Vegas Poker Scene--March 2017 Ante Up Column

Must Read Column!!!!  

Ok, it's not exactly must-read.  I mean, the world won't end if you don't read it. But I just want to let you know that even if you normally don't read my Ante Up Columns, I sure would like you to read this one.  or at least the first couple of paragraphs.

You see, I'm especially proud of this one.  I managed to figure out a way to get a very subtle (but meaningful) dig at all those Strip casinos that are charging for parking!  Yes, that issue I've been ranting about for nearly a year now finally made it into one of my columns for Ante Up.  I honestly wasn't sure if my editor would let it run when I submitted the column last month.  But he did and now it's out there in a mainstream publication.  I'm very pleased.

The link for it on the Ante Up website is here.   Remember, my contribution is embedded in the entire West Coast report.  So below is just my Vegas report.  The magazine should be in your local poker soon if not already.

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Stations Casinos always have been popular among the Las Vegas locals. Tourists often have ventured away from the Strip and downtown to enjoy them, too. But now you can expect Stations poker rooms to attract even more tourists. As you may have heard, many casinos on the Vegas Strip began charging for parking last year.

You can expect virtually all of them to have parking fees in the near future. The locals casinos insist they’ll continue to offer guests free parking. This only affects the visitors who drive in from neighboring states or rent a car when in town, but if you do have a car while visiting Vegas, you may want to consider the Stations casinos as great options to stay and play.

The chain is once again offering the Jumbo Hold’em Progressive Bad Beat Jackpot. There are three stages for the jackpot prize. When the jackpot is less than $50K, it’s split among the players at the table where it’s hit. When the jackpot is $50K-$75K, it’s split among all players in the poker room. And when the jackpot exceeds $75K, every player in all of Stations poker rooms at the time earns a share of the prize.

The money is awarded as follows: The loser of the hand gets 50 percent, the winner gets 10 percent and the remaining players eligible split 40 percent. The qualifying losing hand starts at quad kings and reduces in rank each time the jackpot increases by $10K.

Stations has two other property-wide promotions. Flopped quads are worth $500 on Tuesdays and Saturdays and there’s a progressive jackpot for flopped quads. As each quad is hit, starting with deuces, the next ranked quad is the jackpot hand.
Let’s take a closer look at the five Stations poker rooms.

RED ROCK: The newest room in the chain, Red Rock is in Summerlin and has 20 tables. The $1-$2 NLHE game has a $100 minimum buy-in and a $300 max. A $2-$5 game almost always runs, the buy-in is $300-$1K.

Limit hold’em is available in $2-$4 and $4-$8 flavors, both featuring a half-kill. The minimum buy-ins are $20 and $40, respectively. Players can enjoy Omaha and Omaha/8 at the $4-$8 level, both versions have a $40 buy-in and a half-kill.

Tournaments run daily at noon and Sunday through Thursday at 6:30 p.m. All have guarantees. Sunday afternoon it’s a $125 deepstack starting with 13K chips, offering 30-minute levels and a $2,500 guarantee. Monday through Friday it’s $60, a 6K starting stack and a $1K guarantee. Saturday’s $100 bounty event ($25 bounties) has 20-minute levels, a 10K starting stack and a $2K guarantee.

Sunday evening is a $60 buy-in with 7K starting stack, 20-minute levels and a $2K guarantee. Mondays and Thursdays offer a $100 bounty event ($25 bounties), 10K starting stack, 20-minute levels and a $3,500 guarantee.
Tuesday and Wednesday it’s a $60 bounty tourney ($15 bounties) with 6K starting stack, 20-minute levels and a
$1K guarantee. All tournaments have a $10 optional add-on for 2K chips. Hitting quads in any tournament earns a free entry into a future tournament.

GREEN VALLEY RANCH: The 22-table room is Henderson. The $1-$2 game is $100-$300, and the $2-$5 is $200-$500. The busy $2-$4 limit game has a $20 buy-in. It also regularly runs a $3-$6-$9 limit game; it’s $3-$6 but the bet on the river is $9. It has a $30 buy-in. There’s also hold’em and Omaha at the $4-$8 level, a $40 minimum buy-in.

A $45 tournament runs daily at 10 a.m., starting with 3K chips and 20-minute levels. An additional $5 gets $1K extra chips. There is an $800 guarantee. There’s also a high-hand bonus for quads or better in the tournament.

SANTA FE STATION: The 14-table room is in the northwest part of Vegas. The limit action is $2-$4 ($20 minimum) $3-$6 ($30 minimum) and $4-$8 ($40 minimum). The room spreads $3-$6 Omaha ($30 minimum). The buy-in for the $1-$2 NLHE game is $100-$500.

There are two $50 tournaments daily. They all have a 6K starting stack, a $20 add-on for 4K chips and 20-minute levels. The tourneys run at noon, and Sunday through Thursday at 7 p.m. (Fridays and Saturdays at 6 p.m.). There are high-hand bonuses and a bad-beat jackpot for the tournament.

BOULDER STATION: The 11-table room is on Boulder Highway and is known for its wild $4-$8 Omaha game with a half-kill. The minimum buy-in is $40. The limit games come in $2-$4 and $4-$8 varieties ($20 and $40 minimums, respectively), the latter featuring a half-kill. The $1-$2 NLHE has a $50-$300 buy-in.

The room doesn’t run any regularly scheduled tournaments.

PALACE STATION: The nine-table room is the closest Stations casino to the Strip, just west on Sahara Avenue. There are no tournaments here and the room specializes in limit and spread-limit games. The $2-$6 spread-limit game has a $30 minimum buy-in and the $2-$4 game with a half-kill has a $20 minimum.

MONTE CARLO: The poker room has closed.

VENETIAN: Deep Stack Extravaganza runs March 27-April 16 and will offer $1.4M-plus in guarantees. The biggest event is the $1,600 SuperStack starting the first of its three starting flights April 6 and concluding with Day 3 on April 10. It starts players with 30K chips, has 60-minute levels and a $400K guarantee.

Other big events include a $400 SuperStack on March 27 with a $150K guarantee (three starting flights) and a $250, four-starting flight event with a $150K guarantee that starts April 11.

The Venetian also is offering a March Weekend Extravaganza March 14-19 with $340K in guarantees. A $600 SuperStack starts the first of its three starting days on the March 16 and offers a $200K guarantee.