Caesars Poker Room to close for remodeling? mid July

It should be obvious why. A lot of players don’t know what the rake is and they don’t care. They are like the people playing triple zero roulette. They pay for flights, parking, overpriced rooms, resort fees, overpriced food and drinks, negative EV gambling games, etc. so an extra dollar in rake means nothing to them.

Some may prefer the promotions and/or the comp system there.

Some might be staying there and are too lazy to walk anywhere else.

Some do what their wives tell them to do, so if the wife wants to play slots at a certain casino, that’s where the husband will be.

Some prefer higher rake games because they think the games will be softer (higher rake does chase away some regs but it also attracts regs that hope for softer games).

The MGM system doesn’t give poker players much. You can’t even use the comps you get from one MGM property on another MGM property.

This! Everyone I know who plays poker at MGM properties only get comps/free rooms/etc. when they also give pit action

It's a PITA having to ask the poker room manager about my comps at each individual MGM property and have them convert an exact amount each time as well

OTOH, at places where poker is just another part of the general rewards program, consider CET, the poker play on your card destroys your theo. Degens who also play little bit of poker are far better off with the way MGM does it. Who do you think there are more of? Which ones do you think MGM is better off keeping happy.

You don't have to use your card while playing poker if you care about your theoretical. I've seen quite a few people at Caesars poker room playing uncarded for that reason. If theo is a big issue, the loss of $2/hr and 34 tier an hour probably is a good trade off while playing poker.

To begin with, the Horseshoe is run like garbage. The cocktail service is absurdly bad. It is ridiculously bad. The rulings can be random, the way thru seat new players is silly. Seats remain open way too long.

That said, judging a room by the rake is only looking at half the picture. An extra dollar of rake can more than be made up in profit if the play is bad enough. Often enough the highest raked games are populated by players who are not poker savvy enough to recognize the high rake, which means they are not poker savvy in their play either.

For example, back when the Caesars room was open and The Horseshoe (Bally's at the time) didn't offer double tier points, Bally's was a better place to play. Caesars was populated by nitty, tier points chasing regs.

Now, The Horseshoe has stupid rake and still attracts nitty regs looking for tier points. The games are soft, but not any softer than other places on the strip with lower rake.

True. But MGM method, at least at Borgata, let’s you use card and earn comps wo destroying your theo. Ofc MGM knows what is going on and could stop this but it gives them an advatage for a small cost that many never even try to cash in on.

Ya I was not judging just because of the rake, I’ve played there a lot when they first opened and it’s just a horrible experience, room is trash.
I don’t see any difference between the game quality between other properties to make up for the rake, it’s pretty much hit or miss anywhere on the strip for low stakes cash.

I would actually pay higher rake to play at Wynn vs horseshoe but yet Wynn is cheaper, it’s kind of silly.
That said mgm grand is much much worse then horseshoe somehow.

Horseshoe is heaven compared to Bellagio.

In what way? I don’t particularly like the Bellagio, but the play (at least at 1/3) the game is infinitely better than Horseshoe.

Not AFAIK. But their split system allows a normal house game degen to earn system wide benefits on degen games and poker comps playing poker. But being split the poker play doesn’t destroy the degens theo and thus their degen benes like slot free play (which can be valuable). But if comps are your goal or even a focus of your poker play i recommend shifting the focus to improving your poker. I think of any poker play related benes as lagniappe.

The CET model lumps both the degen play and poker play together. This lets you earn system wide benes at the cost of hurting your theo. As the spouse of a degen, I promise you she prefers the split model for when she wants to play a little poker. And believe me, you want her at your table. You might need to buckle up but if you hand on she will donate. I am glad she plays almost exclusively LHE. (OTOH, if she ever decided to take poker seriously, watch out as she would quickly become a boss).

To those saying, just don’t use card when playing poker. Well a few rooms don’t allow this. Others allow playing wo a player card but you are not eligible for promos

their system still has some kind of split.
last year i gave some light pit action at borgata so I had borgata comp rooms available until i burnt them a few times but no Vegas comps.
But I know legit degens who got Vegas comps purely from Borgata pit play.

I don't know much about that. I've had so much runbad the last year or two, I hardly play any hands.

Mostly I was responding to the other guy's complaints about drink service, filling empty seats, and like that. The last couple times I played at Bellagio I can't remember being offered a drink. The chiprunners would only bring chips for the rake. The dealers had to ask new players that brought chips to the table to make change. You had to show up at a new seat with your own chips, otherwise you couldn't play. You had to carefully watch the boards so that when you get passed by you can complain to the brush. The floor was often covered in garbage. You have to work your feet through it to touch actual carpet.

I played quite a bit in December at Horseshoe simply because I was close to Diamond status (and needed it), but you are spot on. The play is just as bad, if not worse, at lower raked places.

The room is run horribly and the rake is insane. Why play?

I am very curious in what way as well? Honestly, I haven't played ar the Bellagio in years (I always want to, just never make it). My memory of the room is that the room is decent (in terms of seating and cocktails), and rake, but the player can be hit or miss. Sometimes the play is great (on par with the ridiculously soft Wynn), other times the play is tougher.

LOL

What is funny? The $1/$3 and $2/$5 at the Wynn are notoriously soft. Best on the strip, especially considering rake.

LOL

yeah no.

How would people rank the softness of strip rooms right now?

I recently played Aria and it didn’t strike me as particularly soft or tough. It had a mix of OMCs, regs, and dudes paying more attention to the football game than the table. Curious what the consensus is on how it compares to the rest.

I just played at the Wynn earlier this week when I was in town scouting for a short term rentals.

I will admit that the $2/$5 games were not as soft as I remember. Lots more regs, some soft ABC regs, but many more decent to very good regs. I no longer think the Wynn $2/$5 games are soft. That I will agree.

The $1/$3 games though were stupidly soft. Almost every $1/$3 table I was at had at least one or more players who were veritable newbies. There were more regs than I remember, but they were soft regs who play ABC poker. They were very easy to play against. I was surprised at how many players were there to buy in for $3-$500 dollars and just lose it by playing almost every hand even for $20 bets.

In almost every big pot it was easy to call out hands on the showdown (or at least very narrow ranges). Hands were practically face up.

I cannot imagine there are softer lower limit games on the strip than $1/$3 at the Wynn (especially considering rake and the fact that they have a $500 buy in). If someone knows of something softer please share.

I have a decent sample of 1/3 in Vegas, mostly at Aria, Wynn and Bellagio. I play mostly nights or early mornings. In my experience Aria is by far the softest game at night, followed by Bellagio and then Wynn. Wynn for me has always been very reg heavy. Even if the regs are bad, it is still much harder to beat than Aria.

But then again, if you ask 100 players which room they prefer you will get 110 different answers.

The times I've recently played 1/3 at Wynn it had a lot of 2/5 regs. There was a lot of reg-on-reg violence. That's why I don't go back.

The softest game there was the $200 tournament.

softest game is Mandalay Bay. it can be slow and stagnant (every room can) but it is almost entirely recreational tourists. I've had a lot of really profitable sessions there.