by Bryan Clark
Poker Strategy and Other Topics - February 2021
This Strip casino is another highly popular poker destination with a great 24-table room in a calm, relaxing atmosphere. The casino is one of the hottest poker locations in Las Vegas and easily accessible. The Aria stays busy and offers numerous options for players in both cash games and tournaments.
- More info: South Point poker room website. Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino Phone: (702) 732-5223 More info: Westgate Las Vegas poker room website. Wynn Phone: (702) 770-7654 More info: Wynn poker room website.
- Poker, in its many different forms, is one of the most common, and most strategic games on the Las Vegas casino floor. Each Poker game uses a fifty-two (52) card standard deck of cards. The cards are ranked from Ace, King, Queen, Jack and 10 through Two in descending order. An Ace may also be used as a card lower ranking than a Two in sequence.
- In this poker vlog I play 2/5 No Limit Texas Hold'em at The Bellagio in Las Vegas. Due to Social Distancing and Covid-19, some new rules are in place.
- Bellagio Director of Poker Operations Mike Williams said that the reopening of their poker room has definitely seen a positive response from players. The room ran at least 15 games throughout the day on Saturday, the Las Vegas Review-Journal writes, sometimes even more than 20. The poker space at the iconic Strip property is open 24 hours a day.
In the early evening of Saturday, January 23, I completed my fortieth survey of the poker rooms on the Las Vegas Strip.
2+2 poster ‘John Mehaffey’, who contributes to vegasadvantage.com, did an off-Strip survey.
Here’s the data for poker rooms on the Strip.
Low Ceiling
With several poker rooms shut down and those that remain open limiting the number of tables available, our last two surveys seem to have captured the ceiling for poker action during the pandemic.
Eighty-four games were surveyed for this article. In the Autumn, 2020 survey, there were eighty-eight games.
Strictly speaking, action dropped four games from the Autumn. Since the Winter surveys usually produce the biggest numbers and the Autumn surveys produce the small numbers, it’s a bit noteworthy. But, mostly I think we’re currently capped in the mid-eighties until restrictions loosen up.
Under normal circumstances, the results of this survey would be a disastrous 30% drop from the Winter, 2020 survey (the last pre-pandemic survey). But, I don’t think we’ll have a clear perspective on the damage done until after Las Vegas returns to normal.
Bellagio
The Bellagio has been consistently busy since re-opening and always has mid-stakes limit hold ‘em and a wide range of no-limit hold ‘em games available. However, for the first time in these surveys, I didn’t count a single non-hold ‘em game.
I expect the Bellagio will be able to recover non-hold ‘em action post-pandemic. It seems players always come back to the Bellagio no matter what.
Wynn
Temporarily moving the poker room from Encore to Wynn doesn’t seem to have driven players away. 1-3 and 2-5 no-limit hold ‘em games are plentiful there as well as a regular 1-2 pot-limit Omaha game.
The 20-40 stud game popped up in this survey. The already-on-life-support game of seven card stud has struggled a lot during the pandemic with little action at its old home at the Bellagio and little discussion of organizing games at the Facebook Mixed Game Poker in Las Vegas page.
Caesars Palace
Caesars Palace actually seems slightly busier during the pandemic. Perhaps shrinking the number of tables available on the Strip simply forced the remaining players to congregate at rooms that reliable have good action like Caesars Palace always does.
Venetian
The Venetian seems to have weak numbers when I randomly check Bravo. However, their tournament schedule is surely interfering with their ability to spread cash games. With the Deep Stack Extravaganza’s return, there will probably be plenty of tournament action at the Venetian but cash games will be sparse during the events
Aria
Aria was a bit slow but they have also resumed daily tournaments which should negatively impact the ability to spread cash games.
However, the 2-5 pot-limit Omaha action still remains strong and a 300-600 mixed game showed up on Table 1.
Flamingo
For the first time ever, there were no fixed limit hold ‘em games running at the Flamingo. For whatever reason, the Saturday night small takes game gravitated off-Strip. However, at other times during the week, I’ve seen 3-6 games running.
This survey was the first time only one casino on the Strip (Bellagio) has fixed limit hold ‘em running.
Sahara
The Sahara puts a lot of effort into promoting their 4-8 mixed game. It runs regularly and showed up in this survey for the first time.
Closed Rooms
The Mirage, Mandalay Bay, and Excalibur poker rooms remain closed with no certainty about their future.
Harrah’s poker room is also closed. But, I noticed it’s been taken of the Bravo website whereas the other rooms remain there. That’s a strong sign of a permanent closure. But, I’ve also watched the Imperial Palace/Linq open, close and move that casino’s poker room about a dozen times. It’s not that hard to re-open a poker room.
Off-Strip Rooms
Here’s the data for some poker rooms off the Strip.
Off-Strip Decline
Action off-Strip also had a tiny decline from sixty-nine in the Autumn, 2020 survey to sixty-six in this survey.
Again, there’s probably a ceiling in place due to closed rooms and limited tables.
Orleans
The Orleans had all its usual action. Omaha 8 or better players still come out in big numbers these days.
South Point
South Point has developed a 2-3 no-limit hold ‘em game which seems popular. Four 2-3 games were running in this survey and three were running in the last survey. It may be the first reliable 2-3 game Las Vegas has maintained.
Closed Rooms
There doesn’t seem to be any change in the status of closed rooms.
The Non Hold ‘em Games
Las Vegas Poker
Aria (3): two 2-5 pot-limit Omaha, one 300-600 mixed
Wynn (2): one 1-2 PLO, one 20-40 stud
Sahara (1): one 4-8 mixed
Orleans (6): two 4-8 Omaha 8 or better, four 8/16 O/8
Boulder Station (5): five Omaha high-only
Santa Fe Station (1): one 3-6 O/8
Wynn (2): one 1-2 PLO, one 20-40 stud
Sahara (1): one 4-8 mixed
Orleans (6): two 4-8 Omaha 8 or better, four 8/16 O/8
Boulder Station (5): five Omaha high-only
Santa Fe Station (1): one 3-6 O/8
Previous Surveys
The thirty-nine previous surveys were done on 6/28/08, 10/25/08, 7/25/09, 10/17/09, 1/23/10, 4/24/10, 7/24/10, 10/23/10, 01/22/11, 4/23/11, 7/23/11, 10/22/11, 1/21/12, 4/21/12, 7/21/12, 10/20/12, 1/26/13, 4/20/13, 10/19/13, 1/18/14, 4/19/14., 10/18/14, 1/17/15, 4/18/15, 10/17/15, 1/23/16, 4/23/16, 10/22/16, 01/21/17, 4/22/17, 10/21/17, 1/20/18, 04/21/18, 10/20/18, 01/19/19, 04/20/19, 10/19/19, 01/18/20, and 10/24/20
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