"By the book" play vs. tourists at a casino
do you think that playing by the book poker at a casino on a NLHE table, blinds 1/2$ is profitable without being too risky? I have never played outside of a home game or online, so i'm wondering what kind of action tourists give to a casino cash game. People have mentioned to me that the donkey's are easy to spot
Comments
Yes, assuming the rake or session fee is reasonable.
1 mistake I see people make (especially LAGs) when playing a table full of tourists/donks is bluffing too much. Tables full of tourists/donks are very bad to bluff a lot, they just don't fold. It's great when you have a hand.
Primetime on a weekend will have lots of tourists/donks.
Most weekday evenings have few tourists (from my experience), mostly they are regulars (which doesn't mean they are any good) and grinders (who usually have more of a clue). I've found the juciest games for my style take place during the day during the week (grinders who have jobs are working, but there's lots of touristy players that are done for a day session).
And the other key is what HP_John mentioned. Because they came to play, they are unlikely to fold so bear that in mind on draw heavy boards.
Just because they are fish/tourists - they know who's tight and loose/gambling. Try to make them think you're there to gamble and you'll have them putting in a lot of money with the worst of it.
What is your goal? To sit down and play solid poker? Take a shot and make some quick $$? Just have fun? Grind it out and make a wage?
I think the answer to the above question dictates your play more than a random table composition. ABC will not accomplish many of the above at the lowest levels that the casino offers. My advice would be to mix it up and try and get into a couple multi-way pots cheap and stack someone when you flop a monster. Then bleed off chips trying to repeat. Talk it up, have some fun!
Seriously, variance can kiss my black ass...I said it and I mean it...you need to have a baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad night to do worse than break even.
If it was that easy, why isn't everyone doing this for a living? please.
If you can make 200-300 a night playing 1/2, why keep you day job?
I agree with the first half of your post and somewhat agree with the second. You don't want to ever just play top 5 hands, but you don't want to just play any two cards either. I watched a player that is 'good' play almost every flop (8 out of 10) and saw his stack dwindle, dwindle, and then he'd catch a flop and go back up to half his original stack and repeat. This isn't going to get you paid long term. (This was a pre-planned strategy and he wanted to see how it worked)
But I certainly think that you can see more flops than just top 5 hands. It's not an all or nothing thing.
I also vary my play by position, what's a call may become a raise in good position. I also may fold a hand or two in early position that I'll call in late position.. Keep watching who is in the hand with you, because that makes a huge difference.
Yesterday there was a girl that reraised with flush draws as well as monsters. So if the board was draw heavy and you had a premium hand, you could safely call or re-raise her back knowing that there was a chance she's chasing that draw. You'd lose when she was raising a monster but when the flush didn't hit, you'd make up for it.
I wouldn't go that far when you got some guys $400 in the pot with QQ or JJ when you have AA and they hit. I"m noticing at Rama there is a lot more hit and runs by people.