Party Poker Man

If you want to experience live poker action at the gambling Mecca of the world, here is a guide to the top poker rooms in Las Vegas. You can read here updated info on each of the recommended Las Vegas poker rooms including their game variety, limits and tournaments.

1) Bellagio Casino and Hotel
If you want to experience Las Vegas poker action and hang out with pros, the Bellagio is the casino for you. It is one of the classiest poker rooms available in Las Vegas. It is so popular that you might find yourself spending over an hour at the waiting list and then find yourself stuck with a bunch of enthusiastic amateurs.

The games offered are Texas Holdem, Omaha and stud games, and you can also join one of the tournaments, but note that this involves playing No Limit Holdem. As for the table limits for the regular games, these are as follows:
a) Limit Holdem: 48, 816, 1530, 3060, 60120, 75150 pounds and up.
b) No Limit Holdem: 200 pounds buy ins with 25 pounds blinds.
c) Omaha: 612, 1530, 2040, 3060, 50100 pounds and up.
d) Stud Poker: 15, 48, 816, 3060, 75150 pounds and up.

2) Mirage Las Vegas
If you are tired of waiting for a table at Bellagio, the poker rooms at the Mirage can be an acceptable alternative. It resembles Bellagio’s with its luxurious atmosphere, variety of games and its huge popularity among pros as well as tourists.

The games offered are Texas Holdem and Omaha, Stud and as the Bellagio, playing in a tournament means getting involved with No Limit Texas Holdem. As for the limits of each table in a regular game, they are:
a) Limit Holdem: 36, 612, 1020, 2040, 4080 pounds.
b) No Limit Holdem: between 100 and 500 pounds buy ins with 25 pounds blinds.
c) Omaha: 510 pounds.
d) Stud Poker: 15, 510.

3) Excalibur Las Vegas
If you want to play in a less stressful environment, check out the poker room at the Excalibur casino. You can play spread limit Holdem with the lowest limits available on the Strip and enjoy beginners friendly rules such as limitation on three raises. The room has been renovated recently and the poker tables and seats are very comfortable.

At the Excalibur, you can play Texas Holdem or 7 Card Stud, and the limits are slightly lower:
a) Limit Holdem: 13, 26 pounds.
b) No Limit Holdem: 100 pounds buy ins with 13 pounds blinds.
c) 7 Card Stud: 15 pounds and up.

4) Binions’ Horseshoe Hotel and Casino
If you want to play at the same room where the first WSOP took place, you must visit Binions’ poker room. Although the www.gambling-portal.comcasino has been renovated and went through many changes since the days of Nick the Greek, the ghosts of the past still haunt the place, but in a good way.

Here too you can play Texas Holdem, No Limit Holdem in their own tournament, Omaha and Stud games for the following limits:
a) Limit Holdem: 24, 48, 1020 pounds.
b) No Limit Holdem: 100 pounds minimum buy ins with 12 pounds blinds.
c) Omaha: 48 pounds.
d) Stud Poker: 15.

5) Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino
If you want to follow in the steps of the 2006 WSOP champions, check out the Rio poker room. You might be surprised from the size and the small variety of games, but the thought of sharing the same location with contemporary gaming legends adds a certain appeal to it.

Other than taking part in the tournament where you can participate in some No Limit Holdem, you can pick from Texas Holdem, 7 Card Stud, Omaha or a few other variations according to what players request. The limits are as follows:
a) Limit Holdem: 24, 36, 48 pounds.
b) No Limit Holdem: 100 pounds minimum buy ins with 25 pounds blinds.

50 Hands A Day:
Whenever I am getting ready for a poker tournament I try to play at least 50 hands, every single day in an online poker room and on the weekends I go to the casinos and play 100 hands a day and sometimes I play right thru the day and the night The more hands you play the better you will be when the day of the tournament arrives. Laying more hands will allow you to feel more confident when you get to the tournament and you will have a better feel for how difficult it is to make specific hands

Poker tournaments are not quick games. a poker tournament can take more then 12 and some games can go for 2 days, dont worry they give you a break to sleep. Just from spending so much time at a poker table can take its toll on your mind and body. Therefore it is important to take good care of your body for at least the last 2 or 3 weeks leading up to the tournament. This will help you keep your mind focused on the game. After all if you were going to be in a car race you would maintain your car right?

Fuel for the Body:
Many people like to fill up before a poker tournament because they do not want to get hungry during the game, but eating a big meal before hand can cause you to need to go to the bathroom during the game. This is bad because it will break your concentration. If you have to hold it in you are thinking about not making a mess and can start to make bad decisions. What you need to do is to start eating well balanced meals 2 weeks before the tournament. Proper meals on a regular schedule will regulate when you have to use the rest rooms and when you will want to eat. Before the game you will know how often you will get a break and when the start time is and can create a schedule around that time table.

Work Out:
Spending so much time sitting and using your brain can be drain on your energy levels. It is very important to work out regularly. Once your body starts to feel tired your brain has already stopped working at 100%. A regular workout will stop you from falling asleep and keep you in the tournament.

Regulate Your Sleep:
By making sure you get a full night sleep every night and wake up at the same time every day for several weeks your body will repair itself faster, and the schedule will help you get a better night sleep. In return this will help keep your mind working while playing in the tournament. The average human needs 8 hours of sleep. Some people can get less sleep and be fully rested and some need more sleep. Make sure to get the optimal sleep for you.

Brush up on the Fundamentals:
Before playing in a poker tournament especially if there are big stakes involved it is always good to go back and relearn to play. Many poker players like to read books on poker tips and tricks as well as different strategies, and before going to a tournament you should bone up on all these things again. It is also good to watch as many poker games as you can. This will help you study the players and break down their strategies. If you can break down the strategies of the other players you will have a big advantage over them.

Following these recommendations have helped give me an advantage during several poker tournaments and the more I play, the closer I get to winning the pot of gold.

The limits tell you two very important things: how much money you need and what type of opponents you’ll face.

A good rule of thumb for a starting bankroll is 20 times the “big bet,” so if you were playing 36 Hold’em, you should buy in for 120. You can buy chips from a cashier, or an attendant will bring them to you at the table.

Low-limit games tend to be populated by locals who play very conservatively. You’ll find these games mostly at the Downtown and off-strip poker rooms like Binion’s and Palace Station. There’s not a lot of action, and the rooms aren’t very inviting.

High-Limit and No-Limit games (1530 and above) are the realm of “Rounders,” professionals who make their living playing poker. The Bellagio is Las Vegas’ premier high-limit room. Unless you can stomach losses measured in the thousands or have a lot of poker experience, it’s best to avoid these games.

The best bet for the casual player is the low- to mid-limit. These games offer nice surroundings and players with varied experience levels, which translate into friendly games with lots of action.

Once you decide where to play, be sure to budget plenty of time. Cause sometimes, the wait can be well over an hour.

The game itself demands a lot of time too. Despite what you see on T.V., the vast majority of your time is spent mucking your cards.

The good news is that your money lasts a long time. Only the two players to the immediate left of the dealer are forced to ante each hand: a “small blind” equal to half the lower betting limit and a “big blind” equal to the lower limit. A full table has 10 players, so even if you folded every hand in a round, it would only cost you 1.5 times the lower limit: 6 in a 48 game. 10 bad hands at a blackjack table will cost you 100 in a fraction of the time.

There are some other casino-related costs to consider, however.

In exchange for the safe environment, fair game and free drinks, the poker room charges a commission called the “rake.” This is typically a percentage of each pot up to a set maximum. In the 24 game at Binion’s, the rake was 10% up to a maximum of 4. So the house always wins, but at least it’s only when you do too.

The dealers depend on tips for a large portion of their income. While not mandatory, 3% of your winnings are considered standard.

If you don’t have time for all this mucking and raking, and just want a quick shot of No-Limit Hold’em excitement, then tournaments are the way to go. Tournaments allow you to play with a lot more chips than you could otherwise afford, use a rapidly increasing blind structure to speed up the action, and offer the chance to win thousands of pounds.

For 130 to 330 (depending on the day of the week), players get 500-750 in tournament chips and play until someone has them all. If less than 50 people enter, the top 5 finishers share the purse; if more than 50, the top 9.

If that sounds like too much to risk on the long odds of beating 50 other players, show up at the poker room at 1 o’clock to sign up for a satellite. These 1-table mini-tournaments last about an hour and are the best poker value in Vegas. For 35 to 75, 10 players receive 300 in tournament chips and the top 2 finishers win a seat in that night’s main event.

So the next time you’re in Vegas, talk to a brush and tune in to a satellite. It may not be exactly like T.V., but it’ll sure feel like it.