[Student]

As a beginner playing 1/2 cents NL HE on PokerStars, I can merely speculate on having as a goal eventual play of NL HE in Las Vegas. I envision staying downtown, and playing there alone. Many, many times I've flown from Albuquerque to Las Vegas, arriving Sunday about noon, hopping on the bus to Downtown (fast, cheap and fun!), and staying at Binion's East Side (the old original hotel) or more lately at the Four Queens (advantage really nice rooms for $20 to $25 nightly), and playing NL Hold'em at the lowest stakes games they have. Then Friday night I'd fly back home, arriving near midnight.

Starting about 18 years ago, and ending 2 years ago, I always played craps. Presently there are no 25 cents craps tables, and precious few dollar tables downtown. Of course, this was the hallmark of Binion's Horseshoe for many years, when they were not only the place where the World Series of Poker was played, but were also the World Center of Craps, with as many as 16 tables going, all full by 3 PM in the afternoon! Those were the days of craps, but now it's all poker, comparatively...

I knew I could play craps at FitzGerald's, Four Queens, Golden Nugget, Union Plaza, Las Vegas Club, Binion's, and Fremont, just there on Fremont Street, and half a dozen other casinos just off Fremont Street. I'm sure all those places are still there. But now my game is poker, the no limit type of hold'em. Though the highest stakes I've played is 1/2 cents on the internet, I've bought all the best poker books and now I've started to read them. It's not been a problem of capitalization, but I insist on being competitive before I attempt to move up in limits. I've been looking at the B&M Forum, and I've noticed the big thing is to talk about 20/40 poker, and higher when discussing Las Vegas poker, and now I'm sitting here trying to find out if I can play NL HE Downtown Las Vegas for $1/2, $2/4, $3/6 and maybe $5/10 tops! Now that's reverse bragging, right?

I'd been at Binion's when prior World Series of Poker tournaments were held, and I respect Binion's has been big, big and big at poker! On TV I've seen both Union Plaza and Golden Nugget having poker tournaments, so I suspect their poker rooms are decent, at the very least.

So I'm sending out this request for help, concerning the Downtown Las Vegas poker scene! Which casinos have poker, which are likely to have NL HE, and what are minimum stakes I must prepare for? It would be a crying shame to put all the effort I'm putting into poker, only to find out a year or two from now, after I arrive in Downtown Las Vegas, that they simply don't have NL HE, don't you agree? It would break this old man's heart, if you really want to know!

Dave