Serious Casino Jeux

Can someone explain Texas Hold’em pretty in depth to me, I just want to get all the rules right before I go and play and make a jackass out of myself. And please try not to use poker slang, just explain for the average joe.

Answer 1:

I’d suggest that you visit a bookstore. Or maybe read the FAQ.  They’ve got some books listed also.

Answer 2:

Hi I recommend Awesome Profits. It is a good text book on all games.

Answer 3:

You’ll find a set of 6 articles on Hold’Em poker by Lou Kreiger. They’re called Lou Kreiger On Stategy  - A beginner’s Course in Texas Hold’em Poker.

Staying at the Eldorado next week, looking for good $ 3/6 Hold’em orOmaha. Where can we play in town, or should we taxi or to Peppermill or Atlantis. Dod they have good low limit games at Atlantis?  What about CalNeva?

Answer 1:

Atlantis has a new poker room, with $3-$6 hold`em spread daily. It’s very nice. Peppermill has a tournament going on, and the Cal-Neva has a dailyOmahasplit game ($3-$6 I believe), but the room is very, very smoky.

Answer 2:

If you are staying at theEl Dorado, I would suggest playing at theEl Doradoitself (it often has $3-$6 or $4-$8 hold’em and $1-$5 stud) or Circus Circus, which also has several tables in the $3-$6 range. TheEl Dorado, Circus Circus, and the Silver Legacy are all connected by indoor walkways. For Omaha/8 in the $3-$6 range you should definitely check out Cal Neva — I haven’t played it in a while but it was always extremely fishy when I played it in the past. I believe the Reno Hilton (just outside of town, next to the airport) is the only other place with regular low limit O/8.

Answer 3:

The Silver Legacy is very, very nice, and it’s easy to get between it, Circus Circus, andEl Doradovia walkways. The food is very good both there and atEl Dorado. About 18 months ago,El Doradoonly had 3-4 poker tables in their “room”.  Circus had a larger poker room (8+ tables?), very busy. Airport Hilton has a large poker room but not very many customers while we were there midweek, early evening.  Mainly I remember hitting a royal on a progressive poker machine at the Hilton!

I consider myself an above average player. Winning more, then I lose. I play TH, Omaha, and some stud. I recently played in a dealers choice game, with the majority of the games played being what I call off the wall. Lots of H/L, 8b, Criss Cross, Muder Ball, 52kill, Double Draw H/L buying cards etc. I normally would not return to the game, but the players were good people,
great room etc. Most of all, this game was very lose, with an average of four players going all the way, with lots of mistakes. Also, a fair amount of alcohol was consumed. I think you know what getting at. Where can I go to learn more than the basics to these games ?

Answer 1:

I have never found any decent books on this type of game.  My patial solution is to sit down and deal out hands for each game and see what comes up. (You can probably do this with a computer program if you have the programming knowledge – I don’t) this will give you an idea of what it takes to win. The essence of winning in loose wild games is tight unimaginative play. Don’t commit unless you have a monster possible.  Don’t ever do anything fancy. Hang back until you have the nuts, then push hell out of the hand. If you have been sitting in the game for four hours and are getting bored to death – you are probably still playing too loose!

Answer 2:

On Hi/lo games: Read or reread Ray Zee’s book on stud8 and omaha8. Don’t pay that much attention to the sections on hand selection, but pay careful attention to the sections about playing on later streets, the turn and the river. Many of the fancier plays there won’t work in the game you’re describing, but the principles are still valid, particularly this one: If you have a decent chance of scooping or a good chance of winning one way, you can continue. If you have only a decent chance of winning one way, you should probably consider folding. On wild card games: Play wild cards. If you don’t have wild cards or some kind of huge natural starting hand, don’t play. If you don’t catch well on your natural hands, don’t play. It’s rare for someone with less wild card to chase down someone with more wild cards.

Answer 3:

You’ve already gotten some good advice: dealing out hands, playing tight until you have the nuts, etc. One thing to add. There are a couple of books you might want to look at.  The better one is Steiner’s Thursday Night Poker. The other one, which has some reference to specific wild and crazy games, is Morehead’s The Complete Guide to Winning Poker. This is an outdated book to be sure, but it has some simple strategy for some wild card games which might be useful. One last thought. I play in many of these games and find that loosening up my starting requirements makes me more money than playing tightly.

I am having a discussion with someone about the correct way to play a hand. Your opinion would be appreciated. This is heads up in a satellite, winner takes all. Blinds are 400-800. There is a total of 10,500 of chips in play. You are on the big blind with 1,800, so you have placed 800 in the big blind leaving you with 1,000. The small blind raises you all in. You have 64o.
Should you call or fold?

Answer 1:

Call. You’re getting 2600 for your 1000 call.  Unless you are highly confident that your opponent has a pair 66 or higher, those are more than adequate pot odds.  You’re only about a 3:2 dog to 2 over cards. It sucks, but the only solution is to never get in that spot in the first place, right?

Answer 2:

Against most aggressive players you should call. This isn’t really a tournament-type decision. It’s heads-up and so you are playing for a single prize. (Note that it doesn’t matter whether there’s second place money or not — you BOTH already won that!) Because 6-4 almost has equity in a fixed-limit ring game against many types of opponents in the small blind, it almost has equity now for a 2.25 to 1 (instead of a 2 to 1) raise. Normally, it gains back something, because it will have position on future rounds of betting against the small blinds. This is not the case heads-up, where the blind positions are generally reversed and the big blind acts first on all subsequent rounds. But, you are neutralizing any positional advantage by being all-in.If you wait, you will probably have better chances next hand, but you’ll only have $1,000 and $400 will be a blind. The increased chance of winning the next hand doesn’t usually override the decrease in money if you fold. Figure you’re going to win about 1/3 of the hands now (assuming slight selectivity on your opponent’s part) and 1/2 on the next hand if you fold now and then play. This makes the decision close against some opponents, but not against most aggressive ones. There are, of course, other factors at work here, too — but that’s the main consideration. By the way, the amount of chips on the table has very little relevance — except in measuring how it will affect
the next blinds. Usually call.

Answer 3:

Of course, “it depends” (surprise!) on what you know about your opponent…  However, that having been said, you are getting $2,600-to-$1,000 pot odds, and your 6-4-offsuit is that much of an underdog or worse only to opposing pairs of 6′s or higher, plus just a few other odd types of hands*** ***Test your intuition…  Your 6-4-offsuit would also be worse than 2.60-to-1 underdog to any A-6-suited, or A-6-offsuit with the A-6 in the suits of your own two cards, or any K-6-suited, or K-6-offsuit in your two suits, or Q-6-suited in a suit different from the suit of your 4 — all in the 2.60-to-1 to 2.74-to-1 range. Now, I’ve left out one other type of opposing hand here to which you would be worse than 2.60-to-1 — can you guess what it is?!