bricks & mortar poker questions

I'm planning a trip to the closest bricks and mortar cardroom to here, about an hour and a half's drive away on the Canada/U.S. border. Since I have almost no bricks and mortar experience, this will be just to get in some playing time and explore the local community.

I already know that most of the tables open at around 1:00 p.m. and plan to arrive there on a Monday. I'll be playing $1/$2 no limit hold 'em with a bankroll of only $500. If my money lasts past day's end I plan to get a cheap motel or flophouse room and return the next day. (Please note that my accomodations, food, and transportation costs come out of money *separate* from the bankroll.) That will continue to go on as long as my bankroll holds up, or until Friday afternoon comes and it's time to head home to avoid the insanely busy weekend crowds at the poker room and surrounding casino.

I also plan to spend some time wandering outside the tourist areas of the town in which the cardroom is located to get a feel for how the locals live. I already know the surrounding community is relatively poor and, should I ever be able to turn pro out of that cardroom, finding a place to live nearby won't be expensive. In past trips to the novelty-games casino I've walked around and found things such as $1.50 draft beer on scuzzy-looking patios where low-income regulars gather. There is also a small nearby town populated mostly by white trash where a regular feature of room rental ads in the local paper is "mjf" ("mj friendly").

If anyone here has taken this kind of seat-of-the-pants poker vacation before, I'd appreciate your describing your experience and any pitfalls I should avoid or benefits I should try to make use of. And if you haven't done this kind of thing but have advice to offer, I'm all ears.

What does mj mean

I'm curious about that too.

One thing I'm wondering, why wouldn't you stay the weekend when all the tourists come in to make some easy money off them? My experience is that, during the week, you get more of a regular poker crowd, who mostly know what they're doing, and thus could be harder to make some money off of. But on the weekend, you get John Q Tourist coming in to "gamble", and if you play it right (I think a good TAG style), you could be making a tidy profit.

As for the trashy sounding town, doesn't appeal to me at all, but meh, it's up to you.

My suggestion: Go there Friday morning instead and play until Sunday morning. You'll be surprised at the horrible poker players that are just there to have fun and gamble. You just have to get there early (ie late afternoon) to get a seat right away.

Because I'm curious.

I got to wondering what mj friendly meant, so I googled it, and found that first off, google has this thread as the 2nd entry, and then I found that there was no specific definition, but most likely it means marijuana friendly.

or Michael Jackson , Michael Jordan, Mick Jagger, etc, etc, etc:confus ed:

I googled MJF Friendly was well got this thread. So, I guess it's not common.
I have no idea what it means. Marijuana friendly would be a weird thing to advertise, and I'm not sure I'd want to stay in a place that thought that was one of their big selling points.

Not so weird I think. It is just over the border from the US in mj friendly Canada. I would think it's a brilliant ad campaign if it is what I think it is.

Suggestions:

1) Don't call it a "bricks and mortar poker room". People will point at you and laugh. Call it a "Live Poker Room" and you'll fit in.

2) Highly suggest taking the advise posted before and show up Friday. Take from the fish, avoid the sharks. Makes sense right?

3) Different places I've played all have different types of players. The players in LA are ridiculously (suicidally) aggressive. In San Diego they are fairly aggressive. Vegas has all types but 99% of the tourists are retards at poker. Palm Springs had impatient and overly-aggressive old people. The thing to do is get the lay of the land first. You might even want to railbird it for an hour.

4) Have fun, and don't be intimidated. Most of the people at these tables are jerkoffs that overplay their hands.

5) Be *VERY* patient. If you are used to two or three or MORE tables at the same time, you have to understand that you are now only playing one table and the hands move a LOT slower than they do online.

6) If you do not have practice handling and organizing your chips, don't be a noob and mix them up and fumble around with them every time you make a bet. Have ONE way you make a bet (verbal, whatever) and do it consistently every time so nobody gets a read on you.

Thanks for all the replies. Live poker room it is.

When you get to the casino, get your comp. card / players advantage card or whatever they call it if it is offered. Unfortunately at 1/2 NL you only get about 50 cents of comps. per hour. But it all adds up. Second, find out if the casino charges rake or session fees. Session fees usually speed up a table play, but make all the other players more ill tempered with slow players and delays like dealers checking the new deck, jams in the auto shuffler etc. Because session, plyers are paying for the time, and not the hand won there is a tendency for looser play. At this point, if you are seriously considering making a living at poker, I would hope that you are a better than average player, that being said, you are probably aware that the more hands that are played tends to be advantage to the better player. Unfortunately, in live play the number of hands dealt per hour is only 30 +/- 5 per hour where as online it tends to be 50 +/- 10 on average. What will be an advantage is live tells and reads. GL at the tables.

If you get to a table and the dealer knows some of the players by name or some people come by and say "hi" to players at your table. These players are the regulars and very likely sharks - be very careful when playing these guys/girls.

This is sometimes the case - sometimes, however, they're just regular players who come in for a laugh, or losing players who were especially memorable. Or maybe they know them from games other than poker.

Your point stands though, it doesn't hurt to be a bit cautious around these players until you work out which is the case.

One way I use, is I mis-quote some poker odds and see if they correct me.

That's a good idea.

I deliberately said something incorrect about Pokertracker at the casino last week, and nobody corrected me - but maybe they don't play online very much... however I know that a couple of them are bloody good poker players, and they regularly play in the tournies at the casino (our casino doesn't have cash tables, yet).

Or maybe they were quietly laughing at you while labeling you as a complete fish. Why would they correct you?

Don't worry, you'll work it out in the end...

From what I can figure out you are heading to either the Windsor of Fallsview Casino. Can't help you with the Windsor Casino.
If you are going to the Niagara Fallsview Casino, you won't have much luck with a 1/2 table. They only have one and it is impossible to get on. You can call ahead to the casino poker room at 905-371-7777 and have your name placed on the waiting list. You then have 90 minutes to arrive. In the meantime, your waiting time is diminished while your driving to the casino. However, if you are one second late, the computer removes your name from the list. They only have on 1/2 NL table, two 2/5 NL tables, then several 5/5, 5/10 and10/20 NL tables. Like the person said above, go on the weekend when the casual players are there. During the week it is only regulars and difficult to get their money.
Good luck, but not agains me. I'll be the guy at the 2/5 with the big stack, lol.