Going to the casino on Friday & Saturday to play live

I'm gonna head over to the Horseshoe in Indiana on Friday & Saturday night to play some NL200. I'm looking for tips from some of you live players as it's been almost 3 years since I've played live. I'm gonna bring 3 buyins of NL200 with me so I can withstand a beat or 2 if I need to. Any tips/suggestions are more than welcome.

***EDIT***

Just looked on the webpage for the casino and it looks like the Chicago Poker Classic is taking place over this upcoming weekend. I kinda wanted to play the cash tables but now I think I'm gonna play Event #1 $200+40 buyin with $10k added. Looks like you start with 10k tournament chips with 45 blind structure. I've never played a live tournament before, I'm seriously looking for some advice here...

Wow - never seen a live tournament with money added - that is sweet. I love that structure too!!

It is easy to get a feel for your opponents live - just pay attention to what is going on around you. I tend to play a bit tight early on - but you have enough chips there to do some things so don't be afraid to.

I really can't give you any specific advise because how I play varies based on how my table is playing.

Just remember when calculating your bb's to take the antes into account. You might need to be shoving way before you think you should be if you don't.

Check out the Golden Archive, some good stuff on looking for tells there and also a great post from OzExorcist on live play.

Paying attention to everyone at the table is the best advice. Don't put your head down when your not playing and look at the players that are in the hand see if you can pick up on any tendencies. Something i love about live play is the emotion that it involves, it's so much easier to pick up on strength and weakness if you pay attention.

Good luck and have fun.

Damn.. wish I could make up there this weekend to play that tournament, lol. Remember.. play your position.. and watch people's actions and habits. You can get some good reads from a person's body language.

Thanks for the tips guys. I'm gonna play really really tight and be on the lookout for other people's tells. I will also fold every weak hand OOP and try to isolate with my big hands in position.

Good luck! Let us know how you did!

Keep aware of when the blinds are going up. Your M will be down before you know it. Stay tight early but be prepared to show aggression BEFORE they know you are just being desperate and while your stack can still be respected.

Thanks for the tip, I just read his post and I have to say its definitely a good one. Besides the obvious stuff is there anything else I should do or dont do?

If you get hit on the river by a 1 or 2 outer.. DO NOT punch the other guy in the face. That seems to be frowned upon at casinos.

Now, if that happens at a bar tournament, it would be perfectly okay to throw your basket of chips and salsa at the other player. I've seen it happen before...... oh wait, nevermind, a dude's wife came into the bar and threw the basket of chips and salsa at him for going out to play poker instead of coming straight home from work. I got my facts mixed up there for a second.

I would say don't play too tight. When you're playing a small buy-in tournament online, people don't necessarily pick up on that, people in a live game, focusing on one table where they have $200 on the line, people will notice and you'll get bullied. Especially, because it's a MULTI table tournament, so you can sit tight early hoping to pick up blinds later when it matters, but you may get moved and your work is null. In fact, with a decent sized stack and slow blinds, you can see some flops in position with marginal hands like suited connectors and gappers and unsuited more raggy broadway cards like JT or QJ because if you see a cheap flop and hit a monster, you can take down a big pot. It also may give you an opportunity to have a more laggy table image so when you do tighten up later with a monster. Obviously, again this may not happen because you may get moved, but it's not the point of doing it, more a side effect. That's my view, having played in a few big casino games and you can sit for hours not picking up big hands or pick up a few and win tiny pots that give you nothing because of small blinds which makes it tougher later on. Also, look out for those who are looking scared playing in a live game and staying super nit and feel free to take advantage of that.

Cancel that, I'm not going to play Event #1 of the Chicago Poker Classic. I googled last years event and there was 800 entrants and only the final table (top 9) got paid. It's definitely not worth it at that point. Obviously we all play to make the final table and take it down but that payout structure is absolutely horrible and the $240 buyin aint cheap.

I think I'll just wait till another day when I can go there and play the games I want to play (NL200)....

When you have a tough decision and everyone is staring at you, you'll be compelled to check or call.

Don't.

well most live fish just limp with their entire range and call 4-5x raises with all sorts of rags

don't be suprised if you raise in EP 3-4x and get 6 callers

my tip would be raise big and re-raise bigger with your big hands, limp in with connectors and broadways etc that you want to see a flop with as all the donks just limp, limp, limp and you get cheap cheap flops

gl!

also bully the hell out of em when you get heads up

I don't have any tips, but just wanted to say good luck!