Many recreational poker players visiting Vegas for the first time worry about sitting down in a cash game and losing their money in one quick, brutal session. But providing you have a bankroll which can withstand an unlucky session, and you play a solid, aggressive game, you really should have nothing to fear.
I played a few sessions at the Venetian casino during this year’s WSOP and found the games to be super-soft. I sat down at a $1/$2 NLHE table with $300 in front of me. After a couple of hands, an early position player open-raised for ten times the big blind to $20! I looked down at K-K, and popped it up to $70. Incredibly, a guy on his stag party in late position cold-called the $70 raise! And even more incredibly the UTG raiser then folded. My mind was boggling.
Anyway, the two of us saw a rainbow flop of A-x-x. Although I hated seeing the Ace, the villain only had about $150 behind so I thought I’d put the pressure on him by moving all-in. To my relief he didn’t snap-call, so I knew he didn’t have the Ace. He then began saying out loud the hands I could have: ‘Ace-King, Kings, Queens…’ Basically, he named all the hands he was behind to. And then he called – with Jacks. What this hand shows is that generally speaking the skill level is quite, quite horrible at the lower stakes. The UTG raise of 10x is horrendous, the cold-call even worse, and the call on the flop just as bad.
Taking advantage
So what can you do to exploit the players? Well, talking to them helps. As soon as you hit the table make friends with the players to your left and right, make sure you find out who’s in Vegas on holiday to have fun (or enjoy their stag), and how the big stacks at the table won their cash.
It’s also important not to play anything too cute. I made a big value-raise with my Kings, and ended up getting all my money in on the flop as something like an 11/1 favourite. When was the last time you saw a hand play out like that online at anything near $1/$2?
It’s all about betting your big hands strong and waiting for the calling stations to do what they’re good at. However, as a direct consequence of the looseness of some of the games, my final piece of advice would be to keep your bluffing to an absolute minimum. People will call ‘to keep you honest’, because they think third pair might be good, and because they’re drunk and having fun. So be patient, wait for big hands and big flops and take the Vegas partygoers to value town. And don’t forget to enjoy the winnings when you leave the table. Viva Las Vegas!