Mini Vegas Trip Report - Excalibur

[nbb]

Had my first experience playing HE in a real Casino on Sunday at the Excalibur. Sat down at the 2-6 table at about noon with what seemed like locals who knew everyone at the table and they all played no-raise poker. Played exactly 3 hands the first 3 rounds (all from the blind) and won 1 with the high powered 7-3 offsuit when 33x fell on the flop.

Once the afternoon hit, the table makeup seemed to change. The tourists showed up, the pots got bigger and I started getting some cards [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]. The $$$ in the hands I lost were kept low simply because the person with the nuts never raised. My AJo lost to AKo who never raised on ANY street (A on flop). My two pair lost to a Grandma with a flopped set (floppy set???) who never raised anywhere either. She nailed my set of queens later in the day when she rivered a straight but never raised me on the river either.

Raising hardly ever knocked people out of a hand once they had a bet in. It was amazing to see 6 people limp in at $2 and then call my $6 raise, and then go all the way to the end with K3o calling all the bets or check raises along the way! I also enjoyed the players berating others of their playing J3o by someone who had their K6o cracked!

I never got to spin the wheel (never had AA in 6 hours!), but one of the locals got to spin it twice in about 30 minutes, winning $75 once. I wound up 40+ BB after about 6 hours of play. Too bad I had the wife with or my butt would have been permanently attached to that chair!

Cheers,
NBB

[MisterKing]

interesting report -- were they spreading a NL game while you were there? I've heard they have $100 max buy in NL, but pokerupdate.com says its $100 minimum (big difference!). Also, how was the rake in the 2-6? Thanks!

[Oblivious]

[ QUOTE ]
Raising hardly ever knocked people out of a hand once they had a bet in. It was amazing to see 6 people limp in at $2 and then call my $6 raise, and then go all the way to the end with K3o calling all the bets or check raises along the way!

[/ QUOTE ]

I was worried that Vegas would be full of tough games. It took several hours of playing in different locations before i saw everyone fold to the blind. Its definately full of loose passive games at low limits.

[nbb]

When I first got there, they had 1 1-3 table, 2 2-6 and 1 $100 NL going. By 6 PM, most of the tables in the room were full so I would assume that there were other NLs going. But, since I don't play NL, I didn't pay any attention to it....

I also didn't track the rake [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]. I guess I spent too much time watching drunk guy build his towel of Babel. The dealers did a weird thing with quarters based on the size of the pot but I could never figure out what they were up to. Maybe somebody with more Excalibur experience can explain it???

Cheers,
NBB

[BigBaitsim (milo)]

They take portions of the rake in quarters sometimes. Really annoyed me though, because I'd get a pot pushed to me with 73 blue chips and 3 quarters. Fortunately, this happened a lot [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img], and I used the quarters (usually 2 to 4 of them at the 4/8) for dealer tips. The dealers generally converted the quarters back to chips when they could, so they kept chips as tips and tossed the quarters back in the pot. Sheesh.

And hardly anyone who limped in for the $2 BB at the 4/8 ever folded to the $4 raise, except the eminent Mr. Capone of 2+2 fame and myself.

[jmark]

If there's $5 in the pot on the flop, taking a $1 chip is too much rake so they take quarters.

The obnoxious thing is when people keep their quarters and then start betting and raising with them, sometimes there's $5 in quarters in the pot. It's not video poker guys!

[MrBlini]

We were told in the NL games that quarters play to make up the blinds only. Get rid of them that way. It has the added benefit that the pot starts with quarters in it, and they rake quarters from it. Some of them actually disappear if you do this.

[Fishwhenican]

I was at Excalibur a couple of months ago and most nights had a NL game going. It was $100 buy in. no more no less, and I believe you could rebuy when you got below $50. I didn't play myself but I watched it a couple of times and it seemed to be a fairly tight game compared to the loose 1-3 game which was a lot of fun and ended up being profitable as well.

[MisterKing]

Ok, so its not $100 minimum, as www.pokerupdate.com would suggest. Thanks for clarifying.

[steamboatin]

I played at the Excaliber once but didn't like the 1-3 game at all. I thought the 2-6 was more fun and more profitable. I didn't get to spin the wheel either. You don't get to spin the wheel from the 1-3 game unless it has changed recently.