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Well The Leap Has Been Taken..........


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This afternoon, I sat down at the Isle of Capri casino in Booneville MO. to play 2/5, $100 minimum/$300 maximum NL Hold 'Em. First mistake I made was bying in for the minimum. It was a classic example of "bringing a knife to a gun fight". Second mistake I made was playing moderately LAG from the get go. Lost a couple of bucks post flop with A4 suited and A8 off, made it back when my all in bet with pocket 8's held up against K6 suited. 2 hands later pick up pocket J's only to run into an AA buzzsaw with no help from the flop. $100 and 20 minutes later (exercising much restraint to not rebuy) I was headed for home.I was nervous at first, didn't try to be cute (per se) just ran into a better hand at the end. I am looking forward to my next trip, where I will be sure to buy in for the max and start slow, spending more time observing and less time folding post flop.*L*T*p.s. maybe this thread can be used to share your first time B&M experiences. Look forward to seeing if my experience was typical.

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i was nervous as hell the first time i played NL in a poker room. I had played limit and that never bothered me, but when someone is throwing $50 into the pot at a 1/2 table you kinda reevaluate your hand. I just played again and again and eventually got used to the fear factor. Develop a good table sense overall and at that specific table. Start slow at those levels because even witht he max buyin youre still at a great disatvantage when compared to the other stacks at the table (unless you bought in on a brand new table, which i prefer).

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2/5 with buyins that low? hmmfoxwoods 2/5 is min 300 max 500, which ive only played once but it seemed much more appropiate, given the 1/2 max $100 buy in game. twice as many bb's at the 2/5 level...my first time playing NL, i played really well...i sat out the first 7 hands, evaluated the table, worked my $100 into $350 before i played QQ not very well and lost it all on a jack-high flop when the resident lag hit his j9 two-pair. was intimidated at first, but once you win and lose your first big pots, it all feels right at home.

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2/5 with buyins that low? hmmfoxwoods 2/5 is min 300 max 500, which ive only played once but it seemed much more appropiate, given the 1/2 max $100 buy in game. twice as many bb's at the 2/5 level...
Booneville and Central Missouri in general isn't known for it's high roller types. I guess theykeep it affordable and inviting.
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Most places the max buy in is in the neighborhood of 100 BBs.At any rate, just to critique your play I think you are forgetting that there's no urgency, especially live. People are going to make mistakes against your big hands, so if you're not holding near the biggest (88 for example) you may want to let them go to heavy pre-flop action,

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I played at Boonville about 6 years ago when blackjack was still the game of choice. I have never been around so many "hicks" in a casino in my life. I couldn't wait to get out of that place.
All we have here are ancient people in our casinos, and for some reason, tons of asians. I'll see your hick, and raise you a 105 year old Thai woman.
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First time I played NL at a casino was when I went in early one morning to play in the donkfest rebuy tournament. I got there a couple hours before it started and they only had a 2/5 NL game going, so I bought in for I think the minimum ($200) and ran it up to about double before quitting for the tournament. I was weak tight as well, luckily caught KK vs JJ who called me down on an A-high flop (I wasn't betting very big).

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I love Live play, the casino near me is always full of drunks and rich old blokes who think bluffing is awesome so I just wait for my good hands and cash in on them its 4/8 limit and I usually walk away 200 or so up after a 2-3 hour session.

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I love Live play, the casino near me is always full of drunks and rich old blokes who think bluffing is awesome so I just wait for my good hands and cash in on them its 4/8 limit and I usually walk away 200 or so up after a 2-3 hour session.
Wow, 25 bb every 50-75 hands. Feel like telling us where this goldmine is? I could live ok off of $66-$100 an hour.
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I played at Boonville about 6 years ago when blackjack was still the game of choice. I have never been around so many "hicks" in a casino in my life. I couldn't wait to get out of that place.
If the most "hicks" you have been exposed to is in central Missouri....then I will assume you live in Canada or something???? Not that many hicks in central Missouri...try Georgia or something...lol.
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I can't wait to play NL at a casino. I live in a 21 zone and I'm only 19. So it might be a while. Have played live limit tho, cool first experience.

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my first B&M was lame. I played in a $25 NL tourney. 56 entrants I placed 48 when my floped straight was eatin alive by a full house. I came back two weeks later and played the same tourney and placed 3rd.

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Most places the max buy in is in the neighborhood of 100 BBs.At any rate, just to critique your play I think you are forgetting that there's no urgency, especially live. People are going to make mistakes against your big hands, so if you're not holding near the biggest (88 for example) you may want to let them go to heavy pre-flop action,
Ditto. The place that I play, people are actually rather timid pre-flop. They'll put it all in on a flop where their pair is an over, but before the flop, if there is raise, re-raise, you're almost always looking at KK's or AA's. You'd rarely find me putting it all-in pf with Q's against the majority of people. Sit back, hit something big, and take it.
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I can't wait to play NL at a casino. I live in a 21 zone and I'm only 19. So it might be a while. Have played live limit tho, cool first experience.
go play the spread games in the MN casinos, FYI Fargo ****ing blows.
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I decided to be smart and hit the ground running. The first time I ever played live in a casino was a $300 buy-in limit hold'em tourney at foxwoods during the innagural WPT world poker finals. This was back when limit events drew big crowds. So I pay my buy-in and sit down at the table oh about 45 minutes before the tourney started....can you say nervous much? The tourney finally starts and guess who is seated directly to my left? Men Nguyen. I knew who he was and was pretty intimidated. I proceed to fold to him everytime he raises my bets. I finally flopped a set of jacks and lost the rest of my stack to Men's flush. He stands up and pats me on the back as I'm getting up from the table and says "Don't feel bad, you tell you friends you lost to Men The Master" I kinda wanted to kick him in the nuts but I chuckled and left.....Welcome to poker kid.

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First time I played NL in a casino was at Bally's in vegas last november.1/2 100 max and I pretty much got smacked with the deck. Walked away about 3 hours later with 450$ which made up nicely for my -EV casino game losses for the trip.Oh and Rbk33 - Enjoy THEODORE. And btw, his ankle isn't really injured, he's in coke rehab.

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are you in KC? the IOC shoudl be called the isle of debris. that room sucks major A55.go to harrah's or ameristar, much better rooms
Total agreement with the above statement.
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My first live experience was at an underground poker room in NYC (where I live). It was VERY upscale though and the people were great. The games were very aggressive compared to online. $1/$2 NL game, standard raise pre-flop was $15-$20 (with something like QJs). I was very nervous and basically let the table run over me. I lost about $600. I didn't even have cab money to get home because I had reached my withdrawal limit for the day on my ATM card. I had to walk home and ran through the key hands in my mind of the night and was so ashamed at how completely horribly that I played them. I vowed that I'd go back with some balls next time.The next day I went back for a tournament. I got first place in the tournament and then hit the cash tables and took the cash tables for almost $2000. That's all it took for me to get over my fear of live play and just play my game. That card room is closed down, but still I have very good friends now at all the card rooms in town and am more comfortable playing live now than online.I took my first trip to a casino a couple months ago down in Atlantic City and the table that I sat at had 6 people that I knew very well from the NYC card rooms that I play! So that wasn't much of leap for me to take. I won about $1000 on that trip (just overnight), but haven't gotten back down there yet.GL with your next card room experience. My first was a disaster as well.EDIT: BTW, the games here are VERY aggressive. I buy-in for the max ($300) at a $1/$2 table with about a 50% expectation that I'll have to buy-in again before I hit a couple big pots and have a stack to really do something with (everyone at the table seems to have $1000 in front of them and don't mind throwing it around a lot). Losing $100 and not re-buying is definitely -EV where I play. That wouldn't get you through one pot here.

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I agree with the last poster. I usually figure that I'm going to need $600-$900 to survive the swings in a live 1/2 NL game before I start winning, and that's with a state law that caps every pot at $300. If you're going into that kind of a game shortstacked, it will take a miracle to leave the table with any money.

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