Newbie No-limit hold em question
Sorry for a very basic question, but I'm interested in learning about no-limit hold em and just started reading material on it.
The question I had is very basic, given that someone can bet all available chips. The question may make it clear I've never sat down in a poker room.
The question is what stops a rich player from just going in a casino and playing money that no one else who comes in with a few hundred or few thousand dollars could ever possibly match? Do those people just have to walk away. I don't understand how someone who comes in with $500 could play no-limit in a poker room if the diversity in bankrolls/bets can be so large, unless there was a max number of chips you could bring to the table.
2. Most (but not quite all) poker rooms have specified maximum buy-in amounts (as well as minimum buy-ins). Out of the more than sixty+ poker rooms in southern Nevada, all of which I've played in, I can only think of three that spread a NLHE cash game with an uncapped buy-in, and two of them are in Laughlin where the uncapped amount is rarely relevant; it is not exactly high-roller big-baller central down there. There are also rules about when, how, and for how much one can re-buy or top-off, as well as taking money off the table.
3. In cash games with the NL betting structure, all that really matters during the play of any one hand is the effective stack size. That is determined by the size of the smaller stack among two players contesting a hand. There is simply no way for the remaining chips (or currency where it is allowed on the table) in the larger stack that exceed the opponent's smaller stack to come into play. The amount of the big stack that exceeds the smaller stack is in reality irrelevant during the hand because the smaller stack can't make or call a bet that is larger than what she/he has on the table, so the additional amount in the larger stack effectively does not exist for any practical purpose, except insofar as it may affect someone psychologically or emotionally to look at it. (This is about CASH games; tournament play presents very different issues.)
3B. About that last point of functionally useless but for some people emotionally interesting surplus amounts on the table, here's a mostly pointless but possibly amusing and definitely colorful sidebar on the topic: The Golden Nugget is the one Las Vegas poker room I'm aware of that regularly runs an uncapped buy-in NL game. And just for fun, I suggest you Google the search term "The Duke of Fremont" for some entertaining reading on a local character well known in poker circles who makes use of the Nugget's uncapped structure to put on a show (and it is definitely just an attention-seeking, but in my opinion always quite gentlemanly, act in his own individual public show that he's putting on when he does what he does and plops a briefcase full of big bills on the table).
4. There are no dumb questions. Only dumb poker players with money still left to donate, who are always welcome.
Is he still doing that?Quote: DrawingDead1. Table stakes rule. You can only play with the amount of money you have on the table at the start of the hand, and it must be kept clearly visible on the felt to all players.
2. Most (but not quite all) poker rooms have specified maximum buy-in amounts (as well as minimum buy-ins). Out of the more than sixty+ poker rooms in southern Nevada, all of which I've played in, I can only think of three that spread a NLHE cash game with an uncapped buy-in, and two of them are in Laughlin where the uncapped amount is rarely relevant; it is not exactly high-roller big-baller central down there. There are also rules about when, how, and for how much one can re-buy or top-off, as well as taking money off the table.
3. In cash games with the NL betting structure, all that really matters during the play of any one hand is the effective stack size. That is determined by the size of the smaller stack among two players contesting a hand. There is simply no way for the remaining chips (or currency where it is allowed on the table) in the larger stack that exceed the opponent's smaller stack to come into play. The amount of the big stack that exceeds the smaller stack is in reality irrelevant during the hand because the smaller stack can't make or call a bet that is larger than what she/he has on the table, so the additional amount in the larger stack effectively does not exist for any practical purpose, except insofar as it may affect someone psychologically or emotionally to look at it. (This is about CASH games; tournament play presents very different issues.)
3B. About that last point of functionally useless but for some people emotionally interesting surplus amounts on the table, here's a mostly pointless but possibly amusing and definitely colorful sidebar on the topic: The Golden Nugget is the one Las Vegas poker room I'm aware of that regularly runs an uncapped buy-in NL game. And just for fun, I suggest you Google the search term "The Duke of Fremont" for some entertaining reading on a local character well known in poker circles who makes use of the Nugget's uncapped structure to put on a show (and it is definitely just an attention-seeking, but in my opinion always quite gentlemanly, act in his own individual public show that he's putting on when he does what he does and plops a briefcase full of big bills on the table).
4. There are no dumb questions. Only dumb poker players with money still left to donate, who are always welcome.
I used to know him and his GF fairly well.
I never seen him with a briefcase of money(I'm sure he has for some self promotional situations,)When I first meet him, it was usually just 10k at Binion's. He would be fully dressed up in that early style. Plop down 10k, sit for about 40 minutes, fold everything but AK AA KK QQ. He's been known to actually fold AA pre flop If someone pushed with all in with a big stack. For the most part, people just ridiculed him for doing this all this. He was always a nice well mannered guy(part of his persona)and just laughed it off.
One NYE he had a bunch of plastic chip card holders with hit picture made up and passed them out.
He buys and sells gold and jewelry.
Most of the old timers warned him he was going to get rolled one day. I would even hear sketchy types saying some scary crap after he got up.
Unfortunately, Sure enough, he was set up. He was seriously beaten and robbed during some sort of fake gold sale/buy.
You are never required, or even allowed, to reach into your wallet durring a hand. If you're short stacked, all you can win from the other players is an amount equal to what you put in.
If you have less chips than is required to call, the excess goes towards a side pot. The side pot is for the players with more money.
IE. Let's say there are three players. Player A bets $250. Player B only has $200 and calls. Player C has $240 and calls.
The main pot will be $600, that anyone can win.
A side pot of $80 will be awarded to either player A or C. The extra $10 is returned to player A.
https://wizardofvegas.com/forum/gambling/poker/7713-introduction-to-poker-in-a-casino-poker-room/
I haven't seen 'The Duke' recently, but I wouldn't expect to since I haven't played downtown in quite some time. I can't claim to know him well, but I assume he's still putting on his poker act, since he's been doing it for so long & from what I have seen I can't imagine him giving up the attention he gets for the stunt.Quote: AxelWolfIs he still doing that?Quote: DrawingDead...<some stuff about 'The Duke'>...
I used to know him and his GF fairly well.
I never seen him with a briefcase of money, When I first meet him, it was usually just 10k at Binion's. He would be fully dressed up in that early style. Plop down 10k, sit for about 40 minutes, fold everything but AK AA KK QQ. He's been known to actually fold AA pre flop If someone pushed with all in with a big stack. For the most part, people just ridiculed him for doing all this stuff. He was always a nice well mannered guy(part of his persona)and just laughed it off.
One NYE he had a bunch of plastic chip card holders with hit picture made up and passed them out. He's done a great job at self promoting.
I know He buys and sells gold and silver and collects stuff.
Most of the old timers warned him he was going to get rolled one day. I would even hear sketchy types saying some scary crap after he got up.
Unfortunately, Sure enough, he was set up. He was seriously beaten and robbed during some sort of fake gold sale/buy.
Does he actually play a hand with something like QQ? If so, I'm shocked. After making a deliberately conspicuous show of putting a ridiculous amount of money on the felt in a 1/2 game that covers every other stack at the table added together many times over, I've never seen him actually contest a pot and show down a hand. Not once. Just pile up the money, contemplate a hand pre-flop, fold, leave his seat to walk around like a polite peacock on display for the maximum time the room allows for walkers to tie up a seat, come back to pay for his missed blind buttons, fold another hand, lather, rinse, repeat. I've only even heard one story of him ever actually playing a hand in descriptions from others, but since the tale is from a fellow named Sam O'Connor who I know from another site & whose accounts I both enjoy and generally trust, I believe it probably did actually happen more or less like he said, and that 'The Duke' may have actually played at least one contested hand in the last ten years or so. These are links to Sam O'Connor's story about that, reprinted in The Poker Grump's blog about 7 years ago:
O'Connor on Duke & stack awareness, 1st page: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_KzlOcoSmvC4/SNSb4vjDlSI/AAAAAAAACC8/AG_kwpmhNe8/s1600-h/duke002.jpg
O'Connor on Duke & stack awareness, 2nd page: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_KzlOcoSmvC4/SNSb4geZzRI/AAAAAAAACDE/vBSZGkJwqDE/s1600-h/duke003.jpg
Linked from Poker Grump's 2008 'Duke' blog post:
http://pokergrump.blogspot.com/2008/09/duke-makes-magazine-cover.html
I heard about him getting jacked too, for an amount of cash in the six figures and badly hurt by the scumbags during the robbery, down at a "casino" in Stateline/Primm of all places. Was sad to hear it, but also not at all surprised. I understand that after being quickly caught, the main creep involved was eventually sent away for 40 years to think about it.
