I first visited Sandia when it was a smoky hell of a place, back in the old days in the older casino that was little more than a Quonset hut. I’ve been back a couple of times since they moved into their picturesque, full-service casino on the other side of Interstate 25. Though this isn’t the equal of the biggest and best poker rooms in California, Nevada or Connecticut, it’s surely
as close as you will come to a major poker room in New Mexico.

Sandia is home to 15 modern comfortable poker tables – tables that are often full and loud and busy. There are well-cushioned chairs; there is excellent lighting, a well run board, new or relatively new chips and cards, and a bustling atmosphere that promotes action. Unlike other rooms in the area, you never have to worry about not finding a game at Sandia. If the room is open (and it is from 10 AM until 4 AM during the week and 24 hours on weekends) there will be at least a few games going.

The games include all of the low-stakes affairs that you’ll find in the other rooms – the $1/2 no-limit game and the $2/4 and $3/6 limit hold’em. But this room offers more. While I was there on a Sunday afternoon they were spreading $4/8 with a half kill, $10/20, and $20/40 limit hold’em. They also had a couple of $2/5 blind no limit games and a $4/8 with a half-kill Omaha-8 game. They never have stud – though they added, as all rooms do, that they’d gladly spread it if they had the players. A pot-limit Omaha game goes off sometimes, I was told, as well as a $10/20 Omaha-8 game, but neither was going while I was there on three different occasions during the week.

I played a total of six or so hours of no limit in the $1/2-blind game, and about three hours of $4/8 Omaha-8. I played at all hours – at 9:00 AM one day, 4:00 PM another day, and at 2:00 AM yet another. I found the five tables I played at during those visits to be very similar. Typically there were three or four very poor players, a couple of retirees grinding out the game timidly, and then a couple or so players who seemed to know what they were doing. (The only game with a slightly different line up was a $4/8 w/ kill Omaha-8 game – where all of the players but one were pretty awful).

Here’s an interesting hand of no-limit hold’em that I played. There was a brand new dealer (most seemed to be veterans). It was the second hand I played on my first visit – on a Sunday evening. I was sitting five to the left of the button and was dealt two Jacks. There were two folds after the big blind. I raised to $14; a guy did this on the previous hand and got one caller. I got three callers including the small blind. The flop was a king and two blanks. The small blind checked; I checked, the next player checked, but before the final player could act the dealer turned a nine. The last player objected, saying that he was going to bet. The other players said that he could bet if he wanted to. No one called the floor. No one seemed especially upset by any of this. The original objector whined and said it was okay – and let the fourth street card stand. (Nothing like “players get to decide what is done” rules). Everyone checked the turn to him. He bet $25. Everyone folded. He flashed us all a king and a smile.

Sandia has the same rake structure as the other casinos in the area – 10% with a $3 maximum. They also have a $1 drop for the bad beat jackpot which stood at $50,000 or so. You needed aces full of jacks beaten to qualify, with both hole cards playing. I got the sense that there were at least a handful of folks who were there for no other reason than to be at the table when the bad beat was hit.

They offer some player point promotions, awarding comps based on points earned at the table. But the points are so minuscule that it isn’t worth considering, on the order of a few cents an hour.

Sandia is home to a few weekly and some large special tournaments. They have sit-and-goes every Monday and Wednesday and then regular no-limit hold’em, pineapple, and Omaha tournaments on Tuesday and Sunday. When I was there they had a larger tournament than their weekly events – a $300 “Play with the Big Dogs” no-limit hold’em tournament. There were 134 players with a $25,000+ first-place prize. None of the other rooms have action like that.

A few other things to consider about this nice room: The high ceiling and lack of cigarette smoke give the place an airy feel. There are free drinks. And though the food surely isn’t free, there is a cheap snack bar near the poker room with hot dogs, nachos, soup and sandwiches for only a few bucks each.

They don’t allow reading at the table (which always strikes me as an insult to we poker writers) but you can listen to a headset.

All in all this is a very good room, clearly the best place to play serious poker in the area. I recommend it highly.

Sandia Resort & Casino
30 Rainbow Road NE
Albuquerque, NM 87113
505-796-7500
800-526-9366

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There have been a few changes. First of all, the room is now non-smoking, as are all of the poker rooms in New Mexico (except Sky City – which isn’t even in its own room). However, though players may not smoke in the room, they may smoke adjacent to it. Since there’s no wall or other barrier between the rest of the very smoky casino and the poker room, smoke drifts in.
I had the displeasure of sitting right next to the opening at the end of the room. Maybe this is an indication of my over-sensitivity – but it annoyed me.

The room spreads $2–6 spread-limit hold’em, $2/4 limit hold’em, and $1/2 no-imit. I played in the spread-limit and no-limit games for a few hours on a Saturday afternoon. I found them to be relatively sedate affairs – with a lot of calling, little raising, and a mix of mostly “calling station” locals and a couple of strong amateurs. Most of the serious players tend to hang out at the Sandia Casino on the other side of Albuquerque, where there are bigger games and more variety. But there were a couple of winning players in my game, and I was not among them!

The room has a $3 maximum, 10% rake, with a $1 bad beat jackpot. It was up to nearly $100,000 while I was there, requiring aces full of queens to be beaten with all hole cards playing in the hand. There are also two daily tournaments, at 2:00 and 7:00 PM. I always recommend that players call the room first to confirm, since tournament schedules change so frequently.

There is a four-raise maximum (as opposed to the three-raise max in most non-Las Vegas rooms these days). This came as an unpleasant surprise in the $2–6 hold’em game when I thought I was dramatically capping the raise on the flop when I had kings, only to have someone come over the top of me. The size of the pot seduced me into calling his bets all the way until the river. His set beat my kings up. Alas.

Sadly, there is no stud in the room. There used to be, back in the ’90s. But though the room manager insists he’ll spread stud if there’s sufficient interest, there just don’t seem to be enough stud players around to get up a game here. É Tu Isleta?

My experience in the room was disheartening. Without boring you with bad beats, let me just say that my aggressiveness with top pair pre-flop was insufficient to drive out hoards of callers — one of whom always caught up and won the hand I was in. And I wasn’t in many. The net result was that after three hours I was down $200. Ouch!

I tried drowning myself in food – my typical solace after a tough session. I was fortunate in that the menu was fairly inexpensive. There was a pretty good taco salad for about $4. Sandwiches were in the $4-6 range. Drinks were about a buck. Nothing fancy. But then, I didn’t merit anything fancy.

There’s a great entertainment center in an adjacent building. They have huge TV screens, a large bowling alley and many pool tables. Though of course I wouldn’t do this with my kids, I could see a poker-playing adult guiltlessly dumping his family next door. They’d be entertained for many hours.

The room is open 11:00 AM until 4:00 AM every day except weekends when it goes 24 hours.

Isleta Casino and Resort
11000 Broadway SE
Albuquerque, NM 87105
1-877-7-ISLETA

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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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