First Experience In A B&m Casino

[DrZoidberg 0]

So I finally turned 21 and couldn't wait to get into a B&M Casino and play some REAL poker against some real opponents. The closest I've gotten to this is a local bar game which is basically a joke, they play .25/.50 with $20 max buy in...and it's basically a shove fest. Anyway, I was home from school for spring break in the New England area and I convinced my Family to stop at Foxwoods if I agreed to spend the day at the beach with them. No biggie. Since I'm a poor college student, I had to get my parents to stake me, I know, kind of pathetic, but I made a little deal with them, after convincing them that there was a decent chance I could win some money, I told them they had two options. #1 I guarantee the entire amount of money they stake me, anything I lose I pay back 100%, and anything I win they get the stake +25% of the profit. #2 I guarantee half the stake, anything I lose I pay back 50%, but anything I win they get 50%. I have no idea if these are actually fair/good terms, but the opted for option #2. Now before anyone calls me a terrible compulsive gambler for gambling with borrowed money, I had an $800 bankroll on stars to back this up with. ANYWAY, they ended up giving me $300, which to be honest was a little short, but was better than nothing. My younger brother, who was on leave that week (just joined the Army, bless him) also got $200. He's not a very good poker player at all, also he's only 20, but when he showed the bouncer, or whatever you call the large man who guards the poker room entrance, his military ID, he simply said " '88 huh? Get in there" Hurray for military perks and underage gambling!Now let me say, for someone who's never seen a real poker floor before the spectacle was a little overwhelming. I forget the exact number of tables, but it was a shit ton. I made my way over to the cage and exchanged my cash for a tray of $1 and $5 chips. Now here's where things started to go downhill, I had read online that they ran 1NL tables, which would have been a good limit since I only had a couple hours at best to play. Unfortunately, this wasn't true and I had the option of 2NL or 1/2 Limit. I know what I SHOULD have done, but I'm a much better NL player then limit so I signed up for the NL table. After about a 15 minute wait a spot opened up, and I sat down between an native american looking woman in thick shades, and a rather large older gentlemen. I was nervous, and it probably showed. I was easily the youngest at the table, but it seemed to be a good mix of people, ranging from mid 20's to later 40's.I bought in full $200, and waited for my BB, observed some of the action, the guy 2 to my left was sporting a stack of about $1600. Holy shit, he must have been playing all day, and by the looks of his cloths he was dressed for long term comfort. Okay, so watch out for him then. When the time came, I promptly posted my $2 blind, so as not to look clueless. The dealer asked me for $5 for time, and I made the first mistake of trying to hand him a chip directly, whoops! He asked me to just place it on the table and I did feeling a little embarrassed. After that things went relatively smoothly, I folded my first couple hands. One thing I noticed was that people were raising a lot more then I expected pre flop, with the standard raise being between $10-12. Somewhere along the line I raised $6 on the button with a small pocket pair, flopped nothing and folded to a bet and a call. Anyway, on to the first real interesting hand,I was sitting with about $185 in the cutoff. Villain raises $12, 3 callers, I look down at 89s, and make the call, in position, multi-way pot, feeling classy. Flop comes 89J, rainbow. Oh now I'm a genius! I start doing the math in my head and figuring out exactly how much to bet to get the most value out of my obviously winning hand when I hear "ALL IN" from the original preflop raiser. I do a double take, what the hell? The other 3 callers fold and it's up to me. I'm looking at a $163 bet at a $60 pot. I have no idea whats going on here. It doesn't matter what hand he has, that's not a valid bet in any case, is it? What the heck is he saying with that bet? Does it even matter? Can I call? Should I call? The only thing I can put him on is AA-QQ. That's a scared overbet. There's no way he's shoving with better than 2 pair is there? Maybe the straight draw? Oh god. I think about my limited bankroll, about extending my playing time, NO, I can't let that let me play scared, that would be a mistake! I check my cards again and feebly say "Call" and push my stack in. He flips up JJ and asks if i have Q10. Oh. wow. What just happened here? I'm confused. The turn is an unnecessarily brutal J. Stupid call. Stupid. No reason to call off my stack when I only had $12 invested, right? I reload my remaining $100 still stunned.Couple hands later I'm looking at 67s on the button, folds around, so I put in a $6 raise and get called by the BB, and older gentlemen. Flop 557, 2 hearts. He checks, I bet $12, he calls. Turn 2. He checks, I bet $30, he calls. River is the 3rd heart. He goes all in, I fold, and he shows A3h. Oh well, I bet him off it and he caught, no biggie. I hear something about old folks never folding an ace life, lol. I'm left with about $60.Couple hands later, "standard" $12 raise, folds around, I look down at QQ, easy shove, raiser calls, w00t? Flop comes K high, crap, turn A, double crap, river something. He shows AQ. Triple crap! I toss my unlucky ladies face up in the muck, thank everyone for the game (all 20 minutes of it). They tell me that my seat has been bad luck all day, I'm like the 4th person to bust out of it in couple hours. Orly? I find my brother who has also busted out, and we head to the arcade to play some video games with my little sister. I end up winning a ton of tickets and got some sweet candy for them. All in all a good day.On reflection, I should have played limit, or waited for the $100 Tournament to start, I'm a much better tourney player, and limit would have been a lot safer with my short bankroll. Second, without any reads I should have easily folded that 2-pair, if I had been sitting at the table for a bit longer and had seen the way they were playing it would have been a much easier fold.

[chgocubs99 0]

Woah

[Balloon guy 158]

It gets easier

[rdtedm 0]

Sounds like my first 1-2 live experience, although I wasnt 21 and it was an underground casino. I lost like $170 and it felt baaaaaaaaaaaaad.

[BeaverStyle 1]

I won like $150 at my first casino experience in Windsor, Canada. The bar crawl that night was fantastical.Unlucky... although the hand w/ bottom two pair.... I don't know what I would do there, but unlucky to run into top set anyway

[Fluffdog87 2]

Some unfortunate hands for your first time playing live poker but you will have better sessions in the future.Gl and have fun!

[PokMaster 0]

Good Luck

[JaNnN 0]

Unlucky dude, but this is just your first time playing live so things will be better. Try to safe up 500 bucks or so in the comming time and take another shot. The games will always be there so you don't have to rush.Good luck,Jan

[Mercury69 3]

OUch!

[mtdesmoines 3]

lower your expectations when you bring 1.5 buy insand try something for the first time

[UCFrizzo 0]

Pretty unlucky man...just play more and it will feel more natural. Tough beat. GL in the future

[Citizen Erased 0]

Keep your head up, man. That's just running stupidly bad :(Very well written. All the best for the future.

[NoBBiR 0]

Ahhh, reminds me of my first trip to the 'ol Turningstone. Run like ass, run like ass some more, etc.I think its a cardinal rule of poker that the first time you're in a casino you get shit on, and then the next few times you aren't nervous, and get a little bit better cards. The next three times I went after dumping $150 my first trip I won 67, 176, and 45 on like hour-2 hour trips. Casino live players play so terrible it's pathetic. The fact that the guy open shoves 3x the pot with JJ just proves that. Soooooooooooo terrible. It's a good call though, regardless on what you had invested. Players like that turn over AA-QQ there and are just scared of being sucked out on so much it's pathetic.

[TheCinciKid 0]

Sounds like a tough run. Live NL is just a different animal than online. Like you noticed, much bigger raises pre-flop and most people don't really pay attention to pot sizes when they make their bets. Still, definitely a tough run for your first time. Keep your head up, if you're any good you'll have better sessions down the road.I'm curious, you mentioned a 1/2 limit game at the beginning of your post and I'm curious....are they really running a 1/2 limit game or were you referring to 1 and 2 blinds which would be a 2/4 limit game. Just curious b/c I've never seen anything lower than 2/4 limit live and it seems like the rake at 1/2 live game would just be too big to overcome (and probably not big enough for the house to money at it).

[TheCinciKid 0]

Ahhh, reminds me of my first trip to the 'ol Turningstone. Run like ass, run like ass some more, etc.I think its a cardinal rule of poker that the first time you're in a casino you get shit on, and then the next few times you aren't nervous, and get a little bit better cards. The next three times I went after dumping $150 my first trip I won 67, 176, and 45 on like hour-2 hour trips. Casino live players play so terrible it's pathetic. The fact that the guy open shoves 3x the pot with JJ just proves that. Soooooooooooo terrible. It's a good call though, regardless on what you had invested. Players like that turn over AA-QQ there and are just scared of being sucked out on so much it's pathetic.

Granted, I don't think this is great, but I don't think it's that horrible either. You have to consider the game texture. Nobody folds in this game and the board is draw heavy and could have hit several hands at least to some extent. He gets called by a lot of draws here and is getting excellent value if he does.

[wavelengthsf 0]

The first time I played live was very nerve-racking. I ended up folding a full house because I failed to read the board and my hole cards.

[TheCinciKid 0]

The first time I played live was very nerve-racking. I ended up folding a full house because I failed to read the board and my hole cards.

I'll go you one better. I once called a river bet with two pair, then mucked b/c I thought had lost, only to realize a few minutes later that I'd misread the board and mucked the best hand. That one sucked.

[psujohn 0]

The first time I played live was very nerve-racking. I ended up folding a full house because I failed to read the board and my hole cards.

My first time playing I flopped a str8 and folded. I had something like 53 in the bb in a limped pot and when I didn't flop two pair I was done with the hand. The 642 flop was actually a bit better for me than a 53x would have been.But then again on my most recent trip I played a hand horrible and saved myself some money. I had Kh8h and saw a flop that was 9h7x6h. I called a flop bet and hit one of my gin cards on the turn a 5x. I called a near pot sized bet and took the river HU and missed my flush. Guy turns over 87 or something and I say chop it up and turn over Kh7h. Ooops.

[CrookedLink 0]

LOL, very similar to my first live experience.My biggest mistake was buying in short though, for $100. I lasted around 20 minutes as well and left feeling crushed.I'm pretty sure I wrote an entry in my blog about it, hold up.LOL holy shit, I just found it and realized it was exactly one year ago today.Here it is:Look up the word donk in the dictionary right now, and you'll find my picture. Holy shit I played like the biggest donk in the world today. I just got back from my first live cash game experience and it was a complete disaster. I just want to kick myself in the nuts right now for how bad I played. I don't even feel like blogging but I just need to vent.Basically I've come to question whether I have ANY poker skills what so ever. Not the way I was playing I don't. Sure it was my first time playing a live cash game so I was a little nervous but still, thats no ****in excuse what so ever. So I guess I'll run through some of the retarded plays I made.I bought in for $100 and waited til a seat at $1/2NL opened up. It hadn't even been 10 minutes that I'd been at the table and I'm on the button with JJ. I raise it to 10 and get two callers. Flop comes something like 89K. 1st guy checks and 2nd guy bets I think like 25 and I call. We check check the turn which is a blank and the river is another blank but he fires like 40 dollars. I think for a bit and then call. He had KQ and just like that I'm down to 30 sumthin dollars!Wait it gets better. Even though I manage to double up with AJ against QK and then I crack a dude's Aces with pocket fives when I catch a miracle 5 on the river, I was still able to keep donking off my chips. I was so out of my comfort zone because I'd never played with stakes that high before, and I figured with $1/2 blinds, standard raise at the table would be 6, but somehow it was 12, not to mention this one dude who kept straddling every chance he had. So the final hand of the night came when I had j10 and flop comes 89x. I make a standard raise and the other guy puts me all in for my last 40 so I decide to call for some reason with an open ended straight draw against KK. I brick of course and that was that. I swear if I had been anybody else sitting at that table I would have been like "What a ****in donk!" and I'm pretty sure that's what people said as soon as I left the table and I don't blame them.God damn it, I'm really pissed off about the way I played. It's like I feel like I can't play poker for shit. Whatever little confidence I had in my game was shattered tonight. Man, I'm done I don't feel like writing anymore. This is it. I gotta reevaluate poker in my life. Maybe I'll be able to think a little better later when I'm not steaming so much.I hate poker.

[SCYUKON 0]

yeah - first time in B&M was playing 4/8 half and half - had never heard of Omaha before and barely Texas Holdem. When I finally had the nuts I capped flop, turn and river, only to learn that I needed to use at least 2 cards when playing Omaha. Goodbye buyin! LOL.Hang in there OP. Went to play 1/2 NL live the other day. First buying gone after limp then reraise allin with bullets against original raiser's 10 j off. 2nd buyin gone in 6 WAY POT after drunk guy straddles for 40, I push with KK for 180, and get 5 callers, including said drunk guy, who plays hand blind, flips over 56 off at the end, and takes down MONSTER pot with two pair. 1/2 live is so bad. I feel sorry for anyone trying to actually grind out a living doing that.

[CrookedLink 0]

yeah - first time in B&M was playing 4/8 half and half - had never heard of Omaha before and barely Texas Holdem. When I finally had the nuts I capped flop, turn and river, only to learn that I needed to use at least 2 cards when playing Omaha. Goodbye buyin! LOL.Hang in there OP. Went to play 1/2 NL live the other day. First buying gone after limp then reraise allin with bullets against original raiser's 10 j off. 2nd buyin gone in 6 WAY POT after drunk guy straddles for 40, I push with KK for 180, and get 5 callers, including said drunk guy, who plays hand blind, flips over 56 off at the end, and takes down MONSTER pot with two pair. 1/2 live is so bad. I feel sorry for anyone trying to actually grind out a living doing that.

does not compute.i may be wrong but doesn't a straddle have to be double the bb? at least for it to be considered a live straddle?

[SCYUKON 0]

does not compute.i may be wrong but doesn't a straddle have to be double the bb? at least for it to be considered a live straddle?

Call it a kadoodle if you wish, all I know is he say "Dealerzz, I wnat to move affer this hand so I am going to bet 40 blind, ok?" and the dealer let him. Hence my failed attempt at isolation. As luck would have it, even if it worked i wuz still toast. Oh well.

[Largetotals 0]

LOL, very similar to my first live experience.My biggest mistake was buying in short though, for $100. I lasted around 20 minutes as well and left feeling crushed.I'm pretty sure I wrote an entry in my blog about it, hold up.LOL holy shit, I just found it and realized it was exactly one year ago today.Here it is:Look up the word donk in the dictionary right now, and you'll find my picture. Holy shit I played like the biggest donk in the world today. I just got back from my first live cash game experience and it was a complete disaster. I just want to kick myself in the nuts right now for how bad I played. I don't even feel like blogging but I just need to vent.Basically I've come to question whether I have ANY poker skills what so ever. Not the way I was playing I don't. Sure it was my first time playing a live cash game so I was a little nervous but still, thats no ****in excuse what so ever. So I guess I'll run through some of the retarded plays I made.I bought in for $100 and waited til a seat at $1/2NL opened up. It hadn't even been 10 minutes that I'd been at the table and I'm on the button with JJ. I raise it to 10 and get two callers. Flop comes something like 89K. 1st guy checks and 2nd guy bets I think like 25 and I call. We check check the turn which is a blank and the river is another blank but he fires like 40 dollars. I think for a bit and then call. He had KQ and just like that I'm down to 30 sumthin dollars!Wait it gets better. Even though I manage to double up with AJ against QK and then I crack a dude's Aces with pocket fives when I catch a miracle 5 on the river, I was still able to keep donking off my chips. I was so out of my comfort zone because I'd never played with stakes that high before, and I figured with $1/2 blinds, standard raise at the table would be 6, but somehow it was 12, not to mention this one dude who kept straddling every chance he had. So the final hand of the night came when I had j10 and flop comes 89x. I make a standard raise and the other guy puts me all in for my last 40 so I decide to call for some reason with an open ended straight draw against KK. I brick of course and that was that. I swear if I had been anybody else sitting at that table I would have been like "What a ****in donk!" and I'm pretty sure that's what people said as soon as I left the table and I don't blame them.God damn it, I'm really pissed off about the way I played. It's like I feel like I can't play poker for shit. Whatever little confidence I had in my game was shattered tonight. Man, I'm done I don't feel like writing anymore. This is it. I gotta reevaluate poker in my life. Maybe I'll be able to think a little better later when I'm not steaming so much.I hate poker.

man, you beat the snot outta yerself on that blog I think everyone ends up busting out in their first trip unless they have insane luck.. I know I did.My first live casino experience was at a native casino about an hour's drive from here.. only place that has no limit. I bought in for a brutally small buyin of like 50 bucks for 1/2 dollar. (this was before I had any understanding of BR and BBs et all) and I basically blind off 30 of that.. win maybe 10 with ak then get into a deep hand with Q-10 os... flop comes q-10-8. I raise 15.. villain calls. turn is a 4. I push all in.. villain calls.. river is a 9 and the little asian dude shows j-4 os. at this point I asked, seriously? thanked the guy, the dealer and wandered off to boil. ended up playing texas holdem shootout..interesting game, that shootout.. anyone play it? regardless, I think everyone's cherry poppin' good time... just like a females.. leaves alot to be desired

[MovingIn 0]

I remember my first live game, buying in for $100 at 4/8 limit, and I scared the crap out of a semi-famous car dealer jamming the pot with what I thought was a flush, but I misread my hand and I had nothing but air. I was mortified. The rest of the table and the dealer were baffled. The guy, who had top pair or something, was a loudmouth and his reaction was, "Wh... what the... GIMME THAT POT!" Kinda funny, but there went more than half my stack and I busted shortly after. Fortunately, I bought into their $60 tourney, played much better and managed to finish 2nd for about $300.It'll get better, OP. Learn what you can from the losses, and from that experience shall hopefully come more winning sessions.

[rivergirl 2]

my first live experience was in vegas at the stardust. Back then (before internet poker) i had only played home games, they ran more limit games (i don't even recall a NL game running that day). I sat down at a 2/4 table with my little rack of white chips, pretty nervous i would say. Fortunately for me, there was this really nice older gentleman at the table who seemed to be very generous. He proceeded go through racks of chips every 15 mins or so for about 2 hours. He was the guy who paid everyone off just too keep them honest. My first time playing NL live was a bit different. I had my aces cracked 2x by the same guy and was sick to my stomach. After the 2nd time, I got A10 utg and shoved my last 50 or so in, got called by 3 people (omg what a nightmare) and ended up flopping the nut straight, broke even and ran.