Will it Play in Peoria?

"Will it Play in Peoria" is an old line used by the Nixon administration. Its been used by product marketing promotions too and I think originally comes from vaudeville.

But I'm not talking about any of that. Finally made the 70 mile drive to play the new poker room at the Peoria casino. Its pretty disappointing.

Five tables up on the fourth deck. Only game spread is NL. Two tables (then three) of 1-2 and a single 2-5 game that was shorthanded and almost broke a few times. This is during "Prime Time" friday evening.

Equipment was almost adequate. Tables were ok - good size, but blocked leg room on the ends. Chairs were cheap and uncomfortable. Chips were dirty. Tables had autoshufflers. Rake was 10% to a $4 max. There was no stupid BBJ additional drop.

Dealers were average to average minus. They have been dealing poker for a couple months now, but still are doing some things wrong. Floor staff was terrible. They are rotated out of the pit, so poker knowledge can be shockingly bad.

You can get a players card and swipe into the poker room --- but it does not do you any good. There are no comps for poker play.

Players were mostly bad and typical.

Peoria now joins the contender list for the "Worst Illinois Poker Room". It may not beat out Joliet or Aurora for this title, but it joins Metropolis, and Rock Island on the bad list. Elgin is still unrated. NOTE: there are no "good" Illinois poker rooms.

Rock Island Poker

My first legal poker in Rock Island!

The old Casino Rock Island is no longer downtown. Its rebranded as a Jumers and relocated to the extreme southwest of town. And -- now it has a poker room.

Its a beautiful facility. 6 tables with all new tables, excellent chairs and all new supplies. Games play 10 handed, $4 max rake and no stupid BBJ drop.

Looks and sounds good, then I get the bad news. The brush says; "We have BOTH kind of poker here. 1-2 AND 2-5 !

Thats it -- its just NL. And not very many tables of that either. Friday night and they only get 2 tables of 1-2 and one table of 2-5.

I guess the Limit and other games and players stayed in Bettendorf.

Tournament Director Certification

The national poker Tournament Directors Association (TDA) has an online test to take for certification as a Poker Tournament Director.

I just passed it -- maybe I should raise my rates -- haha

Omaha Fish

Playing in a very loose Omaha/8 game and pick up AAKQ in middle position.

A couple of callers to me and I raise to try to thin the field. Want to scoop this pot and don't want any "accidental" lows. One late postion cold caller and the early limpers call.

Four of us see a flop of J 9 4. this is better than most flops for this hand. I bet and get one caller -- the guy in late position.

Turn is a T. I bet (maintaining the lie) and he calls again.

River is an A. Hey, I spiked trips. Theres a lot of worse hands that he'll call with so I bet again. This time he raises -- yow. Hope he doesn't have K Q for a straight, but I call and roll my cards over.

Whoops ! I have the K Q for a straight. Its the hand I was afraid of. I just called a raise with the nuts. "Nice hand sir, well played."

Always look around the table very carefully. If you can't spot who the sucker is in the game -- then its you.

St Louis Poker Rooms

Starting a new job with the US Census - so poker may be on hiatus for a few months. Lucky the Census office is in Edwardsville and so its a quick drive to the three St Louis poker rooms.

Not much change in these three;

Ameristar has a new facility and its beautiful. Hope they can attract some more of the players and have different games.

Lumiere seems to have its opening jitters solved -- after a year. A very pretty casino and so convenient downtown. Games are still just 3-6 and 1-3 NL.

Harrahs seems to have lost traffic to the other two. They are even giving away promotions now like a $100 "Aces Cracked" at certain times. Tables still are only 3-6 and 1-2 NL. Thats all they ever wanted.

The Great Southern Road Trip

John W and I headed South for 8 days of poker in mid January. Our plan was to play Tunica and Biloxi with enough free time to maybe go try some other spots as well.

A late start meant we didn't get into Tunica until about 8pm. Threw our stuff in the room and headed for the Gold Strike poker room. We were both very hungry but had not played a hand yet. A pleasant surprise to start the trip -- friendly floorman (Will) comps us both a meal based on me saying we are going to play lots of hours. I had played lots of hours on Will's shift in previous trips, but its still nice to get a comp for just showing up.

The next day we go to the new Harrahs (fka Grand) poker room to meet up with Greg L. John had not played it yet and we wanted to eat at the new Paula Deen buffet. A big surprise for us when Vikki T shows up in the room. She then goes on to cash in a tourney. Only one Limit game going and they call the next player -- "Greg L, your seat is available". I don't see him, so I take the seat. Two others in the game are Horseshoe regulars I have played with many times. Its "ole home week" in Tunica. We play 3 hours and get the buffet comped and go pig out.

Next day we drive to Biloxi - a long boring 6 hours. Theres a big tourney there and its packed at the Beau Rivage. Amanda is dealing the tourney -- and later deals the final Table of their main event for TV.

John and I play at the Beau Rivage, Imperial Palace, Boomtown, Isle of Capri, and Hard Rock. The Beau is the4 premier property -- all the others are second (maybe third) tier.

Couple days later we scoot over to New Orleans where much Katrina damage is still visible. The Harrahs in downtown N.O. is bigger and nicer than I had thought. And its then a quick walk thru the French Quarter.

Drive up to Vicksburg. Stay at Ameristar and play some more poker. then the next day its back to Tunica for another 2 nights. We find a highlight at the Gold Strike this time. They have started having a 4-8 Limit Holdem game. Their promotion is to have a drawing at each table every 2 hours. Winner gets $80. WELL NOW !!! We have found a home. We play it 12 hours each for two days. John wins the drawing 4 times and I get it 3 times.

2008 - Poker Year in Review

Just my random & unscientific thoughts, observations, and comments - in no special order.

ST LOUIS - Missouri eliminated the $500 "loss limit" a few weeks ago and most think this will help their casinos and perhaps the poker rooms. Illinois smoking ban has also helped the St Louis casinos. I have not seen much evidence of a poker slowdown in St Louis. Dennis Phillips won a satellite WSOP entry at Harrahs and became a big star -- and millionaire.

Lumiere opened (badly) and did not improve much the next couple times I made the trip there. Have not been for months and should give it another try. Internet reports they are spreading 4-8 there now.

President closed their poker room. Finally! - its time to celebrate something "good for poker".

Ameristar opened a brand new poker room and its great. A beautiful excellent facility and even includes a private 3 table salon for higher limit games. They are getting much higher numbers of players now and are spreading several and different games. Good for them! They always were the most "player friendly" location.

Harrahs is now kind of tired looking and not packed at all - many vacant tables. They have been the big loser with Lumiere opening and Ameristar improving.


CHICAGO AREA - No smoking in Illinois casinos so many Joliet gamblers just go over the state line to the Indiana casinos. NO real impact on poker rooms since they are all non-smoking, except maybe they get a few more players.

Joliet -- yucky poker anyway.

Aurora -- blah blah blah.

Elgin -- is supposed to be opening a (typical) Illinois casino poker room. It will be only a very few tables with a high rake and limited games. They may even close it on weekends like Joliet and Aurora have done. Staff will be poor and the players will be rude suburbanites.

Hammond IN -- an excellent new poker room and very snazzy casino. The only poker room in the area worth visiting. Has made the below two close-by Indiana poker rooms a shell of their former activity.

East Chicago IN -- very sad since this used to be the "big" room. Now it has a stud game.

Gary IN -- still has some 1-2 and 3-6 games but its such a nasty place.


LAS VEGAS- I keep reading how the economy and the loss of the poker boom is hurting the casinos and poker rooms. I sure did not see it last June - but it was WSOP time. Now the internet is filled with stories about how much play is down.

Venetian -- is booming in the poker room. They have snagged much of the NL play because of their "deep stack" tourney series. The company itself is in trouble, though.

Hard Rock -- actually OPENED a poker room. Its supposedly way too nice and way too large to support itself. Hope it lasts till next June.

Excaliber -- converted to ALL electronic tables and has a 12 table room.

Several rooms have closed including Paris and Tropicana. Others were expected to close but have somehow hung on. Some other poker rooms have cut back hours.


TUNICA - This area was feeling the effects of the economy a year ago and its just gotten worse. Their status as a "regional draw" is losing steam with casinos in Biloxi, Florida, Kansas/Oklahoma and etc.

Grand - now Harrahs -- The rebranding is complete. New poker room is downstairs and its much nicer.

Horseshoe and Gold Strike have done some layoffs in response to reduced poker play.


PERSONAL RECAP - I played in 24 different casino poker rooms this year - 11 of them for the first time. Highlights and trip reports are scattered throughout this years blog posts. Seem to be falling into a rut with annual or repetitive poker trips to St Louis, Chicago suburbs, Tunica and Las Vegas. Maybe its time for something different. How about a road trip to Rock Island?

Election Day & Other Comments

Its election day and I hope you voted for the right guy. Barry Goldwater again was not on the ballot - so I had to look for someone else. Excellent poker players like Eisenhower, Nixon or Obama don't run for POTUS very often.

Eight (count em; 8!) weeks of work are coming to an end next week. A wonderful experience teaching High School Government. What a year for it, too. Being retired for 6 years, its quite a shock to my system. This whole bit of getting up early every day, showering, shaving, putting on clean shirt, grabbing papers and driving to work --- well, it reminds me of the previous 30 years. Now I get my "poker life" back again.

An old post about Tunica

Heres an old post I made 4 1/2 years ago on 2 + 2. Its got some (true) funny stories in it and theres a serious comment as a postscript.

Just Another Day in Tunica 3/8/04

Start off with a one table satellite at the Horseshoe. Winner gets an entry to a larger tourney. One very aggressive player is running over the table and knocking people out rapidly. He is raising with most anything. He has a huge chip lead and I am in 3rd place with 5 players left. He open raises and I have QQ on the button. I triple his raise and he puts me all in. He tables KJs which is a little better hand than I expected. HEY ! Wait a minute! This is the same matchup that McAvoy won the 83 WSOP with. I was just reading about this. I'm a big favorite here. I tell everyone this to impress them with my poker knowledge, while the dealer runs out the cards - ending with a K. (sigh) I walk away vowing to read no more McAvoy books.

Time to get in some cash games. Shoe spreads a low limit red chip Triple Draw Lowball game and its great fun. Only problem happens when a new dealer comes into table. After the first betting round, she burns a card and puts out the flop. A moment of shocked silence, then all break out laughing.

Get called for a 10 - 20 holdem game and its a surprisingly terrible game. 5 crusty locals and 4 other tight-azz tourists. I am the only action in this game -- thats a real bad game.

I get up to walk around and socialize. Recognize my favorite local player at the Omaha/8 table. Shes a beautiful dark eyed Irish lass - extremely talented poker player and a great sense of humor. Instead of saying "hi" she says; "Seat open for YOU!" and points at the open chair. (This lady is probably the best Omaha/8 player in town. She has beat me in Omaha/8 on prior trips and knows I have no game) I look at the other players and jokingly ask her if I would be the worst player in the game. She says; "YES, you would be the worst player in at the table - sit right there". She did not have to look around at the other players before saying this. I go back to my boring holdem game.

Late night now - time to go check out the Gold Strike poker room next door. About 10 tables running and I ask to be on the list for all their holdem games. Brush says; "3-6 or No Limit?" I ask if there is something in between and the answer is no.

Sitting in the 3-6 game and the gal next to me has had WAY too much to drink. She had been to the Eddie Money concert in the theater earlier that evening. She claimed to be a big fan and had gotten his autograph. She says; "Look at this! Eddie Money autographed my boob."

Things I learned today in Tunica:
-- Don't show off poker knowledge and lose a poker tourney.
-- Don't try to bluff the flop in Triple Draw.
-- Everyone in Mississippi knows I'm an Omaha fish.
-- "You want 3-6 or No Limit?" Whats the right answer?
-- Eddie Money has bad handwriting.

I love this town.

Postscript
I had been playing regularly in casino poker for about 7 years by early 2004. I did not realize that a huge 3 year poker boom had just begun, and many changes would ensue.

Triple Draw Lowball, especially the 2-7 variety was very scarce then. I had never seen (or played) it before. Now its a findable game in many poker rooms especially during tournaments and in mixed game formats. Its also online.

10 -20 holdem was a staple in many poker rooms back then. Now its hard to find. Most poker rooms would have almost all tables of Limit Holdem at different levels and maybe a stud table and maybe an Omaha/8 game. The monstrous influx of NL kids was just starting.

I was shocked that a poker room would ONLY offer 3-6 and a baby NL game. It was the first time I had seen that. Now its commonplace. There are lots of (terrible) cardroom that only offer these two games.

Tunica Poker -- Alive and Well

Took a 4 day labor day weekend in Tunica. I had done this before and Tunica poker on a major holiday weekend is usually great.

Crowds were down a little from 2 and 3 years ago. Maybe its the economy. Maybe the poker boom huge growth of the past 5 years is over. Maybe its just supply and demand -- a slightly lower demand (# of players) and a continued high supply of poker rooms and tables. Actually, I think the number of players is down for a couple other reasons too; first off the NL games have burned out a lot of players and secondly the over supply of tournaments has players in those instead of in the cash games.

Tunica poker rooms still had plenty of games and players:

HARRAHS - This property was fka The Grand. Its now re-branded as Harrahs Tunica. Actually, this is the third building I've been in named the Harrahs Tunica. The first was a little casino that ended up as part of the Isle of Capri and is over by Sams Town. The second is now the Resorts Casino.

The Grand was very plush and upscale when opened, but they sure let it run down in recent years. Harrahs has redecorated it --and -- it looks like a Harrahs. Buffet upstairs is now a Paula Deen. Try it once.

The new poker room is downstairs and it looks great. 14 tables with a nice rail open on two sides to the casino. A little too noisy with some slot noise though. All tables are the small/medium holdem size and they play 9 handed. No autoshufflers that I saw. On a weekday afternoon, they had two 4-8 games and a 1-2 NL game and 2 tables remaining of a tourney going. I got off to a good start here. Came in behind the button and won the first hand I played on the first orbit. I was then money ahead the whole rest of the trip.


GOLD STRIKE - Very few changes to this place since January. GS had many management changes and there is a new poker room manager too. Upgrades to the poker room are on the way. Still 16 tables. Games are mostly 3-6 and 1-2 NL. Leo still deals on day shift - be sure to get at his table. GS bad beat jackpot is $220,000 + and so they are putting less money into that. Instead, they are running a nice promotion where every 2 hours someone at each table wins $60. Another promotion was where they put 2 Friday night concert tickets in for whoever won the next pot. I won and we went to see Davy Jones. Do you remember him?? "Here we come---" "Hey, Hey, we're the ---"
Hotel rooms are being renovated and the new decor is beautiful.

HORSESHOE - Still my favorite. 16 tables and all the holdem tables are the big ones and play 10 handed for Limit games. Games were always going and included 4-8, 15-30 (or 20-40 on wekends), 1-3NL, 2-5NL, and 1-5 seven card stud. Day shift dealers are just an awesome collection. I spent most of my hours playing the midnight shift, and several of them are great too. One of them (Gena) is about the fastest dealer I have encountered. I clocked her at 21, 22 and 24 hands per half hour down. Thats a lot of hands per hour. A typical dealer may get out 17 hands per down (thats 35 hands per hour) and many don't get that many out.


SOME GENERAL COMMENTS -

I was dealt AA four different times on this trip. Two were winners. Twice I flopped a set -- and LOST. The other two times were very unusual. I folded on the flop twice. Both times a coordinated board, multiple players and some raising starts. So they get pitched, throw them away-hey. I was in third place both times.

Sat down in a new game about 2am and I really didn't feel good. But watching the table I remembered an old Mason Malmuth essay about be sure to play poker with people who are sure to lose all their money. And, here I was. 4 of the players at this table were so bad they were sure to lose all their chips and as much extra that they could put into the game. One guy went thru 5 racks, and the others did multiple reloads too.

Saw my first poker room fight if a few years. Two big guys in a NL game (of course) stand up yelling at each other, then a point, then a shove, then punches, then a grab and tussle on the floor. Security took them out about a minute later.

Most poker rooms were running special giveaways and promotions to lure players to the cash games. Also the same poker rooms were running tourneys once or twice a day.

The 5 table Electronic poker room at Resorts is gone. An experiment that failed.
Evacuatees started showing up on Sunday from the Hurricane on the Gulf Coast. Many homeowners and residents just have to go north and hang out for a few days. Also, the poker tourney in Biloxi was cancelled so lots of players, dealers and staff came north to Tunica also.

The next two months is full of tourneys in Tunica. Harrahs is having one the first two weeks of Sept, then the Horseshoe for the last two weeks. Gold Strike is having their tourney the middle two weeks of Oct.

Compared to St Louis or Chicago, Tunica poker is such a such a great deal. $4 max rake +$1 for bbj/promotional drop. Free drinks, comped food and bargain hotel rooms. Why would you go anywhere else? In fact, now that the remnants of Hurricane Gustav are showing up in our town, I may have to be evacuated back to Tunica.

New Horseshoe in Hammond Indiana

Wow! This place exceeded my expectations -- which were really high because of what I had read on the internet. Its beautiful and large. Very nice casino restaurants, etc. They had their grand opening on 8-8-08 and had a soft opening the week before.

An incredible world class poker room too. Very plush with Wynn/Venetian type decor. 34 tables; two in private salon, a high limit area with 7 more and a main floor with 25 tables. The room was packed on a Thursday evening and was about to fill up again by Friday at 2pm. Games spread were Limit Holdem of 3-6, 6-12, 10-20, 20-40 and up. NL of 1-2, 2-5, 5-10 and a few higher. PLO, and Omaha/8 were also going. On weekends there are some other games spread - high limit and mid limit MIX games (woo-hoo) and Michael Jordans 100-200 NL game. Wait lists for 3-6 and baby NL is much longet though.

Physical facilities are great. Big tables, comfortable chairs and all new chips, equipment and supplies. Lots of room between tables - no crowding at all. Cashier IN the poker room and several chip runners working. Room is enclosed on 3 sides and there is no smoke problem or noise form the casino. Electronics and technology were all working; automated lists, swipe in at table, etc.

Rake was $5 which is standard for the Chicago and NW Indiana area, plus a $1 promotional drop. Add in a dealer tip and you have $7 coming off the table almost every hand. All the tables were 9 handed - even the Limit Holdem tables.

When you first come to the table, or if you need to rebuy or add chips, the dealer will usually not sell them to you. You need to go to the cashier or get a chip runner. Even a chip runner will only take your cash and give you a "lammer". These are NOT in play - and neither is cash. You must have CHIPS on the table before a hand starts. Some players were cranky about this. But you just need to add another "player skill". Never get into this situation. Always have an extra 100-200 in green chips in your pocket for this situation.

Some of the dealers were new and were not sure of some of the rules. Floor staff was very knowledgable and helpful though.

This is the 110th casino poker room I have played. It fits nicely into my top four favorites along with the Mirage, Wynn, and Tunica Horseshoe. It has the beauty, space, and opulance of Venetian without some of the problems. Games were great and reminded me of the old Players Island in St Louis.

This is a great facility. It just blows away the (very weak) competition in the Chicago and NW Indiana area.

Rick J @ Bellagio

Rick J plays at Bellagio 5 days a week.

Current game is the 30-60 Omaha/8, but he actually prefers the 40-80 Mix Game. He'll play some other games and play higher every now and then (like when wsop in town) but really prefers the edge he has at those Bellagio games. He has played in casinos all over the country and has been a winning player since the 1960's.

Rick retired to Las Vegas about 6 years ago to lead a happy life after being a CPA, lawyer, and a business owner. He blogs a sports handicapping site;

http://www.rickjshandicappingpicks.blogspot.com/


and this includes some poker comments too. These Poker Comments are excellent - go read them.

Now -- here's the funny parts.

--I've known Rick since 7th grade in 1959 and went to Jr High and High School with him. We, of course, tore up the games there as teenagers.

--I saw him once during college in the late 60's. I was visiting friends at Champaign and saw Rick in the Union hustling some guy at pool.

--In 1973, I was a young bureaucrat and opened the morning paper to see Rick being sworn in as an attorney and working here in Springfield. We played much bridge (no poker) for a year or so - then he moved away to be a District Atty. He also was Barry Greenstein's bridge partner about this time.

--The next time I saw Rick was 1999 at Harrahs East Chicago poker room. I had a rack of Red and was going to a 10-20 holdem table. He had a rack of Green and was going to a 40-80 HOSE game. We had not seen or talked with each other for 25 years and then end up in the same cardroom. I saw him a couple other times up there over the next 3 years. Phil Tanner played in the game with him a couple times and said that Rick played even tighter than I do.

--I talk with Rick about every summer in Las Vegas. Haven't joined him at his table yet, though. He seems very happy and secure in what he is doing. He is recently remarried to a young asian beauty. Seems to be a trend with the Springfield guys who move to LV.

Now -- go read his poker comments.

Is Your NL Game Getting Tougher?

Is the No Limit Game you play in getting tougher? Well, of course it is. Its happening all over the country and there are several good reasons for it.

First off, the flood of new fish into the NL games is mostly over. The brand new totally clueless dupes who saw poker on TV have mostly found the game by now. They would look and say; "I wanna play that "1-2 all-in" game. It was fun while it lasted.

Secondly, the players who were truly terrible at the game have all been beat up pretty good by now and have either lost all their money or gotten a lot better.

Thirdly, the games are much tougher now that the worst and new players are gone and the remaining players are much better. This makes the previously marginal winners into the new fish in the game.

The next step is when its no longer fun for the recreational players to play in a game where they usually lose. Then the games get even tougher. Look who is remaining in the games then. Add to this the impact of suspected and actual cheating. All the angle shooting, taking the shots, collusion, and all the little "cheater moves".

The last reason is that there is finally (this year) some really good printed material on playing NL cash games. Limit holdem has a large library of excellent books, etc. Tournaments have had some good books too. NL has lagged behind until this year. The two new books are;
Professional NL Holdem, by Ed Miller, et al
Harrington on Cash Games, by Dan Harrington
Both are two volume books. PNL volume 2 is about to be released and HoCG is a two volume set. Both provide excellent information to the NL cash game player. If you are not reading these books, you are falling way behind your opponents. Many of them are reading these.

NL games will eventually fizzle and self destruct. This has all been written about and predicted for years. The usual NL game just takes the bad players money way too quickly. The money quickly finds its way into a few strong hands, and does not really circulate in the poker economy. Repetitive (and rapid) losers will find something else to spend their money on. The nature of NL players and games is to accelerate this trend. Look at the interest in "uncapped games" etc.

So, if you want to play NL, be sure to study up to remain competitive. Enjoy the rest of the ride. And be alert for the point when you have turned from a winner into a loser in the game.

Hammond Horseshoe

The next big thing in poker for the Midwest (and probably the whole USA) is going to be the opening of the Horseshoe in Hammond, Indiana.

The Hammond boat has been completely replaced by a huge $500 million facility. Its supposed to be "Vegas style" and will include a 34 table poker room. The poker room will blow away the competition in East Chicago, Gary, and Joliet.

They are set for a mid august opening.

Road Trip?

Las Vegas Highlights - June 2008

This was a great trip. Lots of time to play all the poker and see all the sights.


Hotels - We stayed 4 different places (we slept around) burning up CT's comps.

Red Rock (Summerlin) was the nicest. WOW! Really plush and top notch room, restaurants, pool workout area, etc etc. Beautiful. We could have stayed here another day but it would have been $400+. So we moved on.

Green Valley Ranch (Henderson) was also very nice. Another upscale Station property. Not quite as nice as Red Rock. Confusing to get around in - lots of corridors, elevators, halls and staircases, etc.

NYNY (Strip) was a full step down from these, but they gave CT a nice room. No buffet or poker room on property, but still wonderful NY theme.

TI (Strip) was the place we should have stayed. Perfect location - next to Mirage and across the intersection from Wynn. CT had comps here but we chose to stay (and pay) at Palace Station. A very bad choice.

Palace Station (Off Strip) is a very blah place. I've stayed here before and you can always get a very good room rate here. Room small and quite a letdown from the other places. Kind of a downmarket crowd in the casinos and restaurants.



Rental Car - We caught a break and got a free upgrade to a Chrysler 300. Nice big car. Lots of "cool guy" tooling up and down the strip like Dan Tanna.



Parking Garages - Access to poker rooms is very important;
Excellent - Wynn -- park on 2
Good - Mirage -- park on 4
Poor - Bellagio
Terrible - Venetian, MGM, Planet Hollywood, Caesars


New Casinos and Poker Rooms -

The only new casino is the Palazzo, which is connected to Venetian. Its beautiful and spacious and is understated luxury as compared to the Venetian's eye popping opulance. No separate poker room in Palazzo, but they do have separate chips. I suspect this will be the case for the Wynn "Encore" property when it opens in a few months.

The only new poker room is in Bill's Gamblin Hall - the site of the old Barbary Coast. Its 2 tables stuck right in the doorway -- let the good times roll.


Too Many Poker Rooms - There are 26 casino/hotels on the strip and 24 of them have poker. Missing only NYNY and Casino Royale. Off Strip, about 2/3 have poker, maybe more.

The retrenchment/consolidation is now at hand. 3 have closed recently; Stardust, LV Hilton, and an off-strip property. Conventional wisdom has it that several more will close after the WSOP. TI and Paris are thought to be the first to go. Several others could go with no big loss. They are mostly small low limit dumps. Harrahs has several all in a row; Harrahs, IP, Flamingo, O'sheas, Bills, Ballys, Paris.. MGM could easily close Luxor, Monte Carlo, and TI with no big loss. All of these room offer the same product. Just a small NL game and a small limit game. Closing these room swould be good for everyone.


Construction Boom - What a difference from last year. Construction cranes everywhere and buildings going up all over the place. Many of these are residential, but many are casinos. City Center (between Bellagio and Monte Carlo) is huge. Echelon (old Stardust/Westward Ho site) is going to be almost as big. Wynn "Encore" almost complete.


Rick J @ Bellagio - Talked with my old Jr High and High School buddy. He is now a daily player at Bellagio. Quite a story. Think I'll make a separate blog post about him.


Poker Discussion Groups - Attended the meetings of the Wednesday Poker Discussion Group (WPDG) in the afternoon, and the NL discussion group on Tuesday eve. Good serious poker discussion at each and a chance to talk with some people I hadn't seen in a couple years. Dr Al Shoonmaker, Jan Fisher and Linda Johnson. Linda had just cashed in 2 wsop events so she bought lunch for the group.


I Just Wanna Beat The Old Guy - I was playing at the Wynn with my buddy Robyn. There was a young aggressive talkative player in the game and when I put in a raise it came back to him in the small blind. He paused and looked like he did not want to call, but then said; "I Just Wanna Beat The Old Guy". Everyone at the table broke out laughing while I was looking around the table to see who the old guy was. (haha- I was the old guy)


Floorman Ruling - You learn something every day. A dealer puts out the turn card and two players start betting. She drops the stack and mixes the muck, burns, and stack all together. Yow! Players hoot and holler. Floorman is called over and asks what happened. It gets explained a few times and it seems like he doesent know what to do. After a couple minutes, the two players agree to split the pot. I ask the floorman later -- how were you going to get a "retrievable stub" for the river card in that situation. He explains it all to me. Stub was NOT retrievable, so the only correct answer is to mix all the cards together (including discards, burns, etc) and put out a river card. He said that players do not like this and sometimes complain about this AFTERWARD, so he always stalls and lets them agree to split the pot.


Extra $ for Rake and Jackpots - Lots of Harrahs (and other) pokerrooms have $5 rake AND another $1 drop for a bad beat jackpot. Several of the other rooms have a $4 rake and the additional $1 drop for jackpots. The best pokerrooms (Bellagio, Mirage, Wynn) have only a $4 rake and NO bbj drop.

Assume I played 8 hours each of the 8 days. At 64 hours of play times 30 hands per hour, thats 1920 hands I was dealt in. My stats for several years have shown that I win about 5% of the hands I am dealt -- or about 1 1/2 hands per hour. So -- thats 96 winning hands for the trip. The $2 (rake and bbj) I saved on each of those hands is now the $192 sitting on the table in front of me. Plus, I got to play in the top notch poker rooms instead of the crummy dumpy ones. Its like they paid me $3 per hour to play the Wynn and Mirage instead of at Harrahs or Ballys.

Poker Rooms in Las Vegas - June 2008

8 days of poker in Las Vegas and I enjoyed every one of them.

Played in 5 poker rooms that I had never played before:

Suncoast
Sunset Station
Gold Coast
These 3 are small dreary locals casinos. Nothing much to recommend them unless you lived nearby.

Bill's Gamblin Hall (the old Barbary Coast)
This property is a new Harrahs acquisition. They are using the O'Sheas model of putting a low limit (and small NL) game right on the entrance to the strip. Lots of drunks, kids and newbies stumble in and say; HEY! Its poker like on TV.

Green Valley Ranch
This is an upscale locals casino in Henderson. A very posh property with a nice poker room. Even a HORSE tourney on Wednesday nights -- I got 3rd.

I played another 10 rooms where I had played before. Some comments;

Mirage -- still my favorite. They have even made some improvements since last year. Automated wait lists, 10 handed tables, and starting to use a "swipe in" system with your MGM card to make comps easier. Also, while I was there they removed 4 tables from the poker room and repositioned the others for more space. The poker room manager told me that they are getting larger tables to make it even more comfortable.

Wynn -- 2nd choice and its very close. Wynn has changed their lineup of holdem games. Used to be 4-8, 8-16, then 15-30. Now its 4-8, then 9-18, then 20-40. The 9-18 game is cool. It uses $3 chips, so you are playing a 3-6 format.

Bellagio -- No rude staff this time. Really! Polite and friendly floor staff, brushes and dealers. They must have read the nasty things we were saying about them on the internet the last couple of years.

Red Rock -- Another really upscale and posh property. Very pretty poker room with lots of tables. Limited game choice and selection though.

TI -- A fun little card room. Only 2-4 this trip and no mix game when I was there.

Rio - WSOP side games -- lots of noise and chaos with no comps. If thats what you like.

Golden Nugget -- A new location for them --- 3rd in 5 years, and this ones the best. Nicest poker room downtown - and its not even close.

Palace Station -- blah

Planet Hollywood -- Their new location and cardroom is great. Easy access from the strip to attract lots of tourists and hotel guests. Very plush and well equipped. A buddy is the midnight shift manager, and when I was there the tables were filled with drunken Australians playing wildly and gambooling it up like (well) drunken Australians.

El Cortez -- The new owners have spent many millions of $ fixing up this place and its lost a lot of its old (dirty nasty) charm. Played there in a 1-3/1-6 holdem game with the previous owner Jackie Gaughan. He is 86 years old now and still lives there. He is a Las Vegas legend and has owned about a dozen different casinos in Las Vegas over the years. He bought the El Cortez from Bugsy Sigel in 1945.

Did not play at the following rooms;

Harrahs -- Went in and complained about the $5 rake though. Said I was going to an MGM property to get more for less.

Caesars Palace -- Just don't like this room. Hope they close it.

Venetian -- Got about the same treatment as last year. NO - we don't have ANY limit games, and we might not. A few days later did see one 4-8 game going out of their 25 + tables. A pretty room, but its better to play at Mirage, Wynn, or Bellagio.

MGM Grand -- Its SO noisy. How can anyone stand to play poker here?

So -- I played;
10-20
9-18
8-16
4-8 with 1/2 kill
4-8
3-6
2-4
1-3, 1-6
and a HORSE tourney.

Financial results were good. Booked winners on 7 of the days and the one day that I lost it was a small amount. Comped buffets were $7 at Palace Station, two @ $25 at Mirage, and $35 at Wynn.

May 2008 Review

What a strange month.

Played live poker once -- thats right, ONCE.
Also only played one tourney. And ran only one tourney.
Played online for about 10 minutes total, and never went to a casino poker room the whole month.

Played golf twice (thats twice as much as live poker- haha)

Heres why the lack of poker activity. I was working! Had 20 days of work this month - which is WAY too much for an old retired guy.

To get my life back on track, I'm off to Las Vegas tomorrow for 12 days. Its the annual World Series of Poker. I'll be playing some at the Rio and also at many of the poker rooms around town.

Will I have some stories when back in mid June?
(Chad and Dan's Excellent Adventure?)

Something New

This does not happen very often, but I recently saw something in a casino poker game that I had NEVER seen before.

A player is about to be the button when he sees another seat open up. He asks the dealer if he can move to that open seat. The dealer says go ahead. The player moves all his chips to the new seat ----- and takes the button with him.

Wow, what are some people thinking? I quietly watched to see what was going to happen (this could be good) -- but the dealer quickly put the dealer button back where it belonged before dealing any cards.

Presidential Candidates

I have lots in common with the current 3 Presidential Candidates:

Hillary Clinton -- In high school in 1964, she was a "Goldwater Girl". Only 180 miles to the west, I was my high school and city chairman of "Youth for Goldwater". What a smart gal.

John McCain -- We were in the military together. He was an officer, pilot, POW, war hero. I was drafted, didn't want to go, and got out as soon as I could. Another good thing about McCain is that I love to play 7 card stud lowball (razz) and Senator McCain is always identified as R-AZ.

Barrack Obama -- We both have played lots of poker in Springfield. haha - never in the same game though. While in the State Senate here, he played in a game with lobbyists and other legislators. Reports have him playing a very tight serious game and usually winning. One conservative Republican legislator was quoted in a news article; "If he was as careful with the taxpayers money as he is with his own, the State would be better off."





Looking back on some other Presidents, candidates, votes, etc --


This will be the 11th time I have voted for a President. I've voted for 7 different guys - including 2 democrats. I've voted for everyone who has ever been elected President since 1968, except for Jimmy Carter. Voted against him twice. I've voted for incumbent presidents 6 times.


My first presidential vote was cast in the fall of 1968. I was so proud to click that switch over and vote for Nixon and Agnew.


I had seen Nixon in person twice in the '60s when he was speaking in Illinois. In the 1960 election, I was in the front row when the JFK motorcade came thru the downtown street. I was very close and was touching the car but didn't get a handshake. Saw Ford, Carter, and Reagan talk here in Springfield. I've not seen Clinton or either Bush in person.


In 1976 I met Bob Dole at the Holiday Inn East. He was there running for VP and making some speech and I was there with some friends. I walked up to him and got introduced. Stuck out my right hand for a handshake. whew - that was wrong. I was so embarrassed. I was still embarrassed 20 years later and did not vote for him for President.


You probably think all the above is an April Fools Day post - but heres the surprise; its all true.

The Poker Grump

I've been reading another poker players blog and its pretty interesting.

The guy is the self appointed "Poker Grump" and his blog is subtitled "All the things I hate about the game I love."

He is a daily player in Las Vegas and plays in most of the poker rooms there. Has many comments, observations and sometimes a good cranky rant.

Take a peek; www.pokergrump.blogspot.com