1st Poker Casino trip to Tunica

[Rduke55]

Hi all,
I'm making my first venture to play poker in a casino (in the past I've usually played craps, etc.) and I'm pretty much clueless.
I'll be heading to Tunica Oct 14.
Some questions I have (yes I searched but it's still hard to get the right info):
Is the poker room rate worth it? If so, where?
Is there anywhere that regularly spreads LO8 (5-10 or below)?
Any other recommendations? I'll play just about anything 5-10 or below.
Also, tournie recommendations?
Thanks in advance,
Sam

[steamboatin]

I can handle a couple of the answers.

Yes the poker room rate is definetely worth it unless you will lose more than the price of the room if you play 5 hours. If you suck at poker, it might be cheaper to pay full price and only play a couple of hours of poker per day. If you can hold your own over a 5 hour session, it is a bargain.

I understand that things have changed a little since my last trip. I would normally recommend the Gold strike because it is a lower limit room and the action was good. Rumor has it that Gold Strike now sucks so I am going with Sam's Town for low limit. The Horseshoe is the poker capitol of Tunica and the grand is next but I don't know about their low limits.

The $2-4 at Sam's town is a friendly game that seems to be full of locals. Everyone will tell you the Hollywood poker room sucks but their $3-6 was the softest game I ever played but I was only there a couple of hours on a saturday afternoon and that is too small of a sample to use.

[Rduke55]

Thanks Steam.
While I'm not the best poker player I don't think I suck. And even if I run bad I'd still lose less than if I played craps the whole time, I'm sure.
Another question on the poker room rate. I'm going with a buddy that doesn't play poker (mostly blackjack), can I get a two-bed room for the poker price or do both of us need to play? Or should I just make him get his own room?

Hey, I can take this one.

Get the Horseshoe if you can. Like the Gold Strike, the rate is $25/a night and both say you have to do five hours a day of play.

The Strike uses your tracking card to "clock in" or out but the Horseshoe does not. So, although I suggest you play here because the room is phenomenal, you won't technically have to play here five hours a day. The rate is on your hotel bill when you check in.

The Gold Strike has $3/6 O8.

I've played tourneys at the Gold Strike and Sam's Town during the Fourth of July weekend and they're pretty much like crap shoots. The buy-in isn't too much but I found myself basically all-in after a few rounds.

The Horseshoe has a decent $4/8 limit HE game and the Gold Strike's limit HE games start at $3/6. They also have a $1/2 NL game that can be pretty good.

Sam's Town has limits from $2/4 to $3/6 and $4/8. It's a smoky room but I usually make money here. Sometimes they have NL games as well.

I've also played at the Grand, its $4/8 game.

You likely won't have to pay for meals while you are in Tunica. Two hours of play gets you decent comps at the buffet or cafes/snack shops at Gold Strike or the Horseshoe, for one or two people.

The Horseshoe is awesome in that they'll take your order from the poker room and walk over to the snack shop and get you breakfast (the breakfast plate is good) or anything else (the Philly Cheese Steak is excellent). The Horseshoe's buffet is probably the best among the casinos that have poker rooms in the area.

Sam's Town uses a comp card. You get $1.20 an hour of play. I liked their buffet, as they also have Corky's BBQ.

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks Steam.
While I'm not the best poker player I don't think I suck. And even if I run bad I'd still lose less than if I played craps the whole time, I'm sure.
Another question on the poker room rate. I'm going with a buddy that doesn't play poker (mostly blackjack), can I get a two-bed room for the poker price or do both of us need to play? Or should I just make him get his own room?

[/ QUOTE ]

Only one of you has to get the room. Btw, the Gold Strike was pretty generous with its comps for $5 minimum blackjack, too. I still have a never-used $40 comp for the cafe there on my bulletin board. I came down from the poker room there after playing at 2 a.m. and sat down to play blackjack and was given the comp.

[MicroBob]

When I was at the Gold Strike the O/8 was 4/8 I believe (not 3/6).

Be careful though...they sometimes just call it 'Omaha' for short.

When I sat down it took me a few hands to figure out that we were playing O8 and not Omaha (idiot floor...am I supposed to be psychic? they ask if I want to play 'Omaha' while I wait for a hold-em seat and I say 'sure'. Is it THAT hard to remember that Omaha-Hi is usually referred to as just Omaha in the poker-universe??)


The $25/night room-rate that they mentioned is for weekdays I believe.
I think it's $35/night on weekends (when available).
It's still a very good deal if you intend on playing enough.


At the Horseshoe...virtually ANY amount of play you can ask for a free buffet (and you can ask to get it for 2 people...so your buddy gets to eat for free too).
Or you can just order stuff from the snack-bar and they'll bring you a philly-cheese steak or burger and fries right to you at the poker-table.


the gold-strike's food comps aren't quite as good as the Horseshoe where they practically TRY to force you to eat it sometimes seems.


All the non-Horseshoe places (Grand, Gold Strike, Sams Town and Hollywood) has either 2/4 or 3/6 hold-em...except for Horseshoe where their lowest limit is 4/8.


There are tons of tournaments at Gold Strike and Horseshoe these days.
Gold Strike is running 2 or 3 every single day it seems (various buy-in's and various times and structures).
The Grand is also running a bunch of tournaments all week long.


Also - Horseshoe is running a bunch of different promotions through October (giving away $50 to a random player every 15 minutes between 3p and 9p....giving out a $1k bonus for a specific 4-of-a-kind on each day, etc etc).


It is correct that 1 person getting the poker-room rate gets the whole room for that price (2 beds or 1).
that will not be a problem for you at all.


Also - I think horseshoe and gold-strike will give you a free buffet when you get a players' card.
So, for example, if you haven't played poker yet (lets say you just arrived) and you want to eat...then your buddy can sign-up for a players' card and you can get that free buffet (if they still do this).

Then, after you play a few hours, YOU can ask the poker-room manager for a buffet-comp (probably nice to tip a buck or two when you do this) and you've got dinner taken care of.

Then you (or your buddy) sign-up for the players' card at the Gold Strike when you decide to eat again and you want to try out that buffet.


(unless your buddy is a highish-roller I think it's unlikely you will be able to get a steak-house comp...but the steak-houses at the Horseshoe and the Gold Strike are both worth checking out even if you have to pay the full menu-price. GF and I had a very nice dinner at the Gold Strike steak-place).

[RunDownHouse]

A couple other small things:

If you haven't booked your room, you'll want to do so ASAP. The rooms go fast, especially for poker rates. I always try to book at least a month in advance.

The Grand has tournaments every weekend with structures slightly better than the Strike, if I remember correctly. I think every Sunday they have one with an overlay, and once a month its a really good overlay. I think. In any case, its worth calling up the Grand and asking for their tournament schedule.

[Rduke55]

[ QUOTE ]

If you haven't booked your room, you'll want to do so ASAP. The rooms go fast, especially for poker rates. I always try to book at least a month in advance.


[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, the first few places I called didn't have any Poker Rates available. I ended up getting a room at Sam's Town.

[charlie_t_jr]

[ QUOTE ]
The $2-4 at Sam's town is a friendly game that seems to be full of locals.

[/ QUOTE ]

Just that everyone knows, you WON'T be rated at the 2/4 tables at Sam's Town...no comps...no poker rate. But thats ok, because the 3/6 and 4/8 games are about the same.

By the way, this past weekend the tables weren't full of "locals" they were full of Louisianans!