Noob's first live outing, complete misfire at The Bike

[danspartan]

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There's no 1-2 NLHE. I asked if there was *ever* 1-2 NLHE, and he says no, just the 40 NLHE [over there]. That seemed to be the end of it, so I left.

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Cliff Notes: Noob goes to Casino. Floor is not helpful. Noob gives up. Noob drives home and posts.

Not trying to be harsh, but show some perserverance and ask a dealer, ask another player, just go watch some games, whatever. You'd be amazed at what you can get out of life in general by just being a little determined.

[LuckyTxGuy]

That is just crazy. If every new B&M poker player was treated that way, there would be very few new players entering the poker world. The floor did you a major disservice and he did the room (his employer) a major disservice. This is a classic situation of an employee being a jerk and not having a clue where his pay check comes from.

As for the fact they refer to the game as NL 40, NL 80 etc. that is the gayest thing I've ever heard of. I thought only online players (with no B&M experience) called the games names like that. I play in B&M rooms very regularly and I have to be honest, I'd have been as confused as you were. I probably would have just ended up in a limit game so I could ask around to some other players and/or the dealer to find out what the deal was with the crazy names.lol

I've said it before and I'll say it again, there is NO place in a casino, except the poker room, where new players are treated with so much disrespect. If new players were treated that way every where else on the casino floor, many casinos would go broke.

[Rick Nebiolo]

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I've said it before and I'll say it again, there is NO place in a casino, except the poker room, where new players are treated with so much disrespect. If new players were treated that way every where else on the casino floor, many casinos would go broke.

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Compare casino poker rooms (such as those found in Las Vegas or Atlantic City) versus areas with many card rooms (such as those found in Los Angeles County).

Casino poker rooms are part of a competitive casino market with a constant influx of new competition energizing management. Mismanaged casinos falter and in fact go broke. Of course the poker room is usually only a small part of the casino business but in Las Vegas both casinos and poker rooms go out of business on a regular basis. Competition helps.

Los Angeles County is different. For all practical purposes it's impossible to open a new card club and it will remain that way for years. So here management isn't energized by the threat of failure; the poker boom insures that they will run at capacity most weekends and do good business throughout the week. The exception to running at capacity might be a casino located in very bad location (or at least a perceived bad location) with a history of problems.

~ Rick

PS This post isn't directed specifically at the Bike; in general I find their staff to be courteous and helpful.

[RR]

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As for the fact they refer to the game as NL 40, NL 80 etc. that is the gayest thing I've ever heard of. I thought only online players (with no B&M experience) called the games names like that. I play in B&M rooms very regularly and I have to be honest, I'd have been as confused as you were. I probably would have just ended up in a limit game so I could ask around to some other players and/or the dealer to find out what the deal was with the crazy names.lol

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I think these names are probably better. In the past the blinds were what determined how big a game played. Now the limit on the buy-in determines how big the game plays so it would make sense that the max (or fixed) buy-in is what would be noted.

[slickss]

The person you talked to should be shot for not understanding what 1/2 is, or for not even trying to understand what it could mean. It looks like he *did* understand what you were speaking of the sizes of the blinds, since he told you that there was only 1-2 limit. So, he probably didn't know what NL 40 really is. For his sake, I hope it was his first day.

That said, 1/2 NL with a $40 max buy-in sounds like a huge all-in fest. You should *at least* have $100 in front of you to make it fun. I'm not saying you should move up to bigger blinds, but to bigger stacks.

[DeadLily]

To be fair to the guy, he wasn't really rude as much as the terms seemed to make him confused. I mean, it seemed that if I said "1-2 limit", I would have been signed right up. But saying "1-2 no limit" (which caused him to clarify "hold 'em?") was a mistake, for which I was supposed to say "40". And even with that, the implication was that I was at the wrong counter. But I came to the wrong conclusion that by "40", he was referring to the blinds, and that the web page that I had looked at was out of date.

I'll try the whole thing again next week.

[TonyLA]

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so what do they call teh 5/5 with 300 min 500 max?

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"Put XX on the list for the 1, 2, 3 to 5 and 5" will get the top section floorperson at the Bike to put you on the list for the $100NL, $200NL, $300-500NL and $500NL. Use any or all of those and you'll be just fine. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]