No Limit is the Future!

I headed downtown to Binion’s and bought into a 2/4 game. The contrast between the current home of the WSOP, the Rio, and Binion’s where it all began, could not be more stark.

Binion’s has a dark and dingy pool-hall feel to it. There are about 25 poker tables occupying the back part of the casino, the centrepiece of which is the “Final Table” with a modest rail around it. It is difficult to imagine that this is the poker table where every WSOP Champion has been crowned dating back to 1970.

I played for about 90 minutes and enjoyed a good run of cards and cashed out a decent win.

I decided to treat myself to a good steak, and so I rode the elevator up to the roof-top restaurant at Binion’s to eat in the steak house. This was the traditional location for the celebration dinner at the conclusion of the WSOP Main Event each year, and it is an excellent restaurant with outstanding views and very good service.



I returned to the IP and got my head down for a few hours. I actually slept for a bit longer than I intended and woke up at about 1.30am and decided to walk over to the Bellagio, home of the World’s highest stakes poker games (and some 4/8 games as well!)

In the Big Game in Bobby’s room where they usual play a $4000/8000 mixed game, were Gus Hansen, Phil Laak and Freddy Deeb, as well as 4 or 5 guys that I didn’t recognise.

I played 3 hours of 4/8, and recovered from a bad start to book a modest win, to round out by far my best day of the trip so far, in terms of profit.

On Saturday morning, I had a quick swim and then drove over to World’s largest Hotel, the MGM Grand.



I sat at a 2/4 game which was slow and uninspiring. After an hour, I cashed out almost exactly level, before I died of boredom.

I decided to head back across to the Luxor to take another shot at the $50 No Limit game.

I got there just as they were opening a new table, which is perfect, as everyone starts out with $50, which means that nobody has a large stack with which to bully the table.

The play was just as weak as the previous day, and I quickly ran my $50 up to $200 before running into pocket aces and giving some back. I cashed out another nice win after two hours, with the firm intention of returning to this game later that evening.

I returned to the IP for my usual evening nap until I was awoken at 9.30pm by some idiot phoning my room on a wrong number. This turned out to be serendipitous, as I was in a very deep sleep and I might well have slept through and not got out for any late night poker.

I drove back down the Strip to the Luxor in a bit of daze to get back in action.

I am quickly becoming a No Limit convert, as tormenting the fish at the Luxor is quite addictive!

For the second time in a day, they opened a new table as soon as I arrived, so I got to sit with a table of equal stacks. I picked some good spots to bully the table and also had some nice hands held up, with the net result that I cashed out another 3 figure win in the space of 2.5 hours.

I have time on this trip for another 5 or 6 poker sessions. The way that I have run in my first 3 NL sessions at the Luxor, I would be a fool to play anywhere else.

I know that the horrible standard of play at the Luxor is not really representative of live small-stakes NL poker, but I feel that my NL game is improving significantly anyway.

I will give some serious thought to switching to NL online when I get home.