Poker in New Orleans -- Trip Report
Hey "Y'all",
I just got back from a conference in New Orleans and I'll tell you a little bit about the casino/poker room there and my experiences playing -- just in case you happen to be planning a trip there in the future. Keep in mind though, I'm a low limit player, so if you play for high stakes this report might not be particularly useful/interesting to you.
The conference itself was at the Riverside Hilton which was conveniently located across the street from Harrah's Casino. The casino is gorgeous and comparable to a big Strip hotel in Vegas (e.g., the Mirage). I don't play any casino games so I couldn't tell you what kind of table games they had. The poker room is phenomenal. It features about 30-40 tables that were spreading a variety of games. I saw at least the following being offered:
3-6 Hold'em
1-4-8 Hold'em/Omaha Half-&-Half
6-12 Hold'em
10-20 Hold'em
15-30 Hold'em
15-30 Omaha
1-2 No Limit Hold'em
1-2 Pot Limit Omaha
1-5 7 Card Stud
The room had an electronic list so you could monitor your place in line. The poker room was actually not a room but a sectioned-off part of the casino. Smoking was allowed in the majority of the poker area with a smaller section of the poker area for non-smoking. Beverages are free (including alcoholic beverages). There were also bad beat jackpots for all games. The hold'em jackpot was about $15,000 when I was there and it required Aces full of Tens to get beat. Also, on Wednesday night, every hour the cardroom manager randomly drew one table and added $100 to the next pot.
I played 3-6 Hold'em exclusively. I usually play 4-8 w/ a kill in Calgary with an average profit of 2 BB's per hour of play. But let me tell you -- the quality of players in New Orleans was horrific in comparison. The games were chalk full of bad tourists and bad locals. I played 4 sessions with the following results:
Session 1: 5 hours - profit $125 (21 BB)
Session 2: 6 hours - profit $75 (12.5 BB)
Session 3: 2 hours - profit $20 (3 BB)
Session 4: 4.5 hours and drunk out of my face - profit $20 (3 BB)
Total: 17.5 hours - profit $240; $13.7/hr (39.5 BB; 2.3 BB/hr)
In addition, all four sessions were riddled with a ridiculous string of bad beats (none of the four pocket aces I was dealt held up, 3 out of 4 pocket kings lost, and 4 out of 5 pocket queens lost). My profits were the result of winning a few gigantic pots and minimizing my losses in other hands. This pattern was new to me because I'm used to grinding out profits by winning several smaller pots. I soon realized that I was going to have to play poker according to the gospel of Scharf (i.e., "Winning at Poker"-style) and found myself reverting to Dave's starting hand guide -- a great thing to have in the toolbox. If it wasn't for several unlikely beats I would have won a lot more. The beats were understandable, however, because there were so many people entering pots. The play at this casino can be characterized as, "maniacal preflop, submissive postflop." At every table I played at, there were 9 people routinely seeing a flop (I was the only one folding regularly!). Here are some memorable hands from the weekend:
1. "Damn you Ace-Queen!"
I soon discovered that with so many players in each pot, nothing less than two-pair was going to take down a pot. Every time I played a hand I was coming in raising preflop to try to thin the field. However, players were commonly making some very curious plays like limping in with aces or kings so it was tough to put someone on a hand. Finally, I pick up a decent holding, AQc under-the-gun. I raise and the player to my left re-raises. Five players call 3 bets cold -- Jeepers!! No one is going anywhere. I call. The flop is AdAhTc. Boo-ya! I bet out and the original raiser raises. Poop. Okay, so I immediately put him on AK. I know I'm beat, but he was down to the felt so I wanted to collect from a side pot. I re-raised, he capped (all-in) and EVERYONE called. On the turn (another club), I bet, someone raised, two callers, and I reraised, called by raiser and one other player. Last card (Jh), I bet and both call. Mr. All-in shows AK, so I lost $21 in the mainpot, and I win about $80 in a healthy side-pot. God knows what these other guys had. I hate kickers.
2. "Jack-Nine Soooted"
It is limped around to me in the big blind with Jd-9d. I check and the flop brings two jacks. I get in a raising war with a late position player who I eventually suspect has me beat by a full house or a jack with a better kicker. The final board shows Jh Js 3d 5h 8c. I call him down on the river and he shows me Jc6c. My nine plays!??? "But it was soooted," he says as I rake in the pot. "So was mine," I respond. I love kickers.
3. "What's up Canada?"
So there's this obnoxious American at the table (yes, really!). And he's ribbing me about being Canadian (I told them). Whatever, I'm giving it right back, playfully chastising him and the table for electing an idiot ("Re-electing George W. Bush is like some kid in the schoolyard who sticks his tongue to a frozen pole and has to get it removed by the fire department, and then the next week he tries sticking his tongue to the pole again just to see if the same horrible thing will happen again.") Everyone else is loving my coffeehousing schtick except this guy who has taken offense to my jabs. So I'm watching him play and quickly note that he raises preflop with ANY ace. One hand I'm dealt pocket 7's on the button. He raises preflop under the gun. Several callers and I reraise. He caps it and everyone calls. The flop is 4h 7d 9c. He bets, someone raises, someone reraises, I call, he caps it, and everyone calls. The turn is another 4, giving me the boat. He bets, two people call, I raise, he reraises, one caller, and I cap. All the while he's goading me, "What's up Canada? What's up? You can't win this pot. Give it up." I know he either has A-4 or A-9. As long as the river is not another 4 or a nine, it's a lock. The other guy is almost definitely calling with a feeble flush draw. I hope it hits. It doesn't. The river is a deuce. He checks this time, I bet, he raises, the other guy folds, and I laugh. "You have ace-four," I say. He turns white. "What's up Canada?" he chokes. "What's up is I'm going to win a monster pot here, I raise." Finally, he calls and I turn over my boat. He mucks. "What's up America?"
4. Rounders quote
I was having a blast at the tables. Everyone was actually really nice. There were two guys who I was whooping it up with one night. We kept quoting lines from "Rounders" and stuff. I know, pretty geeky, but it was fun. "Eeet is my club and I vill splash zee pot, venever zee fack I vant." At one point, I got involved in another pot with my nemesis (the guys who raises preflop with any ace). I held pocket jacks and raised it preflop after he limped in (i.e., he had no ace). The flop was Ac Ks 4h. He bet and I raised. He called. The turn was the Ah, he bet and I raised him again. He thought for a while and finally folded KTo face up. Quietly, I mucked my cards and collected the pot with a smirk on my face. "I know you had it. C'mon Canada, did you have it?" Of course, my perfect reply was, "Sorry John. I don't remember." The table erupted.
5. When bad players meet good cards
I got hammered on this hand but it isn't really a bad beat because any player would have probably won the hand anyway. However, it was the way this guy played the hand the was really interesting. I was in the big blind with Jh-4h. 6 limpers and I check my option. The flop is 4d-6h-8h. Really good flop for me. I bet out and get called by everyone (no surprise!). The turn is 4c. Wow! Trips and a flush draw. I bet out and everyone calls. The river is the Ks. I bet out and everyone folds except the button who raises. I reraise (with the plan of just calling if he pops me back), and he calls. I figure I must have him beat if he just called. He goes to flip over his cards and one card turns over to reveal a king. Ahhh, he hit a pair of kings on the river, I got this! Nope, he turns over the other card to reveal .... another king! So he limped in preflop with pocket kings, smooth-called my bets to the river and finally raises after hitting a two-outer. Then does not reraise me with the nuts (unless he was putting me on pocket fours :rolleyes:). "No re-raise there?" I ask. "Huh?" he says with a quizzical look. "Never mind, man." Funny thing is, if he played it like most people would play it, he wouldn't have won too much money because I would have folded to a raise preflop!
6. When drunk players meet good cards
As reported above, I was stone-cold hammered during my last session at Harrah's. I never play poker drunk, but I figured I was on vacation and I could afford to blow a hundred bucks playing under the influence. So after spending all night on Bourbon Street (which is actually pretty chaotic throughout the year -- the madness is not exclusive to Mardi Gras) I dropped into the poker room on my way back to the hotel. Enjoying the free alcoholic beverages provided by the casino, I proceeded to play hand-after-hand. After a few hours of winning and losing (mostly losing), the following hand came up. I was in the small blind with pocket 8's and smooth-called two players who had raised and re-raised behind me. The flop came up K-8-8. Hello! Somehow I managed to check-raise on every street and took in a huge pot. Now that's fun! I left with a modest profit shortly thereafter, content with getting out of there with my shirt.
All-in-all it was a great time and I look forward to going back to N'Orlens to see the sights and play some cards. Look for a preliminary World Series of Poker tournament to be held there this summer.
Phil
I just got back from a conference in New Orleans and I'll tell you a little bit about the casino/poker room there and my experiences playing -- just in case you happen to be planning a trip there in the future. Keep in mind though, I'm a low limit player, so if you play for high stakes this report might not be particularly useful/interesting to you.
The conference itself was at the Riverside Hilton which was conveniently located across the street from Harrah's Casino. The casino is gorgeous and comparable to a big Strip hotel in Vegas (e.g., the Mirage). I don't play any casino games so I couldn't tell you what kind of table games they had. The poker room is phenomenal. It features about 30-40 tables that were spreading a variety of games. I saw at least the following being offered:
3-6 Hold'em
1-4-8 Hold'em/Omaha Half-&-Half
6-12 Hold'em
10-20 Hold'em
15-30 Hold'em
15-30 Omaha
1-2 No Limit Hold'em
1-2 Pot Limit Omaha
1-5 7 Card Stud
The room had an electronic list so you could monitor your place in line. The poker room was actually not a room but a sectioned-off part of the casino. Smoking was allowed in the majority of the poker area with a smaller section of the poker area for non-smoking. Beverages are free (including alcoholic beverages). There were also bad beat jackpots for all games. The hold'em jackpot was about $15,000 when I was there and it required Aces full of Tens to get beat. Also, on Wednesday night, every hour the cardroom manager randomly drew one table and added $100 to the next pot.
I played 3-6 Hold'em exclusively. I usually play 4-8 w/ a kill in Calgary with an average profit of 2 BB's per hour of play. But let me tell you -- the quality of players in New Orleans was horrific in comparison. The games were chalk full of bad tourists and bad locals. I played 4 sessions with the following results:
Session 1: 5 hours - profit $125 (21 BB)
Session 2: 6 hours - profit $75 (12.5 BB)
Session 3: 2 hours - profit $20 (3 BB)
Session 4: 4.5 hours and drunk out of my face - profit $20 (3 BB)
Total: 17.5 hours - profit $240; $13.7/hr (39.5 BB; 2.3 BB/hr)
In addition, all four sessions were riddled with a ridiculous string of bad beats (none of the four pocket aces I was dealt held up, 3 out of 4 pocket kings lost, and 4 out of 5 pocket queens lost). My profits were the result of winning a few gigantic pots and minimizing my losses in other hands. This pattern was new to me because I'm used to grinding out profits by winning several smaller pots. I soon realized that I was going to have to play poker according to the gospel of Scharf (i.e., "Winning at Poker"-style) and found myself reverting to Dave's starting hand guide -- a great thing to have in the toolbox. If it wasn't for several unlikely beats I would have won a lot more. The beats were understandable, however, because there were so many people entering pots. The play at this casino can be characterized as, "maniacal preflop, submissive postflop." At every table I played at, there were 9 people routinely seeing a flop (I was the only one folding regularly!). Here are some memorable hands from the weekend:
1. "Damn you Ace-Queen!"
I soon discovered that with so many players in each pot, nothing less than two-pair was going to take down a pot. Every time I played a hand I was coming in raising preflop to try to thin the field. However, players were commonly making some very curious plays like limping in with aces or kings so it was tough to put someone on a hand. Finally, I pick up a decent holding, AQc under-the-gun. I raise and the player to my left re-raises. Five players call 3 bets cold -- Jeepers!! No one is going anywhere. I call. The flop is AdAhTc. Boo-ya! I bet out and the original raiser raises. Poop. Okay, so I immediately put him on AK. I know I'm beat, but he was down to the felt so I wanted to collect from a side pot. I re-raised, he capped (all-in) and EVERYONE called. On the turn (another club), I bet, someone raised, two callers, and I reraised, called by raiser and one other player. Last card (Jh), I bet and both call. Mr. All-in shows AK, so I lost $21 in the mainpot, and I win about $80 in a healthy side-pot. God knows what these other guys had. I hate kickers.
2. "Jack-Nine Soooted"
It is limped around to me in the big blind with Jd-9d. I check and the flop brings two jacks. I get in a raising war with a late position player who I eventually suspect has me beat by a full house or a jack with a better kicker. The final board shows Jh Js 3d 5h 8c. I call him down on the river and he shows me Jc6c. My nine plays!??? "But it was soooted," he says as I rake in the pot. "So was mine," I respond. I love kickers.
3. "What's up Canada?"
So there's this obnoxious American at the table (yes, really!). And he's ribbing me about being Canadian (I told them). Whatever, I'm giving it right back, playfully chastising him and the table for electing an idiot ("Re-electing George W. Bush is like some kid in the schoolyard who sticks his tongue to a frozen pole and has to get it removed by the fire department, and then the next week he tries sticking his tongue to the pole again just to see if the same horrible thing will happen again.") Everyone else is loving my coffeehousing schtick except this guy who has taken offense to my jabs. So I'm watching him play and quickly note that he raises preflop with ANY ace. One hand I'm dealt pocket 7's on the button. He raises preflop under the gun. Several callers and I reraise. He caps it and everyone calls. The flop is 4h 7d 9c. He bets, someone raises, someone reraises, I call, he caps it, and everyone calls. The turn is another 4, giving me the boat. He bets, two people call, I raise, he reraises, one caller, and I cap. All the while he's goading me, "What's up Canada? What's up? You can't win this pot. Give it up." I know he either has A-4 or A-9. As long as the river is not another 4 or a nine, it's a lock. The other guy is almost definitely calling with a feeble flush draw. I hope it hits. It doesn't. The river is a deuce. He checks this time, I bet, he raises, the other guy folds, and I laugh. "You have ace-four," I say. He turns white. "What's up Canada?" he chokes. "What's up is I'm going to win a monster pot here, I raise." Finally, he calls and I turn over my boat. He mucks. "What's up America?"
4. Rounders quote
I was having a blast at the tables. Everyone was actually really nice. There were two guys who I was whooping it up with one night. We kept quoting lines from "Rounders" and stuff. I know, pretty geeky, but it was fun. "Eeet is my club and I vill splash zee pot, venever zee fack I vant." At one point, I got involved in another pot with my nemesis (the guys who raises preflop with any ace). I held pocket jacks and raised it preflop after he limped in (i.e., he had no ace). The flop was Ac Ks 4h. He bet and I raised. He called. The turn was the Ah, he bet and I raised him again. He thought for a while and finally folded KTo face up. Quietly, I mucked my cards and collected the pot with a smirk on my face. "I know you had it. C'mon Canada, did you have it?" Of course, my perfect reply was, "Sorry John. I don't remember." The table erupted.
5. When bad players meet good cards
I got hammered on this hand but it isn't really a bad beat because any player would have probably won the hand anyway. However, it was the way this guy played the hand the was really interesting. I was in the big blind with Jh-4h. 6 limpers and I check my option. The flop is 4d-6h-8h. Really good flop for me. I bet out and get called by everyone (no surprise!). The turn is 4c. Wow! Trips and a flush draw. I bet out and everyone calls. The river is the Ks. I bet out and everyone folds except the button who raises. I reraise (with the plan of just calling if he pops me back), and he calls. I figure I must have him beat if he just called. He goes to flip over his cards and one card turns over to reveal a king. Ahhh, he hit a pair of kings on the river, I got this! Nope, he turns over the other card to reveal .... another king! So he limped in preflop with pocket kings, smooth-called my bets to the river and finally raises after hitting a two-outer. Then does not reraise me with the nuts (unless he was putting me on pocket fours :rolleyes:). "No re-raise there?" I ask. "Huh?" he says with a quizzical look. "Never mind, man." Funny thing is, if he played it like most people would play it, he wouldn't have won too much money because I would have folded to a raise preflop!
6. When drunk players meet good cards
As reported above, I was stone-cold hammered during my last session at Harrah's. I never play poker drunk, but I figured I was on vacation and I could afford to blow a hundred bucks playing under the influence. So after spending all night on Bourbon Street (which is actually pretty chaotic throughout the year -- the madness is not exclusive to Mardi Gras) I dropped into the poker room on my way back to the hotel. Enjoying the free alcoholic beverages provided by the casino, I proceeded to play hand-after-hand. After a few hours of winning and losing (mostly losing), the following hand came up. I was in the small blind with pocket 8's and smooth-called two players who had raised and re-raised behind me. The flop came up K-8-8. Hello! Somehow I managed to check-raise on every street and took in a huge pot. Now that's fun! I left with a modest profit shortly thereafter, content with getting out of there with my shirt.
All-in-all it was a great time and I look forward to going back to N'Orlens to see the sights and play some cards. Look for a preliminary World Series of Poker tournament to be held there this summer.
Phil
Comments
hilarious
i hate it when people call you by your country
great read!
I was in new orelans and actually played my first live poker there - i did not fair too well. I think I couldnt do a lot better now, but thats besides the point
"Sorry, John. I don't remember" - very nice! you gotta love outwitting amercians!
instead of rounders (word for word) u should of said, "Sorry America, i dont remember" lol
good report!
At Turning Stone one of the dealers calls me Canada. He was on and off my table all day once, and we're chatting it up... discussing everything from hockey to politics. Anyway... I'm playing a pretty tight game, and making a little money, but the table is fairly loose (go figure... it's 5-10). I loosen up some, mix up a few plays with marginal hands and end up taking down 3 huge pots in a row. As the dealer's pushing the chips from the last pot in my direction he says, "Careful boys, the eskimo knows how to play!" The table cracked up.
Whenever I go there now, I usually get a slap on the back... "Yo, Canada... how are ya?"
LOL - it doesn't take that much
Great read! Sounds like you had an awesome time! Can't wait till I go. We are planning a trip to the Big Easy next fall! I'll have to keep your post in mind when I go!
CHEERS!
Good way to end the day.
Still rolling on the floor laughing............................
Great read, glad to see you had fun.
Accomodations? Are there cheap places to stay and does the casino compensate you at all if you are playing poker for a long period of time?
Area? Is the area of town a nice area, i.e. did you feel safe, free to go wherever you wanted at any time.
Glad to read your post as I am thinking of going for a while myself. A couple months actually...so your tips would be kindly taken.
f//
To respond to your questions:
Accomodations: Fairly expensive. I stayed at a place called the Queen & Crescent which was a couple of blocks from the casino. I got a deal on Expedia for about $100 USD per night. It was a single room and about the size of a telephone booth. The hotel itself was quite nice though. Other tourists at the tables were saying that their rooms were quite small as well. However, I had friends staying at the Riverside Hilton for about $250 USD per night and their rooms were awesome. If you want a good location with easy access to the French Quarter, the Garden District, and Downtown, you're going to have to pay more. The casino (Harrah's) does not have a hotel so I don't believe they comp rooms for play. However, they may have something worked out with local hotels. You'll have to check.
Safety: Hmmm, this is a tough one. I was warned by many people that NO is pretty dangerous. One suggestion I got was to never walk down a street at night if there are no people on that street. I stuck by that rule. There are many streets that are alive with people 24 hours, so I felt reasonably safe. Perhaps it was just my paranoia that made me feel uneasy. Given that you'll probably be walking around with large sums of money if you're playing poker, you can always err on the safe side and take a short cab ride to and from your hotel (shouldn't be more than $10 if you're near the casino).
Good luck,
Phil
Hilarious......awesome report!
It actually makes me want to visit N'Orlens!
hmmmm I wonder how many airmiles I have?