[123Law]

Is anyone playing live free tournaments? We have 2 poker clubs here in town, and they are a lot of fun.

The only thing I dont like, is that it seems to attract very loose players.

Just curious to see if you all have poker clubs in your cities, and what you all think of them if you do play.

npplpoker.com

[Lytspeed]

Originally Posted by 123Law

Is anyone playing live free tournaments?

Hi 123,

I've been playing in Atlanta when I'm there on business. I've found that the quality of the players is actually quite good, and a lot of the same players are consistently on the final tables. They discuss theory, pot odds, and playing style when not playing hands, and they are very friendly to new people (even those from out of state.) That group is Georgia Poker Nights.

I'm also considering becoming involved in Denver Poker Tour after my schedule calms down and I'm not traveling as much.

[TriptreysNJ]

How can you play a FREE live game, and expect the quality of play to be any good? Not even that, but how do you expect to get any better playing live, if theres not real prize to be won? For me, playing for free just takes out the determination to win. i won't play unless theres some cash being throw around one way or another. God dam I'm a degenerate!

[Thinkerbell]

Trip,
We have free live tournaments in my area. There is prize money, but to get around the gambling laws, there is no entry fee. The prize money is usually put up by the bar owner. I'm sure even when the prize money is $250 (as it often is) the bar makes lots of profit, because boy, those guys can drink!

I experienced a couple of problems with this live games. The first was the smoke. I think I was about the only nonsmoker in the place. Some players try to be considerate about it, but when you're in a room with 50 people smoking, you're bombarded with smoke.

The next problem was the behavior of some of the younger players. They get louder and louder as the evening goes on. And cruder and cruder. I'm not a prude, but I did get sick of their yelling foul language constantly. And some did get really really drunk. That was frustrating, since it slowed play down and made for weird poker sometimes.

Another issue was cheating. When I first started playing there, I was a beginner. So I wasn't very savvy to what was going on. But as I got more experienced, I began to notice. And part of this scenario was disregarding the tournament rules. Such as, showing their cards to players not in the hand. Picking up the discards, supposedly to look at what they threw away. (When I dealt, I took all the discards immediatley and kept them.) And there was the ocassional collusion issue, as well as dealing from the bottom of the deck.

It was a great training ground and a great way to get my feet wet with poker. And I think now I could probably blow them all out of the water. But until PA gets the smoke out of bars, I probably won't be back.

p.s. we hate U

[Graves69]

Originally Posted by Thinkerbell

p.s. we hate U

The single most amazing finish to this story. xD

[TriptreysNJ]

Originally Posted by Thinkerbell

Trip,
We have free live tournaments in my area. There is prize money, but to get around the gambling laws, there is no entry fee. The prize money is usually put up by the bar owner.

Oh, well thats totally different. I was under the impression that there is just no money involved. I would love to have a local game around here like that....but alas, we don't.

[Thinkerbell]

Maybe you should come to this side of the river sometime and we could go to one of the local games. I haven't been to one in so long, they probably think I gave up poker!

only live free games here are in bars. They are fun but its just like freerolling you get ppl that dont care and just throw their chips around...they lose quick also at resturants they have live vidieo poker for free it is fun to play while u wait for your food

[123Law]

Yeah, same thing here. "Free" is only to get around the laws. This group brings the tables and chips, and most importantly the people, and the bar gives them a cut of the bar tab since they brought in a boat-load of people. This gives the group the ability to give away prizes. Last time it was a 40 dollar electronic dart board. One of the nice ones too.

They even have a "Tournament of Champions" at the end of the year. All the people who won a tournment throughout the year then play at the end of the year. The winner of the TOC tournament wins a trip to Las Vegas to play in some 1000 dollar satellite for the WSOP.

My experience has been that there are good players, but you gotta weed through the drunkards and loose players before getting to the truly good players. The final table is always solid play.

As for Think's post,,, I have the same complaints. The smoking just gets out of hand. I feel like I am the only non-smoker in the bunch, and I always come home feeling like I need to hose off before going inside.

All in all, its ok play, not great, not bad. I still prefer a home game.

[TriptreysNJ]

Originally Posted by Thinkerbell

Maybe you should come to this side of the river sometime and we could go to one of the local games. I haven't been to one in so long, they probably think I gave up poker!

Are you asking me out on a date? lol.
but really, that might be a cool idea, your not that far away i guess. maybe sometime in september when I have more free time at night.