Made it back in one piece from a week in Vegas. Time Flew by way too fast. Played in many tournaments at many casinos at many different levels. Played a few cash tables as well, but not nearly as much as usual.
Over the coming weeks, I'll recap & review Poker Rooms, Tournaments & more from Casinos including: The Venetian, The Orleans, Aria, Hard Rock Hotel, Green Valley Ranch (Station), Santa Fe Station, Boulder Station, Sam's Town, Red Rock and Fiesta Henderson.
Starting with Fiesta Henderson. They don't have a poker room anymore. Discontinued it sometime since my last visit. Not that it was a great room (they only had 4 tables) but at least it was something to keep me occupied while my wife played BINGO ( The all paper/dauber kind) BUT..................
Green Valley Ranch Station Casino is only 3 miles down I-215. It is a Stations Casino, but they tend to downplay that part of the name as I think they are trying to appeal to a more upscale market. It is a nicely appointed casino, but the Poker Room Strikes me as an afterthought and not originally designed into the Casino. It is Long, narrow at spots and there are support pillars 3 feet into the room on one side. The room has 22 tables and a Deco feel to it. Earthtone colors similar to its Sister Red Rock Casino. There were two 1/2 NL tables and one 2/4 limit table running and an interest list for 4/8 Omaha8.
My two chief complaints: The chairs are standard upholstered pull up chairs, not the comfortable, adjustable swivel chairs most rooms have these days. The Other is a big one. They have NO tournament board of clock to see. The tournament director ( who doubles as cashier, register, floor person, timer, etc. has a little timer to keep track of the time. There is no structure sheet available either, but most of the tournament players are regulars who know the levels better than the dealers. The number being paid and the payouts were only announced verbally after losing 3 players from the final table.
So why play a tournament here? For me there are 2 reasons: PLO8 & H.O.R.S.E.
Both tournaments offer re-entry (rebuy) for 1 hour and are lower buyin ($45-50) There were only 3 tables, but with re-entries, the field was around 45 for each.
The Monday night Pot-Limit, Omaha, 8 or better gives 4000 starting chips and like most Vegas Tournaments, is designed so you have to work at being eliminated in the first hour (blinds are 25/50, 50/100 & 75/150) and designed to end in under 4 hours (Blinds escalate exponentially.) The play was average to good, with it appearing that most players were regulars and played this tournament every week. I went out on 12th, (about 2 hours in) never really getting any good cards to play.
The Wednesday H.O.R.S.E. tournament only starts with 2000 chips. The Dealers use a black cube to track the game being played and have a little photocopied worksheet for the antes & blinds. The dealers were acceptable at dealing the varied games and only hesitated to be sure when spliting the pot in the low games. It was enjoyable enough, the play again was average to good, age skewed older. I think the youngest player was probably 40. I went out 6th. The money bubble was 5th since 4 were being payed. I would certainly play this tournament again, since it is the only H.O.R.S.E. tournament that fits my schedule. (The other 2 being at the Orleans on Friday & Sunday.)
NEXT: My adventures at Sam's Town, Boulder Station & Santa Fe Station.
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