The Arena Poker Room at Casino Arizona's Talking Stick Resort (Scottsdale, AZ) -- FAQ in OP
I figured I would start a new thread on this topic since the grand opening is Thursday April 15th at 6am. The old casino is closing at 2am on April 15th.
From what I have heard, the new room will be completely enclosed so there will be even less of a smoke smell than before.
It will have a few more tables than it currently has which is 46.
There will be restrooms located within the room from what I have heard, so no having to walk halfway through the casino to get them, or past the tempting blackjack tables š.
I will be there on opening day between 9am and 1:30pm, so I will post my observations and thoughts on it when I get to work around 2pm, and I encourage everyone else to as well.
The new era of Poker in Arizona begins on Thursday!
---
FAQ - created 2017-03-29:
Wait I heard there is no no-limit poker in Arizona 
Technically you heard correctly, we play 'spread limit hold'em'
$300 max with 1/3 blinds (buy in $100-$300)
$500 max with 3/5 blinds (buy in $300-$1,000)
in fact $500 is the maximum bet in any legal state casino.
So what can I bet? Does the betting stop at $300??
You can bet up to the max bet. So if someone bets $12, you may raise to $312, and he may reraise to $612 etc. {or $15, $515, $1015 in 3/5}
So it's not that hard to get all in.
We guess you'll see someone estopped from getting all in @once every 40 hours of live play, and most of those situation arise because people bet very little on earlier streets.
Should I know about anything that happens fairly often
Yes. Because we're technically playing limit poker, the betting is capped at one bet and 3 raises. The big blind counts as the bet before the flop [a live straddle does NOT count]. So if utg raises to $12, utg+1 reraises to $21, the next player who raises will have made the 3rd and final preflop raise, after which everyone else may only call or fold.
This is not real poker; you can't bluff š”
You cannot value bet either, because everyone know you can't bluff š
Ya I go over there when I can but it's a bit of a hike, 50min ish drive without traffic. Lone buttes like 20min, game ran into the night and was extremely good. They said it's going to be a regular game so Im optimistic.
You don’t play poker
old posters coming out of the woodwork itt
Itās crazy that that what normally would be an entry level high stakes mix game in the 20 has such a bizarre fixed rotation. Four games Iāve never heard of or played in my life. When I played this weekend it turns out the Super Stud also just added a pat hand rule, you can declare yourself pat at the beginning of the hand and get first action on all streets. Dealers were adjusting on the fly.
To the credit of room management they also are spreading 8-16 and 6-12 mix games. Not sure what games are in their rotations but they are the entry level mix games which should keep the pool of mix players more robust. Good news.
No sign of Pope, though I didnāt check out every bar stool at the bar, or the floor under them.
Room is huge. Service was still good. Fun time despite not knowing what I was doing.
Itās crazy that that what normally would be an entry level high stakes mix game in the 20 has such a bizarre fixed rotation. Four games Iāve never heard of or played in my life. When I played this weekend it turns out the Super Stud also just added a pat hand rule, you can declare yourself pat at the beginning of the hand and get first action on all streets. Dealers were adjusting on the fly.
To the credit of room management they also are spreading 8-16 and 6-12 mix games. Not sure what games are
Hi DC, you weren't by any chance known as DesertRat on other forums in the '04-07 timeframe? If so I think we played together a couple of times when I visited AZ.
When I played this weekend it turns out the Super Stud also just added a pat hand rule, you can declare yourself pat at the beginning of the hand and get first action on all streets. Dealers were adjusting on the fly.
I don't get this. Why would you want to declare yourself pat? Why would you want first action on every street? It's generally considered better to have last action, right? Could you explain this in more detail please? Thanks!
I don't get this. Why would you want to declare yourself pat? Why would you want first action on every street? It's generally considered better to have last action, right? Could you explain this in more detail please? Thanks!
Fossilman asking for strategy advice from DesertCat? What the heck is going on, is this a sign of the end times of poker as we know it?
To answer your first question, I don't know either.
To answer your second question, I still don't know. To answer your third question, yes, in every poker game I've ever played.
The only thing that makes sense is that I was misinformed or misheard, an patting actually gives you last action. But I'm pretty sure (85%) that is what I was told and what we were doing, so the dealer and table would have all had it wrong?
Note: This is the first time in 5 years that I've played any poker, in four games I'd never played before, so a lot of new information was being fed to me with a firehose, and I'm also really old now. So maybe 85% is a bit high of an estimate.
The only additional information I can add is the first person to use it patted two pair. The second time they patted trip queens. First lost, second won.
How do you pat in stud?
Does patting mean you don’t discard? If so that would make sense if you started with four very good cards. If that is correct though I don’t know how they would handle multiple people that are pat.
You still need 2 cards? What street do you get those? Do you have to flip up 2 of the cards or just one? Who chooses which are on your board (guess slightly less important since position isn’t changing)
So many questions
I played it again, and can confirm, yes, its that silly. In SuperStud you can Super Pat by keeping your starting four down cards and single up card and play it as a five card hand where you get first action every street. The Super Pat rule was allegedly put in at the request of one of the game favorites.
There is one possible benefit to it. If you forget to discard your two cards in the discard round, just say "I'm super pat, didn't you hear me?". No help if you had three bet A23s9xJx, unless you think ace high is going to be good at a four way showdown.
Also someone told me the room is trying to rebuild the 20-40 Holdem by making it a jackpot game and only rake $2 for a few months, and then (I think) only $3 for a few months more.
I played it again, and can confirm, yes, its that silly. In SuperStud you can Super Pat by keeping your starting four down cards and single up card and play it as a five card hand where you get first action every street. The Super Pat rule was allegedly put in at the request of one of the game favorites.
There is one possible benefit to it. If you forget to discard your two cards in the discard round, just say "I'm super pat, didn't you hear me?". No help if you had three bet A23s9xJx, unless you
I'm hearing they are starting that tomorrow. The game will be at the front of the room.
So bizarre, you "get to" go first on every round?
What were the other three games you had never played before?
What if two people pat? Who goes first? Left of the dealer? High card on board?
From Bravo:
"The $20-$40 Holdem Game is back like you want it!
Starting July 1st - September 1st the $20-$40 Holdem game will be take a $2 house drop and $2 HPF drop. This game will now be eligible for all house funded promotions like bad beat jackpots, aces cracked, high hands and more.
Come play in the relaunch of the most popular game in Arena Poker Room's history!"
Current status: 0 games going and 7 on list (7:45pm Mon 7/1)
Wasn't it a time game before? I can't remember for sure.
Yes, it has always been a time game since I've been playing it ('06 I believe).
They are changing it to try to re-kindle it, see above.
Yes, it has always been a time game since I've been playing it ('06 I believe).
They are changing it to try to re-kindle it, see above.
The temporary low rake may temporarily revive the game, but if they eventually go back to full rake + promo, that will be taking a lot more money off the table than previously and very likely it will start dying again.
