago. 1/2 at Flamingo, Paris and other small/med rooms on strip.

Lots of variance, due to maniac play. With a small BR I played pretty much straight up, with lots of smallball and still got called with the goods with my chips all in.

I wish my local home game was that easy.

ArgIcantstandpplthatdontknowthateverythingisayissarcasticandajoke

aments

I'm actually probably down at casinos overall. But it really just surprises me because i find that the play is just really really bad. Sometimes i can literally pinpoint someone to one hand and be right.

Theoretically i think i should be crushing them. I think i'm probably just playing too many hands and being impatient and it just kills my winrate.

That could be very likely since when you're playing idiots the cards do matter. You're gonna show down vs. the really bad players.

It's so hard to not play hands like QTo when you've folded the past 10 hands over 20 minutes.

Playing 4-5tables online seeing 350h/hr compared to 25h/hr at the casino. It's also tough to nit it up for 2hrs, pick up JJ make it 10bb to go and have the pot 5handed.

Ontop of all that our sample size is so small losing/winning can all be chalked up to variance until I would say you get 100 hrs of table time or more.

jumping in L8, my apologies.

played here in the Lou at 1/2 300 max, VERY soft.

sat down with: LAGgy McDrawChaser, GetUp&LeaveEvery5Min guy, HeadphonesOnButICanPutYouOnAnything, and a couple locals/veterans of live games who seemed solid.

i pick up QQ and raise EP1 to $15 (to get it less than 6 handed), LAGgy calls, Headphones calls, local guy calls.

flop K J 5 rainbow. i make it $50 to go. no flush draw so LAGgy drops out, but Headphones calls, but takes off the phones (he's dialed-in now Wink

).

turn blank. i check (became a nit), Headphones checks.

river J. i feel ahead, and lead out VERY small (1/3 pot) to sell the J (thinking if he hits J, he raises, but will feel i boated and may call with less to see). Headphones says, "i had you on two pair, but what could that bet mean?" (as he tries to stare me down) i go Unibomber on him and duck my head. LAGgy and local...

START DISCUSSING THE HAND ACTION!! they say "hes been tight." "he's got the boat." "vn value bet...hes strong." that kind of crap.

Headphones...ERRR "super-hand-reader" drops his top two pair (KX). (stoopid ass)

i show QQ for fun (knowing if i rock-it-up, they will pay off thinking i am on a bluff again), and the table goes "wow, this donkey is meat."

point is: These limits suck, but variance would be huge. several hours of table time...down $6 (damned live rake Crying or Very sad

)mostly feeling out live and coolered. had to steal the 2nd bester, but it can be done. should have lost that hand bigtime.

i just cant believe the table talk that these donkeys are allowed to get away with while the hand is still going. the dealer didnt say shit. and i couldnt, didnt want to tip myself off either way as strong/weak.

any solid player properly rolled could kill these games long-term. no question. just gotta raise it up more to iso and get nasty on hit flops. 1/2 donks will pay off...no doubt.

I've logged a lot of hours in AC under various conditions starting at the 12 o'clock game with all the retired rocks and ending at 4 am with all the drunks.

Couple of tips.

1. Drink. But don't drink too much!. At 12 o'clok in the afternoon you want them to think u are a donk going on a bender. At 2 am you want to fit in. A few drinks takes the edge off too. If you sit there with your headphones and sunglasses and hat sipping mineral water well I'm just not going to play a hand with you unless I have the nuts!

2. Be friendly. Talk to your neighbors. Don't ever talk crap about people's awful play. You want them to call you AA w. KQ.

3. Watch the table carefully. I like to pick out 1-3 players to pick on. Always call their raises. Re-raise them. Of course you should have a reason to pick on them based on your observations. Are they too lose and have a huge range or are they too tight and will fold to almost any bluff? Pick on them until you bust them or they leave.

4. The game is sooooo f'n slooooooooooowwwwwwwwww compared to online. This was mentioned above. Don't fall into the trap of playing Q8 because it was the best hand you've seen in 45 minutes and 3 rotations. It ain't worth it. Even if you sit like a rock for an hour you will still get action against your good hands at these loose games. Be patient.

5. Pay attention to the standard raise that gets attention. Is it 7, 10, 20? This will change a lot and you need to be aware of it. When you get some big stacks working the game will play like 2/5. Next, do you want attention? Do you want to play multiway w/ soooted connectors or do you want chase out as many as possible. Act accordingly.

6. Stealing the blinds is meaningless at 1/2. At least in AC where the stacks are 150 bb's deep.

7. Build pots. Preflop Raise w/ your Axs and low PP's sometimes to build the pot to either bluff or connect and win a big score. You want some deception to when you raise with big pairs and the bigger the pot on the flop the more there is to steal or in the best case connect on your huge draw.

I find most games are generally very weak with a lot of limping and calling stations. Easy to beat if you hit some hands.

there are 4 types of tables in vegas live poker 1/2.

1. Everyone is a gigantimo nit except preflop where they are 50/1.
2. Everyone is relatively nitty with a few players who suck real bad and play every hand.
3. Drunk/laggy tards who will push blind and just be completely ridiculous (aka the players we love) and the rest of the table who is folding tptk against them
4. regular type table.

I know this is gonna come out sounded like weak sauce but...

You sit in a live game that is pretty damn loose and are trying to play hands that have decent pot equity in position as well as opening with decent hands... but you run card dead for multiple orbits... and one or more guys start razzing ya about how you are a nit and what not... What's the play here?

a) Say "I only play red Aces."
b) Put on the uber-dark sunglasses and turn up the Ipod so the guy with the hearing aid next to you can here your Enya.. er JayZ playing...
c) Who cares... they'll probably still call when you have the goods.
d) Try to play a couple of speculative hands regardless of the situation just to show that you CAN play a hand
e) Start straddling and check-raising AI dark...

I'm 90% sure I know the answer to this.. but what would you do in this situation?

Oh, big thing that you need to exploit is the fact that $40 bets into $152 dollar pots are a scary for them as $152 bets are online, and you're rarely going to see anyone bet more than 1/3rd the pot.

i kill my 1-2nl game playing like a total nit. if you make a hand, you get payed, period. if you dont fold.

Chopper,

Potting the flop was a tad out of line, showing your cards was just plain terrible.

I play way more loose and aggro when I play live. I'll have a maniacal image for sure. I'll also buy in for 200bb and you wont believe I have the goods when the big bets come out.

Poker Forum

Join Our Poker Community!

Poker Forum Index

Live Poker

Let's talk about 1/2 and 2/5 live (mostly Vegas rooms)

Poker Forum Index

Live Poker

Let's talk about 1/2 and 2/5 live (mostly Vegas rooms)