Las Vegas News & Notes

I arrived home Monday night after spending 6 days in Las Vegas. The official Trip Total was -$67 before expenses. That may seem like it wasn't too bad, but it was a very frustrating and disappointing trip. But more on that in a different post.

I documented my trip via Twitter this time. If you're interested in the details, check out my Twitter page. The whole trip was almost 100 tweets, so you'll need to scroll down a ways before you start reading.

I plan on doing 4 or 5 blog posts surrounding my trip. This one will be News & Notes concerning the poker scene around Las Vegas.

- Starting Monday, December 17, all Caesars' properties will be merging their promotions into one Mega Bad Beat Jackpot, similar to what they do in Atlantic City. It will start at $200,000. The qualifying hand is Quad Aces beaten. As the jackpot grows, the qualifying hand will slowly drop. The jackpot award 10% to the Winner, 20% to the Loser, and 70% to Share across all rooms playing that game. (Not 100% sure on all detail, so don't quote this as fact.)

And when I say all Caesars' properties, that also includes Harrah's Laughlin and Harvey's Lake Tahoe. Also, I assume all other promos (High Hands, Aces Cracked, Free Rolls, etc.) will be reduced or eliminated to fund the Mega Bad Beat. I wouldn't be surprised if Caesars eventually raises the Jackpot to $2 instead of the current $1.

So look for the Mega Bad Beat Jackpot to be near $500,000 during the WSOP.

- Bill's Gambling Hall will be closing on Feb 4. Caesars is doing a major renovation on the property, and turning it into a boutique casino. I'm guessing they will try to copy the success that Cosmopolitan has had over the last two years.

I went over there to get a chip for my collection, and the topic of the closing naturally came up. One of the Floorpersons in the Pit said that all the employees received a letter stating their jobs are being eliminated, and they will not be transferred to other properties. However, they can apply online for any job openings, which there are only a handful in the Las Vegas area.

All Hail The Mighty Caesars!

- Speaking of changes to the Caesars' empire, the Imperial Palace is undergoing a renovation, and is changing their name to The Quad, or The Q. I'm not sure when the name change will be official, but there are already many signs with the Quad name on them, and Bravo Poker Live changed to "The Quad Resort and Casino" when I was out there.

The construction is nowhere near complete, and they haven't done much with the inside other than the sign changes. I was told there will be a new poker room in the new section. The current poker room is buried up on the 3rd floor, next to the sports book. It's basically dead, except for a small turnout for their Daily Donkaments and the Sunday night $3/$6 Mixed Game.

- Next door, Harrah's closed their poker room last week, and moved it the other corner of the casino, near the Party Pit and the buffet. The new location is horrible. It's smaller and the tables are crammed together. It's wide open, so there is smoke coming from the Pit. At night, the noise level is unbearable, as there always at least one Pit table going "WHOOOOOOOOO!" This new room will chase away the few loyal locals, as they can go somewhere less noisy. I have no clue what Harrah's is doing with the old location next to the sportsbook.

On a side note, I don't understand why every casino has to have a tiny poker room. Imperial Palace The Quad and Harrah's are next to each other, and are connected in a couple of spots. Since both are getting new smaller poker rooms, why not combine them into a better room? Poker is better with less rooms with more tables running. Caesars would save money on staffing with fewer periods of time with no games running.

Another example of this would be on the south end of the strip. Excalibur, Luxor, and Mandalay Bay are all MGM properties that are connected, and all have small poker room. Why not combine them into one much better room in Luxor (the middle one), or even two rooms in Mandalay Bay and Excalibur, as NY-NY has no poker room.

I asked the supervisor at Harrah's about this, and he said that we are actually competing with other Caesars properties, so combining would not make sense. Naturally, I asked him why are they combining promos for the Mega Bad Beat. He never really answered that question.

- Speaking of new rooms, The Orleans is renovating their poker room. I went up there, and the tournament half of the room was closed, and tables are set-up outside the room for tourneys. It looks like they are just doing a face-lift to the room, and they are doing it in two parts, so they don't cause too much of a disruption for the rest of the casino.

- Finally, Aria is thinking "outside the box" by introducing Multi-Action Poker. Pokerati did a write-up on it, as well as posted a video of the first day trial run.

Before I rip this idea apart, I want to give credit to the Aria for trying something different. Most poker rooms are afraid to try anything involving the terms "Variety" or "Experiment", so it's good to see a poker room with some kahonas.

Having said all that, this has no prayer of success. The main reason is because this idea is only for grinders who used to play online, and not the casual player (tourist). If a game doesn't draw on the casual player (tourist). then it won't last. That why Mixed Games are so rare in poker rooms. The casual players (tourists) have no interest in playing Stud-8 or Triple Draw. And they sure as hell don't want to stare at two different Flops, and have two different sets of chips to play with.