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Downtown Poker

Discussion in 'The Poker Room' started by HurricaneMikey, Mar 31, 2018.

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  1. HurricaneMikey

    HurricaneMikey A-List Buffoon

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    Anyone besides the Nugget have good poker downtown? I heard Binions moved and downsized their room a while back, but I haven't heard of any other rooms and Bravo doesn't bring up anything.

    Thanks.
     
  2. NeonTurtle14

    NeonTurtle14 I Run the Vegas Hotdog Stand

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    Nugget is the only room worth visiting downtown... Binions is such a side show / afterthought and they may have 1 table running during normal hours. Plaza had some type of electronic poker tables (no dealer, your cards showed up on a computer screen in front of your seat you could show/hide) but that didn't last too long.
     
    Last edited: Mar 31, 2018
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  3. Tarstarkas

    Tarstarkas High-Roller

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    Should be the end of this conversation.
     
  4. NeonTurtle14

    NeonTurtle14 I Run the Vegas Hotdog Stand

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    I was told in a PM response to this that El Cortez has a poker room too, but it only gets action once in a century
     
  5. NotFromConcentrate

    NotFromConcentrate It’s a Cassowary :)

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    The short answer is Golden Nugget. Out of the eight other hotel-casinos downtown, there's really nothing else to tell you.

    I can add something and tell you that there's a free shuttle from the California to Sam's Town on the boulder strip, which does have good poker. So that does add to your options, with respect to downtown-accessible poker rooms.
     
    [TENTATIVE Late Jul/Early Aug] Vegas by way of Chicago/Elko/Reno!
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  6. FullPay

    FullPay When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro

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    Last time I saw poker at El Cortez Jackie Gaughn was playing.
     
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  7. NotFromConcentrate

    NotFromConcentrate It’s a Cassowary :)

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    So you could say that poker at the El Cortez is... long Gaughn!
     
    [TENTATIVE Late Jul/Early Aug] Vegas by way of Chicago/Elko/Reno!
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  8. zamboni

    zamboni VIP Whale

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    ElCo closed their room after Jackie died. He was the only reason it stayed open
     
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  9. NeonTurtle14

    NeonTurtle14 I Run the Vegas Hotdog Stand

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    Not that there's anything wrong with the Nugget, but it seems like the downtown crowd are the type of gamblers that could support at least one more poker room running, short of the management leaving it starving out to die (Binions).
     
  10. TuscaloosaJohnny

    TuscaloosaJohnny Low-Roller

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    It is pretty sad the state of downtown -- particularly Binion's -- given it's where tournament poker was born. Plaza had a really nice poker room circa 2005 -- some 20 tables or so and was home of the televised Ultimate Poker Challenge, which drew tons of big-name players.

    Got a question I've always wondered (just in case anyone here knows the answer): did the Four Queens ever have a poker room? I know it hosted a tournament series in the early 2000s, but I never knew of it having a poker room and always wondered where the heck it could have hosted a tournament given how small the place is.
     
  11. Nevyn

    Nevyn VIP Whale

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    Whereas with table games, I'll take all the casino competition, and places competing on limits and rules to eek out revenue that I can get ...

    With poker I'd much rather have one active healthy room downtown than multiple ones scraping by.

    Makes it easier to change games, or start interest lists for less likely to run games, when the players are concentrated into one place. And I'm not particularly worried about rake or other rules getting out of hand, because poker players will go farther afield for a good game, and there are many out there to be had.

    Of course, because I tend to split my trips, I haven't bothered with poker downtown to date anyway.

    But having watched some strip rooms whither away, and run one lonesome game of something when they can get a big enough list, and tournaments reduced to glorified SNG's, I'm ok with some consolidation.
     
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  12. The Rumor

    The Rumor VIP Whale

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    yeah, there's something to be said for having rooms with a few more games in them. It probably made sense to kill poker at Monte Carlo, the Linq, Luxor, Bills (to Cromwell), and a couple of others. Still, you can point to a couple of others that don't need to exist - TI's room is pointless. I'm not sure that Mandalay really needs to be open any more. Bally's is on life support. Excal is a dump.
     
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  13. The Rumor

    The Rumor VIP Whale

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    Eh, while Binion's had the name, Mirage was the place to be for a long, long time. They just got passed by by the Strip because that's where the rich fish were.
     
  14. topcard

    topcard Here's to $10 3:2 two-deck, $5 Craps, and $5 UTH!

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    Not sure if it's the same, physical room, but back when Bally's was the MGM, their room was the best (IMO) of any of the active rooms in those days.
    Completely seperate room from the main casino, with 3 solid walls (no windows), and the open-end had the check-in podium & ropes....so no on-lookers.
    Always 4 to 5 tables going...wait-list for most of them... of course, it was almost always 100% 7-stud played in those days, and smoking was still permitted in the room.
    Cocktail service was fantastic, and the rakes were all capped at $3/hand.

    I loved that room, and I find it sad that it's dying... (again, if it's the same room that was used back in the early 80s).
     
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  15. The Rumor

    The Rumor VIP Whale

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    It's not the same room. It's shunted in an area on the edge of the casino floor

    For a time it was right in the middle of the floor next to Sully's bar. That room had great action but was terribly noisy.
     
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  16. Marky147

    Marky147 VIP Whale

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    Just look for the 1/2 game at the Nugget I'm sitting in, and you won't go far wrong :D
     
  17. TuscaloosaJohnny

    TuscaloosaJohnny Low-Roller

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    I'm baffled by how the TI room is still around. I went over there with a buddy to play a nightly tournament last June and not only was it canceled, but also no cash games were running. How can a room survive when it can't even get action during the WSOP? I want to say, too, that there was some big marketing push in 2016 during the World Cup at TI that there would be be big Omaha games running, fronted by some Europeans or something. But that didn't happen.
     
  18. Nevyn

    Nevyn VIP Whale

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    I used to love the TI room, but it is sadly dead.

    Almost stopped by when I checked Bravo and they had a game running on a weekday morning, but as I said above, who wants to play in the place with 1 game that gets short and then you gotta go.
     
  19. FullPay

    FullPay When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro

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    I have been Downtown since 2002 and never saw one. Four Queens has always been affiliated with Binion’s, maybe they just held it there.
     
  20. Count de Monet

    Count de Monet High-Roller

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    I agree. When the room was located across from the Mystere showroom there was lots of foot traffic and the room was busy. The current location is hidden from most foot traffic and few know it exists.
     
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