Bmeister51
Straight
I also play in a pretty small network of people both in home games and the casino (PLO player pool of regulars is not huge), do you feel that because you all know each other pretty well and have so much history that when a new player joins the game they are at a big disadvantage?
Conversely, when you play in other games, other casinos do you play at lower stakes to avoid playing with a bunch of players that all know each other very well? Do you feel you are at a disadvantage if you sit in a game with a bunch of players that have a ton of history with each other?
When a new player comes to play in our game that we don’t recognize there’s definitely a disadvantage for that player. Not because we are playing cooperatively or anything like that but they just don’t have the same understanding of the game and history that we all do and usually that player gets beat. Also usually the player that’s new is taking a shot at a higher level and generally is an of the same skill set as most of us.
I probably have the same disadvantage when playing higher stakes at different casinos but the difference is that I know how to handle myself at that level so I’m at less of disadvantage because I have experience playing at those stakes.
And I don’t shy away from playing higher stakes elsewhere actually rather enjoy it. I haven’t played 1020 anywhere other than Vegas but in some 510 games that I’ve been able to get into any other casinos I’ve done extremely well because players that are regulars and those games will come after me and not know that I have a high skill level.
In some instances I’ll even play the sucker to get better action from those kinds of players.