Poker Articles

The Newcomers Guide to Public Cardrooms -- How to Play and Win
(Part 1)
By Lou Krieger

In the past decade, legalized poker has seen explosive growth. From Connecticut to Mississippi, Michigan to Montana, poker is everywhere. You'll find poker played on riverboats and Native American Tribal Lands. You can play in small, two-table, no frills cardrooms, or elegant Southern California mega-clubs, where 100 games might be going on simultaneously.

This four-part series is aimed at players new to casino poker, though not necessarily new to the game itself. If you've played in home games, but haven't made the transition to casino poker, this series is especially for you. I've packed it with tips and strategies that will help you feel comfortable, and enable you to play your best game.

The most important difference between casino poker and home games is availability. There is always a game: often a choice of games. If you're fortunate enough to live near a giant card casino - one with 100 or more poker tables - there will usually be a choice of games at every betting level, from $1-$2 to $75-$150, and most games typically run twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Your home game, by comparison, probably goes one night a week.

A major advantage to casinos is safety. Card casinos offer professional dealers, floorpersons, and video security to ensure that games are run squarely. Because people walk around with large sums of money, you'll find more security guards in one card casino than you would in a dozen banks. Parking lots are brightly lit, well patrolled, and crime free. Since most large clubs offer player banks, check cashing and ATM machines, you do not have to walk in or out of these clubs with large sums of money in your pocket.

Armed robbers do not take on casinos. Big-limit home games, however, can be sweet targets. Lots of money on the table and no security makes them a tempting morsel for home invasion specialists.

In a public cardroom no one minds if you quit the game a winner. Someone else is usually waiting for your seat. You do, however, have to pay to play. Whether the game is paid for by time collection, or by raking the pot, it costs more to play in a casino than a home game - where all you have to do is split the cost of food and drinks. In Los Angeles, where I play, it costs $5 per half hour to play $10-$20 hold'em. When I calculate my average hourly winnings, I have to overcome that time charge before I am in profit. If I'm able to beat a $10-$20 hold'em game for $25 per hour, it is equivalent to beating a home game for $35 per hour, excluding my share of the food and drinks.

Cardrooms also offer variety. If I don't like the hold'em games I can play stud, or lowball, or Omaha high-low split. Those kinds of choices are never available in home games. But I pay for the privilege. That's the trade-off: convenience, variety, and safety - at a cost that can be overcome by solid play.

As a cardroom newcomer, you'll find the games are played differently than they are at home. Initially, they will seem much faster. In a game with a time collection, you are paying the same fee per half hour regardless of how many hands are dealt. Consequently, dealers act efficiently and players are expected to make prompt decisions.

Rules are interpreted strictly, and consistently. All games are table stakes and cards speak. You can only bet with money on the table when that hand was dealt. You cannot go light, as you might in a home game. If you do not have enough to cover the bets and raises, you go all in. You are then simply contesting as much of the pot as your money covers. Other players can still make wagers, but those bets comprise a side pot. At the end of that hand, the side pot is decided first, then the main pot. You are not eligible to win the side pot since you invested no money in it, but you can win the main pot. At any time between hands you can buy more chips, or put more money on the table.

None of the high drama you remember from Saturday matinee westerns ever happens in a public cardroom. Players do not leave the game in mid-hand, go get the deed to the ranch and use it to cover a bet. You cannot drive your opponent out of a pot by betting more money than they have. The short-chipped player simply goes all-in. If an all-in player loses the hand, he either buys more chips or leaves the game.

You'll also notice that no one ever says: "...Mighty big bet, cowboy. I'll just see your twenty," then reaches back into his stack for more chips, and with a long, lingering glance for effect, drawls "...and raise you forty!" Calling a bet, then reaching back for more chips is called a string raise, and is not permitted. Rest assured someone will shout "String raise!" The dealer then informs the hopeful raiser that a string raise just occurred, and he'll have to take back his raise and just call. Now, if a player not involved in the pot mumbles "String raise!" and your opponent says something like "That's O.K. Let the raise stand," be assured your hand is in big trouble. Real big trouble!

This rule prevents players from putting some chips in the pot, reading the reactions of their opponents, and based on that newfound knowledge, deciding whether to raise.

If you want to pump it, just say, "Raise." Then you can go back to your stack and count out the proper amount of chips. If you choose to raise simply by placing the required chips in the pot and letting your actions announce your intentions, put the correct amount of chips into the pot all in one motion. Otherwise...string raise.

You don't want to splash the pot, by tossing chips into the center of the table where they mingle with the others. Instead, stack them neatly on the table about eighteen inches in front of you. The dealer will pull them into the pot when the action has been completed on that round of betting.

If it's your first time in a public cardroom, let the dealer know. He's happy to help you with the mechanics of the game. After a few sessions you will be familiar and comfortable with the playing procedures.

In a casino you are always responsible for your hand. Toss it in the muck (the discards) and your hand is fouled. It cannot win. If you are uncertain about whether you hold the winning hand at the showdown, turn it face up and let the dealer read your hand. The rule is: Cards speak! But dealers are human and can make mistakes. If you think you hold the best hand turn it face up and announce it. Let the dealer determine the outcome. In fact, if you are unsure of anything, just call "Time!" Then get your questions resolved prior to acting. Poker etiquette suggests that you not abuse this privilege; particularly if you are in a game that has a time charge. It's not as cardinal a sin in a game that's raked, but players like their games fast and efficiently run, with few interruptions.

Most players will cut you some slack if you're new to casino play. They'll also assume that your lack of familiarity with cardroom procedures means you lack poker skills too. Strong players can use their rookie status to advantage. Opponents will take them for fish, only to be punished for their faulty judgment.

There are no wild-card games in public cardrooms, with two exceptions. Draw and lowball are played with a 53-card deck. That additional card is a joker. It is usable in draw poker only as an ace, or to complete a straight or flush; in lowball, it becomes the lowest card not in your hand. Don't expect to find deuces wild, one-eyed jacks, or any of the games home players create when they want to stimulate enough action to help them get even from a night's losses in the last half hour before dawn.

In the second part of this series we'll peek inside a cardroom and I'll show you how to get into a game. You'll see the type of players you can expect to find in a cardroom, and what to anticipate from their style of play.