LIVE LOW LIMIT LOW ROLLER POKER:

I am not a good poker player. I play too much in home games with the same players, so I don’t really learn to judge my competition. I am still too loose and I don’t lay down soon enough. I am shy about aggressive raises to push players out even after I have earned some table respect for tossing away garbage, hand after hand after hand. I can’t do the math of pot odds or count my “outs” accurately. I have not memorized what the odds of making certain hands are. But I’m getting better. Maybe those refinements will come. In the meantime, I can best control my winning by picking games with poor players. Now that there are tons of poker rooms, that is easy. Sometimes all it takes is a table change. If you make it clear you are leaving if you can’t get a change, they will often change you, even if you unbalance the tables. Just be nice about it. Always take the blame for the change. “Sorry, I can’t play there, it is just too crazy” or the “cards are just too unlucky” or “ I lose too much there” or anything that makes it your fault. And if they won’t accommodate you, just say, “Sorry, thanks for trying” and then take a walk and come back and buy in again later.

I don’t like to play with dealers on a break. At the Luxor I once got disgusted when a woman dealer got paid to study us as she dealt our loose, poor playing table for two hours and then requested a break so she could come and wait to play tight as a drum and just pluck up our money. There is something just not right about that. I won’t go back there. But in some places this trip (Tuscany, Stratosphere, River Palms), the dealers were simply not very good, and I kept playing even when they joined the table.

I played a lot of low limit this trip and I’ve decided that the real skill is picking the game and leaving when too many good players join. There are lots of poker rooms. There is a great deal of difference between tourists in a hurry to get back to the spouse for a show or meal and locals who slowly play the same game every day, between college kids on a lark who all bet like maniacs to out bluff one another, or drunks who can’t figure much beyond getting their calling chips somewhere close to the pot.

Next trip I am staying away from places just before and after tournaments as good players follow those tournaments and play a little low limit before and as they are eliminated.

I also decided this trip that I am going to watch a game, and evaluate the play before I join; so I need to learn to quickly read cards from a distance by the spots. I can’t make out the numbers. Here at home I took some black electrical tape and covered the numbers on one deck of cards, and once, every so often, I flip through the deck and read the spots, so my brain gets the kind of repeated practice that will pay off.

I learned a lot this trip and I think my game is much better now. Sorry, I can’t remember all the details of high hand awards, but I’ll put in whatever details I do remember.

El Cortez - Still, too much smoke but a lovely game. 1-3 spread limit with a single dollar blind and 1-6 spread on the river . You can wait for cards and then strike hard at the end or fold for less invested money. And if you hold the nuts, a check raise at the end is, “Oh so sweet!!” The poker room managers play, so watch out for them. The woman is tight and good.

Jackie Gaughan comes down to play almost every day, but I think he has aged quite a bit. Still looks the part however, dressed to the nines, monogrammed shirts and all, and it is the sound of another era when he calls with his , “One for the Money.” Don’t try to get into a conversation with him, however. That is not good manners. They say too many people ask him for things some days. And he is not in position to give anything now. But if you want to play next to a creator of old time Vegas, here is your chance.
They are moving the poker room soon and expanding the tables. Maybe that will cure the smoke issue a little. The rake caps at $2.50 and there is no bad beat or high hand rake. Compare that to games that take $5 from every winning hand. It is a very fine game for a low roller and the locals are quite entertaining. They know all about life, about marriage, about what is in the papers, about each other, and the banter may not be astute, but it is colorful and great fun. Careful, however. Some of those old boys are mighty tricky. On the other hand, after the river I bet $6 on my ace high club flush into a fellow with the straight flush. He did not see that he had it, and just called.

Golden Nugget - Nice room, Nice games, all very different, from a table of aggressive maniac college kids who make it ten dollars to see a flop on a 2/4 table - to a table of hot little cuties too drunk to play. One sweet, young, inebriated cutie popped her feet up on my lap, so I could admire how her toe nails matched the color of her fingernails. Great entertainment for an old guy.

There too I played with the fellow who did the photographs that hang behind the podium in Colorado Belle, Laughlin poker room. I lost his web site. The photos are artistic renditions of hands peaking at cards. Not bad photography.

4 hours of consecutive play at the Nugget will get you a $10 comp to the exquisite buffet (pickled herring, smoked salmon, wonderful beef, perfectly cooked broccoli and much, much more). So you can play from 10 PM until 2 AM, go get some sleep, and hit the lunch buffet for free the next day. And the comp works as a line pass so you miss that average half hour wait in line. It is a popular buffet and one of my favorites. Certainly the best downtown or maybe a tie with Main Street Station.

Binions- I liked it. Too many tournaments. They draw in the better players who sit in to 2-4 games for just long enough to cost you money.

Laughlin- River Palms - Tourists in winter. In August, oh my! Most of these August players played every day and the only tourists were from California neighborhoods where card rooms are thicker than churches and attract larger congregations. At the 2-6 spread limit game I lost almost $300. Six dollar reraises. Too tough to pay $10 to see a flop. Colorado Belle was the same story only more serious. I watched but did not play. Flamingo had a $3-6 structured game that was fine and more what I am used to. I made money and a $4 comp, which brought the Sunday breakfast buffet the next morning down to about a dollar. This was nice. No crowds at the Flamingo Sunday buffet and very nice omelets.

Imperial Palace- Wish I had gone earlier. The best comps. $3 an hour comps on your card, but they say don’t eat there. After a few trips perhaps a free night or two will collect on the card. Played very loose and passive newbies, but around tournament time, in marched the regulars. They made a total difference even in the 2-4 game. There was a no limit game but no 3-6 or 4-8 there to attract out the better players. They told me those games are rare.

Gold Coast - I did not play but watched games for the 20 minute break between the Royal Dixie Band sets. Players at the 2-4 seemed pretty easy. Soon (perhaps by now) they will have a promotion where seated players are pulled at random and get to try for cash awards. It looked good. I’d play then, especially if fewer players meant a better chance to get picked.

Excalibur- They have a cheap 1-3 spread limit game. 1 dollar blind and no rake for other kinds of awards at this low level. At about 5PM they put out free food. I played one afternoon with tourists, many of them new and then just before the food came out, the tourists went off for their fancy supper and the table filled up with good players perhaps to get a bit of free supper. I left before the food came out.

Stratosphere -Relatively new room with $1 comps per hour, but don’t expect to use them for a few months as the hours are collected on paper but not entered into the automation yet. In fact, there is no automation yet. The dealers play here and I always think that is a bummer except that they are all new dealers so most of them can’t play that well. Mostly tourists. High hand awards. Go play on Monday and if the tables are not to your liking, go over and hear Huck Daniels in the lounge. His band is good, but better still is the jam session he holds late night until 2 AM. You never know who will play from what show in Vegas. I have seen a Tina Turner impersonator twice and she is superb. All this free. In fact, before you leave the poker room order a beer and carry it over and you can avoid buying a drink in the lounge.

MGM - Played a $3-6 game and liked it. I try being a little tricky because players noticed I played tight and game me some respect. One youngster gave me TOO much respect. He bet and I called with my outside straight draw through the turn. No straight on the river. I held 7-8 suited with no flush ever possible. On the river he just threw in his cards. Bad play anytime. He probably had me beat or maybe held the same hand. You never know. I think finally he was embarrassed to bet, but it would have cost him nothing to check and see my hand.

I suspect this game changes often. I think I’ll check when they have the next large convention there and I am in town. I’ll bet it fills up with other than Vegas local players. Dollar an hour comp and a cool looking card.

Tuscany- New room. I just missed the grand opening night on Aug 1st because I got an airline bump coming into town, but I liked the game. Comps are $1 an hour and no cap on that so you could play all day and eventually have some comped suites. Food is good there too. If you have pocket Aces and lose, You get $25 from the house. They also gave me a large magnetic coin that works well as hand protection. Ask and see if they have some left. Dealers play here too, but many are new to the game.

AND ONE FINAL POKER TIP

If you push the lime down into the Corona and it starts to fizz high and overflow, don’t think you can stop the action by putting your finger over the bottle top. Eventually, well....very quickly really...... that built up fizz is gonna get out and when it starts to squirt, you are not going to be a popular player at the poker table, except perhaps to a few who hope you are a complete fool who will play the way he drinks.