Chicago area casinos
 

Looking to make the hike out to one of the 2 big casinos in my area Trump Indiana, or Resorts East Chicago. They are both about a 1 hour drive from my area, so travel is not really a concern.

How are the cash games at each place? What limits/games does each place spread?

Mostly looking to play in a good live tournament. Not looking to spend too much on this, but will spend a reasonable amount.

I know Trump has 2 weekly $100 tournies, one on Monday afternoon, and one on Wensday night. How are these? Good structure? Good/Bad players? What is the typical prizepool? How many hours can I expect to play if I win one of these? And Which day is better to go?

I don't know if Resorts East Chicago has any weekly tournies. Do they? If they do, how much are they? (and same q's as above)

And finally which place would you reccomend going to and what day?

Thanks for your help.

Re: Chicago area casinos
 

You'll find the answers to most of these at:

The Poker Wiki.

The Trump tournament structures are pretty bad. $85+15 gets you T400 with an optional rebuy for $40 which gets you another T400. So, T800 to start. You can rebuy when you're below T400 for $40 or do a double rebuy when you are broke. There's an add-on at the end of the first hour for $60 gets you, as I recall T800. Levels are 15 minutes. After the rebuy period, it's a crap shoot mostly. However, the players are terrible, so you can get lucky. Usually around 140-150 players with the final table being paid. I don't recall the prize pools - my only cash was in a special tournament there that had a much larger prize pool than normal.

I believe the Resorts weekly tournament is on Thursdays and is like $330 or so. Call for details.

Where you play depends on the limits you want and how claustrophobic you are. Also, whether you are immuno-suppressed in any way.

If you want lower than 5/10, then Trump is your choice. If you want abundant higher limit action, Resorts is your choice. If you don't like small spaces, don't play at Resorts (I'm not kidding here). If you have any germ issues, the Trump chips are filthy; I know all poker chips are filthy, but Trump's take the cake, so to speak.

Regards,

T

Re: Chicago area casinos
 

I've only played at Hollywood and Trump. Hollywood doesn't spread NL while Trump has the following;

3/6 Limit
4/8 Limit (sometimes with Kill)
$200-max NL
$1000-max NL

The NL games are excellent and the last (2) trips I was there the $200-max NL ran for 24-hours.