Mountaineer Trip Report- WV

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I just have a quick question for you guys. I'm from Akron and will be home for a few weeks around the holidays and was thinking of checking this place out. Do they get any bigger LHE games going? It seems like the only game mentioned was 3-6, do they ever have any 10-20 or 20-40 games or anything? Thanks in advance.

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Maybe we can get a game going this weekend? I'm willing to make a 3.5 hr drive for a 10/20 game.

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evagaba...i'm glad to see i'm not the only one to notice literally every one of your points.

saturday was literally my first time playing live in a casino...70,000ish hands online (nothing), and 4.5 years' worth of homegames and local tournies...

i played for 4 hours (got bored and went to donk off on keno) and ended up down $50...within an hour and a half, i was down $250, but won 2-3 medium pots and then stacked someone with AA vs. AK on an KT2 board...

so yeah, lost money.

however..

the only thing i could talk about on the way home was how short-term my results were. there were literally 4 people that sat at my table at at one time or another over 4 hours that lost an entire $150 buyin in 30 minutes then left..my only problem was that i never had a hand..

card-dead for probably 2 hours...

the level of play shocked me. i always considered my regular homegame to be sub-par...8/10 of those regular players would be winners long-term at mountaineer.

there was a slight hesitation on my part, partly based on nerves and the whole 'scene', to play anything but snug, abc poker over my time there..the stakes were higher than i've ever played, and it just took some getting used to raising to $12 pf and getting 4 callers...$60 pot, which is about an entire buyin for me online or at a homegame...

anyway, off topic.

i definitely will be back regularly. i took my last cashout of $500 in $100 chips, to make sure i go back soon. the level of play was below what i'm used to even at $25 online, but it took me a minute to get used to the stakes. to a casino newbie, every new player looks like a shark in his own way, but it only takes one round to realize otherwise.

i will stay properly rolled to play 1-2nl there (and all it's beautiful variance) for the short-term, and probably look to move to 2-5nl eventually, after railbirding a couple 2-5 games...

tl;dr

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sorry, not done ranting... [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

there were straight HICKS sitting down. guys buying in for $100 wearing a flannel shirt, calling down 3 hands in a row, losing, and getting up.

a young kid with tattoos on his neck sitting down, losing a $100 buyin, saying, as he called an allin with 55 on a AKJ board, GETTING ALMOST EVEN MONEY, calling $75 into a $100 pot, 'pot odds man, pot odds...'

there was an older gentleman that sat down, and was calling down literally 6 hands a round. at one point he called another players huge bet on the turn with nothing but an inside straight draw. i'd been dying to play with him..

he pushes into a Q83 pot, $88 into a $60ish pot. that was to me, and i had a big stack behind me...wanting to isolate the fine man who had been dying to give me his money, i reraised all in for about $200...

big stack hems and haws for several minutes, announces, 'i came to gamble', calls my allin, and flips over KQ.

older gentlemen flips over TT.

i flip AQ...seeing how this is somewhat ranty, i'll let you determine whether one of the 2 remaining kings came or not..

ugh.

calls for $60 on the flop with 2nd pair low kicker were not uncommon. i probably raised 5 times preflop in 4 hours, and was called each time by at least 2-3 people. i've read enough to know how to beat that game, but short-term, the results can be brutal, especially psychologically for someone trying to get used to live stakes...

my brother, who i consider to be just as good as me, and also a long-term winner at 25nl online, lost an entire buyin, $250, in about 5.5 hours...i wasn't at the table, but listening to him, he felt the same way i did...that 1/2nl at mountaineer is imminetly beatable, though there'd be days where we'd make the hour drive home bitching about bad beats and calling stations.. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

again, and i don't feel bad stating this, as most of the players there couldn't add 2+2 let alone read it, the level of play at mountaineer's lower nl games is probably at the level of nl10 online. bodog's 25nl plays much tougher, but live's higher buyins are something i'll have to get used to.

this coming saturday, there'll be no nervousness about how to get into a game, no being worried that i'm overmatched, no overanalyzing every player as they sat down...just tight-aggressive poker, with no fear of losing big pots. i got the 'lose a big live pot' thing out of the way, and i got the 'win a big live pot' thing out of the way...

again, i lost $50 in 4 hours, but mountaineer gets a big [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] from me...