Not two hours ago, I arrived home from a birthday weekend in Las Vegas. In fact, today is my birthday! And although the majority of this weekend’s activities in the desert were entertainment-based as opposed to poker-based (that is to say, the main activity was not check-raising tourists but shot-taking tequila), I’d still like to document a few of the impressions I’ve gathered from many years of visiting Las Vegas.
As far as poker-playing is concerned, Las Vegas is a peculiar blend. Your local casino is generally an array of your absolutely mediocre grinders, players who frequent the card-room and are perfectly adept at keeping up with the game’s pacing, while not overwhelming with their sophistication.
Las Vegas, however, has very little mediocrity. There is typically an amalgamation of two extremes. On the one hand, you have your professional poker players. These guys are undeniably good, and if they don’t make their entire living in casinos, they certainly have experience and skill worth noticing. On the other hand, and making up a larger percentage of the total, there are the total novices. These players vary in skill from simply poor strategy to outright confusion about the rules and execution of the game of hold’em. It’s Las Vegas, right? It’s to be expected, as the tourist population is largely uninterested in playing poker, aside from being able to tell their friends back home in rural Indiana that they played No-Limit hold’em in Las Vegas!
I was playing a no-limit game this weekend among a group of almost irritatingly friendly players, who were clearly somewhat overwhelmed by the entire situation. I’d like to be clear before I continue, that I definitely have no problem with beginners playing poker in Las Vegas. That would be a silly platform on which to stand, not only from a poker standpoint (as I’d obviously like less intelligent players at my table), but also from a basic human decency standpoint. I’m all about having a great time in Vegas, so by all means, hit this card-room, even if you’ve never done it before!
Back to the game…
The players were, as I said, very kind. But they knew very little, not only about the game itself, but about the etiquette of the game, something they were desperately trying to uphold despite not having enough knowledge to do so.
A hand came up between me and another player. I had K-10 on a board of K-9-8-3-2. There was roughly $50 in the pot, and I bet $35 on the river. My opponent called me. I turned over my cards, and he said, “Nice Hand.” I began scooping up my wager to re-stack it, along with what I thought was a decent pot, but to my bewilderment, he tabled K-Q.
The gentleman was unaware that in real-life poker terms, saying “Nice Hand” is a concession, a polite way of informing your opponent that he has indeed won the pot. He simply wanted to be nice, I suppose, telling me in his own way that I had every right to be in the hand… or something… despite not actually having the best cards.
I was noticeably upset for a brief moment or two, feeling as though I’d been slow-rolled. But I came to realize that the man was merely ignorant of what he’d done, and was only attempting to keep the game light-hearted.
I lightened up during the remainder of the session… but lost anyway…
Jacob "Jaymind" Westlin is a semi-professional limit hold'em player with a strong, sarcastic wit. Jaymind also frequently contributes to Minnesota Poker Magazine's monthly publication. Email Jaymind at jayjay083@hotmail.com
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