Vegas vs. home game

I've had a couple of people ask me how it was playing poker in Vegas vs. playing in home games so I figured I'd make another post and tell a couple more stories from last weekend.

It's a bit like playing a sport in a competitive league vs. playing in a pick up game with a bunch of your friends. It's more official, it's a bit more by the book, and it's more competitive. Similarly, the experience varies greatly on the league and the team/person you happen to be playing. As far as the rules and etiquette goes it's not really a problem if you know your rules and pay attention.

I guess the best way to explain it is just to describe the process and some of the things I saw. Getting in a game in a poker room is fairly simple. If there's a scheduled tournament, you just find the desk/counter and ask to get in on the tournament. If you're in time and there's room, they take your entry fee and give you a seat assignment, then you just need to show up at your table when the tournament starts. For cash games, at any point in time, card rooms will be running several games. They'll have different games at different stakes (e.g. 4-8 holdem, 1-2 NL holdem, 4-8 Omaha H/L, etc...). If you see a game you want to get into you just ask them to get on the list, if there's a spot you're in, if not you just wait for a spot to open. Most newer, nicer rooms display the lists on a screen, and they just call out your name when your spot is available. They'll tell you what table to go to and sometimes what spot (10 seats at a table, seat #1 is to the left of the dealer). For cash games you get your chips either at the table, or at the desk/counter. For tournaments you get your chips when you sit down at your seat. That's about it for getting in a game.

As far as the actual playing it's pretty much the same as what you're use to. It's almost easier because you have a professional dealer who's better at running the game, dealing the cards, letting you know what the bets are, making sure the pot's right and giving you change. On the other hand you have to be a bit more careful when you bet. Some of the casinos have a line on the table and once you put your chips over that line, they're commited and you can't take them back. Also, a verbal bet is usually binding so if you say you're betting a certain amount you have to bet that amount even if you put in the wrong chips (I think that takes precedence over the line). In one of the tournaments, I saw one guy win a big pot, and he was busy stacking his chips when the next hand started and he meant to call a bet, but put in the wrong color chips and they didn't let him take them back so he ended up raising. If you put in a chip that's bigger then the current bet, it's considered a call unless you say that you're raising. This happens fairly often if you don't happen to have any chips in the right denomination to make a call. Of course if you were to put in 2 chips of a higer denomination, it would be considered a raise (e.g. 2 $5 chips when it was $4 to call). On one hand, someone put in a bigger chip, and I wasn't sure if it was a call or a raise so I folded when I would have called if I'd known it was just a call. And of course my cards hit the flop ;) Another big difference is that you don't play for free. For tournaments, only part of your entry fee goes to the prize pool and the casino keeps the rest. And for cash games you have to pay in some way, usually there's a rake and the dealer keeps a part of each pot, and each room/game will specify how much that is. The dealers are pretty smooth so you barely even notice it but it's definitely there which means you have to beat the game pretty good to make a profit. I also hear that in some card rooms you pay a flat fee every hour or something like that. You're also supposed to tip the dealers. In tournaments, you would do it at the end if you cash, and in cash games you usually tip them a small amount every time you win a pot. The first time I won a pot in a cash game I was just happy to win and I completely forgot and felt kinda dumb, but I'm sure dealers see it all the time, and I tipped him the next time.

As for the players, I wasn't sure if people would be just cool and laid back or if you'd see some real characters. I think the answer is that you see a bit of everything. My experience was that at the 2 tournaments that I played there weren't too many characters. In fact, it was pretty quiet and people just played poker with a little friendly chatter here and there. Every now and then people got into it a little bit, like "hey, you play your way and I'll play mine" kinda stuff but nothing big. And you saw players with hats (like me) and sunglasses and stuff but nothing outrageous. You get free drinks just like any other casino game, but for the most part people weren't drinking much and were sober. I for example played for about 11 hours total on this trip, and I never ordered a drink once while at the table! But of course I was playing during the day as opposed to late at night so I suspect that had something to do with it. I did see a couple of people that looked like they were in bad shape from the night before. I definetely saw more characters at the cash games. You found some young, lound, confident/arrogant types, some people that looked like partiers, some people that struck me as more experienced. At one table there was the guy who had to tell everybody his bad beat stories and who went completely on tilt when it happened to him again. He had pocket 6s in a hand, the flop came out 10-6-x, and he went all in, and some guy (who seemed pretty solid to me) called him cuz he only had about $30 left with A-10. The turn and river came 10-10 and the guy went nuts. Kinda funny actually. This other time, I had a guy sit right to my left. He seemed like a pretty good player. In one hand, the guy to my right raised and I folded. I'm out of the hand but I'm trying to pay attention to see what happens as you're supposed to. I figured the guy to my right had a pretty good hand, but the guy to my left says he's got aces. When it got to the showdown, sure enough, it was aces, and the guy to my left says "of course they were aces". Yikes, I'm thinking stay the hell away from that guy. On another hand, same guy was in a hand with one other guy. I think he bet pre-flop, and the other guy called. The flop came with some high cards. They check the hand all the way down, and when it gets to the showdown the guy on my left says, "your ace is good" and sure enough the other guy had A-small. In a cash game, you just have to figure out who these people are and stay the hell away from them unless you've got a monster. You look for who you think is weaker and go after them. Another cash game story happened when I was on the list waiting to get in a game. You can walk around the room and watch games inside the room or from the rail. I was watching a hand, and the pot looked pretty big, and one guy was just badgering another guy. The guy went all in, stood up, and kept saying, "I know you don't have a pair, I know you don't have a pair. If you've got a pair call me, but you got A-K and I got you crushed". And on and on. The flop had some straight and flush possibilities. The other guy didn't say anything and was agonizing over the call. I was standing behind him and could see he had pockets 10s. He thought and thought while the other guy kept on going, and finally folded the big pot. Like I said, more characters.

Sooo... that was a very long way of saying that it's not like your home game, but it's still just poker. I'm definitely looking forward to doing it again, hopefully with some of you!

Tells from the felt

So I spent the past weekend in Fabulous Las Vegas. I was out there for my boy Gino's bachelor party, but the secondary goal was to play some real poker Vegas style. Gino and his brothers were flying in on Thursday night so I flew in a day early on Wednesday night and the plan was to play all day on Thursday. I got a reservation for one night at the Excalibur. For those who haven't been to Vegas it's a casino on the strip that's somewhere right smack in between really cheap and ghetto, and really fancy and glamorous. It's a good value cuz it's right there on the strip yet not too expensive. It worked fine for me. I got there a little before midnight and went up to my room. I was tempted to go down and look for a poker game right away, but I was tired from the flight and I figured the smart thing was just to get some sleep and start early. It took me a little while to fall asleep but I managed, and then I got up at 6:30am Vegas time ready to go.

I got cleaned up, packed my stuff, and went downstairs to check out. I went to the poker room and signed up for the 9am tournament right there at the excalibur. It was about 7:30am I think and there was a 2-5 No Limit hold em game going on. I didn't touch it and went to get breakfast instead to wait for the tournament (corned beef hash and eggs, giddeyup). The tournament was a $35 buyin with a pretty bad structure. You started with 300 in chips and the blinds started at 5-10 and went up every 15 mins. That's not a lot of chips so this thing wasn't going to last long. The Excalibur was pretty low tech so when you signed in you went to a table and picked up a card with your table assignment. There were 3 full tables so about 30 players. Honestly, I don't remember too much from the tournament (my poker memory sucks!). I played pretty standard tournament strategy. Pretty tight when the blinds are small and progressively more agressive as they get bigger compared to your stack. I made it to the final table with an average stack. By the time we got to the money (final 5) the blinds were real high and my stack wasn't that big. On the hand that I went out on I had J-5 suited I think. The flop came out with low cards, 2 of my suit giving me a straight draw, flush draw, and an overcard. I think I went all in and got called by a guy that had a pair of 4s. None of my draws came through and I was done and won a woopin $54. Peanuts but I was still pretty happy about it. At this point it was only 10:30am which tells you how fast that tournament went.

10:30 AM gave me plenty of time to cross the street and enter an 11AM tournament at the MGM. The MGM has a much nicer poker room then the excalibur. They have wide screen tvs with the different games going on and the lists for each game, and when you signed up for the tournament you got a computer print out with your table assignment. The tables also had automatic shufflers. The dealer has 2 decks and it shuffles one deck while you play with the other. Combine that with pro dealers and it keeps the games going pretty fast. This tournament had a better structure. $65 buyin, 2000 in chips, blinds go up every 20 mins and start at 25-25. This one was going to take longer and there was even 2 small breaks scheduled. And about 80 players which made for a much bigger prize pool. I played pretty well. I remember just a few hands. On one I think it went something like this. I had A-J suited. I raised pre-flop and got a couple of callers. The flop came out with an A and 2 cards in my suit. I bet again and got one or two callers. On the turn I hit my J, now I'm feeling really good about the hand. I can't remember if I checked or bet it, but either way I got myself heads up on the river, and on the river I hit my flush! So sweet. It was a pretty big pot and the rookie move would be to go all in, but I wanted to get called so I bet a pretty big amount but small enough compared to the pot, something like 500 into a 1000 pot, and he called me! He had a big ace, like A-Q and I had him crushed. I went through some ups and downs the rest of the way. I did get in bad shape once and managed to suck out. I don't remember what the hand was exactly but I think I was dominated, maybe A-Q vs A-K or something like that and I was either all in, or virtually all in so that if I lost I'd be crippled, but I hit the Q on the river and survived. The other key hand that I remember was when we got to the final table. At that point I had a medium to smallish stack. I got dealt pocket 9s and I made a pretty big pre-flop raise. I got called by one guy who may have been on one of the blinds. The flop came out 10-8-10. At that point I felt pretty good about my hand. I figured the chances of him having a 10 were small, and there was a good chance that my 9s were good. The guy that I was up against had a big stack and this was a good chance for me to double up so I went all in. He thought about it for a long time, and finally called me. He had something like J-8. He didn't think that I already had a made hand and was surprised to see my 9s. They held up and I doubled up. At that point I had about 28K in chips and was either 1st or second in chips. I didn't want to play tentative, but there were a couple of smaller stacks and I tightened up a little bit to let them bust out and get me to the money. I made it to the last 3 and at this point all 3 of us were fairly close in chips, but I was in last position and the blinds were getting really big. I got dealt a 10-4 offsuit in the big blind and went heads up to the flop with the guy to the left of me. The flop came our Q-Q-x. I checked and he checked. Turn came out a 4. I didn't think he had a pair, so I went all in, but he was sitting there with a Q and his check on the flop was a well laid out trap. That was it I was done. It's tough at that point because you have to be aggressive and if you happen to run into a bigger hand you have to use your reads to make the decision and I didn't give him credit for the Qs. The 2 guys left chopped it and took about $1300 each and I took about $600.

Needless to say I was pretty happy with my performance. My first time playing in Vegas ever and I cash in 2 tournaments in a row! It was about 1:30PM by then and I had a thick wad of cash in my pocket. Pretty sweet. Of course I then proceeded to lose all my winnings and then some playing cash games and table games, but that's another story. I still have a lot of work to do on my game but I'm looking forward to going back and playing some more!