Playing cash poker games in Las Vegas

[Alan Mendelson]

I played cash poker at The Bicycle Casino here in the LA area last night. Actually I played from about 5pm till about 7 this morning. The Bike serves free food in the high limit games but "high limit" includes $100 buy-ins and that's what I was playing.

I did okay for the night. My pocket aces held up once, got cracked once. Pocket kings held up once, lost once.

My biggest wins surprisingly came when I was hold JQ and three times I flopped full houses, and I got paid nicely on all of them. But for nearly two hours I sat there -- paying my blinds -- without so much as a small win.

But what I like about live poker is that you get to meet nice people, have interesting conversations, and you can learn a lot. I've actually met some new clients playing poker as there are many business owners playing.

But last night I was especially interested in the conversation about where these guys and ladies play poker when they are in Vegas.

What they told me is that they have stopped playing at the smaller and "locals" casinos and instead now like to play at the bigger, big name Strip resorts (Venetian, Bellagio, Caesars) where there is more money played by less knowledgeable players. In other words: tourists.

They say that the "Vegas regulars" are usually at the locals casinos and the "regulars" are also "smart players." On the other hand, the easy money can be found at the big Strip resorts where wealthy people fly in from all over the country for the thrill of playing in the "high end poker rooms" and really don't know what they're doing.

I'm not making an judgment calls on these comments. I'm writing this for discussion purposes only.

But when I have played at the big Strip poker rooms, the dealers will often address the regulars by name during the game -- as if to indicate to the "guests" who are playing that there are "regulars" at the table. And I wonder if that is done as a warning to the hotel guests?

[redietz]

Good theory, Alan.

I don't play much live poker, as the house take is too brutal for me, but occasionally I sit in for a low-stakes ($30-$85) tournament. What I've found is that playing at the Orleans or Binions pits you against people who all know what they are doing, and can conspire against you. Playing somewhere like Planet Hollywood on a Fri/Sat night gives you a crack at drunk and funny tourists who sometimes don't know much of anything.

[Alan Mendelson]

There are a lot of stories about "regulars" at casinos who gang up on the "tourists" to take their money. It's funny, redietz, that you mention Orleans because the folks I played with at The Bike mentioned that poker room as being notorious for locals who conspire against the tourists. Smaller casinos here in Southern Cal also have a reputation for regulars who conspire against newcomers. Unfortunately, this is one of the problems you have whenever you play against a human or humans as opposed to playing against a machine such as a video poker game.

Several smaller, locals casinos here in So Cal also seed their games with "house players" and at some small card rooms you could have two more house players sitting at the same table and that can be a real mess. Crystal Casino in Compton --- where I used to play tournaments until they were stopped about two years ago --- had one "yellow chip game" ($2 and $3 blinds, $100 buy in) where you could find two or three house players at the table.

The problem with house players is that they only play the "best hands" and that limits the chance for a regular player to win any money. House players seemed to only play pocket pairs or AK and wouldn't take any risks beyond the flop if they didn't think they had the nuts. That meant a regular player had few opportunities to find an opportunity to win any of the house player's money.

[redietz]

Plus house players can communicate with each other as to who has the best hand (with chip movements or other trickeration) and when you have a good hand, only the best of the house players will be in against you, so you never get paid off at true odds.

It's pretty easy to communicate at a poker table, and it's easy to dump chips in a tournament to who you want. The Orleans is the classic anti-tourist scenario.