The First Game
Wow. Okay, that’s all I can say right now is wow… I went to my first game last night. Like I said in my first post, I don’t really have a lot of money right now. I expected to get a huge bonus, but the economy went down the shitter and I lost my job. Meanwhile I have been spending all my money on an apartment I cannot afford in a city I can no longer afford. So I am starting in the lowest stakes and working my way up.
Most casinos spread $1-2 no limit games, but in NYC the low limit games tend to all be $1-3 no limit. Also, at casinos you usually can only buy-in for about $300 in a $1-2NL game, but in the underground games you can generally buy in for whatever you want… and people do.
Jacob, my old boss (see last week’s post), met me at the old trading floor downtown last night around 8PM to take me to the game. We were walking north from Wall Street to play a game just around the corner. I’ve seen just about everything in poker, but really did not expect what I saw next.
We walked into one of the most luxury apartment buildings in that part of the city, right past the doorman (who I always thought was supposed to stop people like us from coming in unannounced). We went to the fifth floor, left the elevators, and turned right down the hallway. We walked into a door marked “Storage”, through the first room, and into a back room with only enough room for a poker table, 11 seats, and a television.
At 8PM the game was already in full swing. Seven players and a dealer at the table, plus a couple alternate dealers hanging around to change money and get drinks for everyone. I looked around the table and there was a range of people, New York City truly is a melting pot… I was the youngest here, which probably meant the smartest too, but there were a few white men in business casual dress who could not have been much older than I. There was one middle aged white man, and the rest were middle aged or older Dominicans and Puerto Ricans. I was not at all surprised it was all men.
What I WAS surprised about was the amount of money on the table. They were playing $1-3NL with 7 players and there was already about $5000 on the table! My mouth started to water thinking about how terrible these guys must be and how juicy this game looked!
hey great blog. I was wondering if you could send me the names/addresses or phone numbers of any manhattan poker rooms. i’m going to school in new york and am hoping to pick up a side job dealing at one of these card rooms. thanks for your time.
Hey Ben – Thanks for the comment. Unfortunately I can’t give out any information about the dealers / owners of these games. My suggestion would be to find some people who play cards at your school, and try to get invited to a game that way. For what it’s worth, with how these games play you will probably make more money playing in one of the games or just playing online (even at lower stakes if you don’t have the roll) than you would dealing, and you wouldn’t have the same risks.
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