first casino poker experience (somewhat long)

[MDXS 0]

My sister came home from work last night at midnight and said she was going to Foxwoods. I had never been before. At first I was reluctant because of bankroll concerns and a question of my skill level (how naive!). I hadn't gone recently because I was planning on going for my birthday next month. I thought it abritrary and asinine to wait until then, so I was headed to the casino at midnight.I got there around 1:30 and hopped onto a table immediately. They screwed up and sat 11. I noticed this and thought that they were just giving the 2/4 players the shaft, but this is not Foxwoods policy and the problem was rectified as soon as the dealer noticed. I didn't want to see the guy they kicked off go because he was sloppy drunk.I've heard from other people making casino trips that they find themselves to be the youngest at the table, usually by far. I did not have this experience. I'd say during my whole stay at the table, there was one forty year old guy, one about thirty, and everyone else was in my 21-25 age group. All of them sucked.For those who have never been at a casino, let me confirm that the rumors are true. I thought Party Poker was the easiest game in town, but it has nothing on what I witnessed last night. 7-8 to the flop was the norm. Whether or not it was raised did not matter. I wasn't there for that long, but in my short stay, I saw or heard the following:- I've got top pair, so I have to call you down.- Ace-high beating queen-high after an action heavy flop and turn (no draws for either)- A three bet in a multi-way pot with three high (chasing the ass-end of a gutshot)- A cold-call/reraise with Q4o (cracked my AK and a million others)And the list goes on. I had a rough time picking up hands, especially early on. The highest pair I saw was nines. In that hand I was reraised pre-flop and knew I was cooked when an ace and a king came on the flop. One flop I did hit was with KJ on a KQT board. Unfortunately, they were all hearts. My jack was red, but alas, a diamond. When the ace of hearts came on the turn, I made my straight, but I was certainly cooked. The gentleman across from me (the same one making the bizarre move with Q4) won himself a jacket with his royal flush and the lady sitting to my left was absolutely shocked that her two pair did not hold up (even though the last card was also a heart).Being card dead at four am is rough. The boredom was starting to affect me. I began entertaining thoughts like "maybe I should take my 200 bucks to the 4/8 table" and "T2s isn't *that* bad of a hand..." Thankfully I didn't give it. I've gotten used to playing four tables at once, so waiting for cards and going well over an hour without winning a pot is foreign to me. The rake was a bitch too. Still, the casino experience and easier games makes up for this.I was worried going in that I'd get too fixated on the money value of the chips. It's not too much of an issue online, but at times in live games with my friends I get a little gun shy if I think about how much money I'm throwing in. Though I have the roll for it, I've never played limits as high as 2/4 before. I happy to see that this wasn't the issue and I think that I played most of my hands more or less as optimally as I could. My results for the four hours I spent there were disappointing and frustrating. I was down 17 bets and never had much to work with. I'm looking forward to going back next month though. Long term domination of the 2/4 table will be a simple goal to achieve if those tables are uniformly terrible, which I'd have to think that they are. An easy 85% of those I played with were so obviously bad that they'd instantly get added to my Party buddy list. So yeah, it was a fun interesting experience even though I felt like I was dying a slow death in a sea of J4's and 93's, missed flops and rivered gutshots. Well worth my devastated sleeping schedule.