Poker in Vegas

As you know, we don’t play slots or table games usually, we only play poker. The last time we were here it was all persons masked up, plexi-glass barriers between everyone and constant wiping of the table and barriers by the staff. Now we are fully open in Vegas with no plexi, no barriers and everyone with both shots can unmask (yours truly has been vaccinated since the beginning due to work). It’s interesting to see who is and isn’t wearing a mask. Oh, by the way, no-one checks for vax documentation of course.

Poker started off rocky for both of us (click the link to the Chronicle for more details). We sampled our favorite rooms:

Aria, gets our vote for most popular room with eating allowed at the table, food runners, and fairly attentive cocktail servers. They have a list of players that starts in the morning at around 10 and grows from there. In the evening many of the popular games have waiting lists of over 50 players for each game. They spread all the popular NLHE games along with the PLO games. There are nose bleed stakes limit games and a 100-200 limit game on table 1 where you also get seclusion and catering. There is often star spotting here. The floor staff and dealers here are professional and take care of the room and players. The room feels a little dark to me and they have spotlights that necessitate a hat for me to keep the glare out of my eyes. There is also a big open rail along the main walk through the casino. Even though this room is non-smoking, this open rail allows all of the smokers to sit at slot machines or stand directly outside the room and blow smoke into the room. Everyone makes life choices but what is the draw of the cigars the size of a fire hose that reek to high heaven? I would make some guesses but want to keep this family friendly. This room always has mixed results for me, I believe I am even for my multiple sessions here.

A shout out here to Will Champion, whom we met and talked to while waiting to get seated. Great personality with an interesting back story to moving his family to Las Vegas a few years ago from Ireland. He has had a good run with the cards and life both. If you see him around say chat him up.

Bellagio is a beautiful setting in a beautiful casino with a well run room. They also spread the normal NLHE, PLO and nose bleed Limit games. Staff here is as professional as they come and the room is light and airy with observation rails. No smoking is allowed anywhere near this room and it is enforced. This is where E introduced herself to a higher limit game. Yes, a lot of YouTube personalities play here. Sometimes the stars come out to play. Both of us were up here.

Wynn just feels too nice to me. Do I need to dress like the characters out of Casino Royale (2006)? They spread all the games here including many tables of PLO and it’s variants. Star spotting happens here. this is where BFD stuck his toes in the PLO world. I lost here but E ended with a positive stack.

E hit the Planet Hollywood game and recommended that I not go there as it is literally om the middle of a dance club and I would not like being in that much noise.

I hit the Orleans room for a couple of reliable Omaha 8/better sessions and not much has changed there. The regulars are still mostly a generation older than me and there are still mostly angry nits playing this room. No star spotting here except for yours truly. This room has always been known for it’s low limit and split pot games which keep the older fixed income crowd playing longer and it is always full of regular snowbirds and locals. When someone doesn’t show up for a couple days they are always asked after by staff and patrons alike. Basically this is a great place to park your octogenarian relative and tell them to play only the nuts while you go to the clubs. Do be careful of the players here, some of them have been playing poker all of their 80 years and they do only play the nuts so when you try to get tricky, they get sticky with those absolute nuts. I have also seen some of them play 24 hour or longer sessions. One session up and one down, overall winner for this trip.

We have not played at the Westgate. This room was dead and dying prior to the deal made with Tim Watts. Tim is the YouTube personality known as TheTrooper97. He has built almost a cult following of rec poker players and he hosts a meet up game there every Thursday. This game will result in doubling or trebling the poker room clients when it is going. This is a regular game which is quite interesting with it’s double board bomb pot and home game atmosphere. There are a number of YouTube personalities who congregate here.

The Golden Nugget. What can we say about this game? The staff are usually very good and the players are usually a mix of regs and folks in town for some convention downtown. You’ll find low limit hold ’em and some 1-2 games along with daily low limit tournaments. You’ll find no PLO or other high stakes games here, they just don’t fit with the demographic. Interesting note about the room: It used to be the main vault for the casino and there is a “secret” door out the northwest corner to get to the bathrooms. We both won a little here.

The Red Rock has not changed over the years. It is so far out from the main strip that it is filled with regulars from Sun City and the surrounding area of Summerlin. Part of the Station Casino group, this is touted as a locals casino and that is correct. They cater to the veterans and retirees who have moved to the area. They run sedate limit and NLHE games with no nosebleed stakes here. There are promotions galore throughout the station brand and so people lay appropriately, trying to hit the big ones. Beware as any 2 cards can hit a promo. Both of us came out ahead for a night of poker here before heading out to dinner.

This wraps up this entry. I’ll try to make the next one more interesting for you.

BFD