First live experience...

Well excluding home games of course.

Anyway so me and a couple of friends drove down to Savannah (1hr) for this gambling cruise, neither of them were are big poker players but that is the only reason i ended up going. It was a pretty crappy boat, and was WAY more focused on slots and games like craps and roulette than poker.
There was a 100+10 tournament that started as soon as we left port so i decided to enter this (the only poker being played until the tournament was over). 12 entrants in all and top 2 got paid (hated the structure but i wanted to do something). 4 people ended up all in on the flop of the first hand when 4QK of clubs fell. Player 1 had T2c, Player 2 (a local celebrity appearantly) with AcAh and two other players with KQ... After a 4th club landed on the turn Player 2 was in a dominating chip lead.
I was a little bit in awe of how fast the action was moving, but i continued to play fairly tight. It was very soon down to 5 players and i was sitting in 3rd or 4th. I stole enough blinds to keep me afloat and then got in some trouble when i raised the button with 89h and was called by this very agressive player to my right... It checked to me and i lead out with about 3/4 of the pot on a baby flop which i missed horribly. This bet was about 1/3 of my stack and he beat me into the pot with the rest of his chips. He had me more than covered so i was forced to abandon a large portion of my stack.
After this i was pretty much crippled, when we got to 3 handed play Player 2 was sitting with ~25, Agro was with ~12K and i was blinding out fast with 3K. After doubling up once with 99, i catch 66 in the big blind. I triple the bet and shove on a 594 flop after being checked to. He snap calls and i congradulate him on a nice hand before seeing his cards. he turns over K4o and i am shocked. This put me at about 10K and in 2nd place.
My style of play changed almost immediately and i constantly began stealing the blinds which were now 1500 and 3000. Then what i was waiting for happened... Player 2 limped utg and then shoved to agro's pot committing raise and after AK destroyed T4 we were HU.
After a few hands where we went back and forth stealing blinds he asked for a chip count and after seeing we were fairly close in stack size he recommends a split. I thought about it for a minute and decided to make the deal $600 and $600.

After the tournament was over a cash game started up. It was almost the exact same people that played in the tournament so i was feeling fairly confident at this point. After a few up and downs i pick up KK on the button. After a few limps and a min-raise i pop it to about 8BBs. Agro, who was to my left called and this asian guy in the BB called. flop comes 4s8sQc... Agro bets (and since i knew his range of hands was very wide i decided to shove to push him of a potential draw, plus i had about 100 left and there was ~175 in the pot at this point) Agro calls, and asian calls. Agro turns up Ts7s, and asian turns up Qs6s..(i cant tell you how surprised i was to see this range of cards showing given a re-raise from a fairly tight player preflop) I felt fairly confindent since i knew 7 spades were dead already (including my K). Turn comes a blank and the asian caught his 6 on the river for 2 pair. I felt so sick at this point but reloaded in chips.
Not long afterwards the dealer announced that there would be 3 hands left, and people began playing way more agressive. Didn't play the first two but in the last hand of the night i pick up AK under the gun. Since i noticed the amount of people playing these last few hands in put in a giant raise. Agro calls, Player 2 (from the tournament) calls and 2 other players call. Flop is As9c4s. Player 2 (SB) checks, i bet about half the pot, agro calls and the others fold. Player 2 then shoved and i shook my head in dissapointment knowing i was beat, but i was more than pot committed so i had to call, and so did agro. Player 2 shows A4 and i announce that hands like that are the reason i raised so much preflop. Agro went ahead and mucked (no idea what he was calling with.) Turn was a blank and i began calling for a 9. sure enough the 9h landed on the river and i took down the $450+ pot for a great end to the night.

All in all it was a great experience and i ended up about 800 positive for the night. If anyone had the patience/boredom to read all of this well thank you, i just felt like i needed to tell someone (moreso brag i guess.)

Very nice. Especially for your first experience(s).

Sounds like a fun night, I've only played live once but I think I would get bored too easily now $800 is a night is a pretty damn good payday!

Nice writeup. You had me rooting for you by the end.

Congrats! Great story. But just one word of warning of your first live experience. THIS IS HOW THEY SUCK YOU IN!!!!!!!!

Sounds like a great time and you did good.

Your subject line got my interest because I have never played a single live hand. Closest I ever came was in Palm Springs last year when I loitered around the poker room until I gave up and admitted I just didn't have the confidence to sit down.

Glad you had such a nice payout for your first time.

Nice job and man nice score for your first time at the live tables. Trust me I play out here in LA about once a month live and at all the $40nl and $100nl tables you see the EXACT same players you described. For some reason people love to gun for those flushes. They have no concept of odds nor do they even care. These are also the same people that burn through 4-5 buyins within an hour.

Yep I've played a lot of $100 NL and those guys are everywhere. One of the problems is that virtually the entire table is chasing a flush or straight every hand, they should pay you off but its hard to deal with people who shove with a gutshot.

there is always those guys that will stack off with top pair no kicker for 200 in a 1/2 game.

Congrats, definitely a promising first live experience.

I remember when I first started playing with my friends we had a $10 buy in tournament, just four of us. Well lets just say no one wanted to lose their $10 and the game took forever, I think we started at 9pm and ended around 3:30 in the morning because I just started going all in since I had a job interview at 8am the next day.

So congrats for having an extremely profitable trip

Good story! I much prefer live games, maybe due to my success (other than a really horrible trip to vegas last time, I took a one outer bad beat for near 200BB). Basically, people don't go to the casino to fold, and they simply aren't good enough or sober enough to notice that you folded the last xxx hands. As long as you don't get unlucky, it's fairly easy to come out ahead.

Here's to more trips like that.

Congrats, sounds like fun!

Was this the Diamond Casino boat, or the Emerald Princess? The Emerald Princess looks nicer but, from what I can tell, unfortunately doesn't offer Hold'em, only some weird variation of 5-card stud played against the dealer, so I'm assuming it's the Diamond boat. We live about 5 hours drive from Savannah and the wife and I were thinking of spending a weekend there. She loves to gamble and is learning to play poker too, and there just isn't a (legal) live game closer to us. Harrah's Cherokee in NC is about half as far, but they're digital/video games only, and no alcohol -- kind of a joke for a casino, if you ask me. We've played a couple home games with relatives for $20 buy-ins, but it was pretty ugly play.

Of course with gas prices being what they are, a 10 hour round trip drive in my SUV will almost certainly cost more than a cheap Vegas flight if we planned ahead, not to mention save a lot of time, but for some reason the wife has something against Vegas. Too much debauchery for her, I guess, LOL. Ironically enough though, she's played live Hold'em more then I have, having been to the casinos or cardrooms in Florida twice while visiting her sister (who with her husband are big poker players down there). We're all heading to Panama City in 3 weeks though and I'm gong to hit the casino they have there to try my luck. I read that if you're a good online player with a good grasp of strategy, and can manage to keep your tells quiet, you can make more money at a given stakes in live games. I hope that's the case for me.

^^^ yeah it was the diamond casino, and if you're expecting to have a wide variety of hold'em games offered i wouldn't bother making the trip. There's a casino in jacksonville ~ 1 1/2 hrs past savannah that seems to be a more legitimate place for poker players to play. Here's the link if you or anyone else is interested.

The Poker Room

i've personally never been, but i think that it's a trip i am going to take towards the end of the summer.

My first experience at live poker was in Vegas. I played on a $20 bb table. On the first hand I had 77 and the flop was 6 8 10. I felt confident that nobody had a 7 and bet $60 which was quickly raised and called by 3 others so I just called thinking one of them has a higher pair. turn is a 7 and one player goes all in for $150. he is called, so I call. River is a 7. Other player goes all in for $600 and I call with all my chips $400. The guy had a full house 10's 7's. I was shaking so much with adrenalin I collected all my chips and cashed in. Never played in a live cash game since and just stick to tournaments as my heart can't take it.

Yep had a guy call my all in with A 2 on A Q 5 8 rainbow board(I had A K) and hit a 2 on the river. I asked him wtf he put me on(I lead out betting each time) and couldnt get an answer. Oh the wonderful game of 1/2 NL.

I played live in a no limit game for the first time last week. I had just taken down a 48 person bar tourney the night before and was feeling good about my game. The table has a $300 max buy in and I bought in for the max. I had read on hear that 1/2 and even the 2/5 NL I was playing was like .10/.25 for looseness and you were right.

My first hand was AJ suited and I raised 3x BB in mid position and 5 people called !! I had to throw it away after the flop didn't hit. But after seeing a few showdowns I quickly realized that I was at the fishy table ever.

I love the fact they over value TPTK, one time AQ raised 4x BB and I called with 77, flop came AT7 rainbow - four others called - orignal better goes all in for $150 I call, everyone else folds and I take down a $500 pot.
I was up $900 for the night - about 8 hours of playing - I cannot wait to go back.

When ever i see the words first and experience in the title of any thing i get excited. I don't know why.

Thats wonderful that you had a great time and also came out ahead ! way to go !

Great post! Very detailed and the ending made it all worthwile. Thanks. My first experience live was a 1-2Limit game at The Bicycle Club. I think I squeeked out a few bucks. Hey, it was 1-2! Good Luck in your future endeavors!


Icemonkey9 - I'm about the same, once a month here in L.A. That 40NL is the pits, isn't it. Playing at the Bike, though, is just a great feeling. Until you get all of the carefrees just throwin' out chips like they're on fire.

hah! i cut my teeth in that same game! it used to be 1/2 back when i was in college but i thought they spread a 2/5 now??
anyway, you said your drive was about an hour? you dont go to GSU by chance do ya?

I played my first live game a couple of months ago and finished a respectable 4th.So much more exciting and interesting than online poker.

Yeah i go to GSU... and yes unfortunately it's 2/5 now. The only reason i even decided to play is because after the tournament i sat down at the roulette table w/ $50 and it was gone in about 6 spins. And i had some extra cash in my pocket that i'd just won...

Do you still go to Southern...?

nah, i graduated in Dec 06 from the business school. livin in vegas now. my brother still goes there and hits up the casino boat fairly often so let me know if you need someone to split the gas with.

Alright man.. well if your ever in the area again let me know, I play at a VERY soft home game at my friend's apartment on tuesdays.