itt666 is alot more right than you think. yes you should try to change seats and consider quitting that game especially if other games are available.
if not you must change your playing style greatly.

I agree about changing seats if possible. I was reacting more to the table change idea. I believe there's room for multiple good solid players including some better than me at a table if it has a lot of action from weaker players.

And I do think it may be worth it to stay while waiting for a seat to open up, particularly if the new player is handcuffed a bit by the max BI.

If you are at a table and a skilled player sits to your left and you consider quitting the game - You are doing poker wrong. What I mean specifically is you either are not that good OR your game selection flat out sucks in that a single player tips the balance from your game being good to being not playable

I think Ray Zee said it perfectly, not just because he agreed with me but because he said it much clearer and concisely than I did, as is his way.

Yes, if you were sitting in the best game in the room already, you have position on same major fish/whales and it's the best game you've seen in weeks of course you should never leave that game until the fish/whales leave it. A good reg sitting to your left is not enough of a reason to leave, but you're certainly not happy about it either.

In the exact situation discussed I would hope that I would be aware enough to identify that the seat to my left has just opened up and be on the lookout for who it is that is going to come over and fill it. If I see someone I know to be a good tough reg coming over, I'll move my chips and myself over to that seat thus leaving my current seat to be filled by the good reg. Now I still get to stay in this nice juicy game but instead of the good tough reg having position on me I have it on him.

Problem solved.

If somehow I hadn't acted in time to change the seat I would try and seat change as soon as possible if the game was great, but if it was just an ok game I would probably lean more towards table change.

But if for some reason my ego was running the show that day and I decided to stick it out and keep playing despite a good tough reg with an edge on me being to my left, I'd probably be looking to play a lot of buttons, and I mean a lot of buttons. Because from every other position I should tighten up my opening ranges, even the HJ and CO, so i'd better be prepared to play a ton of buttons.


Then again I personally wouldn't have to be in that spot because the second I saw who was taking the seat I would pipe right up and say 'sorry sir, but actually you'll be sitting in this seat, I'll be taking that one.'

As I said, problem solved.

I regularly play in games with players that are better than me, and I specifically want the vast majority of those players on my left (as to why I want them on my left is a completely off-topic discussion which is why I'm not going into further details in this post).

That being said, it is still not in my best interest for good pros to buyin for 2x the max buyin. Whether they are playing in a pot vs me or they are playing in pots with the fish, this is bad for us. When the fish has chips, his chips are live and in play. Once the good pro gets those chips, they are going to be much more difficult to attain. Thus, when the pro stacks the fish for twice as much as he should have been able to this adversely affects our winrate.

Yeah ok, I shouldn't have been so matter of fact about the buying in for more than allowed part of it, obviously that is a bad thing for us, even if we have position on him.

As for the first part of your post, I understand you aren't getting into it any further with us, but there is almost no way that can be a plus ev decision profit wise. You could argue it's a trial by fire that will force you to get better in your own game, thus leading to more profits down the road but it's a hell of a way to do it and not conventionally advised. Hard to believe ego isn't part of your reason for that decision, but if you feel it's working for you might as well keep doing it.

Not that I want the fish to my left, but I don't want a tough reg there either.

In a perfect world I'd see a straight forward tight OMC nit or two to my direct left at every poker table I ever sit at. But then again, it's not a perfect world.

In the game I was talking about there was always a caller in between.

I don't understand why this has become a discussion about leaving the table or changing seats. If a good player tries to buy in for more than the maximum, you should insist that they only buy in for the maximum. If a known player deliberately tries to buy in for more than the maximum on multiple occassions, you should ask that they be kicked out of the casino for cheating.

Yes, you are correct this thread has derailed. I guess I am mostly to blame for that happening, although it did spawn a decent conversation so whatever.

But it's not the original topic of the thread, that is true.

Should you ask that if you think there is close to a 0% chance of them actually being kicked out? Pretty sure most casinos just dgaf about this rule.

Dealers cheat in more ways that have been mentioned in this thread. I suppose the players that know about it aren't going to say anything since they are directly benefitting from it.

After a hand is over, watch for dealers to take 2 Aces and put them in the bottom of the deck. They will then take out the shuffled deck from the shuffling machine, but put it back in, banking on the fact that nobody is paying attention. They will use the deck from the last hand and do a fake cut, or not cut at all, that keeps the aces at the bottom of the deck and then bottom deal to a "favored reg".

The dealers are very slick about not making it obvious. They do it in slow, fluid motions. They see the aces and then flip them over and slide them to the bottom while they are gathering all the cards. Rec players or tourists are never paying attention between hands. If you do pay attention, the players that are in on it will tip off the dealer by coughing or simply saying "he's watching" and then pretend like nothing ever happened.

If you think I'm bullsh*tting, I challenge anyone, today, to walk in to the Wynn, Aria, Bellagio, or Venetian and simply watch the deck between every single hand. You will start to hear the chirping from certain regs within 2 hands of you watching the deck. Also, you will get people that normally never make conversation, all of the sudden try and talk to you to distract you. Even if you are polite and talk back, they will start acting hostile towards you if you keep watching the deck. Before you flame. Just try it in your next session.

I have played at all 4 of those rooms a great many times. Fairly confident I have never once been a victim of base dealing at any of them.

I would assume you reported all of this cheating?

Have you ever seen a Bigfoot?

Gotta be the roids.

I think I played over 1000 hours in Vegas and probably never once noticed cheating at a table by a dealer.

The closest thing I can think of is if two players know each other and text each other during the game.

Ok, so you're just paranoid. Moving on.

That would be absurdly easy to catch, considering they use two different colored decks.

Except how many people make it a point to remember the color of the previous deck?

If you pay attention to the color of the previous deck the cocktail waitress will spill a tray on you. Just try it.

....and never order the sliders.

Shufflers have two trays, one for the old and one for the new. To not switch decks you'd have to either never put the old deck in and merely switch trays with the new deck or put the old one in, take it back out, then switch the new one to the other tray.

Then you'd have to not use a cut card or slip it out from between the deck and cut card.

Not saying it's impossible to pull off, but it's not going to happen very often before they get caught.

I saw this dude Michael Carbonaro use sleight of hand to make a frickin' car disappear. A FRICKIN' CAR!!! Pretty sure it's a lot easier to move a couple cards to the bottom of the deck.

When the main was running this summer, I played the daily at the Aria. I was sitting at a table for > an hour with this guy that was to my immediate right. He was from Chicago, I'm from Detroit, so we chatted it up the majority of the time.

So I'm sitting there UTG... in a brand new pair of Adidas top tens... And as I started to look at my cards... The guy to my immediate right, kicks my shoe 2x. I immediately look at him with my frowned face, and say, WTF MAN. He gives me a weird look and then looked away.

I then fold my rags... Middle position raise... It folds to the guy to my right... And he jams KK effective. I didn't realize he was cheating until after he walked away... after cussing out the player who cracked his KK.

^......Dude, you don't know what you're talking about. Your statements are not correct or accurate. What you do sound like is broke-azz punk kid living in mommy and daddy's basement with no real-world experience.


Obviously:

1) you have NOT played much poker in Las Vegas.

2) you have created a pathetic little paranoid world for yourself.