This past weekend, several of my friends, who are inexperienced in No Limit Holdem cash games, decided they were ready to see what all the fuss was about. They were interested in cheap minimum buy-in's to get their feet wet, and in Las Vegas, there is no place with a lower buy-in for No Limit Holdem than the Luxor poker room -- only $50.

When we arrived (four of us), at about 11:00 p.m. on Saturday night there was a list for the No Limit poker tables. So, we each had a seat at separate 2/4 tables. About 15 minutes into my 2/4 game, I was already up $35 and our names were called from the list.

I sat down at my No Limit table, but all of my friends were at different tables. This is probably a good thing in No Limit poker cash games. The last thing you want is to run into one of your buddies.

When I sat down with my $50 buy-in, I definitely had the short-stack at the table. I don't think any of my opponents in this 9-handed game had less than $100 at this point. I should point out that the Luxor is a minimum and maximum $50 buy-in, so the most anyone can initially show up to the table with is $50.

To game the system, one thing I noticed is that when a player would buy-in for $50, the player would play one blind, reduce his chip stack to $49, and then re-buy for another $50 -- essentially giving the player $99 in chips. This is a way to beat the $50 buy-in rule, and it was happening quite frequently all night long.

The Luxor No Limit Holdem game also has an unusual blind structure -- there are 3 blinds (2 for $1, and 1 for $2). In a 9-handed game, this significantly reduces the value of the button pre-flop, because there is an even greater chance that one of the blinds will throw in a raise.

Anyway, My table was incredibly tight. I probably waited 15 minutes before I got involved in my first hand. I played 9,10 diamonds from UTG, and there were about 7 players in the pot. One player raised it to $5, so there was about $35 in the pot pre-flop. The flop came down 10, 4, 6 hearts. I picked up top pair, but the board was REALLY scary with all those hearts. I knew how tight the table was, so I decided to make a play at the pot by coming out with a $20 bet. Everyone laid down their hand, and I picked up a win. This was definitely a semi-bluff because I was representing hearts, but the table bought it.

I played a few more hands throughout the night. I won a small pot with pocket kings, and made another semi-bluff with pocket 9's which took down a pretty good sized pot ($50 or so). The interesting thing is that I won about 5 pots in 1.5 hours without EVER showing down my hand.

By 1:30 a.m., I had a STRONG table presence. There was one particular player who was tilting. He had taken some beats, and had made at least 4-5 re-buys. He was calling way to many flops, and I was anxious to drag some money out of him. Well -- suffice to say -- he pulled some money out of me.

My last hand I had pocket 6's in the big blind. There are three callers, and a small blind brings in a $10 raise. I called, and so did everyone else. The flop comes down 2,3,5, with 2 clubs. I didn't have any clubs. So, this flop gave me top pair, with a gutshot straight draw. I bet $5. The player to my immediate right called, then the guy on tilt raised $10. The original pre-flop raiser folded. The action came back to me, and I re-raised $20. I put the guy on tilt on overcards with perhaps a flush draw.

The caller between me and the guy on tilt folded. The guy on tilt went all-in (at this time he had about $120, and I only had $85 left -- so he had put me all-in also if I called).

There wasn't much to think about. I had top pair already made, and anywhere from 4-6 cards would improve my hand. I called.

He flipped over his pocket 9's. I NEVER put him on a bigger pocket pair, because I figured he would've re-raised a bigger pocket pair pre-flop. I didn't expect him to slow-play his nines. Oh well, that was the end of the night for me.

Despite my $20 loss (-$50 at NLH +30 in 2/4 game), I really enjoyed the Luxor No Limit game. So did my friends. Two of which lost their $50 buy-in's, and a 3rd made a profit of about $25.

If you're looking for a low buy-in place to play No Limit Texas Holdem in Las Vegas, then I strongly recommend the Luxor. Have Fun!