Vegas Baby!

Well, I'll be on a plane in 20 hours to Las Vegas for 3 nights. Luxor, Excalabur and Mandalay Bay seem about my speed. Expecting to see lots of tourists, and scared newbies like me. The plan is little or no bluffing - be prepared to show them a hand, unless i have a real good reason to do otherwise.

This will also be my first B&M game, I'm a little worred. I've been holding my own in a local bar game though, so I'll hope for the best.

$400br, I'm thinking 50 dollar buy in will be great.

Hopefully I can keep the hand shaking to a minimum. Smile

Good Luck man.

let me tell you what i recall about the "$1-$2" and "$1-$3" games at luxor and excalibur. there is only one blind, not two, and it is $2. so all bets are a minimum of $2 pre-flop, not $1. you have the option of betting $1 on the flop, but nobody does it, they always bet $2. then on the turn and river, they always bet $2 or $3. so the "1" in the name is total b.s.

also the rake is ridiculously high, so even if you are winning 1-2 BB/hr, you are really losing. i speak from experience.

just go to straight to the $2/$4 tables. the players are equally horrible, and you won't have to sit through some bogus lesson to get into the table. (the $1-$2 and $1-$3 games are technically for novices who have to sit through a poker lesson.)

stick to your plan of zero bluffing and i think you'll be fine. for the hand shaking, i just clench my thigh under the table and that seems to redirect my stress where nobody can see it.

ChezJ

I played my first B&M experience last weekend in Vegas. Trust me, if you can keep your composure in a home game, you will feel like a seasoned pro when you see the behavior that some of the n00bs display at the Vegas tables. Be prepared to show down hands and you are definitely on the right track to eliminate bluffing. Best of luck!

I only played 2/4 out there so I can't comment on the play at the NL tables.

Bring more money and play 4/8. The play there is worse than the Party 2/4 game and the rake isn't oppressive.

My offline adjustments via the school of hard knocks:
o Be less inclined to call down. Without a read a post-flop raise is almost always at least 2 pair.
o AK doesn't raise pre-flop. Heck, lots of players will limp AA-QQ too for some weird reason.
o For some other weird reason they think betting an unimproved AK is bluffing...
o Expect to be called
o Expect to fold 2 orbits, be told "you play too tight", then get 3 cold-callers + both blinds after you raise UTG.
o Pay more attention to betting patterns than tells.
o Seat selection! Have a player on your left you can buy the button from.

all i can tell you from my experience, don't buy in for table min. makes you an immediate mark. also, play during the day when the fish are out. 3:30 in the morning on a wed. is when the real leather butts are out, so be prepared. i'd say about 8PM to minight will be the busiest and most lucrative time to play. as for the hand shaking, you just gotta work through it. take down a decent pot or two and you'll start to find your sea legs. good idea not to bluff, and i agree, expect to be called.

How'd you do? If you played in the Excalibur $1-3 game on Saturday, I may played against you. I was the guy with the 15 stacks of white chips. Very Happy

Hey, it was my only winning session of the entire trip, I get to brag a little.

Well, it was pretty fun. my wife and I, and 5 other friends went. I didn't have a huge amount of time to play poker, mostly we walked around and drank.

I'd say this was far and away the most fun thing we did:
1. start at one end of the strip, find the *worst* lounge singer, and have two drinks with your friends.
2. go to the next casino, find the *worst* lounge singer, and have two drinks with your friends.
3. go to step 2
I can't recommend that highly enough. heard covers of 'American pie' and 'been caught stealing' back to back. People have strange strange tastes.

As far as poker went, i made two mistakes.
The first mistake, was participating in the Luxor's holdem tournament. not only is it limit, it has a retarded blind structure. like 15/20 progressing to 20/30 then 50/75... something crazy like that. also, they only have 10 minutes per level. you don't even get a full freaking orbit per level. Players were being dicks to the dealers, when the dealers were right, then the dealers were being dicks to players when the players were right. bah. I'd recommend against it.

After busting out, I wandered over to the Excalibur. I stared at the 1/2 NL table for about an hour trying to get up the nerve to go buy in. Biggest live stakes I’d played before was a $20 buy in, in a home game, and I only played that twice. So, $100 at a casino was a little out of my comfort zone.

Turned out to be fine, I bought the chips (wow, never realized how filthy they are!) and sat down, after about five hands I got the feel of things, and relaxed.

The three players to my right were pretty fishy. Called in just about every hand, I don't think they ever raised pre flop. The next 6 seemed pretty good. Two of them were better than me, the others were close enough to my level that I couldn't tell who had the edge.

I played pretty tight, once it folded all they way around to the small blind, i was the big blind, and he asked if I wanted to chop. I asked "what's chop?" apparently you just take your blind back. Ok. Fine.

lesse... there were a few hands I remember... not necessarily in order.

Pocket threes, I limp early flop is 2 K T. check, guy bets big, I fold.

Pocket eights, I limp late, flop is 2 4 9 I think. it’s checked to me, I bet and take it down.

AK middleish position, folded to me, I raise to six, one caller, guy just to my right. Flop is A rag rag. I bet the pot, he calls. hmmm....
next card was a rag, I bet 20 or 30. seemed hefty, but not so big that I was trying to buy the pot. He folds, I show AK. he said he had KK. Sure buddy, sure.

KK in the small blind. folded to me. i raise 2... He folds. Oh well. I’m sort of curious if I should have offered to chop?

And the winner!
AA utg +1 I raise 8, 1 caller
Flop is K J 9
i raise 20
he re-raises me the minimum.

So, I’d like to say, he watched me fold to aggression before, and so I thought he was bluffing, but that's not the case. The aces dazzled me. Maybe it was the 5 hours of sleep. Maybe it was the hangover... whatever. On to the second mistake:

I push all in.

He flips K J spades.

Turn and the river are no help.

At the Excalibur, when you bust out all in with rockets, they give you a spin on the big wheel.

I got 20 bucks back.

I think, with a 1k bankroll I could do very well there. I should have known there was something up with the reraise, I actually had enough information to fold, I’m capable of making that fold, I just got in a hurry. I'm going to chalk it up to inexperience with live casino play. Seemed like a beatable game though.

I think if I was going to go play poker again, I would spend some time down at the local Indian casino first. I’d probably go to Los Angeles to play based on Rippy’s reports. All in all it was fun. I don’t think I’d go back to Vegas without a big group of people. Definitely wouldn’t go back just to play poker.

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