Any tips before going to a (decent sized) private game for the first time? Like warning signs to watch out for or things to do/not do?

yes. if you dont know anyone then be careful and not lose very much. always smart to do that in a spot you arent familiar with.

dont shuffle chips or talk about hands ever at the table. just play and talk social stuff.

dont stare but carefully watch all shuffles and cuts. and dont lose too much.

ask about the rules and who makes the decisions . and house customs.

good luck.

Thanks, some good tips there. At what stakes would you say it's imprudent for the players to bring that much cash to a game? Like if the person running the game said "oh, it's an $X/$2X limit game, people normally bring $Y to the game".

I'm talking just like a regular home game or office game with no security. I only play in small home games, because it just doesn't seem that it's worth the risk to play in something mid to high stakes. If you know everyone and they're playing on paper and can settle outside, then that's fine, but at some point too much cash becomes an issue.

the amount of cash you bring should be the amount you will lose at the most. then you are protected from both ends. you can hide some in your car and go get it if you need it.
if the game gets robbed whatever you have on yourself will usually be gone. and games do get robbed.
generally everything will be okay. and the biggest risk is the cops bust the game and confiscate all the money and chips.
but in private games there tends to be more mechanics/cheaters and you have to be careful and not lose too much as you may not be able to catch them. although most games are honest.
and being new all players pay attention to you and might make it harder to win as a result.

Thanks Ray.

split three ways last night. it got late and we all had about the same. not much playing with giant blinds. that kind of ruins things where it is a shove fest almost every hand.

its starting out a little cold in the north west. winter came early. not bad weather just cold.
as usual that picks up the poker games. seems no golf, more poker. inversely related i guess.

just came back from a long drive. home to montana is nice but plenty cold and no snow yet. usually around this time there is snow on the ground till spring.
the ski hill which is a famous one is gearing up for a big season this year if they get early snow. i get a lifetime free pass but i gave it up a long time back. maybe i should start again.

Big Sky?

Start with the bunny hills.

actually big mountain resort. but they changed the name to whitefish ski resort.
really good ski hill rated tops in the north west, and rated high on a lot of the national ratings.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitefish_Mountain_Resort

happy thanksgiving to all that might see this and i appreciate that you come and visit here.

Same to you.

Hope to visit your area next summer.

pm before you go ill clue you in on the good spots to see and eat.

we have had some really good omaha games in kalispell lately. almost like the times of the past. multiway pots every hand of course with max action allowed.
i hope it stays that way through the holidays at least.

i like holdem better. but omaha you get to win bigger pots and the games are looser for sure.
only bad thing is the long down time between hands in a loose game.

This is what I hate about omaha. Bit it's pretty much the only good game available locally.

one of the big reasons the games are good is they finally moved the game from an upstairs room in a bar to the main level of a more popular bar. it took a long time to get it in heads that upstairs rooms dont get any drop ins and the game dies as players leave.

if it's in a bar, does that mean people are smoking?

no smoking for a long time in montana now. i gave up a long time ago playing where there is smoke.
games got much better when they made everything all non smoking as people with money started coming back in bars.

the smokers still come, just go outside for their butts. now the well run bars are making a ton of money.

Probably why I stopped playing pool and billiards. I loved the games, but couldn't fade the smoke.

same with me mack. i dont go into a pool room, bar, etc. if im in a state that allows smoking. thats a big decision on where i will live as well.

it surprises me some of the good pool rooms especially down south still allow smoking while they see so many others going broke. they for some reason think catering to 20% of the population is better than all of it.

Ray-- do the games get better during ski season?

It just hit me that I could ski at Whitefish, then when I get tired spend the rest of the day playing poker in Kalispell (hopefully not in a game where you have position on me). I'm outside the US this winter but that is a trip I would love to plan for the 2019-20 ski season.

there are some type of game about 5 days a week including whitefish.
\1,2 blind no limit with a few hundred dollars expected win rate. or a game much bigger a few days a week omaha high and split.

say hi if you come. skiing here is great but cold and foggy many days

The smoking ban for bar/casinos in Montana took effect 1 Oct. 2009. A lot of places have built nice smoking shelters with heat lamps for their smoking guests.

For those that don't know, if you own a liquor license in Montana you can have up to 20 machines in your bar. They are multi-game machines, that include video poker, video keno, and video line games. Since the inventory is small there can be upwards of 30 different games on a machine to give people a wide choice of games.

Some of the places are classic bars that also have machines in them but a lot of these places are not really bars at all even though they serve alcohol. You go in and you'll see 20 machines with chairs in front of them but you won't see a bar in the place. People don't hang out in those kind of places just to drink. You'll be greeted by a floor attendent that is the cocktail server, change maker, cashier, and can fix minor problems with the machines.

There are about 1700 liquor licenses in the state and about 18,000 machines. Not all bars carry a full complement of machines.

hey buddy good to see you are still around. games are decent if you are traveling around.