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First B+M visits: Rama June 14th, Brantford June 27th (no hand analysis...)
Hi folks. Just a bit of a blog on my visists for the first time to the Hold Em rooms at Rama and Brantford. I had never played poker in a casino before.
Rama - June 14th
Got there at around 4p.m. The tournament was down to 5 tables, but they had lots of other tables set up. A very friendly floor person convinced me to sign up for the $2-5 table. and I quickly got a seat. Went through the first $100 in about an hour. The second $100 lasted the rest of the night and I cashed it out. Play seems fast, everybody very friendly about the mechanics of the game. I found I was too focused on myself and not paying enough attention to what everybody else was doing. There was some bluffing going on (Why?!?). I did hold on to one garbage hand that turned into a full house, and should have checked(and hopefully raised) rather then betting....
On another occasion, when 10,J,Q,K flopped, I foolishly held on with a 9 (while a person next to me folded his 9, I wondered why....) and the winner held an Ace. (How could I be so blind?)
I think there is a tendency (and I found especially on my part) at those limits that it's "ONLY" $2 to call, etc., etc. so let's see the flop with crap and I tried to stamp that out as much as I could. (I wonder if moving up to $5-10 would eliminate that.)
Also, I find that the most inconspicuous players are racking up the chips slowly but surely...
The tournament got down to the final table, the last hand was won on a 10-3 offsuit, around 7p.m. that evening....they took photographs of each of the final table players, holding their big prize cheques as each busted out.
One last note: It was very cold in the poker room.....
Brantford, June 27th
Sunday was the final day of the Brantford big tournament; they had five days of play and took the best 10 from each day to play on Sunday. They had the tournament area cordoned off, with space to watch, trophies and press area. I didn't watch it much.
The "regular" poker room had 9 tables going but no $2-5, so I signed up to play the $5-10. I did find I tighten up over the 2-5 because it cost $5 to call/raise. I only stayed for an hour and half. Pocket 4's and 5's, once each, were all the cards I got. I swear I was dealt 2-5 at least four times.... so I only took one pot on a flush(2-Q of diamonds, why was I in there with such garbage in the first place?); couldn't get(bluff) a lady to drop her pair of Q's to my straight flush draw that I missed, that would have been a nice pot to take... Didn't get any big Aces, big cards or suited connectors, but over 1.5 hours that can be expected(about 40 hands).
So I lost about $120 in 1.5 hours. Should have bough for more in. No bad beats....just lousy cards. Saw some flops I shouldn't have. You definitely need to sit for several hours to compensate for the ups and downs, unless you get ahead quickly and run....
They had a $30-60 table with some huge pots. The waiting area has TV's
and chairs, with newspapers spread around. They had 3 5-10 tables, 3 10-20, 2 20-40 and 1 30-60 tables going. I would have preferred to play 2-5 again, at least on my bankroll. It took 40 minutes to get called for my seat, and I lost a few bucks in slots and baccarat.
I'll be reading/studying the game more, and probably not going to the casino for a while now... but it was very easy for a first timer to sit down, and make his money last (see Rama....) In a $2-5 game, the blinds are only $1 and $2 so you can sit for quite a long time....
In both places, the caliber of play varied substantially. Out of 9 players on average, about 3 seemed to really know what they were doing, 3 were so so, and 3 were calling way too much.
Around 6:30 p.m. they were still at several tables in the tournament, with blinds at $1000 and $2000. Don't know who won, but I think 1st place paid around $50000, 2nd paid $25000 and down the line....
That is all.
Rama - June 14th
Got there at around 4p.m. The tournament was down to 5 tables, but they had lots of other tables set up. A very friendly floor person convinced me to sign up for the $2-5 table. and I quickly got a seat. Went through the first $100 in about an hour. The second $100 lasted the rest of the night and I cashed it out. Play seems fast, everybody very friendly about the mechanics of the game. I found I was too focused on myself and not paying enough attention to what everybody else was doing. There was some bluffing going on (Why?!?). I did hold on to one garbage hand that turned into a full house, and should have checked(and hopefully raised) rather then betting....
On another occasion, when 10,J,Q,K flopped, I foolishly held on with a 9 (while a person next to me folded his 9, I wondered why....) and the winner held an Ace. (How could I be so blind?)
I think there is a tendency (and I found especially on my part) at those limits that it's "ONLY" $2 to call, etc., etc. so let's see the flop with crap and I tried to stamp that out as much as I could. (I wonder if moving up to $5-10 would eliminate that.)
Also, I find that the most inconspicuous players are racking up the chips slowly but surely...
The tournament got down to the final table, the last hand was won on a 10-3 offsuit, around 7p.m. that evening....they took photographs of each of the final table players, holding their big prize cheques as each busted out.
One last note: It was very cold in the poker room.....
Brantford, June 27th
Sunday was the final day of the Brantford big tournament; they had five days of play and took the best 10 from each day to play on Sunday. They had the tournament area cordoned off, with space to watch, trophies and press area. I didn't watch it much.
The "regular" poker room had 9 tables going but no $2-5, so I signed up to play the $5-10. I did find I tighten up over the 2-5 because it cost $5 to call/raise. I only stayed for an hour and half. Pocket 4's and 5's, once each, were all the cards I got. I swear I was dealt 2-5 at least four times.... so I only took one pot on a flush(2-Q of diamonds, why was I in there with such garbage in the first place?); couldn't get(bluff) a lady to drop her pair of Q's to my straight flush draw that I missed, that would have been a nice pot to take... Didn't get any big Aces, big cards or suited connectors, but over 1.5 hours that can be expected(about 40 hands).
So I lost about $120 in 1.5 hours. Should have bough for more in. No bad beats....just lousy cards. Saw some flops I shouldn't have. You definitely need to sit for several hours to compensate for the ups and downs, unless you get ahead quickly and run....
They had a $30-60 table with some huge pots. The waiting area has TV's
and chairs, with newspapers spread around. They had 3 5-10 tables, 3 10-20, 2 20-40 and 1 30-60 tables going. I would have preferred to play 2-5 again, at least on my bankroll. It took 40 minutes to get called for my seat, and I lost a few bucks in slots and baccarat.
I'll be reading/studying the game more, and probably not going to the casino for a while now... but it was very easy for a first timer to sit down, and make his money last (see Rama....) In a $2-5 game, the blinds are only $1 and $2 so you can sit for quite a long time....
In both places, the caliber of play varied substantially. Out of 9 players on average, about 3 seemed to really know what they were doing, 3 were so so, and 3 were calling way too much.
Around 6:30 p.m. they were still at several tables in the tournament, with blinds at $1000 and $2000. Don't know who won, but I think 1st place paid around $50000, 2nd paid $25000 and down the line....
That is all.
Comments
Probably a good idea, but it will help to have a *little* bit of realistic casino play before diving into poker books (reading is the best way to learn about poker by a longshot IMO). Try "Winning at Poker" by Dave Scharf and "Winning at Low Limit Holdem (2nd Ed)" by Lee Jones... both are excellent for beginners at low-limit.
And be sure to stick with the limits you're comfortable with. Sounds like you prefered the 2-5, and didn't really have a big enough of a buy-in for the 5-10. (AFAIK, Brantford has never offered 2-5.)
Yep, if by "several" you mean "hundreds of".
ScottyZ