making the jump from intermediate to advanced
I've been playing for about 6 years and would consider myself an intermediate player. I have a healthy obsession for the game, if there's any such thing. So far, I've only played in friendly home games, where I am a consistent winner. I am ready to take myself to the next level. I've read a couple of the important books and watched a couple of videos, but what else should I be doing? I'm really serious about going into "training mode". If low limit casino games are the answer, do you have any advice for a young lady to lessen the intimidation factor ....... those guys in the trucker's caps and the dark glasses scare me a little.
Comments
The games I've played in 2/5 & 4/8 & 5/10 & 6/12 (last is the smallest limit at Fallsview) are friendly and chatty. I can only recall one guy with dark glasses and a trucker hat. It seems silly to me to bother with sunglasses at 2/5.
Smile and nod at the :fish: who hit with Q2o in MP after a preflop raise and take them down later. Good luck.
I'll take advice from anyone who knows what they're talking about. Thanks
Best way is to just go to the casino and start playing.. I just kind of went through the same thing with going to my first B&M game a month ago.. yeah you get nervous because everything is so new but after a few hands it feels normal.. And a LL table is used to new players sitting down, so you aren't going to be annoying anyone as long as you can keep up with the basic flow... ie don't act out of turn and don't take 4 minutes to act..
Oops.
As an aside, I'd argue you are moving from beginner to intermediate if you aren't playing online and your only previous experience is with home games..
Next, check out some poker schools that are offered - I have no recommendations, as I have not used them at all. BUT, it is a good way to maximize the time and money you will spend.
Lastly, make sure you are studying the play of the game - that means tracking as much as you can of your play and specifically, the money in and out. This is the only REAL measure of how you do.
Good luck moving levels.
BONUS FEATURE #2: TIPS ON YOUR FIRST CASINO TEXAS HOLD’EM EXPERIENCE
This chapter should help you out if and when you decide to try your hand at some casino texas hold’em. I’ve called this chapter ‘casino protocol’ because I’ll be telling you everything you need to know about playing casino texas hold’em, incorporating both rules and etiquette. Going to a casino to play hold’em for the first time can be a very nerve-wracking experience, but it doesn’t have to be if you’re prepared.
Choose your limit.
Casinos usually offer a selection of limits to play at; for example, $2/$4, $5/$10, $10/$20, and $20/$40. The games get tougher as the stakes go up, so as a beginner, you should start at the smallest limit the casino offers. That being said, some casinos have $5/$10 as their lowest game, which is usually higher than beginners should be playing. If your skill level and your bankroll aren’t ready for the lowest limits your local casino has to offer, then don’t play there. When looking at the selection of limits, keep in mind that in a $2/$4 game for example, the blinds are not $2 for the small blind and $4 for the big. $2 is the increment that you can bet pre-flop and on the flop, and $4 is the increment that you can bet on the turn and river. The blinds are $1 and $2.Â
If you’re a beginner, play small. The competition should be fairly weak, and your mistakes—which are inevitable even for experienced players, but are inevitably more frequent for beginners—will be less costly. I’ve heard the following story told enough times to believe it to be true: Bill Gates wanted to learn how to play limit texas hold’em, and walked into a casino. The man could afford to play any limit the casino offered and then some, but he chose to play $2/$4. Apparently he believes in learning things the right way, and the right way to learn texas hold’em is to start small. If $2/$4 is good enough for him as a beginner, it should be good enough for you, too.
Get on the waiting list.
As a beginner, you should play at the lowest limit the casino has to offer, and only play if it’s low enough for you to be able to afford. In a $2/$4 game for example, you’ll want to have at least $80 to play with, and you should be prepared to lose it all. Even really experienced players have losing sessions, so as a beginner, you’ll probably have your fair share of them, as well. I’ll talk a bit more about buy-in amounts a little later, but if you decide you can afford to play, you’ll need to get on the waiting list. To do this, you have to approach a representative of the ‘floor’. This person will usually be at a counter or a desk somewhere near the entrance to the poker room. Just tell them what limit you’d like to play, and your name. If there’s a waiting list—and there usually is, though the wait usually isn’t longer than a half-hour or so—they’ll either call you over the casino’s speaker system when your seat becomes available, or just announce your name in the poker area. Find out which is the case from the floor person, and also find out how long you’ll have to claim your seat after your name is announced. If you don’t show up in time, your seat will go to the next player on the list, and your name will be moved to the bottom. If there isn’t a waiting list, you’re in luck, and you can go and get some poker chips.
Get some chips.
Casinos don’t use cash for their poker games; they use poker chips. In a $2/$4 game, you’ll need to get white chips, worth $1 each. In a $5/$10 game, you’ll need to get red chips, worth $5 each. Before you sit down, find out if you’re supposed to buy your chips from the dealer at your table, or from the cage (a casino’s version of a bank teller). If it’s from the dealer, go ahead and take your seat (the floor person will tell you which seat and which table). Wait for the hand that’s in progress to be completed before asking the dealer for chips. When the hand is done, place your money on the table in front of you, and push it in the direction of the dealer. He or she will take it from there.
If the floor person tells you that you have to get your chips from the cage, simply go to the cage and ask for some chips. How many chips should you get? Well, a good rule of thumb is to buy into a game for 20 times the big bet (not blind) of the limit you’ve chosen. In a $5/$10 game, 20 times $10 is $200, so that’s what you should start with, and that’s what you should be prepared to lose. In a $2/$4 game, 20 times $4 is $80. In exchange for your $80, you’ll receive a plastic rack of 80 white $1 chips. Take your seat, take the chips out of the rack and stack them neatly in front of you. Then get rid of the rack. Space can be limited at ten-player hold’em tables, so you should do your best to respect the space of the players around you by not spreading your chips out too much or leaving your rack on the table. Furthermore, almost all casinos have a rule against playing your chips out of a rack, so it’s best to just get rid of it once you arrive at your table. You’ll also need room to look candidly at your hole cards, so you’ll need all the space you can get in the area of the table that’s allotted to your.seat
Post, or wait for the big blind.
As a new player at the table, you can’t just sit down and be dealt a hand immediately, unless the seat you’ve been given is about to be the big blind, or you decide to ‘post’. Essentially, every player pays for a round of texas hold’em. They do this by paying their blinds—they’ll pay to see two hands, and then see eight for free. It wouldn’t be very fair if you sat down and got to play 5 or 6 hands for free before you had to pay your blinds, which is why you have to wait, or post. Posting is putting the amount of the big blind in front of you when you sit down, so that you can be dealt a hand immediately, even though you’re not in the blinds.
How do you know whether to post or wait for the big blind? Let’s say you sit down, and the big blind is two seats to your right. You’ll only have to wait one hand before it will be your turn to pay the big blind, so you might as well sit out a hand, and come in on the big blind. However, if you sit down and the button is immediately to your left, it’s a good idea to post, or you’d be forced to wait eight hands before you’re the big blind. In this case, I’d post, unless I wanted to take some time to relax and watch my opponents, to try and figure out who the maniacs are.
So, you’ll either post or wait for the big blind, and you should make that decision based on how long you’ll have to wait, and on whether or not you’d like to sit out for a bit before joining the battle. Eventually, you’ll be dealt a hand. After all, that’s what you came for. When you get your hole cards, you should do four things.
1) Look at them in such a way as to not show them to other players. This is not to say that other players will necessarily be making any kind of effort to try and see your cards, but if you aren’t careful, someone may see them. You aren’t allowed to lift the cards off the table and look at them on your lap or in front of your face, so the best way to look at your hole cards is to make a tent with your hands. Place the two cards (face-down, obviously) overlapping each other, and then cup your hands around them. With your thumbs, gently bend the corners up, lower your head closer to the table, and have a look at the ranks and suits of your cards.
2) Remain expressionless. You should have the same expression on your face regardless of whether you’re looking at seven-two offsuit or pocket aces. If you’re having a conversation with your neighbour between hands, you should be able to look at pocket kings without missing a beat in the conversation. This will take practice, but with experience you’ll find that it’s just part of the game.
3) Memorize your hole cards. It’s easy to do; it’s only two cards. Memorize not only the ranks, but the suits as well. Let’s say you have the ace of hearts and the queen of clubs, and the flop comes all hearts, queen high. You bet your top pair. The turn comes another heart, putting four on the board. Somebody bets. You forget what suit your ace is. You look at your cards, see the ace of hearts, and you raise. It’s pretty safe to say that you won’t be getting too many callers, if any.
4) After you’ve memorized your cards, keep them stacked in front of you with a chip on top of them. This is known as “protecting your cardsâ€. The chip is acting as a ‘marker’; it is protecting your hand. Sometimes, dealers get so busy that they’ll forget that someone’s still in a hand, and accidentally sweep their hole cards into the discard pile (also known as ‘the muck’). If this happens, your hand will be considered to be folded, even if you had pocket jacks on a flop of JJA. However, if you use a chip as a marker, the dealer will not make this mistake, and your hole cards will be protected.
Once you’re in a hand—putting chips into the pot, or folding.
If you’re posting a blind, folding, calling a bet, betting, or raising, you’ll have to be familiar with the rules to avoid confusion. Casino texas hold’em tables sometimes have an oval-shaped line painted onto the felt, about ten inches or so from the edge of the table, all the way around. Any chips or folded cards have to go past that line. So, if you decide to fold your hand—preflop or otherwise—simply push your hole cards face-down across the line in front of you. The dealer will then know that this is a fold, and he or she will be able to reach your cards, regardless of where you’re sitting at the table. Similiarly, if you decide to bet, call a bet, or raise, your chips have to cross the line.
It goes without saying that you should always wait your turn before acting, as your decision may affect the decisions of others. If, for example, you fold preflop before you’re supposed to, then everyone who hasn’t acted yet to your right will know that there is one less player to worry about to their left, and they may change their strategy based on that. While this doesn’t effect you, because you folded, it may unfairly affect the players to your left, while unfairly helping the players to your right.
Another thing to keep in mind is that if you decide to raise (or re-raise), you either have to put the correct amount of chips across the line in one single motion, or you have to say ‘raise’. If you don’t say ‘raise’, and you want to raise a $4 bet to $8, and you put $7 out by accident, it will be considered a call, and you’ll be forced to take your $3 back. You can’t reach back, and add another chip—this would be ruled to be a string bet, and string bets aren’t allowed in casinos. However, if you say the word ‘raise’, this rule does not apply. This is why it’s safest to always announce your intention to raise. Furthermore, if you intend to raise a $4 bet to $8, and you push a single $25 chip across the line without saying raise, it will be consider a call, and you’ll be given $21 in chips back as change. One big chip is considered a call, unless you say otherwise. Like the situation with the dealer sweeping active cards into the muck, accidents result in sometimes unfortunate but always consistent rulings. These accidents can be easily prevented, though, by using a chip as a marker for your hole cards and by announcing your intention to raise.
Also, never talk about a hand while it’s in play. If you’re out of the hand, stay quiet. For example, if the board is 9JQ8, don’t say ‘wow I bet someone’s glad they have a ten’. Also, if you’re in a hand, don’t say things like ‘I’d fold if I were you, I have pocket aces’. It’s bad form, and in some cases, it’s against the rules. It’s best to never show your cards to anyone, at all, unless you’ve made it to the end of a hand and it’s time to flip them over, for all to see.
Winning a pot.
Let’s say you win a pot. The betting is finished, you flip over your hole cards, and you have the best hand. It’s a great feeling, but you’ll have to resist the urge to reach out into the middle of the table and gather up your new chips. If you win, the dealer will first take out the ‘rake’ from the pot. The rake is how a casino makes money from running texas hold’em tables. Unlike blackjack, or any other game in the casino, texas hold’em players don’t play against the house. They play against each other. The casino provides the materials, the space, and the dealers, but they have to make money somehow, so they get a percentage of each pot, and this percentage is called the rake. The amount of rake taken from each pot varies from casino to casino and from limit to limit. Also, some casinos prefer to charge players by the amount of time they play, instead of taking a rake from each pot. In this case, usually every half hour, the dealer will ask each player to pay his time charge. In a $10/$20 game for example, this time charge is usually $5 per half hour.
But back to the matter at hand. If you win a pot, and you’re in a casino that uses a rake, the dealer has to separate the rake from the pot before you get your chips. The dealer will then push the pot in your direction, at which point you can begin the satisfying task of stacking your chips. In a casino that doesn’t use a rake, it is still against the rules to reach out and try to drag the pot before the dealer has pushed it towards you.
Losing a pot.
If at the end of a hand you flip over your hole cards and you’re beaten, you get nothing. Even if your opponent has beaten you in a very unlikely way that is indicative of very poor play—for example, he calls all of your bets to the river and then hits a four-outer for a gutshot straight draw—you should not lose your cool. Have patience. The last thing you want to do is get mad at him, and call him a bad player, because you don’t want to discourage him from playing badly. Even though you may have just lost a big pot, it’ll be better for you in the long run if you keep your cool and remain silent. Biting your tongue can be tough, but not only is it polite, it allows for a long-term profitable situation for you. These bad players enjoying short-term luck make poker a beatable game, and you want them at your table.
Also, after seeing a maniac win a few pots in a row against you with garbage cards and unlikely draws, you may be tempted—in your frustration—to play garbage as well. Don’t. Sitck to your game plan, and continue to play a patient, disciplined game. The maniac wants you to play garbage cards, and if you do, you’ll find that he’ll start to tighten up, leaving you as the only maniac at the table, losing all of your chips quickly unless you get really lucky. And that’s not poker. That’s bingo. Poker is a game where good, consistent play is actually rewarded in the long run, so you should always try to play your best game, regardless of the circumstances.
If you run out of chips while you’re in a hand, you will be all-in. You are not allowed under any circumstances to reach into your pocket and buy more chips during a hand, even if you have four aces. Once you run out of chips, you’ll be all-in, and will only be eligible to win the amount of chips you had before the hand started, multiplied by the number of players in the pot at the time you went all-in. You’ll also be eligible to win whatever went into the pot before you ran out of chips, if players had put in a bet or two and then folded. Basically, you can’t win chips from players that you yourself don’t have in front of you, regardless of how strong your hand is.
If you run out of chips completely, you have two options: buy more chips and continue to play, or leave the game. This decision should be based on a number of careful considerations. Some of these considerations are: how beatable, or ‘soft’ is the game? If you are in a game with very poor, lucky players, but you’ve lost your chips to a string of unlikely bad beats, you should probably buy some more and stick around, as long as you otherwise feel like playing. Only do this if your bankroll can handle it, but then again, if it can’t, then you shouldn’t have been playing in that game in the first place. Also, only buy more chips if you’re not angry, or ‘on tilt’. Sometimes players get frustrated after losing pot after pot to improbable beats. They go in with pocket aces, and lose to a rivered straight. Then they go in with pocket kings, and lose to pocket fours when a four comes on the board. These things will happen, but if you go on tilt, which means that you are letting your frustration affect your game, then you’re in real trouble. The worst thing about being on tilt is that you don’t usually realize it, and you continue to lose money, not because of unlikely beats anymore, but because you’re playing poorly. You’re frustrated, and you’re making bad decisions. Be honest with yourself. If you’re on tilt, take a break or leave, no matter how soft the game is.
Also, you should leave if you’re tired, or you’re distracted for some reason. Basically, stay if the game is lucrative and if you’re playing what you honestly believe to be good, solid poker. Leave if your opponents are as good or better than you (and be honestly objective about this), or if you’re tired, bored, distracted, on tilt, or otherwise off your game. Poker is like one very long game, broken up into individual nights. How you do in any one particular session doesn’t really matter in the long run… it’s the long-term results that tell the tale. So, live to fight another day, and call it quits. Poker will still be there when you decide to return, and when you do, make sure you’re thinking about the battle and the war. And remember, the only person keeping score is you, so track your results carefully, and honestly.
Leaving the table.
If you get up to leave for a few minutes and plan to return, leave your chips on the table while you’re gone. No other players will touch them, trust me. The casino has dealers, cameras, pit bosses, and floormen to keep an eye on them for you. If you take your chips with you, or you run out of chips and leave to get more without telling the dealer what you’re doing, the dealer will assume that you’re done for the night, and your seat will be given away.
Most casinos allow players to leave the table for two rounds—or twenty hands—before they’ll assume that you’ve left for good, provided you leave your chips on the table to indicate that you’re returning. Usually the rule is missing a certain number of big blinds, typically 2 or 3. This should give you more than enough time to do whatever it is that you’d like to do away from the table. When you return, you’ll have to post, or wait for the big blind. If you plan on going for a meal, you should ask the dealer for a ‘meal button’. This will reserve your seat for longer than 20 hands. The exact amount of time that this marker entitles you to varies from casino to casino, so you should ask how much time you have before you leave.
Tipping.
Tipping—or ‘toking’ as it’s known in the gaming industry—isn’t mandatory, but it is the convention. Different players tip dealers and wait staff different amounts, and some don’t tip at all. If a dealer is particularly bad at his job, for example, or he’s rude, you shouldn’t feel obligated to tip him anything. However, like waiters and waitresses, dealers derive a large part of their income from tips. Here’s what I like to tip: if I raise a pot preflop, and nobody calls, I tip nothing. If a couple of people just call preflop, and I raise the flop and get no callers, I tip nothing. If I win a medium-sized pot, I tip one dollar. If I win a large pot, I may tip two dollars. If I win a massive pot, I may tip three dollars. As you can see, my gratuity is linked with the size of the pot I win, and most people tip this way. Simply observing the habits of the other players at the table in terms of tipping is usually the way to go. After the pot is pushed to you, if you’d like to tip, toss a chip (or chips) totalling the amount of your tip towards the dealer. If you don’t have any chips small enough to tip with, ask the dealer to give you change for a larger chip, and then tip using the change.
Also, in some casinos, alcohol is free. Note that I do not encourage excessive drinking while you play, as it will surely affect your judgement in a negative way, and most if not all of your opponents will be sober. In most casinos, coffee, water, and soft drinks are free while you’re playing. I generally tip the wait staff a $1 chip for whatever I order.
Cashing out.
When you’ve decided you’ve had enough, for whatever reason, you’ll need to convert your poker chips back into cash. There should be some plastic racks lying around nearby, or simply ask a floor person. Load your chips into a rack (or racks, if you’re lucky) and head to the cashier. Also, tell the dealer that you’re done for the night, so that he or she knows to give your seat to the next player on the list.
House rules.
Each casino has its own ‘house rules’, in addition to the ones I’ve mentioned here. For example, English is the only language allowed to be spoken at the table. There are many house rules, and they vary from casino to casino, so you should familiarize yourself with them before you sit down to play. Look for a posted list of rules, or ask a floorperson for a printed copy.
As a final note on casino play, be friendly. People don’t mind losing to friendly people as much, and they’ll stick around. Be polite… respect the space of your neighbours, because there won’t be much of it. Don’t swear, don’t throw fits. Play good solid poker, and act like a respectable human being. Poker can be emotional, but don’t let your emotions get the best of you. If someone is trying to get under your skin to throw you off your game, ignore them. Look for obvious tells like shaky hands, or people who look at their chips immediately after looking at their hole cards. As you become more and more experienced with casino poker, you’ll start learning a lot about body language. But as a beginner, you should be mostly concerned with yourself. Play your best game, stay as composed as possible regardless of how excited or dismayed you may be on the inside, and you’ll have an enjoyable—and usually a profitable—experience.
Yep I agree. I think I only hinted at it.
For example, last Friday, I was in a 1-2 NL game at Niagra and there were a few people at the table playing poorly. Some examples are going all in at the river when they caught their flush, rather than betting an amount that people would actually call making them more money. Or going all in preflop with Ace 4 with 2 raisers. This weekend was actually my first time playing at the casino and over the whole weekend only came out $10 under. I admit I played pretty tight (I'm sure that 80% of the people at the table considered me the rock), but I think I did pretty well in the hands I did play, although being nervous attributed to me not playing my table image the right way. (Could have stole more pots)
Overall it was a comfortable experience and you pick up all the ins and outs of playing at a casino pretty quickly. I came in thinking that it would be like the WPT, with raises and re-raises, going all in every other hand, but it's just like any other home game, but in a casino atmosphere. For someone who's only been playing 6 months, I don't see how someone with 6 years of experience would fear playing there.
Not so much fear, just a slight intimidation at a): being female; b) playing in a more formal surrounding than a home game; and c) playing with strangers. I'm sure I'll feel comfortable within a short time. I felt the same way the first time I sat down at a casino blackjack table and now I wonder why it ever gave me the heebie-jeebies.
They don't go all in every other hand, it just looks that way because it is edited for TV. WPT games are just as strategic and calculated as any serious game.
AA - great post, this is a good thread that is going. There are a ton of good "starter" books out there as well. Recommendations?
Have tried playing online......... did OK at cash games and even better at freeroll tourneys. I don't really enjoy online play...... prefer the atmosphere of a live table.
Hmmmmm...... you may have a point, but I'd argue back that I'm past the beginner stage. I have a good understanding of all the concepts (it's just a matter of practicing proper execution). Some of the guys in my home game are pretty tough and I never have a problem standing up to them and not getting killed.
Having said that, I'm fully prepared to get my ass kicked the first couple of times at a casino table. I'm in good company though...... I've heard many pros speak of their first time and how it didn't work out as well as they'd hoped.