Wishes of Luck Appreciated!
 

I am about to go play some live poker for the first time at a real casino here in Phoenix. Wish me luck, and I will be sure to report back here when I am done.

GL:thumbsup:

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

I'm sure it's too lae now, but GL Looking forward to your report when you get back.

So I went to one casino, found out that they didn't even have poker and went to their sister casino about 2 miles up the road. Unfortunately, they only had 3/6, 4/8, and 8/16 Holdem, and no NL. They did have omaha, which looked soft from what I could see, and stud. Since I hate limit and didn't want to sit down with my $100 and piss it away learning how. I am thinking that omaha could be profitable, but that would require a little practice. Anyhoo, think I will have to do some more research into the various casinos to find some 1/2 NL or lower. Ah well, thanks for the well wishings. I made $2.50 at blackjack though :thumbsup: and got a free coke out of it all.

Did you find out whether they run an occasional NL tourney?

Yeah, but the majority of them are on weekdays...there is only one on the last saturday of each month. I just need to look at other casinos.

Sounds Like you went to the desert diamond ??

Casino Arizona actually, you live near Phoenix?

Another foray today. I called the casino and they said they have $350 max NL tables with $100 min buyin. They are NL, but the max bet is 350, while the min is 5...I didn't see this up on the wall the last time I went so I figured they didnt have it, anyhoo. Heres hoping I don't lose my roll, but I gotta try it.

Actually, with a $350 "limit," that's not a No Limit game. It's more like a $5/$350 spread.

Weird. What are the blinds?

So, had a blast this afternoon playing some $5-150 NL variation. Essentially you can't bet more than $150 at any one time. The max buyin was 350 with min being 100, blinds were 3 and 5. Anyway, I ended up $102 down after 5 hours, but I learned a lot and popped my live cherry, so hopefully all the jitters are gone and I can start dominating that game :o . I must say I enjoyed that much more than 5 hours of online play...was tons o fun. The gameplay was pretty solid most of the time. Sometimes it was questionable, but otherwise with a little better table selection I should be just fine. I talked to a dude who plays there a lot and his primary game is omaha, and he says it is the softest in the land. So maybe I should practice up.

Went back again tonight, played not qutie 2 hours and made $299 smackers. Needless to say it was a walk in the park. Granted I doubled up once, but I still was able to make money just picking up pots here and there. It was like I was playing with limit holdem players, and that is an absolute gold mine for a NL player...at least in my opinion.

Funny how you always seem to lose right before you are planning on leaving...oh well, still up, and I encourage anyone who knows how to play NL to come play these limit people at the essentially PL tables at Casino Arizona, Indian Bend! No, seriously...you could pay for your plane ticket in one day.

Flopped a straight flush to the queen today. Heads up, small and big blind so no action....

Man if I minimize silly mistakes, and capitalize a little more I should be good to go, baring bad bad luck. I could estimate $100 every 2 hours at these tables.

Long term... don't forget - long term.

ANYTHING can happen in the short term.

Ok, so exaggeration may exist. But seriously TP, when 4 people call you preflop for 5x big blind, and you have absolute control with a little aggression and proven hand strength...they don't raise NL wise, they min raise... its craptastic out there.

Sorry if I am turning this into my own little blog... I bought into a $130 NL tourney at the casino tonight, 170 entrants, I played well but busted out somewhere around 64 on an interesting hand.

But anyhoo, cash was where I dominated. I played really good poker, and made a lot of money against decent opponents without playing my cards, just the opponent. And then I had 2 monster hands that I was able to milk(I must say I played these hands exactly like I needed too against each opponent) for everything (double up). I ended up walking out with $775 more than I came in with. Good night...not that great for some, like JD, but there sure is a difference between holding Benjeesss and staring at a number in the cashier window. Now my real life roll is able to take a hit or two and is growing into something real nice!

Live is treating me well, and I have a lot more information at my disposal now reading actual people ...plus its a more social environment than sitting in front of the screen.

man reading that made me wish i could play in casinos so bad.
Awesome job dude.

Well done!

Live poker is great. IMO, it's definitely more fun and I play better too.... it's slower though (less hands per hour), you can't multi-table, and they generally rake more. But it definitely does have it's appeal. I'm looking forward to sitting at the tables in Vegas next month.

I'm looking forward to meeting you in person then!
You know, they haven't carded me once at this casino...and I look 21 but not like 28 or something, so I usually get carded. Whats the worst that could happen to you? They take your winnings? Or do they call the cops on underagers?

So I just got back from a weekend at the Grand Canyon, and it sure is Grand. I hope to post some pictures if the dipshit that sent my digital camera off of ebay sends me the USB cable he forgot..anyhoo, so Thursday and went to the casino, and after a couple of hours, 6ish or so, I found myself down $278 but still ok with my play. The only thing I was not happy about was the fact that it was light out when I left the casino, and I should have left with the fishies around 1 o clock. About 3 I look up and I am surrounded by regulars. Game selection! Anyhoo, I am going to Vegas for the Fourth of July weekend and decided to get my roll up for what I hear are juicy 1/2 NL games at many of the casinos. I will be going 4 times this week, Mon-Thurs to get the most out of it.

Anyway, I thought I would post a countdown of my roll till this weekend for entertainment and to track my progress with live poker.

I started off with $360 that I invested initially. Way above my bankroll, but I was willing to lose it completely as I had that online to transfer to replace it if I were to lose it, and my job pays well. So with this in mind, I headed to the casino. I will try to keep track of hours spent there better from now on. Anyway, root for a big roll going to vegas!

Initial Investment: $360
Trip1 [Jun10]:$-102
5 hours
Trip 2 :$299
2-4 hrs
Trip 3:$-146
3 hrs
Trip 4:$184
2-4 hrs
Trip 5:$175
12 man, $25 tourney win at coworkers house
Trip 6:$775
3 hours
Trip 7:$-278
6 hrs
Trip 8 [Jun 25]: (today) $970
2.5 hrs

Current roll: $2237

nh. Keep it up!

I play there aat least once a year ,got some family there which location did you play at? there are 2 I play at the one just outside Scottsdale.

glad you cashed:thumbsup:

Yeah, the one on Indian Bend, Casino Arizona. I have been told that is the best one, so I haven't ventured out. Dude, we like live an hour apart in GA, and then you have family out here. Small world.

Yea thats the one. Its the best of several there.And I live in Jasper.

Casino Arizona has my loyalty!
 

Sooo, I had a poor night at the old casino last night. I wasn't getting much to work with, and my concentration wasn't the most spectacular. So I was down a hundred or two, with about ten minutes left until I needed to leave and get some sleep, when two players enter a hand that would subsequently lose me my remaining $300 sitting in front of me. Now, keep in mind I wasn't even in this hand, but it would do its damage nonetheless.

The flop comes AKQ, of which the suits are not important, and there is a frenzy of betting. Now both of these players have been tighter than a nun's poopshoot, so you know there is some crazy cardage in their holes (teehee). After the smoke settles, the turn coughs up another ace. Now, the younger kid who I have seen playing there a lot, and who seems to be pretty successful, gets pretty frustrated with that turn. We get a fist to the table and everything. Now the other joe, goes allin for like a fifth of the pot, which has to be called, and is with disgust from the younger gun. They flip, and out flies AK for the young guns competition. At this point I am feeling sorry for him and feeling entertained at the same time. Then, from the depths of the viscious river that we all know so intimately, rises that %2.27 fourth queen.

*Whooping and hollering commences*

We have qualified for the bad beat jackpot. Oh, happy day I think, now the floor will come over and find some nit picky reason to kill it. After some debate, they give it to us. Now, I get excited!

The qualifying hand is Aces full of tens and both players hole cards have to play. The jackpot was $42500 at that point, another 5 minutes and it would have dropped 15k, or so we were told. After signing a W9 and letting them scan my license and everything, I recieved a little stack of chips to the tune of $1,518.00 and my W9. Needless to say I couldn't play poker worthy of a donkey, and lost my remaining chips while we were waiting for our money. The loser of the hand won %50, $21250, the winner $10625, and the rest of the table, 7 of us, split the remaining %25. All in all, it kept me from having a decent sized losing night, and after the tipping of the dealer, I walked away a man that couldn't complain about being unlucky anymore and with $970 more dollars than I entered with. I hope you don't mind if I add that to my roll.

Current roll: $3,207

Couldn't get myself to go today. Was worn out, I'll make it an extended session tomorrow immediately after work.

Sweet jackpot story!

6 hours last night, -$172. I don't think I will make it tonight either, as I have errands and crap to run. But I think I am prepared to face the masses in Vegas this weekend. Hopefully the roll will be $1.2k heavier, that's the goal.

Current roll: $3035

P.S. Found my self whooping again as I thought we had hit the bad beat AGAIN. Players ended up all in preflop, Aces vs Queens, flop comes AQA...sooo close!

I looked up the WSOP schedule for this weekend and it seems there is a $2,000 NL event going on starting saturday, so I will get to go check that out. Also, I have been looking around at possible tournaments and wondering if I should play in one. Hopefully this weeked will turn out to be profitable, but I at least want to break even with my expenses. Anyway, look for a big trip report next week sometime.

*Waits for shouts of 'May the cards be with you!' and 'Don't suck, asshole'*

Just to wrap this thread up...

Vegas bent me over that 4th of July weekend. I ended up down around 1200, probably 1100 from poker. I only played 1/2 NL, even though I was incredibly tempted to play 2/5 NL, since it was closer to what I had been playing at the Arizona casinos. However, I decided I should take it easy and stick to the smaller stuff.

Friday night, I went to Bally's, as it was close to the Westin where I was staying and I had heard it had a pretty good game. The room is pretty small, like 8 tables, and is hardly seperated from the rest of the casino. The service isn't that great either, and the room is not managed that great. The max buyin was $300 at the 1/2 tables so that is what I bought in for. I kinda tinkered around for a while, exploring a horribly dry run of cards. I did notice that the competition seemed quite decent all around and unfortuantely there didnt seem to be anyone who wanted to give their money away. There were even a couple of vegas regulars who seemed to do this for a living. I had one hand right at the beginning though where I came out charging at this one guy, raising with crap in position preflop. I noticed that he wasn't incredibly happy about his call of my CB on the flop, and kept pushing bigtime all the way to the river, where he called me finally and flipped two pair with his AQ, with top pair on the flop and the A hitting on the river. So that was a decent chunk taken, and after this I got called down by anyone and everyone, and when I wasnt getting any help it was making my life difficult. Then I made a move preflop on a guy that limped, I raised with AKs trying to get the 2-3 limpers behind me out, then he raised like 80 bucks (my raise was 15) and I pushed for another 200 or so. He didnt hesitate and called with queens. I guess I figured I could get him off it or something, oh well. He rivered the queen after I hit on the flop, and that was it for that night.

Then I went to Aladdin's the next day. For the lower bankroll people, they let you buy-in for $50 at the 1/2 NL tables, which I thought was pretty cool. I ran into another brick wall when it comes to cards and slowly dwindled my stack away. Keep in mind I have been rebuying a lot and keeping my stack at max because I knew that I could make money and I wasn't playing poorly. Unfortunately I was missing every flop with the sparse paint I was getting. As far as pockets go, I could count them on my hands in 12 hours of poker that weekend. I left Aladdin bored and wanting to do something else.

Went to see the Blue Man Group at the Venetian and hung around after to play some poker. The room is great, quality management, and a wonderful atmosphere. By far my favorite room that I played at, and I would even say I would have liked it more than the Bellagio and the Wynn, as they both seem smaller. Anyway, that night ended with this hand, after I was wading through another craptastic session of the pokee, set to my overpair (notice it is singular because these jacks were the highlight of my weekend situation wise as I got called by one guy and the flop was all undercards), missed flops, folds preflop to my sole pocket kings, and then this stacked me and I called it quits. That was that for the playing of poker that weekend.

I did get to go to the WSOP at the Rio. I saw Annie Duke, John Juanda, Carlos Mortensen (at the final table of event number 6 I think), Eric Seidel, Greg Raymer, and the guy that finished second to the aussie last year. Oh and Jennifer Harman when I was walking in; that lady is short. It was cool to see all this in person, definately worth the trip to the isolated Rio.

When I got back to Casino Arizona, the cards were smacking me in the face, so I made a good chunk back. But frankly it doesn't feel that rewarding if you are only playing ok. A hand that I felt pretty awful about...

I call a guys 4BB raise preflop with 78s, I am pretty sure he has overcards as I had been watching him, and the worst that could happen is I fold. The flop came Q 7 4 or something like that. He bet 25, I attempted to steal reraising to 70. He called, and I was done with the hand, but the turn came another one of my suit, giving me 4 to the flush at this point, and he checked giving me a free card, which I gladly accepted but was completely aware he knew I had nothing at this point, river completes the flush and he doesnt see it, as no sane person would, and he arbitrarily pushes a hundred out assuming I was going to fold. I called, and felt bad about it. It is weird to be on the other side of these things.