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

[yeffy 0]

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.

I love NY!When we raised the Max on the 1/2 at my club to $500 there was a guy one night who lost his stack (about $350) to me bought back in for $500 and had already lost that to me on the next hand before the rack even made it to the table. There is nothing nicer than not handing a chip runner money and having them bring you a fresh rack.I probably know you by the way. Did you play at PS or ever at B'Way?

[*Lone*Trout* 0]

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

No I live in Columbia. I wouldn't drive to Booneville from K.C. That would be -EV.*L*T*

[thrillsoft 0]

I love NY!When we raised the Max on the 1/2 at my club to $500 there was a guy one night who lost his stack (about $350) to me bought back in for $500 and had already lost that to me on the next hand before the rack even made it to the table. There is nothing nicer than not handing a chip runner money and having them bring you a fresh rack.I probably know you by the way. Did you play at PS or ever at B'Way?

No, those were before my time. I played at EV, Penthouse, The Loft, AKULA, All-In and a couple of new ones that my friends own.

[DB10-2 0]

i was in detroit last weekend and stopped by the greektown casino poker room. they had a NL game going that appeared to be a $100max buy in, but the blinds were 2-2-5 and a standard preflop raise was to $20. talk about prohibitive--i only had about $150 with me and only had about 90 mins. to play. the game looked beatable, if you had say $500 and 5 hours.so, rather than give in to the action-craving monster (and likely give away my money), i decided not to play.i play NL cash games in oceanside and LA somewhat often. i broke my cherry in a $125NL tournament at the bike, where i lasted about 2 hours, getting sucked out on in two key pots that ended the day for me. i'd only been playing NLHE for about 3 months at that point and really didn't know what i was doing, but even then i could recognize worse players than me.after that i did another tournament at hawaiian gardens where i played great for like 5 hours (at one point busting david pham with a full house over his nut flush), then horribly slowplayed two pair with a flush draw on the board and went broke to the one guy at my table who had more chips than me. talk about a donk-tastic error--i'll never forget that mistake, which i made after having been playing for about 5 months. that's the last really big mistake i've made in a live game of any kind...

[Tiltinagain 973]

My first was a NL Tourney at one of the card rooms here in Spokane. I went to watch a friend since I"d never played anything other than home games (and not many of those). Well he kept on me to play and since it was only a $22 buy in I figured WTF. First real pot I was in I limped with A4 off and the flop comes AA4...I was jumping for joy inside so much because of having "trip aces" I didn't even realize until the hand was over and I dragged a huge pot that I had flopped a full house! These are 5 table tourneys that get an average of 55-65 players with alternates and I went out with two tables left. Played twice more over the next couple of weeks and at the 3rd tourney I ever entered I won, taking home about $480. Been hooked ever since... This game is worse than cocaine for it's addictive powers...

[handsfactor 0]

My first B&M experience was a $100 buy-in tourney at Foxwoods. I had played online a little without any major success, and wanted to see how I did in a live tourney. My friend and I went down, and my goal was to survive in the top half of the field. I ended up making it to the final table, and then refusing to chop 5 ways, when I was in 2nd chip position (5th place was the one badgering people to make the deal) When it got down to heads up, we traded a 2-1 chip lead 3 times, before agreeing to chop $3700 a peice after tipping the dealers.

[NOFX_PUNK 0]

TILTINAGAIN, where have I seen your avatar pic before?