Grinding in Atlantic City 1/2 and 2/5 cash games

Are there any personal experiences or articles that my fellow CardsChat members would like to share? Softest games/times/etc?

Due to this site, it's articles, and members' posts, I feel as though I'm prepared to take this undertaking seriously at least once a week. Just curious as to what I can expect at those levels.

EDIT - Post Section fail. Could mods move this to GC? Thanks.

Moved to strat, feel its prob the best.

I feel like I've answered this question before...deja vu.

So you want to "grind" for 1 day a week?

You sound a little new to the game or at least you want to start learning it and visiting this forum is a good start. If you want to start taking poker seriously I would actually recommend depositing some money online, playing as many hands at the micro stakes as possible and practicing some good bankroll management.

You will see many more hands and therefore be put in more decision making situations that you need help analyzing. Having the electronic record of your hand histories also makes analyzing your poker decisions easier when you post in our ring game hand analysis section.

If you already know all this sorry, but maybe someone else can use it.

As for Atlantic City:

Weekends and nights are the best times to play as there are more visitors, gamblers, and drunks making the mistakes for you to capitalize on. You are more likely to be sitting at a table full of decent players at 1pm on a Monday than you are on a Friday night at Midnight. Holiday's are also a great time to go down, such as these few weeks between Christmas and New Years.

Places to play:

I just want to say I have somewhere around 40-50 hours playing live in AC so its not an amazing sample size to judge all of these casinos. This is a very subjective analysis of the play that I saw when I sat down.

Ceasars: This place had the most fish I had seen, it was actually pathetic and made me a little sad that these people had no idea how they were losing money. It may have something to do with it being the first big casino you face when you drive into the center of Atlantic City, but I would definitely consider going there again.

Tropicana: I like it here, the players seem to be better and there are definitely people that play there regularly (not saying they are great players). They have pretty good comps though for you plan on playing a lot on a consistent basis.

Borgata: Nice ta-ta's, decent drink service, younger scene, lots of okay players that think they are the next Gus or Daniel. Kind of annoying.

Showboat: Decent room, but kind of far from the main drag, if your gonna go there, play at the Taj.

Taj: Lots of action, good and bad players everywhere. Money is seriously flying everywhere. Be ready to make decisions for your entire stack.

During the winter months its always a good idea to check at each casino`s website to see where the biggest bad-beat jackpot is. The crowd always seems to follow the big jackpot, especially when fish are thin. On weekends and holidays almost every room has decent action. The Borgata definitely has great action on the weekends but also has the most wanna-be pros too. They run the biggest buy-ins for tournaments so you get some good action on Friday`s as guys get knocked out. As Likminutz said, the Taj can be wild and wooly and the Showboat gets some decent action if the Taj is too busy since its right next door. Billy`s Poker Room at Bally`s gets some good action on the weeekends too. They run cheap tourneys so some of the fish spill onto the 1/3 tables, it ain`t bad. Harrah`s is full of New Yawkers but is on the marina side so its hit or miss. I prefer the Showboat myself.

Likminutz - Thank you for that post, it was exactly what i was looking for. I am not new to the game in any aspect, I meant to give it a go at least once a week, take notes and see if I'm getting a justifiable EV to make it a more regular thing. I would consider myself an intermediate player in terms of theory, and an unfortunate novice when it comes to proper BR management, which I am currently en route to correct. The descriptions of the play at the casinos was brief, on point and much welcomed. I've recently read a few players' blogs that correspond to the absurdly LAG play at some tables. (open raising from EP/MP to 20 in NL 1/2?) my primary concern is playing at a location where the players generally seem to have an understanding of a game, and where I can avoid a 3 bet shovefest after every limped flop. It is 1/2 though, and I'm considering trying 3/6 limit if it doesn't suit my fancy. Once again, thanks.

VerbalKint - I've heard mixed feelings from some player's regarding the Bad Beat Jackpot. Some argue it attracts too many maniacs, making the play at low levels unmanageable and frustrating. What is your take on it? I've also heard good things about the Trop, and I'm thinking of making the Trop and Borgata my go around when I head down there. Thanks.

Yeah the BadBeat jackpot can get all the agressive maniacs out there. Personally I don`t mind playing them too much, I just slow play more and it usually snags one or two fish. I`d rather have a busy room than one or two tables packed with mostly the local pros. Haven`t been to the Trop lately, I always hated getting a beer there because all they served was Natty Light in a small plastic cup in the poker room. (true!) Always was a pretty knowledgable crowd there though, same with the Borgata. Personally I always like the loose crowds who sit down with only $100 and end up losing it in about 20 minutes, then rebuy with another hundred again and again and again. Luv those guys.