Hello guys,

I've been thinking about playing live poker for my very first time. The nearest casino where I can play at is around 25min away by car so I want to definitely play only there.

They play mostly 1/2 and minimum buy-in is 100€ and maximum buyin should be uncapped. Rake is 5% capped at 20€. Is this okay or not ?
Secondly I would like to ask about buy-in size. Should I buy-in for minimum or at least few hundreds say 200€+ ?

Next thing which I'm quite not sure of is how much different is live poker compared to online in terms raising size, pre-flop ranges and overall in difficulty. I've heard that 1/2 should be relatively "easy" because of newbies, bad players etc but I really don't know if it's true or not..

Rake is obviously sky high, sounds like Germany or France. If that's beatable or not depends on the game and players.

5% with 20€ cap means you're paying the full 5% up until a pot size of 400€.

A quick synopsis of the differences between live an online play.

1. Theoretically, live players are terrible compared to online players. The pf raises will be huge live compared to online. You'll see lots of "mistakes."
2. There is no heads up display live. You're going to have to keep track of what players are doing in your head. You have to keep track of the size of the pot, you can't ask the dealer what the pot size is. Stack sizes also need to be estimated. At most, the dealer will ask the other player to show his stacks, you'll have to count it up.
3. If you are an emotional player, tells can be used against you live.
4. To win, you're going to have to play an exploitive game. The rake will eat up the small margins.
5. Live stakes are much higher than on-line. If losing 200 in a single hand is going change how you play (either from tilt or fear), play smaller.

What's the maximum buy in? If it's uncapped, it depends on how you do in those games. If you're winning then it's fine but if you don't have a choice, it's also fine. If you can choose to play for a smaller rake, that would be a no brainer decision.

As I said before, I've never played live poker in a casino or any similar rooms so I can not tell you more about my live poker skills. Buyin should be uncapped but for my first game I'll buyin for 200€ or maybe even less..

My second nearest casino is like 1+ hr away by car so this is no go for me..

I think that one session won't hurt me but if game is easy I would like to go play more often but that rake is quite pain in the ass..

I would drive an hour away for a better rake structure, but that's just me.

The difference in rake can crush your hourly win rate (assuming it's double the rake of the smaller one and you're a winning player).

Not in France : we have a 4 % rake, no cap... by law.

Higher stakes (5/10 and above) can offer a 75 € cap, which is still crazy high. PLO is raked 2 % instead of 4 %.

Most of the rake goes towards taxes, poker is barely profitable in France, hence most casinos don't even bother to spread poker games anymore.

There is no "no flop - no drop" rule, split pots get fully raked, no chop-chop and no running multiple boards.

Underground games are raked 5 % no cap most of the time.

The game the OP described is likely close to unbeatable.

If you were going to play a game like that you would need to massively alter your strategy compared to GTO. Pretty much only the absolute strongest hands would be playable and you would want to build your strategy around big preflop raises designed to take the pot down prerake.

Realistically if you're going to play it just set a budget of what you're willing to lose.

If the players are bad enough to let you nit it up and still get paid off, it's still very beatable. You'll only win about one hand an hour, so the extra rake will hit you only about once an hour.

In other words, if this style of play could win you 30/hr with a rake cap of 5, now it will win you 15/hr with a rake cap of 20. I've certainly seen games with rake like this that can be beaten like this.

Good comments so far .. beatable poker always depends on the rest of the table and how your style blends into the dynamic.

If you BI for 200 and then get it all in (GII) you will be paying the maximum rake possible for any pot. Technically you will be paying 'max rake' for any pot under 400 as well. Any pot over 400 will have a lower % rake, but it's still 20, which is 3-4x what USA rake is.

By the way .. an hour drive is 'lunch', and certainly 'dinner' for a lot of big city folk. And sometimes you only go 20-25 miles in that hour. It's always an evaluation of cost v benefit. If the game is the same then you have to be able to make up the extra cost of the drive in winnings somehow by playing longer or something/comps else.

When you first start to play live it's probably a good idea of just sitting there the first few orbits so you can gather information and get a feel for the game flow. It'll start you off with a fairly tight image and then you can go from there with 'your' game. Obv if you get a premium hand then you need to go with it.

Don't be afraid to ask questions .. in fact, since you have poker experience it's probably better to ask A LOT of questions so you look like a newbie 'more'. Don't let on that you play online until someone forces you to answer the question.

I wear funny T-shirts all the time .. and when I'm in a new room I get called light a lot early in the session just because my clothes are 'loud'. GL

Rake was the same 10 years ago if he's playing in a licensed casino in Germany. Those games were definitely beatable. No idea how much better 2024 players are though.