First time playing LIVE NO LIMIT - WHAT A DISASTER

[Dan Abnormal]

SO after playing pretty decent yesterday I said its finally time to play NO LIMIT HOLD EM and granted I didnt lose much $60 and thats where I cut myself off at. MY GOD I WAS A FISH OUT OF WATER, my betting sucked, I got in hands that got expensive quick and ended up not seeing it through. I did get upto over $100 at one point by pushing $45 in on AQ and a flop that hit the ace and it held up to pocket KK. but everything after was a disaster and I gotta get my head on right next time I play NO LIMIT.

I finally decided to not rebuy after losign my first buy in cause some older dude came to the table and the first 3 hands he was in he pushed in a $100 stack each time and lost all 3x and on the last hand I had 2 high pairs hit on the flop and called his $95 all in with my $32 and someone else called and that guy hit a flush and I was like, IM NOT READY and slowly moved my way back to the limit tables.

It was great fun though but I was able to play for $20 at the limit tables for the next 4 hours but I cant wait to get my NO LIMIT SKILLS RIGHT

[Peteyweestro]

I will stay with online version thanks, after reading this and knowing how bad i did on my own playing ring games online, well lets just say i would have a huge target on my back,lol

[Poker Orifice]

AbsDan, those sound like GREAT tables to be sitting down at!! (only thing is, you to need to bring a decent roll to the game, so you can sit with at least 100bb's & so that you can re-load... I'm assuming it's $1/$2 live game?).
Live cash tables, the bet-sizing is alot different than online (ie. 15x pre at times, instead of 3x). If you've got some maniacs there who are just shoving it in... GREAT!!! That's just what you want. Wish I had a room near where I live.. sigh.

[Dan Abnormal]

Ya know PO after I left the table I did realize the opportunity there, but like I was saying this was the first time I play NO LIMIT (as I usually play limit) and so I was nervous and you see my posts on spending the money so even before the maniac sat down, it was a $1/$2 table I was at, but raises were usually between $8 to $20 so that was throwing me off as I got in some hands with the $8 raise and then when I missed the flop I would fold to dropping more money on the hand.

YES YOU WOULD OF LOVED IT when the maniac sat down, $100 first hand was an oddball hand as he had a boat and lost to quads but the way the money was moving spooked me. Then the dude breaks out another $100 and loses the next hand, and then next hand another $100 and he loses that and thats when I lost my last $32 to a flush so I had to get up but the lady that took his first $100 stayed a while and when she left ( iwas still waiting for a limit table to open up) and she was like, yea he's just trying to buy pots and too many people at the table are letting him. When I was there if anyone raised him he just pushed it all in. Gotta remember Im in florida I think some of these retiress have money trees in their back yards

I think next time Ill go with $200 and just play like I know how to, but Im going to touch up on the strategy guides just so I dont build pots to recklessly. But it did hit me later in the night that if that dude is still dropping big money every hand, Im sure the variance would of had to favor me at some point. I just gotta not let it mess with my head like it did this time, it just caught me off guard

ARE MOST NO LIMIT TABLES LIKE THIS, the decks of cards are changed every hand and there are many deck and rotate in something that pops up in the middle of the table, on the limit tables they just switch decks with dealers but on No limit it was different deck every hand and no shuffling.

[fndrbndr79]

Sounds like my first time at a live card room. Where in FL are you? The only local card room for me is a dog track about 45 minutes out of town (Monicello-I'm in Tallahassee). They don't typically spread a limit game, though.

[Dan Abnormal]

I play at the Daytona Kennel club, it seems pretty good as they have wide open amount of games and MTTs and SNG's (plus everything else it seems you can bet on) Daytona Beach Kennel Club and Poker Room

I put the web site above, Its for the cardroom I play at not any site.

Online I play for nothing stakes that there are few more things that I noticed I gotta really pay attention since Its costing me more live. The 10% rake. I was in one hand and my only goal was to fold everyone cause I was wanting to win a pot, I had pocket aces and the board hit KK9 and I made an idiot type bet for like $30 and I saw the guy in the side of my eye like raise his head and shake it and at the time I was thinking, hell I won the pot but it bugged me for several days and the only thing I can think of I raised a very small pot to $37 to fold everyone then to have to pay $4 in rake and I think thats why he shook his head. But I gotta really start reading up on rake vs the bet I make and start factoring that into the equation on if I should be in the hand or not. Like I said online I play .01/02 and never give it any thought. Well just more observations

But once I get paid Im really going to start focusing mainly on my live game. And playing the game the right way and forget about nervousness and all that

I also found something called the Southeastholdem league I guess and every weds they seem to have some hold em tournies going on at hot dog place literally 2 blocks away, so Ill give some update on that next weds.

[fndrbndr79]

cool. I did an MA at UCF; I kept meaning to go by the Daytona track. My advisor's office was basically across the street (DBCC). Sounds like I missed out. I play at a dog track just outside Tallahassee, and have done really well the last little while. This weekend I made $640. I spent more of it than I really wanted to, but there was a gun show in town, I wanted a new sword, and I had the money to spend. I'm still growing my bankroll, so hopefully I didn't do anything too stupid.

As far as the rake, I wouldn't worry too much. I'd rather pay $4 to win a $50 pot than pay $0 to lose a $150 pot, which is what will happen if you let someone draw at your aces. FWIW, the rake is capped at $7 in the $1/2 at my home room, so it's not really a huge consideration for me. There are a lot of loose players, so I tend to hold off until I hit something really good, then get paid. Most people are figuring out not to get in my way, but there always seem to be a couple of folks who will mumble about how I "only play the **** nuts" (not actually true, but I'll let them think that) as they call. The only piece of advice I'd offer is not to count the rake as part of the pot when calculating your pot odds. At JCKC, they take the rake out as the pot is built, so it's pretty easy to do that. I don't know how other poker rooms do it, not having played live games elsewhere yet.

[Dan Abnormal]

WOW I need to pull my crap together live and play smart and tight and I should be able to get is some good money, just sometimes waiting so long for playable cards but ya know all this

Yea if you were at DBCC you were real close, what year BTW, was it when they had the large ugly whit building in front of the the DAytona 500 track or did you ever get to see it once it moved. The card room side is much nicer now but I hear more and more peopl complain they hate the way the dog track is set up as its hard to see, at the old building I never ever play or really heard of hold em so I just bet on the dogs and loved how the track was set up


Found out some more on the southeastholdem thing, seems they play almost everynight of the week for free (which should give me some great live experience) but you earn points from these events to play real money torunies they hold monthly and such/ Im going to hit these places starting monday and see what its about

[hojediade]

Hey Dan,

Seems like you're still enjoying playing live ring games, no matter what the results are.

I don't have any advice to gave you there as i'm only playing live poker with friends where we are all ending being happy losing money. Why are we? Cause all the money involved don't really mean something to us.
My thought is still the same when it comes to play real in casinos or cardrooms --> all players don't have the same bankroll and while some came to spend few hours distracting themselves playing poker like donks, other came to play solid poker.
The first ones usually don't care about $$ involved as they're playing lower than what they could afford, so that the others should be able to pick on them, if and only if they're not scary losing chips/$ involved. As you stated some may have tree-money in their gardens...
If you don't have any, then you have to be well-prepared to what's gonna happen there cause you won't be able to change anything to the action.

Hoj.

[Poker Orifice]

WOW I need to pull my crap together live and play smart and tight and I should be able to get is some good money, just sometimes waiting so long for playable cards but ya know all this

"It depends" (lol). Sometimes (often) it can be very profitable to establish a looser image cuz then your Monsters will get paid off in a big way (sometimes (some tables) this isn't necessary as you'll have players paying you off anyways, regardless of 'image').

Not sure if 'tight is always right'. Depends on the table. If I have postion & am closing out the action (in LP), I will often call with stuff like 53s (or other decent speculative hands). It's the tight players who will be paying me off with their overpairs & TPTK hands that they might not be able to let go of when I do hit my hands.
I'm also looking to raise/isolate the weaker players on the table as I'm hoping to get in alot of pots with them.

There's a local game that plays here where I live, sometimes $1/2, sometimes $2/5 that has quite a few gamblers at it (players with little skill/experience but with large disposable income & a craving to gamble, looking for the adrenaline rush of getting it in as a dog (without knowing it) & happy to play 200bb+ pots. So... have I been taking advantage of this one might ask? Umm.... nope.. cuz I've got a $5 buyin ($100added) priv. online donkament to play (errr... or 3 or 4 of them) & don't want to take a shower & wear 'outside clothes', lol (& that would mean having to go 'outside'.. eeek!!!) I just want to lounge in the trackpants & play donkaments or multi-mass table some super micro cash tables. I've got a guy who said he wants to stake me to play regularly at this game & really should take him up on the offer (but will I still be enthused about regularly playing my donkaments after? lolzz). Hmm.... me thinks me needs to get some jeans on & head down to the game a few nights... 'soon'. Might even result in breaking free from the micro. priv. donkaments & playing a decent schedule of low buyin MTT's for a change??

My neighbour was playing at the game fairly regularly (retired guy) but just couldn't keep up with the 'gamble' of the game there (ie. you'll have some players there flatting 4bets wiht 83s & then putting you to a decision for 100+bb's postflop once they've flopped a flush draw). They're not all crazy, gambling fish - - there's a couple of good players there too (some who are also winners online).

What I'm getting at is > if one is comfortably rolled for the game it can be very profitable. BUT, if one is playing with scared money it isn't always +EV. (I can't afford to drop $1500-$2,000 on a weeknight).