This club is literally around the corner from the more famous and larger Aviation Club, on the Champs Elysees not far from the Arc d’Triomphe. It’s a more upscale version and seemingly more private version of it.

Cercle Gaillon has the same official dress code as the Aviation Club – but they adhere to it more strictly. While the Aviation Club seems to use the “smart casual” rules to keep out lower-end travelers who didn’t know they needed to pack a collared shirt and dress shoes – while not discouraging the locals who like to play their poker in jeans and a t-shirt;
the Cercle Gaillon clientele all looked sharp and chic. There were women in long gowns and guys in beautifully tailored suits (though thankfully no tuxes that I noticed). They also had a curious rule against wearing a hat, except at the poker table. I guess they didn’t want to detract from the old west or new-TV ambiance of folks in cowboy hats and baseball caps, while still preserving the decorous mood of a high end private club.

The room’s furnishings were of the highest quality – similarly the décor. The bar looked like one you’d find in the most expensive and exclusive club or restaurant. The staff were dressed meticulously, if almost extravagantly.

It would make a fine set for a James Bond movie.

The poker, alas, was absurdly expensive.

Consider this. They spread poker of five different stakes – all of it no-limit or pot-limit. Some games were no-limit hold’em; others were half no-limit hold’em and half pot-limit Omaha. They did not charge time in any of the games, but raked them all – even at the highest level. Here’s how the structure worked.

All games were raked at 4%, which seemed very reasonable. Unfortunately, the maximum that could be raked was extremely high

The lowest staked game was a €100 buy-in game with €1/2 blinds. It had a €24 maximum rake. It went up from there:

€2/4 blind 100 buy-in: €36 maximum rake
€5/5 blind 250 buy-in: €50 maximum rake
€5/10 blind 500 buy-in €100 maximum rake
€10/20 blind 1000 buy-in €200 maximum rake

I played in a €5/5 half-and-half game. On numerous occasions during my three hours of play I saw the house slide 50 Euros down the chute. True, the pots on these hands were enormous. But even so, I just didn’t see how anyone could end up winning money in the long run when the house consistently took such major pieces of the action.

Even so, I enjoyed the games. The players tended to be loose – there to live it up, gamble it up, and drink it up. I seemed to be the only person who noticed the rake. I surely was the only one who commented on it. (I suppose that it was in bad form – still, I couldn’t resist).

A few other things about the room recommend a visit, though probably not a long session. The food is actually very reasonably priced. They offer an international menu that includes, among other things, sushi, pizza, sandwiches, and the like. They call restaurants in the area to bring you whatever you want. Everything is the same price for players: €7. That may not seem like a great deal, but compared to the many expensive meals I ate while in Paris, it seemed practically free.

I had one memorable hand in a series of losing hands during my trip. I was dealt A-K in the small blind. The cutoff raised the €5 blind to €20. I and a player after me both called. The flop was . I bet €80. One player called all in with €70 and the initial raiser in the cutoff raised to €190, raising it €110 more. I had about €50 more. I called the raise, hoping he had A-Q. I didn’t think he’d raise with it pre-flop, though. So I was confused. I figured he might have J-J – but if so why raise me now, since he’d surely take my stack by just slow playing it. I thought we might chop with AK each.

The turn was a blank. I checked and he checked. The river was a diamond – giving the board three to a flush. Once again I checked and he checked.

The all-in player had a flush. The cutoff guy had A-4! He raised in the cutoff with A-4. Oh, well.

I left shortly thereafter, having enjoyed the place, but reluctant to go back and pay the huge rake. Still, it is a beautiful room. Maybe I’ll go back just to hang out!

Cercle Gaillon
11 Rue de Berri
Paris, Île-de-France 75008
France
www.cerclegaillon.net
+33 1 45 62 08 33

pokernews.com

The breaking of the ring, dubbed “Operation High Roller,” was led by the New Jersey State Police and Division of Criminal Justice and included assistance from 11 other New Jersey and Pennsylvania agencies. According to the press release accompanying the indictments, “nvestigators conducted extensive surveillance and observed the defendants conducting business in the Borgata poker room. They observed defendants accepting bets and settling up with bettors, either by accepting payment on losses or paying out to winners.” The release also noted that “Wishnick and other casino employees ignored exchanges of cash and casino chips made by the ring to avoid filing financial reports that are required whenever a transaction exceeds $10,000.” The filings are required to prevent money laundering.

pokernews.com

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

pokernews.com

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

pokernews.com

I drove up to Camel Rock from Bernalillo, just north of Albuquerque. For an eastern boy such as myself, this is a gorgeous drive.
I spent one hour or so passing high desert countryside with buttes and mesas and rock face and Indian pueblos along the way. I took in the scenery. The route is also littered with signs for casinos. Some, like Santa Ana and Cities of Gold, have poker rooms. Others, like the Hollywood Casino, do not. But Hollywood had a nice little diner-style restaurant where I stopped for some Indian “fry bread”. It was an Indian version of what we carnival and state fair attendees generally know as fried dough. For the $1.95 I was expecting something relatively small. Instead I got a piece of round fried dough the size of an entire pie plate. I confess that though I had already had breakfast, I ate it all. I used the honey they gave me for it, too. It was delicious. And even though there was no poker room, I got myself a nice free travel mug and $10 just by signing up for a player’s card while I was there. Not a bad deal.

I finally arrived at Camel Rock at 10:30 on a Sunday morning.

Camel Rock has a small room that barely fits three tables. It opens to a hallway that passes right by, separating it from a small snack bar. Unfortunately, though the casino itself was open, the poker room was closed and not scheduled to open until 2:00 PM — with a tournament scheduled at 3:00. No matter. I drove off to visit points west and north (ending up in the Colorado birthplace of boxer Jack Dempsey, of all places), only to return at 2:30, figuring to play a few hands before the tournament went off.

The room was not empty when I arrived. There were four staff and two players hanging around waiting for the 3:00 tournament. I asked if they would have any live action before the 3:00 event. “Before the tournament?” the room manager asked me, incredulously. “No, I don’t think so,” he concluded.

I made my way over to the Camel Rock promotions desk and got a player’s card. It came with $10 of slot play — but you could only redeem it after you played $10 on the slots. So I went to the nearest $5 machine, played the maximum two bets at one time, won $10, and cashed out $10 to the good. Sweet!

I walked over to the restaurant, located next to the poker room, to check out their menu. They’re open Monday through Saturday from 11:00 AM until 9:00 PM and then on Sunday from 9:00 AM until 2:00 PM for brunch and 3:00 PM until 9:00 PM for dinner. Their menu ranged from reasonable on the high end (a great seafood buffet on Friday nights with sushi, clams, Alaskan King Crab and the like for $16.99) to an enormous bargain on the lower end, with “green plate specials” for $7.00. I returned later in the day, after the tournament was over, and had a T-bone steak with all the trimmings for $7.77. By my plebian standards it was excellent.

The poker room is non-smoking but it abuts a large smoking area, so cigarette smoke wafts in. A sensitive nose would detect the cigarette smoke even without active smokers. When there are folks congregating outside the poker area it becomes very annoying to anyone (like me) who doesn’t like cigarette smoke.

The tournament itself was part of the Heartland Poker League. The League is two and a half years old and includes eight casinos. Competitors win not just cash but points that can be used to qualify toward regional tournaments with large fields, large cash prizes, television coverage, and great fame and notoriety to the winners.

Our event attracted 14 people. The entry was $80, with $60 going to the players and $20 going to the house.

Three hours after it began there were three of us remaining. We agreed to a chop. Seeing as they could only award points to the final two contestants, and seeing as I would not be playing in any other league events since I was returning to Boston that week, I agreed to officially finish third while they fought it out for the points. We each won $280. I also got a nice Heartland Poker Tour hat.

After the tourney I played some $1/2 no-limit with a $300 max buy-in. The house provides a $2/hour comp for players and rakes the standard 10% with a $3 maximum. There’s also $1 taken out of the pot for the bad beat.

In general, the level of play was pretty poor, though there were two players who seemed to know what they were doing. No one was too serious about either the cash game or the tournament.

The room itself was crowded, the lighting pretty poor, the chairs about average in comfort, the table, chips and cards relatively new. It was one step up from the truly crummy poker room at Cities of Gold Casino, about five minutes down the way from Santa Fe.

The main problem for me at Camel Rock would be making sure that there was a game when I wanted to play. I’d suggest calling ahead whenever you were thinking of playing there. I’d play again if I were in the area. And the area is so beautiful that I relish a return before too long. Oh, and if you can, try to be outside during sunset. It is truly a spectacular site to behold.

Camel Rock Casino
17486A – Hwy 84/285
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87506
(800) GO-CAMEL
(800) 462-2635

pokernews.com

The new Austrian state site runs on the Boss Media network and began taking registrations yesterday morning, both for real-money play and four special €5,000 introductory freerolls available to Austrian citizens, an ad for which was prominently displayed on the site’s front page.

The online site also offers an extensive selection of lottery and casino games, all served up
under the auspices of Österreichische Lotterien GmbH, the official Austrian lottery, along with Casinos Austria, the other government agency authorized to offer online games of chance, and itself a majority owner in Österreichische Lotterien. Casinos Austria also advertises its land-based poker options on the site, including an upcoming 2008 Austrian poker tour. The site also includes how-to videos and other instructional offerings and upsells the game of poker, with early indications showing strong opening-day registration; well over 2,000 live players were noted as active on the site within 24 hours of its grand opening.

Worth watching in future months will be the Austrian government’s attitude toward privately run gaming companies, such as Bwin, which is one of Europe’s largest brands and is itself incorporated in Austria. Attempts to make win2day.at into an online monopoly for the Austrian market would run the risk of drawing European Union ire, as has happened recently with Sweden.

pokernews.com

Recent stories on YLE News and in Helsingin Sanomat, a major Finnish newspaper, reported that Finland’s Minister of Culture and Sport, Stefan Wallin, has called for a state-run online poker room. Any such state-run room would likely fall under the auspices of one of two state-run operations currently overseeing similar matters, either the state gaming monopoly, Veikkaus Oy, or the Finnish Slot Machine Association, Raha-automaattiyhdistys (RAY).


In a blog post, Wallin pointed to the profits made by Internet-based companies as justification for his proposal. “With the increase of online gambling, the number of problem players will just grow, while most of the profits flow to firms based in tax havens,” Wallin wrote. “A better solution would be to allow one of our national lawful operators, Veikkaus or RAY, to take the responsibility for Net poker.”

Officials for RAY and Veikkaus Oy were quick to support the concept. According to RAY’s communications director, Matti Hokkanen, “RAY, just like the government, has set the maintaining of this exclusive right in Finland as an important goal.” RAY currently has a market exclusive on land-based slot machines and casino activities in Finland.

However, one Finnish official quickly dismissed Wallin’s proposal. In an STT (Finnish news agency) report, government council member Kari Passo, from Finland’s Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, said, “Domestic games would simply make everything even easier for gaming addicts.” It was this Finnish agency that commissioned a widely reported ‘white paper’ last week that suggested voiding all online-gambling debts as one of several possible remedies for curbing ‘problem’ online gambling. A state-run room is also likely to come under international scrutiny, in the European Union and elsewhere.

pokernews.com

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

pokernews.com

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

pokernews.com

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

pokernews.com