Back to Business as Usual on the Las Vegas Strip Poker Scene

Local Rock · **Posted:** Mon Jul 23, 2012 7:11 pm

TheGameKat wrote:

Afterthought... It's very puzzling to me that on forums such as this and on The Strip there are loads of people bemoaning the lack of LHE games, particularly in that awkward gap between 4/8 and the Bellagio's 10/20. It seems like lots of people want it, but when the rooms spread it nobody shows up.

For the small stakes through 4/8 there is a lot of it being played, but not in the minority of Las Vegas area rooms located on the Strip that folks on a site like this tend to think are "Las Vegas." In fact, most of the rooms around Las Vegas I know best only rarely get a NL game, generally just for a while at peak times on weekends, if ever.

But when Strip rooms try to step up to fill that gap above 4/8LHE it does seem to consistently end up being the bratwurst you mention. Seems a combination of a geographic dichotomy that is very different in Las Vegas compared to places like Southern California, where there are fewer but larger rooms, combined with decapitation of the mid to higher stakes from NLHE in recent years, at least locally. I see SoCal or at least LA is still close to 50/50 among cash games with LHE apparently still comprising a bit more of the total market there than NL, and in their big rooms for each structure they seem to have a significant variety of stakes available with multiple tables of each level all along the way up to nosebleed territory, so far as I can tell.

Mirage Poker · **Joined:** Thu Jun 11, 2009 7:14 am **Posts:** 1392

Joining the host of other rooms attempting to offer limit games between $3/$6 and $10/$20 - we have just set up in our Bravo System to give bonus hours for our current freeroll promotion and the upcoming $10,000 All Star Shootout (that will give 5 poker players a seat in the $400,000 Invitational Only Poker Tournament - held by the Casino Marketing people for the Casino's High Rollers).

The Bonus hours compute at a rate of 2.0x (from 10am to 2am) and 3.0x (from 2am to 10am). Additionally players in those games will receive $2 per hour in comp dollars.

"Those games" that we will try to spread are basically anything higher than $3 & $6 Limit but we will focus on two types, $4 & $8 and a $9 & $18 (using $3 chips) but of course if players would prefer something else, we will do it.

We are more than happy to spread those games with a 5% rake and a $3 cap on the rake.

If our staff seems like they have never heard this before tell them to call me (Christopher), but hopefully they will all be remembering the notice sent to them.

(This bonus hour rates also apply to $2/$5 NL and higher as well.)

Local Rock · **Posted:** Mon Jul 23, 2012 8:08 pm

Mr. Poker, that strikes me as a very attractive package of incentives for jump starting (re-starting to some folks?) some of that business in your room. Even more so by a significant margin altogether than some stuff a place that starts with the letter "V" has done from time to time, which I thought was a pretty good effort by them. I hope people with an interest learn about it; I'll sure tell 'em when I hear "why can't I find..."

Clem2754 · **Posted:** Mon Jul 23, 2012 8:48 pm

Local Rock wrote:

TheGameKat wrote:

Afterthought... It's very puzzling to me that on forums such as this and on The Strip there are loads of people bemoaning the lack of LHE games, particularly in that awkward gap between 4/8 and the Bellagio's 10/20. It seems like lots of people want it, but when the rooms spread it nobody shows up.

For the small stakes through 4/8 there is a lot of it being played, but not in the minority of Las Vegas area rooms located on the Strip that folks on a site like this tend to think are "Las Vegas." In fact, most of the rooms around Las Vegas I know best only rarely get a NL game, generally just for a while at peak times on weekends, if ever.

But when Strip rooms try to step up to fill that gap above 4/8LHE it does seem to consistently end up being the bratwurst you mention. Seems a combination of a geographic dichotomy that is very different in Las Vegas compared to places like Southern California, where there are fewer but larger rooms, combined with decapitation of the mid to higher stakes from NLHE in recent years, at least locally. I see SoCal or at least LA is still close to 50/50 among cash games with LHE apparently still comprising a bit more of the total market there than NL, and in their big rooms for each structure they seem to have a significant variety of stakes available with multiple tables of each level all along the way up to nosebleed territory, so far as I can tell.

When I lived in San Diego I can confirm that limit made up almost half of the games in So Cal. I enjoyed the 8-16 Limit games at Ocean's Eleven, Pechanga, and at Commerce. I played NL at each place, but the 8-16 game was a nice change of pace and found myself playing it quite a bit my last 6 months in California.

HaysCode · **Joined:** Tue Nov 21, 2006 5:45 pm **Posts:** 70

Not only does LHE account for a larger share of the action in Southern California than in Vegas; I would also venture to say that the limit games here in CA are generally looser and wilder than the limit games in Vegas.

It's safe to say that the majority of poker-playing tourists want to play NL, and most tourists stay on the the strip. Therefore, I would say that the softest money on the strip is in the NL games, and it's no wonder LHE has dried up on the strip.

Off the strip is a different story; you have more locals who are willing to grind hours in a low limit game while accumulating comps and hunting for jackpots. I have played at many locals casinos off the strip. Almost without exception the games have been on the nitty side, at least compared to what I am used to in CA.

Our local regs in SoCal just seem to have a lot more gamble in them than the Vegas regs do, IMHO. I don't have a good explanation for this. For whatever reason, we seem to have a culture of wild poker here. BTW I realize this is all anecdotal evidence and opinion. I will say that I have played a lot of 8-16 and below (mostly 4-8 with a kill) at a lot of different rooms in SoCal. My Vegas sample size is smaller; over the last two years I haven't made it up there as often but I used to go regularly and have played in a lot of rooms. I'm interested to see if people who've spent a lot of time playing in both places agree with my observations.

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