Question about casino poker rooms

Cafe Society
1

I was checking out the poker room at one of the St. Louis casinos last night, watching a Hold Em $3-$6 game limit game for a bit.

My question for those of you who have played a 3/6 limit game before -
how much in chips do you recommend starting with? I saw a guy sit down w maybe fifty in chips, he played a bunch of hands early (looked nervous, may have been his initial casino experience) and got knocked out pdq. It seemed to me you’d want to start with at least $150.

Also, that was the cheapest Hold-em game at the casino (harrah’s) - are 2/4 games uncommon at casinos?

thanks!

2

It’s gonna depend on where you play for the limits. For example, Sandia Casino near Albuquerque has 1/2 limit with a minimum $20 buy-in. They’ve also got 2/4, 4/8 (I don’t believe they have a 3/6) and some other limits. The no-limit is where the buy-in gets huge.

As for the buy-in, I’m trying to think. I believe the advice for most table games is to go in with at least 10x the bet you intend to make. So you wouldn’t want to sit down with less than $50 at a $5 blackjack table. Of course, it’s different for poker, since you can go lots of hands without betting anything followed by a big hand, several small hands, and so on. I’d generally say at least double the minimum buy-in. 20x to 50x the big blind might not be a bad idea either. So if I were playing at Sandia for the 1/2 limit, I’d buy in for at least $40. The one thing you want to make sure is that you have enough cash to keep playing. You can go for more cash between hands but not during a hand–though I’ve seen “cash plays” at the no-limit table where only chips and $100 bills play. So if you’ve got the nuts and are betting against a guy you’re sure you can beat, you’d hate to have to go all-in instead of being able to cover all his bets.

3

I’ve only played online, but I never sit in with less that 100x the big blind. Of course the highest BB I play is 50 cents, meaning I buy in with $50. But that doesn’t seem unreasonable for a live game either.

4

You have guidelines and then you have game selection.

For a guideline I think 20-30 Big bets, $120-$180 seems like a decent buy in for a session at a 3/6 game.

5

You should buy in for $100 and have another $100 in reserve for a 3/6 game.

6

$3-6 you should have at least $300 when you sit down.

Given a bad run of cards, even then you can go bye-bye in less than an hour.

For once I agree with Otto, I think $600 is a better starting point… 100xBB is reasonable.

7

In St. Louis? I can’t say.

But there’s a million of them in Vegas.
Caveat: Even the pros can’t make money at 2/4… the rake drains the whole table.

8

You’ve gotta work pretty darn hard to lose $300 in an hour in a 3-6 game.

I would buy in for $100 to $150. Bring at least two full buy-ins. If you’ve got $500 in your pocket, it helps psychologically to not sweat the little losses.

9

OK, granted.

My real point is that if you don’t have enough backup you can’t be rightfully agressive.

While we’re here though I’d love to hear your opinion on the rake at such low stakes… 2/4 limit is impossible… 3/6 probably is too.

10

When I first started playing poker, I managed to eake out a terrible living at 3-6, making about $10/hr, and this is in Alberta, where the rake was 10% up to a max of $5. But this was back when poker was fairly new to town, and the games were swimming with fish. So it is possible. But certainly the rake makes it a lot harder. The worst part about it was that it busted out the loose players so fast. Playing loose means you win a lot more pots, but you also lose a lot more. But when each one of those winning pots is raked $5, it puts a disproportionally high cost of playing on the weaker players, eventually weeding them out of the game and making the games less fun and profitable.