Ill be at the sands all day tom. Pm me if any1 wants to meet up chat or get food

So how did you do?

been doing pretty well so far

Trip reports on how your sessions go? Any interesting hands? General thoughts on poker environment there? Action at the tables? etc...

Can we get a game update?....

I thought the poker room manager was that young looking guy Dave.

I will be there tomorrow early afternoon throughout the night playing 5/5 (and possibly tonight). Holla

You're probably right but this is the guy always taking names and seating the players. His name is Mike something.

Tonight at the Sands some senile old guy at my table who had to ask "How much?" to call every damn hand and stood up every flop to see what was on the board continued to show his 2 cards to his buddy next to him who was also in the game after the hand ended.

After he won a hand that was folded to his river bet he showed his friend and began to muck them. I then told the dealer can I see his cards because he showed his friend. The dealer then asked the guy if he showed them to his friend because the dealer didnt see it. When the guy admitted yes and had to show the table he became a little upset and grumbled when the dealer informed him the rules at the sands are "show one person, you gotta show them to all". He then complained, "yea those are the rules here!" as if implying other casinos allow you to show one person and not everyone at the table.

Does anyone know another B&M where you can show your cards after the hand to one person but not all?

No, not anywhere I have played in the US or outside.

The Sands is a disaster for the rules, and the dealers seem to only enforce them when another player intervenes, and calls the floor often when that happens. Three examples from last weekend:

1. Player in BB mucks his cards in an unraised pot as he did not realize he was the BB. Dealer tells him and pushes cards back to him. I ask what is going on and dealer tells me "He didn't know he was the BB.". I answer with "So?" and player mucks and says "I wouldn't have played those cards anyway and gets angry with me.

2. After about 4 hours of play I raise a pot UTG and player on button who has been very tight calls. I turn to him and say "We have not played a pot together all day." We have been talking between hands and were friendly and I was joking. Dealer tells me "You cannot talk when other players are in the hand." I tell him, I was not discussing the cards, and he tells me it doesn't matter, I cannot talk at all while other players are in the hand. He asks if I want to call the floor, and I tell him yes. He calls the floor and floor sides with me, and once floor is gone dealer says "That guy is new and doesn't know the rules." When have you ever been a rule that you cannot talk at all during a hand if other players are involved?

3. This one I am technically wrong, but... Post flop I am in BB ad have a str8 draw and check and button makes it 7 to go, SB calls and I go to call, but because the chips stick together in the Sands a lot, I end up tossing in 3 red chips that are connected like a block. Dealer immediately says "Raise", but I explain I was just calling, and show her the chips are locked in mortal embrace. She says it does not matter, and makes me leave the minish raise in, everyone calls. Luckily I turn my str8, and shove and because the button thinks I am steaming about leaving the raise in he calls and I take down a decent pot. Technically she is right, but after everything I have watched go on, and the fact that the chips were obviously connected she could have let it go, but it seems not for me. Technically she is right here though at least.

3 different dealers and 2 out of 3 don't have a clue. Sands needs to improve training and not have players be the police.

Headed out today to grind the 1/2. Got crushed last weekend by a string of call stations and bad outdraws, like flopping the nut flush and having the board double pair by the river while 2 donks call me down and having to fold to an obviously boat on the river.

Hopefully I will run better today.

do any 5/10nl games run on sundays, and if so, around what time?

Another sick 1/2 12 hour session for me at the good ole Sands yesterday:

Had to sit 3/6 for about 1/2 hour and had AA cracked by 99 calling down and hitting the river 2 outer (not a big loss, only about $20, but...). Managed to leave 3/6 up $5 when I moved to a new 1/2 table. No big deal, hate limit.

1/2 picked up where last weekend left off for me. First big hand, pick up AK in late position and made it 17 to go to try to thin the school, but 5 callers and flop is K 4 7 rainbow, checks to me and I lead out for $50, and SB check raises to $100, and he has about $80 behind. I have already made a lot of laydowns and I am not sure if he thinks a rag K is good, or possibly he is making a move, or possibly hit a set on me. Decide I am not going to fold in this situation and I push in, he calls and shows K 4, 2 pair and it holds up.

One guy on my left decides he is going to call every preflop raise I make, that is actually his strategy. He calls 20 to go preflop with QJ OS against my AQ and the board comes QJJ, I mean really? I know he would have gone broke with a Q high board, but I manage to lose about the min here.

Finally things changed after 9 hours or so, with A5h on button against only blinds (shocking here), I make it $7 to go ,ad BB calls and decides his pocket 4s are good on a flush board and I call his flop bet, raise him on the turn and he calls, so I decide he is probably good for the rest on the river and I shove, he thinks a while and folds the 4s face up. Really? Big laydown with 5 overs and a flush on board? Well thank God for this guy.

Same guy 3 or 4 hands later I call 7 with 33, and board comes J53. Same guy leads out. This hand I think I misplayed a little on the turn, I just called the flop. Turn comes a 10, and he leads again for a pot sized bet, and this is probably where I should have shoved. I decide to just call in case he is just bluffing, or has possibly TP and might lead the river, but will fold to a turn shove. River comes 9, which is not really a scare card, but I have watched these fish lead out for huge bets with the most ridiculous draws, so he bets $50 in to a pot of about $160. I ask if he outdrew me on the river and the guy actually says to me "I thought maybe you hit the river" sincerely. Really? This could of course have been a bluff, but I didn't think so, so I just called and he turns over top 2, and my set holds up.

Final real hand that got me everything back was an AA vs. KK situation. I played it very straight forward raising from middle position and getting SB and BB call (BB called with KK, not a smart play I think, but did not matter). Flop comes Q high rainbow, and SB checks and BB leads out for $15 into a $45 pot. I raise to $60, SB folds and BB calls. Turn comes a blank and BB shoves for $91, and I instacall putting him on KQ or something like that the way the hand played out. I was shocked he had KK there.

Anyway long post to get to a $10 win after a 12 hour session. I need a better strategy for calling station old man poker. I try making sure they are making big mistakes preflop, but when they go on heaters it is just sick how much I lose with this approach. I can't stand the call with good hands and see a flop with 8 other guys for a $16 pot though. I guess my plan will be to hit all my hands from now on...

This 1/2 story is very entertaining to me. I think it really sums up the 1/2 NL to a tee at this place. I had to play the game a little while the O8 5/10 was starting up and it was the same thing. Make it 15 preflop with QQ and get 7 callers. Flop comes A 3 7 and fold it out after raise/reraise in front of me on flop bets. What does the one genius wake up with that called the preflop raise of 15 early with no money in the pot? He had the mighty 3/7 os that he stuck 15 in preflop and hit the bingo jackpot against some other idiot who could never fold the powerful A/2 in this spot against 7 to the flop and called the 3/7 guy all the way down to get stacked off. Another hand, raise AK suited to 15 preflop, only 6 callers this time(must of got some respect), lol. Flop comes A hi with all hearts, have no K for the redraw nut. Guy leads out for 20, flat call with 4 behind. Turn is a heart, guy gets all excited and leads for pot. I instafold with 3 behind me, gets to river. Bet/call, winner has the dreaded 3 of hearts for the 3 hi flush. Do not remember the kicker on the 3, but i know it was not the A. The 1/2 play here is so bad and random if you read people well, you misread them b/c they are too dumb to realize how weak their supposed "strong hands" are. Also there is no preflop raise to thin field, only raise that may somewhat work is like 25 which then you look like a fool betting 25 into a pot of 3. I have seen people call 40 raises into a pot of 3 with hand like J8 saying they like the hand type deals. If you are running bad, 1/2 NL is a terrible game. Good luck ever representing anything to these idiots, because they will not even realize what is possible that you are trying to represent. I played 1/2 for about 1 hour and missed O8 and remembered why I stopped playing 1/2 NL for so long here.
Left table with a little profit when O8 opened and did really well at O8 and enjoyed the good players in the game that would hit draws that made sense. The beauty of O8 with good players is the hands when they go to showdown almost always make sense if you know what i mean. 1/2 NL is always a surprise at how idiotic people are calling such random draws down to river such as backdoor draws or bottom pair and hit kicker type deals. O8 is nice in the fact that usually if you get called all the way down and get beat, it is usually to a hand that made sense such as straight/ flush combo draws. I just could not resist adding my two sense to the 1/2 post, I think it really hit the nail on the head nicely and had to yap a little myself. On a side note, did the O8 run last night(Saturday) that anyone knows of?

That's why 10-15 dollars an hour is a good win rate at 1-2...Heaters happen for you and against.

I gotta agree with the 1/2 summaries, and both posts are entertaining and on the money, the 1/2 at Sands is bad AND good for all the reasons mentioned and more. Clearly if you want to play with better players, there is no choice but to move up a level, but I just pray these players never go away. Yes, frustrating at times, but so far, it's been worth dealing with some of the more painful sessions. And can't beat the savings in travel time.

Not sure if my raise should have been allowed to stand...

1/2 game preflop, there was a raise to 13, I intended to re-raise, but stupidly did not announce it and ended up being 2 dollars short of a raise. First the dealer said it has to be $26, which was wrong, since the raise was $11, I meant to make it $27, but was shy a red chip when I threw it out, so the bet was thrown out as $22 and the min raise should have been $24, the dealer did not let the raise stand, so my question is, was my raise actually valid anyway because I put in over the half the original raise? Should the raise have stood and of course just throw in the $2 to complete it? I hit my set on the flop, and took the pot anyway, but feel like I lost some money there.

Been asking around a bit, this was just a dealer mistake, even if I had not meant to throw out the raise, I should have been forced to complete the raise in this scenario. I guess it didn't help the dealers confusion that some at the table were saying "it's not a raise". I hate holding up the game and calling the floor over for small stuff, but I guess I should have.

Actually, the rule at PA Sands is - if you say RAISE and do not throw out the min raise you are forced to complete. If you throw out less than the min raise by $1 and don't say anything it is not a raise. Some rooms say if you throw out more than 50% of the min raise you must complete - this is not the case at PA SANDS.

why doesn't the sands have the live straddle like chester does?

Generally I agree, and I watched one of the sickest one outer bad beats at the same session. Young guy two to my left was playing well and we discussed a few hands when we were no in the action and he really knew how to play. He raised to 7 and got 2 callers from blinds. Flop was 443, check to him and he leads for 1/2 pot and BB calls. Turn is an A and BB leads out now for pot, kid insta-shoves and OP insta-calls. Kid turns over flopped nut boat, 4/3s, and OP turns over A9os and river come case A (guy to my left claims he folded an A and I believe him). BB OP claims he thought the kid was bluffing the whole way. Really? The kid was playing like 4 hands an hour and put his whole stack at risk, I mean really? Funny part is this is the exact guy from my earlier post where I clipped him with a flush and a set.

Anyway point of this story was that earlier the kid and I were discussing the tabel play and we both agreed that it possibly has been months since we have put the kind of bad beats that we see happening on someone. The fact is the better players rarely get it in so far behind and therefore don't usually hit one outers. It is the equalizing fish factor. I would love to see the analysis of the fact that if you are not in every random pot calling down you cannot have the kind of sick heaters I watched where any 2 random cards were flopping trips or turning gut shot straights because I am simply not putting all the early money in that bad. Probably in these games I am not playing completely correctly as the implied odds are usually pretty good given no one can lay down top pair and forget 2 pair that is the ever loving nuts of all nuts. Sick part is most of these idiots buy in light so the implied odds are not that great with only 100 behind after they have called 2 and then snap called an additional 16 out of position.

Love to hear thoughts on optimal play from people in these situations. It is like High Stakes Home Game against my Aunts and Uncles during the day on Saturday. In the evening the play was much better, and then I can profit reasonably. Maybe I just need to stay out of the aquarium during the day.

I know most 1/2 is generally like this and part of the issue was eluded to by an earlier poster, you cannot play level 2 or 3 thinking against level 0 thinking players. They simply don't get it, and don't have a clue what you have.

Regarding reads, I wish I could video the sessions because reading the players is comically easy, but figuring out what they think is good is not (as someone mentioned). My primary read is one that shows weakness and they all exhibit it. Watch where they look after the flop, every fish in the place stares at the board when they miss. It is about 90%+ accurate. I don't like bluffing much in this call station rich environment, but this single tell is worth at least $100 per session.

Wow, that's surprising and good to know, OK, then the dealer was not wrong, I am, glad I did not make a big deal out of it at the time

1. Everywhere I've played, most dealers try to protect players from mucking their big blind.

2. Assuming there was more than 2 players in the hand, what you said could be misconstrued as giving information about the hand. It's less minor than saying "Wow, you must have a big hand", but it sounds like you are implying that he has been very tight. You are obviously allowed to talk (the dealer was apparently wrong about that) but be careful what you talk about.

3. Tough luck (well...not really cuz you won the pot). This should be enforced.

The exact same thing happens everywhere when there is a meek/disinterested dealer in the box and players don't say anything about it. I have played in every poker room in A.C. and have seen that happen there at different times as well.

Dealers that speak up and enforce SOSA without prodding from players are in the minority, IMO. I instantly gain a ton of respect for a dealer any time I am at a table and see a dealer call out a player on SOSA without the rest of the table complaining about it.

Nothing personal, but that seems really nitty/douchey to get mad because the dealer didn't muck the big blind's hand in a limped hand. This is just me, I guess, but I have never gotten mad because the dealer reminded the big blind that he can play the hand without putting any more money into the pot.