[Closed] The Live Wire: an Experiment

_Anonymous_ · 2011-04-25T21:16:43Z

For the next little while, I plan to concentrate on playing live, so this is going to be my live poker blog. (Another blog, "In for the Long Haul," will concentrate on online play.) Live play is really an experiment for me. I haven't played live very much over the course of my poker career, and never when I've had any solid theoretical foundation or knowledge of proper strategy. I'm going to give live play a try for a couple of months and see how it works out for me. If it doesn't, then it's back to online play I go. Anyway, I'm starting at the bottom in order to minimize the damage while I get used to playing live. I have a chance to play 1/2 NL in one casino cardroom and 2/5 limit in another. My first thought was to alternate those two cardrooms, but after giving it much thought I've decided not to make any long-term plans. My first trip will be to the limit cardroom because limit has much lower variance, but if things really suck at limit after a couple of trips, I'll try the NL. In preparation for my trip, I'm studying the basic limit strategy articles here on PS. I've read through each basic article twice and have downloaded the one-meg summary and am reviewing it bit by bit. By the time I hit the casino, I hope to have it down cold. This is not as easy for me as it would be for a 20-year-old who's already immersed in full-time college study. My poor middle-aged brain is a bit ossified and slow to learn new things. But it's coming along. I am, however, disappointed that the PS articles on live play are all devoted to home games and deal with things such as buying enough poker chips and learning to deal the cards. I would like to see some strategy articles on playing live in a public poker room with a professional dealer. It's something that I might suggest to management. Anyway, I plan to do my live play on Friday and Saturday evenings. I want the cardroom to be at its busiest. My first session will be between three and six hours. After that, I'll schedule my sessions so that I can maximize profitable playing time while giving myself an early exit if things are going badly. The limit cardroom is a bit of a hassle to get to if you don't have a car. You have to take a commuter bus that drops you off in an intermediate city after about an hour, wait about 10 minutes, then ride another milk run bus for 55 minutes. Once you get to the bus station it's a leisurely five-minute stroll to the casino where the poker room is, but from my residence to the poker room is easily two and a half hours one-way. I would almost consider renting a motel room so I can stay in town and come back Saturday, but the total round-trip travel costs and expenses, food included, are only about $45, and a motel room would cost considerably more. So I guess I'll be round-tripping for five hours of travel in order to play for six hours, each day for two straight days. One important principle to keep in mind: I have the poker room's phone number and plan to call them from the intermediate city to reserve a seat for when I arrive. If I just showed up cold and got in line, I'd be waiting for two hours. As it is I might still have to wait, but if that happens I'll book a seat from the commuter bus one and a half hours early, and if even that doesn't work, I'll try booking one two hours ahead of time before I even get on the commuter bus. My first poker adventures will be this coming Friday and Saturday. In preparation for it, I plan to buy a mini-notebook, maybe 4" by 3", for recording expenses on the go. Even $45 is nine big bets and I have to be serious about costs if I'm going to make a go of this. I'll be travelling in the afternoon, playing in the evening, and coming back in late evening. On Saturday morning you can expect a cardroom review and a summary of how things went. To everyone who read this, thank you for reading.

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_Anonymous_

05.06.2011, 20:52 0

Hey, Wendy,

Thanks for dropping by. I haven't played live since my last entry and am concentrating on online for now. Tips? Well, I'm not good enough at live to give tips to others. Besides, I play limit, and that's a far different game from the NL most people play.

Thanks for dropping by.