So this shutdown thing? Maybe not so bad.

Well, I made my first foray into live poker since the shutdown and I must say, so far so good. I sat down with $100 at a $1/$2 NLH game at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut and within 10 hands I was down about $35. Within an hour I was up $400. By the time I left I was up $660 and that didn't include tips and rake. I've played live before and I've only walked away a loser once but I've never had a night like this. It just about equals my best on-line session. Believe it or not I never had a hand better than a rivered 2 pair which I didn't even need to win the pot. I had some good starting hands which flopped well and held up. Pretty much value bets all night that held up vs drawing hands.

The most interesting hand came late in the session when a young guy named Joe sat down to my right with about $100. He was on the CO but didn't want to post the blind. By this point I was already well over 200bb's deep and he seemed like a nice guy so I posted the $2 for him with a comment that it would bring me good luck. It folded around and he open shoved. I called as did the BB. The flop came out all rags and I put the small bling all-in for his last $50. He folded and my aces held up vs nice guy Joe's pocket 5's. BB says he folded AK. Anyway, I got a nice $200 return on my $2 investment.

I just can't believe how bad the level of play was. Twice I saw open raises of $15-$20 only to have the raiser turn over AA in disgust when nobody called. I actually folded AQo in position on of those times.

Many of the players seemed to know each other or the dealers or the coctail waitresses. I think I might have been the only on-line player among them. One thing I noticed is that I was by far the worst chip shuffler there. Guess I'm gonna have to work on that.

Sure people are gonna fold raises that big. You're trying to push the junk hands out right? Imagine if he limped and lost half his stack because they got cracked. Be careful what you wish for. Glad to hear you had a good day. I haven't played Mohegan yet, I've played at Foxwoods. Care to fill me in on the poker room at Mohegan?

Ah, but shuffling chips is not the goal here, making them multiply magically in front of you is. You appeared to do quite well in making the stack grow. Keep up the good play.

I once heard a pro say, he never chip shuffled when he was coming up. He said "If you are confident in your game, it's better for them to think you are a beginner anyway". I actually chip shuffle more at home sitting in front of the computer....lol. I don't think I ever do it in a casino.

I actually came from the other side of the fence. I played for years as a live player before ever going to online poker. You are absolutely right... Some think that players in a Casino are naturally going to be better than online players. However, this is not always true. A matter of fact, even the regulars are so use to playing together they are often too relaxed and give off tells left and right.

About a year ago I played in a $100 buy-in milti-table tournament at a casino and in the first blind level a woman shoved and was called by 2 other players. She had A-10 off, one caller had a small pair, and the other player had something like Q-10. I though to myself...Really!!! You guys paid $100 to donk out at the first level blinds?

Oh, I finish 3 by the way, I was only concerned with about 3 pretty good player and and was able to trap the maniac, early big stack, once and stack up pretty good before someone else knocked him out.

I personally hope online poker is not done for. The closest Casino to me is 80 miles away. I know of underground "illegal games" but prefer not to get involved in that. The fact is, you can play more often online and have the potential to make more just out of sheer volume of games. You can't play 4 tables at a time every night at a casino.

I've played at Foxwoods 3 or 4 times, this was my first trip to Mohegan. I liked it alot better. To me Foxwoods looks like a shopping mall with slot machines. It's claim to fame is that it's supposed to be the worlds largest casino, kind of a weak selling point if you ask me. Mohegan may be a little smaller (not much) but it's alot nicer. Lots of fake rocks and cliffs and waterfalls. Definately a cooler place to hang out.

The poker room is a little smaller but still looked like it had 40-50 tables, all full. The registration desk showed they spread Hold 'em PLO and 7 Stud. Not sure if the offered any Hi-Lo games. What I liked best was that unlike Foxwoods they took a rake (as opposed to at Foxwoods where you pay the time at $5 every 1/2 hour at the $1/$2 tables) so you don't get charged for the hands you don't play, and from what I saw, there's no benefit to fancy play, tight is right. Nobody pays any attention to your ViP or position anyway so you'll still get plenty of action when you want it.

lol. I don't know about the beginner part but luck was indeed on my side. I dodged alot of bullets with marginal hands. I can't recall a single suckout.

so how does the rake work at the Sun? never played live and I only live 45 minutes away.

I'm not sure about the percentage or cap but it looked like they held to the "No flop no drop" rule. I don't think I ever saw them take more than $3 out of a pot. I'll get the specifics next time I play there. Maybe we can get some Cardschaters together. There are alot of us in the area.

Sounds good. Now if I can only figure out how to get there.

That's easy take 95 south from boston or north from NY and when you hit Conn/RI border you will see signs

Hmmm.... I wonder if I can play there my sister is a pit boss. I'll have to talk to her.

A guy I used to work with took a different route (we live in the same city). He said it was quicker and used less gas, which is a big deal these day's with the price of gas.

Are you in Boston? Take the pike to RT395 in Sturbridge I think. It's a straight shot from there. Mohegan is only about 1 mile off the highway. exit 79a. I don't know how they'd know or care that a relative was an employee. I never had to show any ID. GL. I'll probably be back next Saturday.

Four Dogs

Nice start to live play, really hope it continues for you.

Leo

This is a quote from another forum that I found was interesting:

I have to say I agree. While a lot of us aren't planning on going pro, who'd like to have a 6month losing streak ?

....you're using the information that has been drilled into your head BY SHILLS selling you the lie(dream).....show me one person with a multi-year LIVE DOWNSWING!

its the facts of variance. people have posted graphs of sick 60k hand downswings. it just takes quicker to get out of it playing online cuz u get more hands/hr while live it takes longer to reach that 60k hand mark

Yeah, math is a shill Anyways, why would you ever hear about a multi-year live downswing? Live cash games don't receive the publicity of donkaments and anyone going through such a thing would likely quit, not get on a forum and brag about it. As for donkaments, same thing, you would be broke and quit before you had a chance to come out of the downswing and we would likely never know.

I'm so pumped for Foxwoods and Mohegan. Sadly, I am only 20 (less than six months left!).

At least you guys are close to a decent B&M casino. I'm in Georgia and there really isn't anything decent nearby that I'm aware of. The best I've got is Buloxi, Mississippi which would take me something like 6 hours (or more) to get to from where I live outside of Atlanta.

thats not what im asking....i'm asking to see or hear of people experiencing multi-year LIVE downswings....but theres a problem with that, because they DONT HAPPEN, no matter how much math the nerds try to put in front of us, the simple fact that its mathematically possible for something to happen doesnt mean it SHOULD be acceptable when it does happen....and happens frequently.

so all the pros never have live downswings yet they hop online and magically 100k downswings happen to them? anyways theres no point, you can't open peoples eyes if they are trying to keep them shut.

Well you describe a typical vegas casino low limit game. Players aren't this bad online. But most of the players who make sure suckers don't last online are coming over to b&m casinos. So games are about to toughen up.

It was just a lucky night, that's all. Glad you enjoyed yourself!

Yep - we are stuck alright - I am north of Atlanta. Even going to Biloxi is not worth it - we are better off taking a cheap flight to Vegas where there are loads of games to choose from.

They have tournaments in Cherokee now - but the structure is not good and rooms at the casino are outrageous. (That is if you can get one - they have a room available only one weekend between now and Aug and it is over $400 a night). Again - cheaper to fly to Vegas.

And of course not many people can do that often. I probably go as much as anyone can - every few months. But spending 4-5 weeks worth of time in Vegas every year does not come close to replacing my online poker - and I was going to Vegas already anyway.

3 more months and I will be back home playing live as well. I am working on it here playing against some guys for small stakes...I still want online poker back!!!

Got many casinos close, problem is they don't have freeroll's......

besides playing the occasional home game at my house with a few friends, I never played live poker at a casino, looks like I'm going to start though, if I can ever save up enough cash for my buy in and gas to get there of course, I only have to go about 45 miles to get to one, it could be worse.

Why i the world would you ever hear about or see a multi year live downswing? A person going through such an event isn't likely to get online and tell us about it. Live poker results aren't tracked PTR style. Most likely the person would quit long before such a streak ended if he or she were playing for decent stakes.

The advantage (one of many) of online play is that such a streak could be gotten through in a month or so instead of a couple of years.

Also I would question your statement above that pros never have live downswings.

Also, what are people keeping their eyes shut about?

Of course you only have to be 18 in the UK. Mind you, we still have online poker anyway, so B&M is probably less important to us.I only see one person with their eyes shut!

I'm north of atlanta too, in Duluth but you guys probably think im a rigtard now for my opinions in this thread even though im actually a decent winning player online

graphs plz

Not always true?? How about rarely almost never true. Live players in my area are soooooo bad that it's hard to keep your jaw from dropping onto the table.
wtg 4dogs... keep crushing them!

1) Both Sun and Woods are rake now, no more time charge.
2) Rake at both is $1 per $10 in the pot, up to a cap of $4. Additionally, at FW when the pot hits $40 (maaaaaybe $20) an additional dollar is raked into the bad beat jackpot at 1/2NL, and at the same increment an extra dollar is raked for the High Hand Jackpot at the Sun when its on (which is the majority of the time, its on for a few hours, paid out, off for an hour, on for another few, and so on).
3) Both are no flop no drop.
4) Those of you going live PLEASE don't talk poker at the table and tell people how to play/berate bad play/do a damn thing other than smile at the fact that you're playing against absurdly soft competition.
5) Losing years probably happen, but really play level is so lolterrible that I wouldn't doubt that massive B/E stretches that are common online work out to be more like massive meh stretches live, for the some of the best in the game, obviously if you're scraping by it's the same.

so they seize the domain names , sieze the money ,aresset some poeple ,shut down the sites . going to find a way to tax players for there winning so what defination of not so bad you talking about

domain names released, money released, people who were arrested committed crimes and who knows if they'll ever even be tried, sites only barred US action not shut down, and you've been supposed to pay taxes all along so if you get stuck there thats your bad.
Only real downside is that we don't have our major sites available to us, which majorly sucks, but I'd say there is a fair chance that matters are handled fairly quickly to get a sanctioned place up and running, or someone rises to fill the hole of supply.

I had to lol @ this ^ (only real downside.. LOL)