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What was your first time like....
I was reading a post eariler in which someone had just visited their first BM room and they were nervous. Got me thinking of my first time. BM is a different world, unlike the online games. Online you are likely in the safety of your office or maybe at work (you degenerates!). In the BM world you are in this weird, loud, confusing maze, with these crusty, unwashed, scary looking people staring you down.
I actually remember my first time quite well. I had been sneaking into the roving charities (I was 17) and I had made a few friends at funtime. Stuart and I used to skip 4th and 5th period in high school and he had a car so we'd grab a Sun and look in the back to see where we had the best chance of sneaking in. They used to hire off duty cops to stand at the door so we used to run about 50/50 (he had an id - I could grow a beard).
Anyhow, there used to be a banquet hall on Steeles at Young on the NW side about a block in - I can't remember the name. We got in and started playing at a reserved BJ table ($10 betting but you could take all 6 spots). We got lucky and the table dumped about $600 to us in a shoe or two. He decided to go home early and I wanted to stick around. I lived in walking distance to the corner at the time so he went on ahead.
I decided not to press my BJ luck (oh how I wish that weren't in reference to cards) and try out this poker thing. It was scary. All roped off and people were leaning over the velvet rope to try and get a better view. This game was about 3 months new in the casinos and I had NO CLUE what was going on. I had learned poker from my dad's regular game with his golfing buddies and his mom actually had a penny poker game for about 40 years. I used to sit in on both games and they would each let me bet for them (although not make the decisions). So how hard could this be??
I bought in for $100!!! that was a huge stack to me. It is weird but the BJ money was 3 or 4x that but I was ok with it. As I said, I was completely new to this and I had at least been playing BJ for 5 or 6 months (the first time I had $100 in that game was scary too).
Anyhow, I lasted about 2 rounds of the puck. I must have bet a draw or two b/c I remember being slowly reduced. But I still had about $50 or so. This was a 5/10 game, BTW ($10/20 wasn't really introduced right away). Anyhow, I get pocket 7's (red) on the button. I raised and the flop was a pair of 10's with an Ace. Again, knowing nothing of the game, I raised into about 2 other callers. One guy folded and another reraised me. This halved my stack and I figured what the hall at that poit, I had 2 pair, right?
Anyhow, another ace pops on the river and this guy had king high. I lost, asked the dealer what happened and turned red once he explained to me that I was playing 7 high. I managed to learn the game and did quite well with it over the years (no student debt after 2 degrees, thank you) and only play recreationally now. I will never forget the sheer terror of reraising with 7's - the only better thing was when we got into the Grand West for the first time (remember, Stuart had the ID and I grew the lousy beard).
I just wanted to share after reading that other guy's post.
I actually remember my first time quite well. I had been sneaking into the roving charities (I was 17) and I had made a few friends at funtime. Stuart and I used to skip 4th and 5th period in high school and he had a car so we'd grab a Sun and look in the back to see where we had the best chance of sneaking in. They used to hire off duty cops to stand at the door so we used to run about 50/50 (he had an id - I could grow a beard).
Anyhow, there used to be a banquet hall on Steeles at Young on the NW side about a block in - I can't remember the name. We got in and started playing at a reserved BJ table ($10 betting but you could take all 6 spots). We got lucky and the table dumped about $600 to us in a shoe or two. He decided to go home early and I wanted to stick around. I lived in walking distance to the corner at the time so he went on ahead.
I decided not to press my BJ luck (oh how I wish that weren't in reference to cards) and try out this poker thing. It was scary. All roped off and people were leaning over the velvet rope to try and get a better view. This game was about 3 months new in the casinos and I had NO CLUE what was going on. I had learned poker from my dad's regular game with his golfing buddies and his mom actually had a penny poker game for about 40 years. I used to sit in on both games and they would each let me bet for them (although not make the decisions). So how hard could this be??
I bought in for $100!!! that was a huge stack to me. It is weird but the BJ money was 3 or 4x that but I was ok with it. As I said, I was completely new to this and I had at least been playing BJ for 5 or 6 months (the first time I had $100 in that game was scary too).
Anyhow, I lasted about 2 rounds of the puck. I must have bet a draw or two b/c I remember being slowly reduced. But I still had about $50 or so. This was a 5/10 game, BTW ($10/20 wasn't really introduced right away). Anyhow, I get pocket 7's (red) on the button. I raised and the flop was a pair of 10's with an Ace. Again, knowing nothing of the game, I raised into about 2 other callers. One guy folded and another reraised me. This halved my stack and I figured what the hall at that poit, I had 2 pair, right?
Anyhow, another ace pops on the river and this guy had king high. I lost, asked the dealer what happened and turned red once he explained to me that I was playing 7 high. I managed to learn the game and did quite well with it over the years (no student debt after 2 degrees, thank you) and only play recreationally now. I will never forget the sheer terror of reraising with 7's - the only better thing was when we got into the Grand West for the first time (remember, Stuart had the ID and I grew the lousy beard).
I just wanted to share after reading that other guy's post.
Comments
sh!4less. I played 2/5 for 4 hours and made a $60 profit. I was intimidated by just about everything there, from dealers to people playing. I've done quite well live since the casino in Niagara opened a poker room. I feel a lot better going in now. No more terror.
Red
The Luxor had a daily $25 +$10 addon NLH tournament at 10am-2pm and 5pm, but they only ran if they had tables available. They only had about a dozen tables in the corner of the casion. By mid-afternoon and evening all of the tables were full so I kept getting my registration money back for those tournaments. So I went to bed early one night (never should have, my buddies had a hot BJ table and each cleared a G-note or more that night!!!!) and got up to play in the 10am game, which ran since anyone who hangs out in Vegas knows the Strip isn't for morning people
I was pretty nervous as this was my first live game. There were a lot of people in the tournament, 40 and most of them were young go-getters. There were also a couple getting reved up for the WSOP for which the finals were starting that week. I had 3000 in chips and lost a bunch right off the start being too aggressive. The dealer was even making fun of the rookies at the table. One hand I had nice hole cards but after a bad flop had nothing, so I mucked them. Dealer called that a "strong check" since no-one else had bet yet ... ugh. I slowed down and started watching what people were doing. The guy on my right was a big bluffer, every time he put in a raise, I doubled it and he would either fold me the pot or call and lose on nothing. Busted that guy and had a nice stack in front of me - yay!
I made it to the final table! Top 12, top 10 got money. So all I had to do was last until 2 more people got broke and I would at least get my investment back. I had a pretty short stack however, so I basically just didn't play unless I was on a blind or had real strong hole cards. The big stack (was a 6'5" biker wearing all leather and handle bar mustache) tried to push everyone around. He forced me all in on every hand I played, so I just didn't play many hands. I got down to almost all-in on the BB with 4c5c, so I raised it up to my whole stack and had one caller. The flop came down 6c7c8s - I don't even remember what he had, but I took the pot and wound up 6th for a $90 us payday, so basically a $65 profit. Felt pretty good about myself and it wasn't even noon yet. I haven't played too many big games since, but can't wait until I can make my way over to the WPC soon.
Adam.
Oh to be 17 and in high school skipping classes to go play poker!!! LOL
Great thread.
I felt pretty smug to know that I needed to avoid Carl.
After a couple of months (classifying players took me A LOT longer back then) I realized that Carl was a COMPLETE truck accident. The provider in the game.
How long ago was your first trip? How'd you do? We want to hear your humble beginnings (well, at least I do)
First foray to Vegas in 1998 where I final tabled the 7-Stud/8 event. I wish I knew then what I know now. I will probably never get that close a bracelet again and I could have been closer if I had done some things differently.
it was 2/5 limit, and i think i bought in for $50?
i thought the game was no limit, too - i had never even played limit
i think i lasted all of half an hour before rejoining my friends....
i didnt think much of it at the time, but i mustve looked like such an idiot after leaving that table.....
I bought in for a full rack and paid $140 in blinds before I got a hand! I was just about to give up when I got AKs hit the flop and dragged a monster pot. I beat the game for 3BB an hour for a year before I quit playing full time.
Oh yeah, a frequent table mate was a very fresh faced Daniel Negraneau who, in addition to beating me there also relieved me of my whole stack at Poker Mountain recently
Rob
I am curious, which one did you used to frequent?
Rob
Rob
Kinda sweet and goofy guy - Glen? Or the bigger one who used to work for Avenue road roofers? I think his name was Danny too. Jeez - I can't believe I remember all that. I need a drink ...