Well, here I am in Vegas! Played my 1st Holdem NL game tonight - $1/$2. Fun learning curve :-)

1st Thing I realised was that buying in the minimum was a big mistake. Everyone but one person at the table had $250+ min on them. Some had more (buy in = $100 min, $300 max). At this point I immediatly knew I was in a spot.

I don't want to gamble mroe than that in one session. I'm a tournie/SnG player at heart (and "at skill"). I've always sucked at ring games online and I'd never dream of playing 1/2 online in a ring game. I play $22 SnGs online these days, plus MTTs.

But this is Vegas and I thought I'd give it a crack for fun.

I started with AK off and immediately got a continuation bet put on me from a pre-raiser that was half my stack and the flop was junk. Fold.

After a while I played J9 off and hit 10KQ on the flop. I slow played it to the turn. Only two of us left. He raised. I pushed all in. He had 10 K - two pair. The board then formed a straight and we split. Arghh.

A little later my QQ with K kicker ran into 2 pairs (7,s and 9's) and I was out.

Funny observations:

The dealer knew the name of at least two players.
The guys who were winning kept winning.
Small buy in is no good live. When someone raises/bluffs it puts at least half your stack on the line.
One showdown with three people all in produced AA, KK, QQ - the guy with KK hit trips on the turn and the only guy with shades on was holding the Aces - he left in a strop :-) (Note: 20 hands in or less in my 1st ever live ring game and I saw AA vs KK vs QQ - that should silence the online conspiracey theorists!!!)
I was way out of my depth :-)


Going to focus on MTTs from now on - it's what I'm good at - the strategy, and not having the pressure of the possibility of buying more chips.

Great hotel room btw :-)

It's not so easy playing live is it?

Where are you staying?

Hit the $60 10am game at the Flamingo. It's fairly soft and the cap is 40 players.

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I'm staying at the Flamingo actually! Really don't like the poker room, lack of service, or the people.

Update: I just came back from the $65 NL freezout at the Paris - A total contrast! - You get a totally different type of player in freezouts. Of course.

Lots of nice people there to have fun. The fact your losses are capped encourages newbies. There were a fair few total donks.

There were 40 of us. 2000 chips. Great dealers, a great tournament manager, and when the waitress brought me my 1st drink I asked "how much", "it's comp" she replied. Nice! - I tipped well and drank more comps :-) LIttle touches like that make a huge difference to the enjoyment.

I came 5th - bubble boy! - it was a small mirace I made it that far. I had two big all-ins - both with low pairs (forced) - both times three of us stood up, and both times they missed with AK/10K kind of hands. Both times we all cheered. :-) - I ended up with 4 players all holding at least 15k chips - one chap upwards of 20k I think, and I had 4k. BB was 1k. Q9 Diamonds was my farewell hand.

It was a toughie. I was kinda short stacked the whole game (about 6k was my highest). The problem was the donks at the beginning gave all their chips to the same two people. On one hand a guy CALLED an all in with just Ace high lmao. On another hand a fat woman pushed all in with 69 off - unprovoked. A fair few other people did this so there was a gulf between us.

I was very happy though. I played well, dipping to 600 at one stage and recovering. I don't think I could have played any better.

When I bust out at 5th everyone said "nice playing with you" and shook my hand. I had a superb time and will be going back to the Paris again.

They also have a nice bar so my wife can wait and read a book with out being hit on, which was such a a problem in the Flamingo she had to retire to get away from them. The barman in the Paris looked after her drink when she had to go to the bathroom - nice touch. (anti-spiking of course).

I may check out the Flamingo 10am but to be honest, it was the same players again this mornign and all afternoon. It seems a bit of a shark pool right now. I much prefered playing happy "chance it" tourists.

Totally loved it. Every single live MTT I've played now (bar my 1st) I've placed 1st, in the money, or on the bubble.

May trie O'Sheas tomorrow - they do a lot of $45 games. We are seeing David Copperfield tomorrow so I can't play the 7.30pm at Paris :-(

We are SO coming back :-)

Oh yeah - I figured why the Flamingo $1/2 NL was so tough. Amongst other reasons, they give you all your chips in $5 denominations. So there are only a few $1 chips floating about. The blinds are $1/$2 but no one has $1 chips. You work it out. It makes the min raise $5 - though it's normally $10 or $20.b Peoiple don't like to chuck just one chip in.

Might as well be a $5/$10 table lol.

Of course with all the overbetting the rake for the casino is much bigger....

Hey! Im going to vegas in august. My dad goes every year, but I havnt been old enough to go since I've been playing poker, so I have missed out, however now Im 21 let the fun commence.

I fancy myself as more of a tournie player too, but I reckon I'll tuck into a bit of cash while i'm there coz as you said, its vegas!

My dad had a funny annecdote which your post reminded me of when you said about the dealer knowing 2 peoples names:

My dad was playing for a good few hours one time, at one point the dealer changed (I assume they change every hour or so). Anyway, this particularly dealer turned up and sat next to him to play 15 minutes later! Theres no gaming restrictions for dealers in the US. Thought that was funny!!

Try to get in on the O'Shea's SnG's they're some of the funnest games in Vegas.

You can also play the 11pm at Caesars or for a real Vegas feel, the 2am at Binion's.

I read that the Wynn has some nice new MTT's as well, not sure of the start time's but may be worthy of a look.

Enjoy the show. I'm really bummed that you wont be there a month from now.

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I know :-( there again, it's nice and cheap to stay here right now :-)

Just got back from the 12pm O'Sheas. Only 9 of us! - I busted out 7th. I had crap all for ages, then landed KK and only raised 2x as I didn't want everyone to flee as i'd been so tight. Flop Q26. Raised 500. Got called. Raised 1k. Got called all-in.. ... He had Q2. :-(

Funny how you don't play like you do online when live is new to you. I'd never play KK for only 2x normally.

Good fun and a cheap game. Probably going to do a late game tonight after the show. Might well check out Caesars....

It shouldn't be a problem if you just have $5 chips - if you chuck one chip in and don't say anything, then you'll get 3 $1 in change from the dealer. And you can raise to whatever you like, you've just got to declare it - I'll often raise to $6, $7 or $8 even if I only have $5 chips in front of me. The dealer will always have plenty of $1 chips.

I like the Paris room too, but I wouldn't play there with the highest rake in town now ($6 now?)! $4 max is expensive enough and can be found at most excellent rooms like the MGM.

It wasn't what I was doing, it was all the others - they'd bet and raise based on multiples of 5$ chips.

Next year we're all going out to Vegas together!. I'm serious ...