Just started playing live
I've been playing online poker for about ten years, until I was disenfranchised with all the cheating. So I moved to live play. I started playing 1-2 nl 400 max in a casino cardroom about an hour from home and I noticed a few things.
first off, I always heard that live poker was easier than online. I always thought this was online players talk themselves up. But oh my god are there some bad players. In fact there may not be any good players in this casino. My first night playing I saw what I would consider two of the more knowledgeable players make some big mistakes. First player limped UTG with A2s, mid positioned made standard raise, I three bet with kings to about 30, btn (second bad player) shoved for about 50 with pocket 8s. His mistake was playing short stacked to start with and deciding to make a stand with 8s after a three bet. First player asks if this opens the action and the dealer said no. A2s calls preflop. and then calls off with his remaining stack (about 130) chasing his flush. I stack off two players here with the UTG saying he played perfectly because he knew the action was closed when it got to me. He said he played perfectly!!!. I almost forgot to mention the high vpip from everyone multiway limped pots, and the lack of three betting.
Ive been winning about 19BB an hour playing about as nitty as can be. Players aren't noticing that I only play the strongest of hands. My only big loss session came off a cooler full house vs fuller house.
Another thing I noticed is the cell phone use. Before playing live I heard about all the cheating scandals using cell phones. When I played about 14yrs ago you had to step away from the table if you needed to use the phone. I was expecting it to be more strict now. Today it seems like every one is blatantly using there phones. Talking, texting, music, web serving, watching sports no one is trying to hide any of their device usages. The casino does nothing to stop this. I really don't think any one is cheating, so I'm happy just playing and winning.
I really wish I would have started playing live much earlier.
1 Reply
Glad it's going well for you, but this is a strategy forum, and I don't see any strategy question here.
Be aware that players will eventually notice how nitty you are. How long that takes depends on how big the market is and how often you play together. They likely won't adjust very well, but you may see that winrate drop as they get less likely to pay you off.
I'm going to go ahead and lock this. Feel free to start another thread ITF if you have questions, or if you just want to share your live poker journey, consider Poker Blogs and Goals.
