In the summer of 2022, I moved to Las Vegas after being in the poker industry for nearly a year. A content editor for Jonathan Little’s PokerCoaching.com as well as a newly appointed live reporter for the World Series of Poker Circuit, I made my way to Las Vegas not only to further my career but also to play as much poker as possible, and play I did! Competing in my first WSOP, I fired a number of $400-$600 events as well as a wide variety of low-stakes tournaments around the city. Whether it was Paris, Bally’s (now Horseshoe), The Orleans, or the Golden Nugget, the summer of 2022 entailed consistent donations to the low-stakes poker community. It did not matter if it was the Colussus or the $35 daily at Westgate, Paul B was in LV and he was ready to punt!

Even with the losses we sustained in the summer of 2022, life was still pretty good. I was working in the poker industry, living in Las Vegas, and despite my recently depleted bankroll, I was hell-bent on getting to the felt whenever possible. After a long week of work in August of 2022, it was Friday night and I was ready to give myself a night out. While other 20-somethings may have made their way to Omnia or XS, I made my way to PokerAtlas.com. As I perused what was running that evening in Las Vegas, I could see I had a number of options. The 10 PM nightly at South Point? Nope, that’s at least $50 worth of Ubers. A $1,100 tournament at The Wynn? Maybe next week!

Oh hello, what do we have here?

Amidst all of the cheap nightlys around town and mixed game tournaments at The Orleans, I saw it: a $20 NLH tournament in North Las Vegas. As soon as I saw “$20”, I knew what my plans were for the evening.

A Palace Like No Other

Prior to my first visit to the Poker Palace, I was completely unfamiliar with the establishment. Before the Poker Palace came to be, the original property where it stands was built in 1951, and operated as Bunny’s Bar. A popular watering hole amongst servicemen stationed at nearby Nellis Air Force Base, Bunny’s Bar and the surrounding land was purchased by Marvin E. Coleman and Laura Coleman in 1974. Later in 1974, the Colemans would open the newly-built Poker Palace to the public, with a fresh casino that included one blackjack table, eight slot machines, and two pool tables. Nearly 50 years later, the Poker Palace offers six blackjack tables, over 280 various slot machines, a large bingo hall, a small sportsbook, and of course a 7-table poker room. For folks looking to dine/drink instead of gamble, you will find not only some of the cheapest (and stiffest) drinks in all of Las Vegas at the bar, but you can also enjoy a reasonably priced T-bone at Maddy’s Paddys Cafe.

With their offerings, the Poker Palace may sound like the usual small, “locals” casino, but you would be mistaken. When I first gazed upon the outside of the establishment, I knew I had stumbled upon something truly unique.

In case you can’t quite make out the sign on the right side of the building, let me offer you a closer look.

Although I had no plans of inquiring about Poker Palace’s “Match Your Paycheck” promotion, such an advertisement immediately intrigued me as to what awaited inside. Truth be told, I was not disappointed. Behold, the entrance to where the royalty of North Las Vegas gamble:

The Interior of the Poker Palace

After stepping into the main entrance of the Poker Palace, I was immediately greeted by a very large security desk occupied by, you guessed it, a security guard. Behind the security guard desk was the main lobby of the Poker Palace, primarily comprised of slot machines. Behind all of the slot machines stood a long bar filled with customers. Much like the bar, the entirety of the Poker Palace appeared to not have had an “update” in quite some time. Before making my way to the poker room to enter the tournament, I looked around and did some exploring.

I made my way through the right side of the building, taking in the Poker Palace Race and Sportsbook as I maneuvered through the establishment. Around the sportsbook were an array of framed pictures and paintings depicting famous racehorses of old. The likes of Seattle Slew and Seabiscuit could be seen along with the yellow tint of the aged photos.

Passing some paramedics who were attending to a slot player (this would be the first of two occurrences where I would see EMTs that evening), I found my way into Poker Palace’s Bingo Hall.

Outfitted with what appeared to be the original “number board” and an array of signs best described as “old school”, the Poker Palace Bingo Hall had everything you needed to host a serious bingo game, without all the pomp and circumstance. I was greeted by an attendant who informed me the next bingo game would not be occurring for another two hours. That was just fine with me, as I had a poker tournament to enter. Exiting the bingo hall, I retraced my steps as I made my way back to the Race and Sportsbook, located right next to the Poker Palace Poker Room. Arriving at my destination, I took in the arena where I would be doing battle that evening.

The Poker Palace Poker Room

Visiting the Poker Palace Poker Room for the first time, I was greeted by seven tables, each of which was surrounded by nine chairs (plus a slightly nicer-looking one for the dealers, of course). Although the poker tables appeared cheap, the felt appeared to be in fine shape throughout all the tables. Along with a whiteboard on the wall listing the cash game promotions, a pile of Christmas decorations could be seen in the back left corner. This past year, I have visited the Poker Palace on a number of occasions, and on every visit, I see that the pile of Christmas decorations has yet to be disturbed.

With more than half an hour remaining until the $20 tournament was set to begin, the lone occupant of the poker room was a slender, elderly Asian gentleman with an athletic stopwatch dangling from his neck. Assuming this was the poker room supervisor, I approached the man and inquired about entry into the tournament.

“Twenty dollars,” the poker room supervisor said. “If you want another 1,000 in chips, that will be another $10. It’s more than half an hour before tournament, so you can buy another add-on as well for $10.”

Not wanting to miss out on any add-ons, I gave the poker room supervisor $40 in exchange for two white chips marked 1,000.

“Where do you want to sit?” asked the poker room supervisor.

“Excuse me?”

“Pick your seat.”

The poker room supervisor motioned towards the poker table we were standing by. Spread across the felt was an assortment of cards marked with table and seat numbers. With my favorite number being 7, I naturally picked seat 7 at table 7. This would serve as the first time I ever got to pick my seat in a poker tournament.

With a half hour to kill before the tournament, I placed my two white chips and seat assignment card in my pocket as I made my way to Maddy’s Paddys Cafe. To be honest, the steak I had was quite good and reasonably priced at just $12.50.

The Action Begins

Following my reasonably priced dinner, I made my way back to the poker room and found my seat. After handing my seat card to the dealer, I was provided my chips and added my add-ons to the stack.

As I do at the beginning of every poker tournament, I asked the dealer what the starting stack was to confirm I had all the necessary chips. After confirming my chip stack contained the correct amount with my add-ons, I quickly realized the first “unique” aspect of this tournament. With a 4,000 starting stack and my 2,000 worth of add-ons, it appeared that the majority of the players were starting the poker tournament with only 60 big blinds, and the players who elected to buy no add-ons only had 40. Though I figured prior to taking my seat that this would be a truly unique tournament, this realization only furthered that observation. Fortunately for me, 40-60 big blinds is when I’m the most dangerous.

As the tournament began, I could tell at least half of the players at my table were regulars as they chatted amongst themselves and with the dealer. I sat back in silent wonder, as I witnessed some incredibly splashy, yet weirdly tight tournament poker. After a few hands, I finally saw some action as I raised from the cutoff with pocket fives and got a call from the big blind.

The flop came K-6-4 rainbow, the big blind checked and I bet one-third of the pot. The big blind called. The turn was a 3. Following another check from the big blind, I sized up with a three-quarters pot bet with my turned open-ender. My opponent thought for a few moments, before folding A-K offsuit face-up.

“You clearly have a set,” he told me.

Despite winning that hand with the worst, after missing a few flops I was down to only 3,000 in chips in the middle of Level 2. With the incredibly short starting stacks players were provided, I found myself down to 15 big blinds only 20 minutes into the tournament.

“Give the dealer $5,” one of my tablemates told me.

I looked at him puzzled.

“If you drop below 4k, you can add on whenever you want for five dollars.”

“Five dollars for 1,000,” the dealer explained to me.

That was the moment I discovered the second unique aspect of the Poker Palace $20 tournament.

Although I did in fact give the dealer $5 for additional chips, as a PokerCoaching.com employee I knew I should ask some follow-up questions:

• How much of this goes to the prize pool?
• How much of each add-on goes to the house?
• Oh, also, how much of the entry is raked?

“You’re asking a lot of questions, kid,” a grizzled regular informed me.

I grew much more quiet.

The regular to my left laughed and brought me up to speed on the essence of the $20 Poker Palace tournament:

“Listen, most of us had a long week. This tournament is $20 and the drinks are strong. Grab yourself a cocktail and enjoy yourself.”

Always open to advice, I did as my tablemate said and ordered the first of many vodka lemonades. After my first sip, I was thankful I hadn’t ordered a double.

I Need A Hero

“It’s 11 PM, do you know where your children are?”

If you’re my Mom, one of your sons is in California and has likely been asleep for an hour after responsibly taking melatonin. Your other son, I’m sorry to say, is drunk off his ass in a dingy casino in Northern Las Vegas.

Despite failing to cash in the cheapest poker tournament in Las Vegas I was in a good mood, having had an incredibly fun night out. Taking the advice of my fellow poker players, I kicked back, enjoyed myself, and experienced the Poker Palace like a true regular. Now, it was time for me to hail an Uber, and responsibly make my way home. As I exited the Poker Palace poker room, I pulled out my phone and opened the Uber app. Just as I was about to request a ride, a message appeared on my screen.

“We can’t reach our network right now. Please check your connection.”

Confused, I immediately closed the app and re-opened it, but the error message remained.

“Well that’s not good.” I thought to myself.

Taking a seat at the sportsbook, I attempted every other troubleshooting method I could think of in my inebriated state. I alternated airplane mode on and off, I checked to see if the Lyft app was working, I even turned my entire phone off and back on. Regardless of what I did, I not only couldn’t access the Uber app, but I couldn’t access the internet either. That’s when I realized that, for some reason, I was currently unable to use any cellular data. Whether it was because my brother forgot to pay the monthly cell phone bill or I simply needed to upgrade my ancient iPhone, the reason did not matter. All I knew was I was going to need WiFi and soon.

I approached a group of Poker Palace blackjack dealers who were talking amongst themselves at an empty table.

“Hi there, do you guys have free WiFi?”

They laughed at me.

I made my way over to the bar and asked if they had a number for a cab company. Although they did have a number, they informed me it would likely take them at least two hours to pick me up.

Although I’m not usually one to panic, that emotion was beginning to trickle into my consciousness. At that moment I could not refute the facts. It was late, I was drunk, and I was trapped in the Poker Palace.

I returned to the sportsbook and found a seat yet again. It was not lost on me that my lack of responsibility got me into this situation, but that did not change the fact I had to figure out how the hell I was going to get home. Just when I thought I would be sleeping in the confines of the Poker Palace Bingo Hall, it hit me: Bagger.

Enter Bagger

When I moved to Las Vegas in the summer of 2022, I really didn’t know anyone other than a few associates within the poker industry. All that changed, however, when one day I was scrolling through Snapchat and saw that one of my old buddies from college was in Las Vegas. Seeing an image of The Strat on my buddy Bagger’s Snapchat Story, I sent him a message. It turned out that Bagger and his family weren’t in town on vacation, but had moved to Las Vegas almost at the exact same time as I did! Not only was it great having a fellow Boise State Bronco in town, but it was even better having a friend nearby who was always willing to lend a helping hand. When it comes to people who are always willing to help you out at a moment’s notice, my buddy Bagger fits the profile perfectly.

So that’s who I called.

I’m not going to lie: even though I was inebriated, I felt bad calling Bagger so late at night. He has a wife and young daughters, making late-night calls from degenerate friends less than optimal. Regardless, I was deep within the recesses of North Las Vegas late at night and was quickly running out of options. I pulled up Bagger’s number and made the call. After one ring, my guardian angel answered.

“Pauly B! What’s up, brother?”

“Bagger, buddy, how’s it going man?”

“It’s going good man! Just trying to get the A/C unit in the f***ing Tercel to work. What are you doing?”

After apologizing that I was calling so late at night and confirming I had not woken his wife and kids, I explained my situation to Bagger. Being the amazing friend he is, he assured me he could pick me up and would be leaving shortly.

“No problem my man, happy to get you home safe. I’ll leave here in a couple of minutes and come swoop ya.”

“Bagger, dude, thank you so much I owe you one. Real quick though, be sure you park and come inside first. You’ve gotta see this place.”

About 20 minutes of loitering in the Poker Palace pits later, Bagger entered the building and greeted me. I thanked him and watched him look around the establishment. After silently assessing the Poker Palace, Bagger turned and looked at me.

“Dude, this place looks awesome.”

Author’s Note: A special thank you not only to Bagger, but also to fellow PokerCoaching.com staff member Kieran Woods for accompanying me to the Poker Palace this past summer as I worked on this article. The rake may have been high, but the memories were priceless.

Those high stakes poker players who make their way onto streamed or televised games started in the low stakes arena, just like everyone else. Luckily, since the majority of poker players are playing low stakes poker you have a ton of options to get into the game for a small amount of money.

Everything You Need to Know About Live Low Stakes Poker

If you prefer playing poker in a live casino setting then you’re in luck. There are thousands of poker rooms across the globe, most of which are in North America and Europe. All of these poker rooms will run low stakes poker games making the game accessible for beginners just learning how to play poker.

Blinds, Buy-Ins, and Bankrolls

The smallest No-Limit Texas Holdem game that live card rooms offer has blinds of $1 and $2 and shows on the list as $1/$2. While the buy-in range can vary by location it is usually a minimum of $60 and a maximum of $300. You may also hear people refer to it as a $300 cap game, meaning the buy-in is capped at $300. Some casinos including most MGM properties have a larger buy-in structure of $100-$500 but this isn’t as common. Additionally, some casinos will offer $1/$3 instead of $1/$2 with a similar buy-in structure.

Despite the ability to buy into these games for $100 or less you don’t want to come in for the minimum. Most poker players will tell you to only play a game if you are buying in for the maximum amount. If the maximum is a little too steep for your starting bankroll you should be fine buying in for at least 100 big blinds, so $200 at $1/$2 and $300 at $1/$3. At 100 big blinds, you still have enough money to maneuver postflop and won’t find yourself all in on every hand. Many solvers and poker training sites use 100 big blind stacks to study the optimal strategy of poker in various scenarios.

$2/$5 is the next step up in the poker world but is still considered low stakes in the live arena. In many casinos, $2/$5 is the biggest game in the room. Buy-ins can be capped anywhere from $500 to $1,000 depending on the room, although most are somewhere around $800 max. These stakes are still low but are considered the first stakes where you can be a professional and make a living from the game. Even if you have the bankroll for it you may want to start at $1/$2 and be a winning player before you move up.

Speaking of bankrolls, if you want to take low stakes poker seriously, you need to have a dedicated bankroll. While the exact number of recommended buy-ins can vary based on who gives the advice, the absolute lowest bankroll you want to have for live low stakes poker would be 20 maximum buy-ins. For a $300 cap $1/$2 game this means $6,000 as a starting bankroll. 20 buy-ins may be the minimum but it certainly isn’t suggested for a bankroll, so if you want to give yourself a little wiggle room 30+ would be safer. If you are just starting out you should aim for 40-50 buy-ins to account for expected losses at the beginning of your poker-playing career. It’s always better to be over-rolled than under-rolled for a game, so no need to stick to 20 buy-ins since you’ll be more comfortable with more.

How to Find Games

As mentioned earlier there are thousands of poker rooms worldwide. If you don’t immediately know which card room is closest to you there are a few apps you can use to find out. PokerAtlas and Bravo Poker are two very helpful apps/websites that can show you the poker games in your area. Not only can you see a list of casinos and what games are offered, but both sites offer a live look at the cash game waitlist. With most casinos on PokerAtlas and some on Bravo, you can even put your name on the list from the comfort of your home before you head over.

This makes scoping out games much easier than simply showing up at the local casino and hoping you get a table. Since most poker players are in the low stakes field, you should have plenty of tables running in the card room near you. If you want to ensure there will be games running, plan on playing Friday and Saturday nights since weekends are always busy.

Player Pool

Live low stakes poker has a very eclectic player pool. Since this is the most accessible option for poker, you will see a wide range of skill levels at the tables. Some players are studying hard and trying to build a bankroll to make it to $2/$5 and higher so they can play professionally. Others may not study or play full-time but have been playing regularly for years and have learned how to exploit other players in the pool. You’ll also find casual players happy to spend a few hours tossing chips in the middle with little-to-no strategy. Finally, you will get people who have never played but wandered in from the casino bars or blackjack tables and decided to give poker a shot. These last two groups are more plentiful on the weekends, another reason to block off Friday and Saturday nights for poker.

Since the skill range can vary so widely it is best to go into each game with little to no assumptions made on the player pool. Each player is a blank slate so until you see how they play and take some hands to showdown, assume they all play a decent strategy. One of the exceptions to the “no assumption” rule is that you can assume players are not 3- and 4-betting preflop correctly. Any $1/$2 regular can tell you there are very few 3-bets and almost no 4-bets at these stakes. Unless you have proof to believe the contrary, assume 3- and 4-bets are very strong in live low stakes poker.

At the $2/$5 level, you can assume your opponents will be better than the $1/$2 player pool. This certainly will not be true for everyone, as many of these players will simply have more disposable income and prefer to play for larger stakes. As a whole, this player pool will be more aggressive than $1/$2 but only slightly better.

Everything You Need to Know About Low Stakes Online Poker

Despite the poker rules being the same, the online game is much different than live poker. You have many more options to play online through multiple large online poker sites and private poker clubs. Since you aren’t dealing with physical chips and cards, you will see more hands per hour and can have more variety in stakes.

Blinds, Buy-Ins, and Bankrolls

There are many more stakes offered due to the relative ease of making tables available on large sites. Due to the high demand for low stakes online poker, large sites have created games as small as $0.01/$0.02 with a $2 buy-in. This spawned a subcategory of low stakes online poker known as micro stakes. Micro stakes are considered $0.01/$0.02 through $0.10/$0.25. Low stakes online poker is $0.25/$0.50 through $0.50/$1.00.

Buy-in structures are a maximum of 100 big blinds on almost every poker site. Depending on the stakes you can buy in anywhere from $2 to $25 for micro stakes and $50 to $100 for low stakes. You will often see online poker games referred to by the buy-in rather than blinds. So $0.25/$0.50 is often shortened to 50NL, $50 buy-in No-Limit Texas Holdem. The micro stakes are 2NL-25NL and the low stakes are 50NL-100NL. Once you get to 200NL you are in the online poker mid-stakes.

Perhaps counterintuitively, even though games are spread for lower stakes online, if you want to play online poker you should have a larger bankroll than live poker. This is because online games can play more aggressively than live and the players tend to be better. Most players will tell you to start with a minimum of 50 buy-ins for online poker. If you are starting at 2NL that’s a very reasonable $100.

How to Find Games

Luckily, online poker is much easier to find than live poker. Depending on the country you live in there will be a variety of options open to you. There are numerous mega poker sites like WPT Global, PokerStars, and GGPoker. These sites are not available in America but you still have options like WSOP.com (if you’re located in regulated markets), or other offshore-regulated operators.

There are also plenty of private club options through various poker apps. These are not monitored or regulated in any way, however, so be very careful about signing up for one and depositing money. While these can be a fun way to play poker with friends it may not be the best investment as a site to play on full-time.

When searching for online poker sites, make sure you pay attention to the rake structure and find the best option for your stakes. You can find information online about how sites rake each stake and compare to find what the lowest is. Also, be sure to look for any rakeback deals. Rakeback is when a site will return a percentage of the rake you generated based on the number of hands you’ve played. This can be a huge incentive if you plan on playing a lot and will impact your win rate greatly.

Player Pool

The online player pool tends to be a bit stronger than the live pool. The main reason for this is you don’t have any “randoms” wandering in. Unlike a casino, you have to seek out online poker to play it. It’s not like someone would search online for a pizza place near them, stumble upon an online poker site, create an account, deposit, and start playing. These are people who want to play poker and for the most part, will be slightly better than the live player pool as a whole.

Online players also see more hands per hour so they have more experience. This won’t always make them better players but it certainly can (and should). The micro-stakes will still be fairly soft but low stakes online poker can become more difficult. Some players won’t mind punting off $2 at a time in 2NL, but players will be more careful in the 50NL and 100NL games.

A key difference with online poker is the ability to use a heads up display or HUD for short. HUDs will track hands played against opponents and give you statistics like their VPIP (voluntarily put in pot), 3-bet percentage, C-bet percentage, and many others. If you are playing against the same opponents regularly you can build a large enough sample size to make assumptions on their skill level and play style. If a player has a 50% VPIP over 1000+ hands they are playing far too many. On the other hand, if a player is only C-betting 10% of the time they are not being aggressive enough on the flop. HUDs can give you these insights to make adjustments based on your opponent.

Low Stakes Poker

There are so many options for players to get into the action with low stakes poker. Whether it’s at your local cardroom or online you can start playing with as little as $100. Be sure to have strict bankroll management and pay attention to your player pool to grow that bankroll and beat the low stakes.