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First Time Playing Poker At A Casino (1 Viewer)

Early 2000s played 3-6 limit. Max out flop, turn, river thinking my Ace high flush (flopped) was nuts.....missed the straight flush possibility on the board and got busted by a grandma 4x my age. Went to Vegas shortly after and played 1-2 NL at the flamingo. Did really well and decided I have no business playing limit games.

I would sit down at the flamingo in the afternoon, make a few hundred and leave. Then blow my winnings on roulette or blackjack. Rinse and repeat for a week. It was a great trip.
 
My first time was not in a proper casino because I did not have the legal age :)
So it should be around 1988 / 89 and I was 17. My friend and I walk into a den that operated behind one of the theaters of the city. Very friendly atmosphere. While my friend played roulette I played a local card game called "truco". I remember win some money that night but nothing that can be a life change.
As we went a few times and the guys started to know us , some of the guys introduce us to 2 other addresses where we could play. One was the Officers Club (formally created by cavalry officers back in the 20's or 30's) and another was at the upstairs room of a bar.
Shortly after I was leaving for Switzerland so my first true Casino was Montreux and I've play roulette and ultimate poker. It was easy to double up in ultimate and lost all at the roulette :)
 
Technically my first time was around 2000 or 2001 when I sat for about 20 mins at a Stud table at the old Sands in AC but left because everyone was smoking and I really didn’t understand official casino stud betting at that time. I was probably 26 and was the youngest by at least 40 years.

Growing up outside Philly, AC was easily accessible but I absolutely hated the casinos then. The hokie themes and morbidly obese people on scooters blowing their disability payments made me feel depressed and miserable.

That all changed when the Borgata opened. It was beautiful and made you feel good to be there. Clean, classy, young....it’s was great. Holdem was really getting big and my buddy and I went opening week and played $2/4 Limit. This was almost two years before AC started cash NL. We went on a weekday and waited at least an hour for a table. So this was what I consider my real first time playing casino poker.

Things started off a bit odd. I remember being slightly nervous at first but then quickly realizing that most of the players were terrible and extremely loose. There was a drunk older Asian lady who could barely speak English. She somehow already had a Borgata Black card and called every hand down for over an hour. She was crushing it and people were getting very pissed off. Finally she spilled her wine and the dealer kicked her off the table. Then this homeless looking guy sits down with a plastic grocery bag full of chips. About 10 minutes later he goes into a coughing fit and pukes up some baby looking puke on the floor. They then kicked him out and things settled down.
 
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October of 200X, turned 18, went to the local Indian casino. Bought in for $100.00, 1-2 NL. I was definitely nervous, ended up getting my butt kicked, I thought I knew everything about poker lol.

Overall it’s a great experience and something that needs to happen in order to get over the heebie-jeebies.
 
Caesar’s 2006 ish can’t remember much about it. Started learning the unwritten rules. Guy named Steve in a wpt final table jacket wanted me to take lessons from him, he owes me $ roday
 
Had to have been mid to late 80’’s at the Normandie club in Gardena CA. Some crazy things happened at that place.
 
it wasn't me but I was sitting at 3/6 Limit table at Soaring Eagle in Michigan ... played for a few hours, winning a few, losing a few, about breaking even but having a good time ... a girl sat down w/I assume was her BF, it seemed like it might have been her first time at a casino, she was asking some rookie questions about playing ... he was railbirding right behind her (a pretty laid back atmosphere) ... she pulled out a hundred bucks, and as she was handing it to the dealer, I got up to use the bathroom ... came back about 10-15 minutes later and she was gone o_O I asked the guy next me where she went, did they run her out already ... seems she lost her buy-in in 15 minutes at a 3/6 limit game and I didn't get any of it :meh: or even get to see how she could manage that :rolleyes:
 
First casino visit: Lima, Peru playing blackjack with my Navy buddies and absolutely killing it! We had one night of liberty. I ended up buying in for about $50 and cashing out for about $300. I was splitting kings and winning, just an absolute luck fest. We stayed until we absolutely had to catch the last bus back to the ship or be stranded....and I reach into my pocket and find a $25 chip I didnt cash in! I still have it.

First poker in a casino: 7 Cedars casino while just getting out to Bremerton, WA. A buddy from another boat was there ahead of me and had discovered Hold'em and was trying to get me to play. I was intimidated and didnt want to, but he staked me $50. I lost it all chasing a gut shot and didnt play again for years. I was much more comfortable losing at black jack....because of that one time, I won.

After probably a thousand hours of NLHE in home games and online, I still have yet to play it in a casino....only limit.
 
My first casino poker experience was in Tunica, at the Gold Strike. Like many here, it appears to have been in 2008.

I looked for the cheapest game I could get in: 2-4.

I had no idea that it was limit. All I had ever played was NL. I had to be taught.

Now, I didn't know about things like "Pot odds". I didn't know the value of a good drawing hand with 6-8 players in every pot. I played my NL starting hands only. Basically, I folded. A lot. When I was in a hand, I was jamming - well, as much as anyone can jam in limit.

I had a few hands where players drew out on me, but in the end I finished up a "considerable" amount. Not sure how much that was, as I wasn't record-keeping back then. But I do remember the feeling, and I kept a chip. That experience was apparently life changing. Shortly afterwards I re-launched my home game, which led me to HPT then to CT then to PCF, collecting more chips along the way.

Whatever I won that afternoon, has led me down a road that has cost me far more than I won that day.

It also occurs to me now, that the first chips I bought after that day was a set of ceramics - the Gold Strike used ceramics, so I was getting real casino-like chips. Imagine how much I would have saved if the Gold Strike used Paulsons. My chip journey would have by-passed ceramics and China clay!
 
Saoliver said:
First time playing live, I was 18 and played 3/6 limit. Folded for close to an hour. Got QQ on the button. Betting was capped preflop with 3 players. Flop was Qc7h2c. Betting was capped. Another club on the turn. Betting was capped. Another club on the river. Bet, call...

I fold my hand face up in disgust. The whole table looks at me like I’m an idiot. Players turn over K high flush and A high flush, as I suspected. But...

I failed to notice that the river was the 7c which paired the board and my folded hand was Qs full.

I was so embarrassed. I ending up playing there regularly as it was the only 18+ room around. The players gave me shit for a couple months, even after I showed I was a winning player. “You laying down queens full again?” :banghead:
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Hey. Did you know you had a boat?
 
Only ever went to a casino twice. First was sometime several years ago after busting out of a freeroll qualifying tournament. This was when I had little experience in the game. Bought into a 1/2 game with the min $60 buy in, only played a few hands where I called and folded from pre to postflop. Then had an Ax hand and made top pair on the flop, shoved on turn, one guy called and he rivered broadway.

Second time was April of last year when I had a few hours to myself. Went with a friend who's a regular at the same casino I last went to. Bought $300 max for the regular 1/2 game. Played for an hour and I ran like God, flopping or turning the nuts, and cashed out at $850. Most of the rest of the table were very spewy, save for my friend and another.

I still much prefer home games, though. Much more fun and better atmosphere, regardless of financial outcomes.
 
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I played many times at local charity games and rail birded many times as well ... First time playing in actual Casino was Soaring Eagle near Saginaw Michigan in early 2000s ... played 3-6 limit, sat down w/$150, 5 hours later left w/around $100 ... was interesting watching total newbs coming to play, 2 kind of stood out ... one kid was maybe 19-20, he sat down with $100 just as I was going to the john ... came back 10-15 minutes later and he had already busted out ... a girl sat down, rail-birded by who I assume was her BF ... he kept feeding her money and she kept losing it, probly $3-400 ... she was cute, I hope the rewards were worth it :rolleyes:
 
My first tourney was at the Orleans in Vegas, as I was visiting my parents when they lived there. No clue how many runners, how many spots paid, I was just geeked to be at a table, and playing. Moneymaker boom. guilty as charged. Made it fairly deep, final 3 or 4 tables, ran my AK suited into JJ, picked up flush draw on the turn, but didn't get home. GG me. Most satisfying thing for me, though, was a guy I had sat with through 2 table changes was (under his breath) rooting for me to hit the flush to stay alive. We had a lot of fun talking, and playing. For me, I was trying to learn all I could, and to hear him saying "spade...spade...spade..." was kinda neat. Now, I am many chipsets in, a couple of WSOP events played, and hooked on this stupid NLHE for life. Wouldn't have it any other way, though.
 
I'm still getting my poker skills to where I'd feel comfortable playing in a rl setting (currently limited to online and reading), but I remember my first "experience" in a casino a couple years ago.

I worked as a consultant for a local casino, and they reopened the Grand Casino Knokke by the end of the project our company did for them, so naturally we got an invite. Arrived there, got to skip the line because we knew the casino manager and he handed the three of us a couple chips to try out some games. My colleagues weren't really into the whole casino scene, so I got theirs and there I was. Not enough chips for the poker table, no idea how craps or roulette are played, so blackjack it was.
That lasted all of 5 minutes, and that was it.

It gave me a distinct distaste of slot-focussed casino's (there were maybe 4 tables active that night, one for each game IIRC), but I did enjoy getting to skip a line of people whose individual net worths were multiples of our house and seeing the look on their faces as junior over here was welcomed by the casino manager like an old friend :)
 
Been playing since I was 13-14, all the crazy games for pennies, nickels and dimes. 2002, Borgata in AC, played 2-4 limit. Few months later realized NLHE was a lot more fun.
 
Usually I played online, but decided to play a few tournaments at Turning Stone to try live play. It felt much different playing live and had to get used to not being able to always see my cards and counting chips. First tournament I played it went well and ended up at the final table. After that, tried some more tournaments and cash games but felt boring to me playing cash games without knowing anyone. I find home cash games more fun.
 
gulaschkanone said:
remember the first time i played live was 1/1 at local casimo with a minimum buy-in of 40€.
coming from online poker i expected it to be mostly good players.... hell was i wrong :ROFL: :ROFLMAO:
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Yep. No bots, no "dashboards", no collusion. Plus tourists. Plus trust.

Low stakes, especially low stakes in Vegas, is some of the most fun you can have outside a home game.
 
Poker Zombie said:
Yep. No bots, no "dashboards", no collusion. Plus tourists. Plus trust.

Low stakes, especially low stakes in Vegas, is some of the most fun you can have outside a home game.
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Really? I always figured that if people took the effort to play live, they'd be better than average :P
 
MathijsVS said:
Really? I always figured that if people took the effort to play live, they'd be better than average :p
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It depends on the game/location.

Let's give skill ratings to the players:
Complete Novice (no winning expectations) =1
Home gamer (hopes to win, probably won't)=2
Skilled player (breaks even/loses to the rake) =3
Casino Regular (fairly consistent winning player) =4
Casino Regular (turns a marked profit) =5
Poker Pro (manages a living) =6
Endorsed Poker Pro (has sponsors, books/videos, and other forms of "poker" income) =7

  • In a non-tourist type town, Cincinnati for example, the live games will be primarily a mix of 5s, 4s, 3's and one or two 2's.
  • In a tourist town like Vegas you have big rooms (Aria, Bellagio, Venetian, and Wynn) where you will get some 6's (7s at higher stakes) but you will also find a lot of 3's.
  • Vegas Mid-stakes (Ballys, Flamingo, Mirage) you will still get plenty of 2's, but the room is comfortable enough that a 4 may play here to feed on the tourists.
  • In the Vegas lower stakes rooms (Excalibur) you will get more 2's, or 1's that think they are 2's. These are people on vacation and expect to lose money, and their poker is more gamble than strategic play.
 
MathijsVS said:
Really? I always figured that if people took the effort to play live, they'd be better than average :p
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I think a lot of people think this. I did before I actually every played live. In the first 20 mins I realized that the guys I played with at home were significantly better than the people at a casino.

I live in PA but have yet to play cards in a PA casino. I still play in AC when I have time to make a trip or I’m at the NJ shore for vacation in the summer. In an environment like that the typical table dynamic changes based on the day of the the week. In my experience the softest games are Mon-Wednesday where you get a lot of older retired people playing for fun at the $1/2 games.

The toughest time to play for me is the weekend. It should be the most profitable but I rarely can navigate through the complete randomness of play and the rake and make much money. Weekends in AC are extremely loose at $1/2. Of 9 seats there will be usually 2-3 decent players, one semi professional type (usually dressed like a slob, not talking to people, and hardly playing...or playing every other hand). The rest are drunk people and knuckleheads not really putting much thought into their play. It’s very difficult for me to gain any info from them ...and if I do they will most likely be leaving the table soon anyway. It can be a tough game to win at but not because you are up against great players. No one should be intimidated to play in a casino at those stakes. If you pay attention and dodge some beats you can win just playing straight forward poker.
 
I was 18 and had just come off a 6 month contract working on a cruise ship. While on the ship I learned to play poker with the cruise ship dealers by playing $10 sit n go's in the cabin practically every night. As soon as signed off had a big sleep, went straight to the casino to play poker the next day and lucked out winning $300 in my first session!
 
I don’t remember what happened, but it was likely $2/$4 limit at the Pottawatomie Prairie Band north of Topeka around 2006.
 
MathijsVS said:
I'm still getting my poker skills to where I'd feel comfortable playing in a rl setting (currently limited to online and reading), but I remember my first "experience" in a casino a couple years ago.

I worked as a consultant for a local casino, and they reopened the Grand Casino Knokke by the end of the project our company did for them, so naturally we got an invite. Arrived there, got to skip the line because we knew the casino manager and he handed the three of us a couple chips to try out some games. My colleagues weren't really into the whole casino scene, so I got theirs and there I was. Not enough chips for the poker table, no idea how craps or roulette are played, so blackjack it was.
That lasted all of 5 minutes, and that was it.

It gave me a distinct distaste of slot-focussed casino's (there were maybe 4 tables active that night, one for each game IIRC), but I did enjoy getting to skip a line of people whose individual net worths were multiples of our house and seeing the look on their faces as junior over here was welcomed by the casino manager like an old friend :)
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Could you please tell me more. I tried to contact Napoleon Games but no response. So any help would be welcome. Of course, them loosing Middelkerke will not make them happy. Thanks Jo Warm hé
 
Excalibur. Early 2000s. 2/4 Limit.

It was fairly early in the morning...maybe 7am? Woke up early and needed to kill some time before the rest of our group woke up. Figured I’d finally try poker. There was a table running with people who looked to have been up all night so I figured I might just stand a chance.

A minute or two after sitting down a waitress came over with a tray of shots. By shots, I mean some well tequila in plastic cups. A guy at the table tells me everyone has to do a shot...table rules. Not being one to pass up a free drink, even at 7am, I do the shot with them and then a couple more shortly after (because the ‘new guy’ had to catch up - another table rule). Everyone was drunk, loud and stupid. If anyone got low on chips, we each donated a few to keep them in the game. The staff said as long as everyone was having fun they didn’t care what we did. And we were all having a whole lot of fun.

I probably left with about what I started with. I’m not really sure...there were a lot of shots. Met up with my wife and friends later that morning already well beyond tipsy and happy as hell that live poker could be so much fun!
 
steevbe said:
Could you please tell me more. I tried to contact Napoleon Games but no response. So any help would be welcome. Of course, them loosing Middelkerke will not make them happy. Thanks Jo Warm hé
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From what I’ve heard Napoleon has switched (nearly?) entirely to slots. Very few table games and poker seems to be focused in Casino de Namur.

I didn’t know they lost Middelkerke?
 
MathijsVS said:
From what I’ve heard Napoleon has switched (nearly?) entirely to slots. Very few table games and poker seems to be focused in Casino de Namur.

I didn’t know they lost Middelkerke?
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Poker = Oostende and Namur. They have to keep live tables (by Belgian law) so they can offer online roulette and blackjack games. For the moment no poker in any Belgian or Dutch casino. No master classics of poker this year in Amsterdam. Middelkerke is for Belcasinos in 2022. I asked you because I want to know what old chips are left in the vault of casino Knokke. The floormanager is now a woman called Véronique Seels. Jo
 

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