mid- to low- stakes no limit games in vegas...where?

[Ghazban]

I've heard that the Luxor game is often pretty beatable but I'm a little concerned about how it'll be on the weekdays when I'm there as opposed to a weekend (where all the games are probably good).

[msk]

The Luxor, Excaliber and Mandalay Bay are all owned by the same Casino Co (mandalay Co.) and connected by walkways. I stayed at the Luxor last week, here is what I found:

1. Luxor: $50 buy in NL game. Plays about 50% of the time. Very loose, very easy to win. Horrible players. But pretty low stakes and hit and miss.

2. Excaliber: $100 buy in NL game. Seemed to be on all the time (more or less). Very tight when I played, and the room managers at all 3 places confirmed that it is often that way. I wouldn't bother with it.

3. Mandalay bay: $200 buy in NL game. Often with a must move second table. When you are below $100, you can buy another $100. Stacks were often large, I got to $700-800 on almost all my trips there, and others had $1000 or more many times. Many players are terrible, too agressive, trying to pick off scared tourists; or scared tourists. No waits when I was there and convenient.

Excellent dealers at the Mandalay in my opinion.

I strongly recommend it. I folded preflop more than 85% of the time. People still gambled with me when I raised preflop, and called when they were drawing dead on the turn. I saw many strange (bad) plays, like a dealer from another casino who I was talking to, and who was making incredible suckouts, but then who remembered hole cards from his last hand (not this one!) and went in for about $350 against the nuts which he thought he had, but alas, he had 73o on THIS hand, which was the anti-nuts. He sure steamed after that. Tilt Tilt.

I played so tight (with bad preflop cards) that I did not call once (it was always raised preflop) on one dealer's down. He said to me "You CAN gamble, sir" I laughed and laughed. No one else thought it was funny. But one or two hands will get you up $300-400 instantly.

Mark Krieger

[Khern]

THe Luxor game is really wierd. It has three blinds, at 2-1-1, with a $50 min/max buy-in. If you go below $50, you can buy $50 more, but you cannot simply tip a buck, and rebuy. You have to blind yourself... So don't sit down and get a good hand.

The Mandalay Bay 2/4 ($200 min/max) game is supposed to be really soft. The Palms 2/5 ($100-$500) game can get a little aggresive at times. I've heard that Monte Carlo just started a 2/5 game which is supposed to be good. I haven't confirmed this, and I was kinda shocked when I heard it, since I've seen their room.

I like the Excalibur's 1/2($100 min/max) a lot. No experiance with Bellagio or mirage NL games. Nor have I played the NL at Bally's

Binions game (1/2 I think) has no cap so it may be good to practice a deep stack game.

All of that said, I'm not the most experianced NL player, but most of these opions have been echoed by better players.


-John