How good are Hold 'em players in Vegas?

I love to play Texas Hold %26#39;em at home with friends and neighbors. Hubby and I aren%26#39;t too bad of players in that environment. We have yet to join in a game at a casino, though.

For those of you who have played in a casino, are the players pro-like or is it more like playing with your friends and neighbors?

I am a bit intimidated, but I would love to play on our next trip.

How good are Hold 'em players in Vegas?

some are very very good - some are absolutely horrible. :) I know that%26#39;s a bad answer but it%26#39;s true.

How good are Hold 'em players in Vegas?

look at the reviews section on allvegaspoker.com. it discusses the skill level that can be found at each casino and the atmosphere of the room.

hubby suggests the palms or the sahara for beginners. stick to the low limit games and you should be fine. hubby loved playing at the MGM, but he said that everyone seemed a little more experienced there.

Play at Excalibur, the ';bunny slope'; of Vegas.....

They have special ';kitchen table rules'; low limit games (one blind, no check raises, etc).

Excellent, funny and very patient dealers. Great drink service, a free afternoon mini-buffet, closeby restrooms, and with lots of ';jackpots'; and/or freebies. Large screen TV for showing ball games.

While they have many higher limit and more serious tables, there are plenty with folks just looking to have a good time (many of whom are fresh from their daily poker school).

Elsewhere, the Monte Carlo has mostly beginner to average players (a beautiful room), as does Sahara and the now Planet Hollywood. Downtown its the Plaza (except for their late night tournaments) and the ';new'; room at Fitzgeralds.

El Cortez has a great mix of players, many of whom are not very good.....but not all are well-bathed or entirely sane either.

Just be careful, playing with friends is different than playing at casinos.

Once you play with your friends for a while, you know how they play, and can guess their bluff and so on. In casinos, you don%26#39;t have that luxury.

Try it, but play the first few hours as safe as you can

Take an XTRA pair of panties and a bra, U will need them before the trip is over.

Marc--';some are horrible'; is actually a good answer. That is what I wanted to know. I can handle the combo of players but if they were mostly semi-pro, I don%26#39;t think I would bother. I will read up on the poker rooms chrispina, and start at the bunny slopes (lol) Amberloo.

Musicman, that is a very good point. If you don%26#39;t get the cards, reading total strangers could be like reading a 7OR11 post.

lvlv--beware of the bullies. One thing I don%26#39;t care about is the rebuy option during the first hour that some tournaments offer. You buy into the tournament for a certain amount and that should be it. Some extremely aggressive players try to dominate and push people out of pots with high raises, simply because if they lose it all, they will just rebuy. I know, that%26#39;s poker. That is where the novice player that has limited funds is at a disadvantage. I would try to avoid those type of tournaments unless that%26#39;s your style.

I think you will see just about every type of player at the various poker rooms. I like playing at the Orleans and based on reports at the allvegaspoker.com, will try the venetian when I am in Vegas in less than 3 weeks. I think if you are patient and willing to play premium starting hands or are able to change gears with the game, there is defenitely money to be made at the tables. One of the best thing to happen was the poker boom over the past 3-4 years. The tables are filled with beginners (fish), drunk tourist (fish) locals (mostly rocks) and good players. The allvegaspoker site is the best poker site around. Go there and you can read all about the various rooms and how they rank.

Excalibur was by far the easiest game in town. Not sure what amberloo was talking about not check raising (as I did all the time), but the game (2-4 limit) was filled with (in my opinion) mostly newer players that may have played a bit on-line and now want to try it in a live game. I played one session (about 5 hours) on a Excalibur 2-4 limit game and came out about 270 ahead. It really was like shooting fish in a barrel :)

I will differ from the rest and say most Vegas players are bad. A lot of home players and online ';experts'; who go all in on every stinkin%26#39; hand.

If you%26#39;re a good conservative player who knows the game and knows the outs , you%26#39;ll do well.

Excal has the most ummm suckers on the Strip, Bellagio probably has the better players and some really bad ones with tons of money.

For a first time casino player, Fitzgeralds has some great tourneys with low buy-ins and decent players.