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POKER

My First Time at a Casino

Monday 1 February 2010 by legendary_totoro

Well, I’m more of an internet guy as far as poker is concerned mostly because it’s more convenient and we don’t have casinos in Tahiti anyways. But I’ve played in live games with my local friends but it never reproduced the ambiance you guess at by watching televised poker games which are held at arranged rooms in casinos.

Interesting Facts

Before closing this article, here are a list of funny things I’ve noted during my sessions :

- Casino dealers are almost all Chinese

Maybe it’s only a consequence of the Chinese Diaspora or maybe it’s more of an economical thing. Chinese restaurant aren’t flourishing at every corner of the town so what do Chinese people do to make a living ? They go in the gambling business of course !

- No tips allowed

Strangely enough, you are not to tip the dealer, whatever his ethnic origins are. Of course you can still ask for a drink and tip the waitress/waiter.

-Check or Bet ? ...is the question the dealer keep asking to any player who takes more than a fento-second to act... I find it pretty annoying to do it constantly. People are generally following the action at the table so no need to remind them and pressure them like that. No wonder they get no tips :P

- People are allowed to snore at the table

I have been seated next to a man who just had his plane landing earlier in the evening. He obviously rushed to the poker tables without catching any sleep which made him do some strange sniffing noises when he wasn’t just boldly already asleep. The guy dropped a few hundred bucks before he realised it was bed time...

- People who don’t speaks English but speaks Cantonese are allowed

I have also seen some Cantonese old guy coming to the table and not understanding what the dealer was saying in English... It took a great effort from one of the player at the table to explain everything in Cantonese. Well, he did know how to raise with AK or KK so maybe all of that was just a scheme to confuse everyone.

- Tournament drop outs are fierce

There were always some satellites running during the days and the people who couldn’t get to the final table (were you got rewarded) oftenly joined the cash game tables in order to try to recover their buy-in. One thing to remember is to avoid playing against them because they’re far more experienced that the casual cash gamer and they’re hungry to get your chips...

- Speedy people are weak

I’ve seen a guy losing a bunch of $100 bills within 15 minutes. He was super aggressive and acted very fast. The guy asked for a drink and was in such a hurry to go back home he didn’t even drink it when it finally arrived... About his hands, well, he did sometimes had good ones, but never made the correct move against his opponents. Some guy even called his last all-in for a healthy stack with A high vs his 72o...

Summing Up

Overall, I’ve banked a total of $300 at NLHE, while dropping $400 at the Caribbean Stud. For one, I will never come back to a Caribbean Stud table ever. Not only does this game involve practically no skill but also it’s not a game you can profit from. Okay, maybe you can eventually profit from it as some people would believe, but the rake is so high it kills any motivation from me because I usually don’t like to pay just to play.

Another thing to be noted is that playing cash games only sucks for me online it seems. I’ve played live a couple of times and I’m always coming out a winner overall. Not to give into the conspiracy theories around "rigged online poker" but it does look weird. We’re playing a lot more of hands online and they’re always more aggressive and donkish people so a tight player should be able to profit from that. Why does this seem to work only live beats me.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen bad beats and everything on live games as well and I do not think online poker is rigged. It just seems to me that the kind of style I have which could be defined as "I’m okay with the results as long as I made the right decision" should, in the long run, profit a lot more online than it currently does... Yeah, we’ll see in the long run ;)

Anyway, it’s been a bliss playing at the SkyCity Casino and I hope I can experience more soon. For a first timer, being only a -100$ loser isn’t too shabby since I had fears I would lose more money. One last thing if I may say, is to not be too afraid to talk to other people. This is a live experience so you’re actually in with other people. They are really just like you and like to enjoy a nice & cool game of poker...


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