DT Poker...GN, Binions and ???

Heading to DT in August with a friend (our first trip together) who prefers to play live poker above all else. I've looked through this forum and only see Binions and GN mentioned for poker. Any other DT casinos with live poker? Daily tournaments? A quick review please too if you don't mind (avoid, worth checking out, etc.). Thanks!

 

I know you mentioned live Poker but The Plaza runs quality daily tournaments on the PokerPro tables - electronic.

Look forward to getting back there to play this September.

Low buy-ins with quick drink service!!

Q

 

When in sept? Will be there week of the 20th

 

I am interested in this too. Who has the best DT tournaments? Cash games? How long do the tournaments run?
TIA

 

We'll be there Sep 2 -13

No doubt we will leave some money there for to collect !!

Q

 

Hello,
I think these are the only poker rooms left downtown. I have played tournaments at Binions. They are well run. They have tournaments throughout the day and evening. The buy-ins run between $60 and $100, I think. The last tournament I played in started at 10PM and was over at about 3:30AM. Check the rake, though. The "house" is usually the big winner at these tournaments.
Good luck.

 

Yes, your real poker choices are the Nugget & Binions. Have played tournaments at both, would again. I generally find GN to be a softer game.

Binions is better (better rake)
Sun-Fri 2PM $80 (25% rake but you start with 15K chips
Daily 8PM $60 (17% rake but 15 min. blinds--I prefer 20 min+) $500 guarantee (same at 10AM Saturday)
Sat 2PM $140, $10K guaranteed prize pool

GN
3 & 10 PM $45 (30% rake--YIKES! $5K starting chips)
11AM & 7PM $65 (26% rake, $10K starting chips)

Plaza--electronic tables. I hate these things. BUT it is a $12 tournament, $200 guaranteed prize pool & they only take 17% rake But blinds are 12 min....

 

That's probably equiv. to 15 min. blinds in live games at least. I need to try one of those. My g/f would probably gamble $12 on it too.

 

Lower the rake by the drinks consumed, once the buy-in is covered no more chances of loosing further so drink the rake % back closer to the player!!!!!

Q

 

I think GN is the better room. It depends on the promotions, but there usually are more tables there and better table selection. I think the GN attracts more tourists, but all the limit games have some daily regulars. I think Binions pays $2 a hour still for playing. That really makes a difference if you are playing long days. Your $10 food comp at GN will not improve after 4 hours. You might better go eat and go to Binions. Also, the GN comp is just for the day it is issued, unless it is close to midnight. So, I always ask after midnight and then have the voucher for the entire next day. If you go to the buffet, this voucher is a line pass. Go to the VIP cashier. I once skipped 20 people waiting for breakfast.
There are no longer an kill pots offered and rarely a 3-6 limit, just 2-4, but that is a great game to play for the bonus money.
American Casino Guide has a coupon that will get you $60 in chips for $50 buy in. That goes a long way for paying for the book and downtown makes a great place to make a matchplay run, one of the few kinds of frugal gambling where you have a huge advantage.
Also, at GN note the time you start play. After 4 hours of play you can have a voucher for $10 off food. They don't track you with a card. Generally, I ask about the promotion when I come in even though I know about it. Asking helps them remember who you are and when you came. Ask when you arrive because they are in the process of starting logging by player's card and will offer $2 an hour. The fellow I talked to said that they would expect those rules by September when I go next. I'll love that mostly because points can be used when I am hungry, even a week later.
From 2 AM to 2PM the progressive high hands are doubled by the casino. So I once got paid $600 on quad jacks. Pay attention to what those progressives are paying. They will encourage players to play more hands in limit games. Hands like 2-6 clubs. If you have the Ace high flush, look for the straight flush possibility. It might be there.
As I remember bonus pays required $10 in the pot. Someone correct me if it is $20. Ask when you go. If you are playing limit with a pocket pair, keep in mind the bonus. Find something to say if you need help to get the $10 in order to win $50 or a lot more. Don't be obvious. "I heard it is snowing in Paris" might work with the right folks, especially if you laugh about it before hand. "Dealer, could you spread the pot?" also is a classic tip off. Good sportsmanship says that if someone calls your quads just because they got it that you needed more in the pot for a payout, you return their bet to them at a later time.
Two cards in your hand must play. I don't think one can be an Ace kicker with trips flopped. Ask that question, or someone here will know.
No cracked Aces.
Offer 4 daily tournaments.
1-2 is a $100 min and no max.
And please use a card protector. I hate that whining when someone tosses their cards on your winners and so it all gets mucked and the pot goes to the other guy who was not even going to call you. It happened to me in my last game. There sat the guy's mistossed cards on top of mine. However, my nice smiling Greek God face was in between them and the dealer just snatched up the mistoss and I won $33. I see it at least once every Vegas trip. Drunks don't throw straight. Guys angry at randomness act like little boys, and old guys with arthritic fingers just miss the target. In the first or last seat this also protects you from dealer mistakes in pickup.

Folks either like or hate the electronic machines at the Plaza, but they do allow for frugal tournaments. The disadvantages are obvious. The advantages are that no one can act out of turn, there is no dealer to tip, you easily know what your opponents hold in chips, there never is confusion on reading the cards. No dealer mistakes. No card protectors needed. No need to watch for prematurely revealed cards by the dealer or the player. No need to call the floor, put the card back in the deck to be reshuffled after someone is missed in a betting round. In my last session an entire flop had to be picked up and reshuffled fro some dealer error
So you can drink and listen to the music and watch the passing girls and not have so much to watch in your opponents. The tells are sometimes different.
Also, you are not handling chips which are some of the dirtiest bits of disease spreaders in the casino. Nor will arthritic hands knock over stacks that old back-issue bodies have pain picking up.
I am amazed that they still offer these cheap tournaments. All poker rooms tend to be lost leaders, but these machines can't make much for the casino. I never played a cash game there, so I don't really remember if the rake is also really low. I'd play there just for the experience. I don't expect they will be there for years.

 

Thanks for the info. Very insightful and helpful. Heading to the Nugget Monday!

 

I agree with Dewey's assessment of the Nugget. I think the player's are much weaker (at least in the tournaments). The rake on the Sunday 11 am tournament is a very acceptable 20%. First 8 levels are 20 min and then 30 for the remainder. Starting stack is 15k with a guaranteed prize pool of 50 players. As with any live tournament, the primary question is how much dead money is in the game? At Binion's, I think that number is about 2-3 players per table. At the Nugget, I think the number is 4-5 players per table. I will gladly fade the larger rake at the Nugget if my observations are consistently true. You might run into a better field on occasion but my observations cover a lot of tournaments in the last 10 years or so at both places.

 

Thanks for that info on tournament tables. I have not played tournaments there. I might next trip. I'm reading my Dan Harrington. I wonder if they will pay $2 for tournament players as well. Perhaps not.
I really play poker as much for the people as for the game. Vegas is rich in visitors and all have stories. Most are on vacation, so they are easy to engage in conversation or banter at 2-4 limit. I mostly play that.

Here is one experience I had at the Golden Nugget:

I had the most fun with a young Eskimo woman and her Western dressed man. She was the worst poker player of my trip, betting and raising on anything and losing quite a bit. He could play, but he started to raise her if he thought he might push out others at the table, just to make the damage less severe.

He started the story telling by telling us about being a long line halibut fisherman in the Bering Straight. One large halibut had flipped the wrong way and dumped him in the very cold water. He could survive in that just a few minutes as he had not put on protective gear.

The captain donned protective gear and went in to save him, arriving just as he was going unconscious.

When he woke up, he was in bed with the Captain's wife. She was dressed just in a bikini and held him tightly in her arms.

"Oh..oh, he thought. I am really in trouble now."

But this was at the captain's bidding, a way to warm him up and bring him back to a conscious state.
It turned out there were two other players at that table who had fished the Bering Straight.


The Alaskan girl, Juanita, told me about cooking fish in her village. She said they used a curry that they made there in a traditional recipe or perhaps they used thyme. There was too much catsup in her recipes, but I've now tried just thyme and liked it.


Once after I bet a hand and she folded, I collected chips and said, "Well, I put out the bait, but no fish bit."

Juanita did not miss a beat, "Maybe you need a longer rod."


Coming in such a dry delivery from this sweet girl, this crack was one of the funniest jokes of my trip.


She and he man bickered a bit about when they would leave and he left her to pack up and get ready to drive out. They had a six hour drive and he wanted to get on the road. She wanted to stay and play.

While her man was gone, another player moved to her left and used her betting to raise when he was strong and narrow the field.

She was a great puzzle to many of the players and one of the newest at the other end of the table suspected collusion.

"Are you two together?" he asked, pointing to the fellow to her and the fellow to her left.

"No," the table answered.

"I looked at him and said, "She and I are together," and that really left the other end puzzled for a long minute.

"You are a couple?" the fellow asked incredulously.

"Yeah," I answered, "In my dreams."

And the table cracked up.

For an old guy such interaction with a sweet and pretty young thing is a great deal of fun. I don't get much of this anywhere these days except in Vegas.

 

Staying at the GN this sept and shocked to see the rake in the 25-30% region, is this standard? Prob wont put me off playing a couple of tourneys but I prefer cash anyway

 

Unfortunately, it is the standard. You can get a lower percentage rake by going with high dollar special tournament series. The online rake of 10% for tournaments just isn't realistic when they have to employ actual dealers and staff. I think the best "cheap" tournament is the 7pm at the Stratosphere . When the Sahara went out of business, they basically relocated the concept to The STRAT . At the first break, they serve sandwiches and the players are usually a fun bunch.

 

The Plaza schedule, looks like rebuys for all

Q

 

Those Plaza tourneys are on electronic tables so basically internet poker but you see your opponents. The turn out is small and the prize pool miniscule. That said, if you just want to play a little, there are worse and more expensive ways to waste your time.