My birthday is coming up and i plan on going to gutshot card club in London. I would like to know what kind of impression i should make. I've been playing for about a yr and a half and am very experienced at poker but i don't have the funds to play high stakes.

Im tempted to go to the card club and put on this facade of being a new player and not having a clue what to do and take all the low stakes people for their money. also the low stakes tables have no dealer and so players must deal themselves... is this a good or bad idea?

Please post all you're first proper live game experiences and what you think ishould do to destroy the low stake players

like the commercial says...it really is intimidating at first...

i went to my first casino when i was 17...never got carded

and my buddy that was suppose to go couldnt show up so I stood there alone and I felt like leaving due to a bad beat rather then stayin another hr having to look over my shoulders to see if security would come...lol

but since ur legal it should be a lot more fun

gonna agree with the guy above that it is little intimidating. even when you are legal age. i was play limit underrolled but played tight as hell cause i was nervous that there might be a mike mcdermont sitting there waiting to mop me up made about 50 and was happy as hell also figured out that people and shitty casino by me suck

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If there wern't luck involed i guess id win everyone

Yeh, i heard that casino players are a lot worse than internet players. I don't see myself being nervous, more excited than anything. I've got a game plan and i rekon i could make quite a bit, jst the low limits are pot limit and im not very used to that game. Tempted to go a few levels up to the NL tables with dealers

I'd recommend starting out at the lowest limit possible to get a feel for playing live. If you've never played live before (even with friends counts) theres gonna be alot going on to distract you from the cards. Playing solid poker should easily be enough to beat these games, but you should really work on paying attention to tells... even stuff as simple as calling quickly or slowly, the way someone puts chips in, etc. Dont instantly assign too much value to things like that but learning to notice them is the first step. Also try to hide your tells, tho this wont matter much at the lower limits.

As far as table image, you'll prolly be playing with a bunch of gamblers, so its a good idea to be friendly and playful. I wouldnt nessicarilly act like you have no idea what your doing, but definatly dont act like a hotshot pro (ie. no sunglasses). I like to encourage bad play, I say stuff like "oh what the hell lets gamble" when I call (especially when I have a solid draw or im slowplaying a monster). Also if someone sucks out on you just say "nice hand, I didnt expect that".

Once you feel comfortable then you could step up to the bigger games, but these games inherantly have alot of varience, so if you dont have a bank to support it dont be surprized if you get cleaned out even when your playing better poker than everyone at the table.

p.s. players deal?? how do they take rake then.. or do they?

they rake 3£ a hour from each player for sitting. As for tells i find a good one is that if a player is tapping his leg or has another habbit he doesn continually like tap his fingures and he bet and you look as if you might call he will stop doing his habbit if he is bluffing. That has worked a few times against my friends and is a pretty reasonable tell for the average card player

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Your alternative for poker advice : Pokerisrigged.com

it's an hourly thing of £3 and with a max buy in of £25 is it a bit much?

I hate the idea of players dealing just because there could be some real pros out there who can shuffle decks extremely well and take all the players money. + stuf like lookin at peoples cards. I might take £50 and buy in for £40 at a .50/1 game where there is a dealer and rake is 10% and then spend the other £10 on an SNG or MTT. Ill see how comfortable i feel, probably play a few low stakes hands and then move up if the players aren't too tricky

First off, to think you are experienced is a joke. Nobody is experienced when it is their first experience. Yes, you may have played online for a year and a half, but that's still really nothing. I have been playing for 4-5 years now, and I still consider myself a noob.

Basically, go in, be yourself, tell the dealer you are new, and would like help if he sees you needing it. This is honest, as there are a lot of etiquitte things that you don't know yet. Let the other players hear this too, as most will offer a little help, and the rest will try to eat you up. Just play your normal TAA game and you will eat them up. And never, ever, berate a player for a bad beat.

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I've only played a little live, but by far the easiest and most reliable tell I saw as people getting ready to act before it's their turn. People will look at their cards and go ahead and pick up enough chips to call or raise with and just sit there holding them until it's their turn.

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I'm CDO. It's like OCD, but everying is in order just like it should be.

i have never played at a live card club also. Just wondered what type of etiquette there is?

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Your alternative for poker advice : Pokerisrigged.com