Bally’s is not a superficially appealing room. First of all, it’s hard to get to, almost as if the casino wants to hide it away. It’s tucked away in back of the race book on the sixth floor of the casino. Nothing but the race book and a keno lounge is up there. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as there isn’t the typical noise of slot machines or craps-table shouting to distract the serious player. But the room is also neglected… the lighting is very poor. The tables are arranged haphazardly and awkwardly, around and behind
an intrusive board that obscures a player’s view of other tables. The bathroom is also bizarre – a maze-like array of mirrors and stalls. The poker room itself is non-smoking, but there’s smoking right outside the room and it tends to waft in.

Even so, the room management tries to do the best with a bad situation. They offer free non-alcoholic drinks and snacks that include, unique among poker rooms in Atlantic City, hot dogs. They also give players $1 an hour in comps – good for food or for a room. There is regular tableside food and beverage service, though the food service tends to be fairly slow.

The poker room has twenty tables; that’s not to say, though, that it’s a very big room. Though my last visit was on a Saturday afternoon of a holiday weekend, when one would expect a poker room to be at its busiest, only seven tables were going when I arrived. Three were limit hold’em; three were no-limit hold’ em; one was stud.

The room is a low-limit poker room but with some interesting variations in the standard fare. In addition to the standard $2/4 limit hold’em, Bally’s offers a $1/3 no-limit game, with a buy-in of $100 to $300. Also unusual in Atlantic City is $1-5 spread-limit seven-card stud with a $.50/player ante. Other places that spread this level of stud tend to spread it with no ante.

I played the no-limit game. It was a mix of older regulars and somewhat younger, but still not youthful, tourists. No one seemed very experienced at no-limit, with a couple of wild players present and the rest sedate and timid. The two guys sitting next to me were waiting to get into the stud game. They mentioned that late at night there was sometimes a $2/5 no-limit game – but they never played such high limits.

The stud game was filled with senior citizens. I didn’t see a player who looked under seventy. The limit tables had a mix of players, racially and demographically, but there were few if any players in their thirties or twenties. That’s very unusual these days. Most other casinos in Atlantic City were full of youngsters who looked barely old enough to play legally.

There’s a bad beat jackpot for both stud and hold’em. The former stood at $84,000 and the latter at $13,000 when I was there. You have to have quads beaten to qualify. The room also boasts regular tournaments. They had a no-limit one going off at 2:00 PM the Saturday I was there. There’s a regular schedule of weekly tournaments as well, but you’re best off to call in advance to see the latest lineup of games and tournaments, since these things change regularly.

The staff has been exceptionally friendly and accommodating to me when I’ve visited. They do this in spite of appearing overworked. Most are seasoned veterans who know their trade well.

The attached property, the Wild West Casino, used to run constant sit-and-go tournaments. This no longer is the case, as it was shut it down in early fall of 2007. Bally’s did not elect to pick up the sit-and-goes in its room. As far as I know, there are no regular sit-and-goes in Atlantic City (unlike at Foxwoods, which runs them constantly, 18 hours a day).

All told, the room had a sort of an old-fashioned, off-the-beaten-path charm to it, with its combination of dusty tables and older clientele. As a mid-limit stud player, I doubt I’d come by here much. But if I wanted a soft spot for low-stakes no-limit action, this would be a good place to develop my basic chops before I started to take on the tougher action in some of the other rooms. Even so, I might not be able to stand the lack of good lighting for very long. And I’d have to keep an eye on my diet – unable as I was to resist the temptation of free hot dogs while I played.

Bally’s Casino Atlantic City
114 S. Indiana Ave
Atlantic City, NJ 08401
(609) 340-2000

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I played limit hold’em for about an hour, winning $15. Half of the table was women who had never or only rarely played. The other half were men who weren’t much more experienced. It was the type of game with a lot of laughing, a lot of calling, and expressions of surprise if anyone raised. It was just the type of game for a limit hold’em duffer like me!

The room was well run – though a few things bothered me. There was smoking right next to the open front of the room – so it was impossible to avoid smoke coming into the room. I found that annoying and easily remedied just by having a smoke-free zone within ten feet of the entranceway of the poker room. Alas, when I left the room I smelled like cigarette smoke.

I didn’t care for the policy of dealers sharing their tips – as they did in this room. I prefer to be able to toke an individual dealer for skillful and quick work. Resorts has no say in this, however. Apparently, this is the law in New Jersey for any room with 15 or fewer tables. Curiously, though there was no financial incentive to be so, the dealers were as good as I’ve found them – skillful at dealing the game, funny when appropriate, and unobtrusive when there was action in the game. I’m not sure why the best dealers I found in Atlantic City (and perhaps in any card room I’ve been to) happened to be at the smallest and least prestigious room I’ve visited, but there you have it.

The house rakes the standard 10% of each pot with a $4 maximum. There is no bad-beat jackpot. Players earn $.50 an hour in comps if they have a player’s club card – which is easy and free to obtain.

I was lucky during my one hour of limit play. On my fifth hand I was dealt aces. I played them strictly by the book, raising the blind, and then coming out for a bet on each of the next three successive betting rounds. I got five callers before the flop, three after the flop, two on the turn and two on the river. They all laughed when I turned them over and raked in the largest pot of my session. That’s what I like: fun players who can enjoy the game even when someone else wins the pot!

The game was entertaining – made so by a dealer who kept the action lively and the players lighthearted. I’d come back to Resorts for low-limit action in the future. If I had a friend or two who had never played before, this is the place I’d take them in Atlantic City to introduce them to the game. Win or lose, I’m sure they’d leave with a fun memory.

Resorts Atlantic City
1133 Boardwalk
Atlantic City, New Jersey 08401
800-336-6378

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It was a beautiful, cloudy, windswept November morning as I walked down the boardwalk from the Hilton to the Tropicana – a five- to ten-minute stroll depending on one’s pace. It was refreshing to breathe in the salt air and take in the sights – helping me relax before my playing session. It’s one of the things I like best about playing in Atlantic City. It’s easy and invigorating to get the easy change of scene that comes from hopping from
room to room.

The Tropicana, known as the “Trop” to those who play in Atlantic City, was one of the first places (along with the Taj Majal and Resorts) to open a poker room when poker was legalized in New Jersey in the mid-1990s. The Trop’s poker room itself is set away from the casino floor – with two sections. They used to use one for smoking and one for non-smoking. But now they are all non-smoking – as stud games tend to congregate at the end of the larger room, while the smaller room tends to get the middle-limit games. There really is no high-limit action here.

The place was not what the players would describe as busy when I entered mid-morning on Saturday of the Veteran’s Day weekend. There were only eight tables going (out of 40 or so). There were five ‘flavors’ of poker games being spread: $4/8 limit hold’em, $2/4 limit hold’em, $1/2 no-limit hold’em, $2/5 no-limit hold’em, and $3/6 stud. This was the standard compliment. The only games missing were the $5/10 no-limit game that they sometimes get later on Saturday and a $5/10 limit stud game that usually goes as the day progresses. When I asked the floor if they ever get bigger limit or no-limit games the floor told me, “Nah, these are generally all retired folks playing little games”. I think he was mistaken about his demographics. But I’m sure he knew what stakes he spread. Later calls to the room never turned up anything bigger than $4/8 limit or $2/5 no-limit.

Unlike other poker rooms in the area, players at the Trop buy their chips at the table for the most part (though one can buy them at the cashier too if he prefers). The five dealers I saw while I was there were all extremely competent – quick, efficient, informative when asked questions, but not chatty or intrusive to the game. They’d announce action, keep their eye on the game, keep play moving, and answer any questions. In this they were the best dealers I encountered during my time in Atlantic City. They kept their own tips, as opposed to pooling them. It showed.

I played some $1/2 no-limit – the only game that had an empty seat when I arrived. There is a cap on the buy-in – no less than $60 and no more than $300. That’s pretty much the standard in public poker rooms these days – though a few places cap the buy-in at $200 or even $100. The days of midget stacks seems to have passed – fortunately.

Players are raked at the standard amount of 10% with a $4 maximum. Unlike many other rooms in Atlantic City, there is no bad-beat jackpot. I prefer that. I don’t like having money taken out of the pot for what amounts to a lottery. And when a player wins the money, it doesn’t stay on the table. It often doesn’t even return to the poker economy – as players take their enormous jackpot winnings (in excess of $100,000 sometimes) and spend it on things other than poker – like paying their bills or buying non-poker merchandise. (Geez, people, where’s your sense of priorities?) The one advantage to a bad-beat jackpot is that it tends to draw players to a room. But from what I’ve seen, players who come just for the jackpot tend to be rocks – giving very little action as they just try to stick around long enough to be present when the jackpot hits. They may keep an otherwise weak game alive – but they surely don’t contribute much to the bottom line of the serious player.

As in nearly all of the Atlantic City casinos, there is tableside waitress service, drinks are free (though only a real freeloader doesn’t tip at least a dollar per drink), and food can be delivered to the poker table – though it isn’t free. There are discounted poker rates in the hotel for players – though no one quite knew what they were. “You get about 20% off of whatever they feel like telling you the regular rate is,” one wag offered, not-so-helpfully.

The Trop runs regular poker tournaments during the week at 10:15 AM and 7:15 PM, with only the evening ones running on Saturday and Sunday. The Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday PM tournies are $100 — $15 of which is the entry fee, $85 of which goes to the prize pool. Though a 15% seems high, especially when live games are raked at 10% — it’s actually a little better than the 20% or higher that I’ve seen at most small tournaments in other casinos. Players get $10,000 in chips – with blinds starting at $25/50 and going up every 20 minutes. That gives the player about as much play as I’ve seen. The AM tourney is half the buy-in for half the stack. There are also $85 tourneys on Mondays and Thursdays and a $120 tourney on Tuesday and Friday night.

I had one especially memorable hand while I played at the $1/2 no-limit table. I was dealt K-10 suited in the cutoff. An early, overly aggressive player raised to $10. Two players called him; I guess they had typed him as overly aggressive, too. Normally, I toss K-10 into the muck with a raised pot. But the combination of my position, the number of callers in front of me, the type of player I read the raiser to be, and the fact that my cards were suited caused me to call. The button and the big blind also called.

The flop was the near-miraculous A-10-10 (suits didn’t matter). The early-position raiser bet $30. No one called in front of me. I raised to $90. The player after me called. The first bettor folded after a very long pause, saying “I’m folding a monster”. The turn was a queen. I did not think that the button would have played K-J for $90. I put him on an ace – maybe A-Q. I went all in for my remaining $200 or so. The button called me. The river was an unhelpful deuce. My opponent turned over 10-9. He was stronger than I thought but not strong enough to win; I stacked him because my king kicker played. Sweet!

Shortly thereafter I noticed that a seat had opened up in the $3/6 limit stud game. I left my no-limit hold’em game up a couple of hundred, and sat down to play some stud. Every player in the stud game had gray hair — those that had any hair, that is. Though I had just recently turned 50, I estimated that I was the youngest player by at least 30 years.

The structure was deadly. There was no ante, just a $1 forced bet from the low card, and then $3/6 limit. Or maybe it was just the combination of the structure and the style of play of the stud players that caused the game to be so dreadfully boring. I don’t write this just as an outsider. The players themselves were carping about how the Trop never should have switched the regular stud game from $1-5 spread-limit to $3/6. On the other hand, I imagine that when the game was $1-5 spread-limit the players carped about changing it to $3/6. It’s just the nature of being a regular poker player. We like to complain!

In any event, I played for about an hour. I must have seen fifteen hands that went the same way. The low card brought it in for $1. A player raised to $3. Everyone folded. Or, a little less frequently, but still common, a player brought it in for the dollar. Six players called. The dealer dealt fourth street. One player bet $3 and everyone folded.

As bad as the game seemed for the players, it must have been torture to be a dealer. I can’t imagine that they make much in tips in a game where the average pot is $1!

All of the players agreed that the $5/10 game, which wasn’t going when I was there but which they said would almost surely go off later on Saturday, was much better. It has a $.50 ante with a $2 forced bet.

Somehow, I managed to win $7.00 during my hour or so at this table. I had one contested hand – at least until fifth street when my two opponents folded– and I picked up a few forced bets and some loose calls on third street – who folded when I raised to $3. I’d like to say that the experience was pleasant — because the players were all so sweet – but I really was itching to leave.

The Trop is a smaller and more subdued version of the Trump Taj Majal, known familiarly as “The Taj” – a popular and busy room that attracts some of the young players that fill up so many poker games today. Even at full bore – on Saturday night, when I’ve visited in the past – The Trop is a pleasant place without the loud raucousness of the Taj. I always enjoyed playing $5/10 and $10/20 stud here at the Trop – and I’m sure I’d enjoy playing $1/2 no-limit, $2/5 no-limit and $5/10 limit stud here in the future. But sweet though those retirees were at the $3/6 no-ante game – I’d have to pass on that game during my next visit to the room.

Tropicana Casino and Resort
Brighton and the Boardwalk
Atlantic City NJ, 08401
1-800-THE-TROP

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My first stop was the Hilton – the southernmost poker room on the strip known as the boardwalk. My plan was simple. I parked on the street next to the Hilton at a meter – for about $4 in quarters. I would then play successively at each poker room, from one end of the boardwalk at the Hilton, to the other end at the Showboat. In between I would hit, in order, the Tropicana, Caesar’s, the Wild
West, Bally’s, Resorts, and the Trump Taj Majal. If I had any time remaining during my first day I would take a jitney to the marina area of Atlantic City – about two miles or so from the boardwalk, and play at Harrahs and the Borgota, before returning back to my car at the Hilton by jitney.

I kicked things off at the Hilton, remembering that two years earlier, when I had played there, the place was just kicking off huge plans to expand and upgrade the room. The room had been rocking back then – all newly renovated and overlooking the Atlantic Ocean from the impressive casino’s second floor. There were over a dozen tables in full action including limit hold’em and stud besides no-limit hold’em. The future looked bright indeed.

Alas. I was hugely disappointed to find that the upstairs room was no more – though players talked about returning to some smaller new space that was under renovation. Today, and for the past few months, they were downstairs, next to some blackjack tables. Their once proud, bursting room had been reduced to one table on this Saturday morning of Veteran’s Day weekend. And though the floor person said this was a slow time, knowing players told me that there might be one or two other tables as the day progressed. My, how the mighty had fallen.

Even so, my playing experience was relaxed and pleasant. The room is a peaceful alternative to the other rooms in Atlantic City. The patrons at my table eagerly told me why they liked it here. “It’s not full of hot shot kids and drunks,” said one poker player. “It’s more quiet than the big rooms,” added another player helpfully.

And so it was.

The room has the standard rake of 10% up to a maximum of $4. There is also a bad beat jackpot of $1 taken from the pot. Aces full of jacks beaten qualifies you for it – and you have to have two aces in your hand to hit it.

There was a $1/2 no-limit game when I was there. They expected maybe another table – of $2/4 limit. They never get higher than this, said a player, though another added that they sometimes get a $2/5 no-limit game.

The comps are generous by any standard I’m familiar with. Players earn $2 an hour in the $1/2 game, $3/hour at the $2/5 game and, officially, $5/hour at the $5/10 game that, apparently, never is spread (but if it were that would that be the highest player comp I’ve ever seen).

The poker room spreads a monthly tournament with a $250 buy-in and there’s also the annual New Jersey State Tournament. They also list daily tournaments, but I was told by regular players that they only go off on the weekends. The rest of the time the room is pretty much dead, as it was on this Saturday morning. Things pick up a little for Friday night. And Saturday night is their busy time – maybe with three or four tables going at once.

The level of play while I was there was, as advertised by the players, pretty subdued. Players tended to be loose and passive pre-flop. Then they all tightened up. One player would come out for $10 and the rest would usually fold – perhaps with a brave soul calling and then folding on the turn to a $20 bet.

In the hour or so that I played I saw maybe three rivers – usually in hands that were not bet on the turn or river. As I said, it was indeed a subdued no-limit game. I lost $15 pretty much just watching all but one hand. I raised in late position with A-J after three players had called the $2 big blind. I had folded all of my hands until then and hoped I might steal the pot. I got called by one player in early position who bet the flop for $30 when the board was Q-Q-10. I quickly folded and he showed me a queen. As I said, nice relaxed game.

The physical playing conditions were okay – surely nothing special. Wedged in next to table games wasn’t annoying in the morning – with the other games still relatively quiet. But I imagine that ambient noise and passing traffic might be distracting and bothersome as the general attendance picked up later. The chairs were general-issue banquet chairs – thinly padded but not uncomfortable. The lighting was about average, surely acceptable though not nearly as nice or bright as some rooms designed for poker. The dealers were all competent, helpful, and skilled… and unobtrusive. The floor was friendly but knew less about the room than most of the players, and couldn’t answer any questions about the rake, player comps, or games being spread.

All in all, I’d come back to kill some time or if I had business on this end of the boardwalk. If I lived in the area and wanted a nice place to come regularly, earn comps, and relax, I’d surely consider making this my regular room. But as a tourist, craving action, I think I’d tend to gravitate toward the bigger, more lively places down at the other end of the boardwalk.

Atlantic City Hilton Casino Resort
Boston Ave & The Boardwalk
Atlantic City, NJ 08401
(609) 347-7111

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