I'm in town for a conference where I was a speaker, so obviously stayed couple extra days for poker degen action.

Back in the boom I was a fairly winning player at the medium stakes limit games. (15/30 or so)

It's been six years since I've played a live hand of poker, and I have to say, the Vegas young regs are missing a ton of action.

I sat down at the Aria 1/3 and had about four people with hoodies and headphones on, refusing to speak to anyone, along with the typical old nitty regs. I was one of maybe two tourists at the table.

Guys, if you see a tourist sit down, be nice. Say hi. Ask them where they are from. If they ask you where you are from just tell them where you were born.

The tourists are here to have a good time. Sitting down with silent young men is not a good time, for anyone.

Talking will keep them at the table longer, make them respect your bluff bets more (cause you are friends, he wouldn't bluff me?) and just generally has a lot of positives for everyone. They'll still call down with marginal hands, don't worry, you'll get your value bets.

I know you guys are grinding all day every day but holy crap did I have a bad experience at the Aria. I sat for an hour at three separate tables and tried speaking to all of those guys. I had like four people even roll their eyes when I tried to talk to them. Be social. It'll make your life better and you give absolutely nothing away in the game because those tourists can't read you for **** anyways.

If you think action is dwindling in Vegas. It's because of experiences like this.

/endrant


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Oh yeah. And quit acting like every hand is the most important hand in the world. It's awkward when I have to wink at you when you are staring me down and then you don't laugh.


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Aria is one of the most popular rooms to grind in, apparently. I've been playing at mgm the past week or so and had a totally different experience. On Friday night, every person at my table was drinking alcohol.

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It's so weird. Why do all the regs grind the same place? Points? Isn't it best to, you know, avoid other regs? Or is it because lowest limit Aria splits is $1/$3 NL?


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Agreed on the other rooms though, MGM, Monte Carlo, and Excalibur have all been much more pleasant but there's always been one reg that fit that profile it seems.


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You have had some bad luck I think. Been playing Aria past 4 days now. Never had an unsocial table really. Last night I had the best table I have ever played in a LLNL game. Half the table was drunk, everybody was pumped about every hand, a guy named Michael Jordan would raise to 23 every hand, etc. Was by far the best game I have ever sat in.

I had a hoodie on because I was cold FWIW.

When I moved from NL to PLO I saw a big change in the moods of people at the table. They were much more talkative and having fun. I actually started enjoying the game again. Hell, last fall I was playing 2/5/10 PLO and the table was a freaking blast. Guys laughing and making jokes at each other all while having some really big pots for those stakes. I saw a guy yo yo from his 1,500 buyin to 5k to bust, multiple times. He was laughing with everyone having fun. It really was a great time.

vegas is the worst place in america to play poker

Not terribly surprised that would happen at Aria. Hoodie and headphones headquarters of vegas for some reason. However, you could've easily got a table change to the 5-10 other games running.

I've had similar experience at aria but honestly many nl games are like this these days. Many desperate miserable people trying to grind a living and little conversation. PLO is much better and friendlier. Limit games of any kind are also much better and more fun IMO.

Aria is the worst place in Vegas to play poker.

If you want to enjoy it, that is.

Here right now and having a good time. Looking around its like 15 percent headphone men.

In my experience for SSNL the big rooms are terrible from a social and game selection perspective. Small and mid-tier rooms are where it's at.

Just to state the obvious, someone wearing headphones at the table doesn't in any way imply they're actually good.

Personally I'm happy if there's at least one other clown like me at the table to joke around with, so a few headphone dudes are fine as I think they're actually losing money due to not paying as much attention to the game.

That said as long as there is a drunk and crazy game like the ones at MGM this past week I'd definitely rather play that one instead.

I'd second this, I haven't played a lot of live PLO but the couple times I have it has been an absolute ripping good time. I will definitely be playing the 2/5 PLO game again at Aria.

But I've generally had good luck at Aria though in terms of tables. I only bring headphones in case there is Johnny Hand Calculator sitting next to me who wants to whine about the % this and the % that after every hand. I really dont care, I'm here to drink and have a great time, tell it to the Wizard of Odds.

Lmfao we just got the whole table to do a 20 dollar flip at aria, damn headphone nits

I stopped playing live poker because of these players. I don't think they realize how much they are killing their action.

too true. i came into town and sat down at the aria and i was met by like 5 of these clowns playing life changing money stakes (1/3).

The guy to my right was some asian dude wearing a hoodie, sunglasses, and earphones busy staring me down like he wanted to axe murder me after i cbet into a small $22 dollar pot. so... after a few orbits of religiously straddling.. I ask "how about a round of straddle guys?" and the guy immediately to my right says "how about a cup of shut the f up". and of course i douse the flames a bit by saying "whoa i didnt mean to offend the nits at the table". Then he goes into a tirade about "who the f are you to tell me how the f to play? it's my own money...blah blah blah. f u f u f off mother f er".

he got ejected after floor got called over by several dealers... lol

i swear many of these players have asperger's and just can't help acting the way that do

i play online 95 percent of the time and just the 1/1 at the linq to drink and have a good time to break it up...never a headphoner in sight....i don't even care about winning live anymore....it just isn't worth being around people like that...worse than a job.....

plo players in general are way more friendly

Agreed. Don't get me wrong, you still get some of the types of players in PLO that OP mentioned, but overall they are way more fun. At the 5/10 game which is uncapped, they get a bit more serious, but are still fun. Last year I played with Mike Sexton at the 5/10 game and he was loads of fun to play with.

100 % the only way to play if your a rec is to flat the headphones players with any 2...they crush when the miracle flop comes. Nothing better.

If you try to talk to someone with headphones then of course they will roll their eyes at you. The headphones are there to send people like you a very clear message. They are clearly saying "Please don't talk to me." When you ignore that and try to talk to them anyway, of course they will get annoyed. They aren't there to laugh, socialize and have fun. They actually would rather sit next to a silent type instead of a tourist that wants to chat.

And yes these guys are definitely too serious, too boring, too antisocial and they seem to hate other human beings and think everyone else is an idiot. So you're right they do make the games worse, but they may not care that much.

Would be pretty funny if headphones get banned at the poker table. It would make them more uncomfortable. I would be happy if they did get banned because these guys are so boring to be around.

Lol they must have hated you. Some of those people are miserable. They're not going to easily laugh if you seem like you're there to have fun. Doing things like winking at them looks like you're mocking them and will just make them angry.

Also when you try to force quiet people to talk that often makes them even more quiet and you make them more uncomfortable which increases the chances that they don't want to talk to you.

Instead of trying to talk to these people, try to talk to people who actually might want to talk (if you can find them).

As I'm writing this I'm really wishing they would ban headphones at the table.

Great thread. I am a rec player who plays several times a year in Las Vegas. I generally enjoy rooms like Bally's, MGM and Mirage because the play is a mixture of friendly, decent and alcohol-induced.

I played $1/3 at Aria twice this past trip (May 8-13) and had interesting experiences. My first table had the silent, hoody, headphones group. I requested a table change but almost left before I got it because the game just sucked the life and fun out of me. My second table was friendly and much more fun.

Second session saw me playing at the nittiest table ever. I got AA, AK, QQ and AQ in the first few orbits and had trouble getting anything paid off. I transferred to a wild, loose table and lost some money, but at least I was having fun.

I imagine that a lot of the young players mentioned in this thread might be somewhere on the autism spectrum. But whether they are or not, if they were good professionals they would know that showing some personality and having some fun at the table would likely net them much more money than a miserly, unfriendly appearance.