Vegas Thurs Night

Treasure Island Poker Room

8pm. Looking for some good poker action,

we decided to head over to TREASURE ISLAND.

I had heard good things about TI’s poker room.

Well run, good comps ($2/hr), lots of fish, etc.

They were in the midst of their 7pm tournament

and only had a single $1/3 table going.

First Impression: very nice room, like it.

20 minutes later, they started a 2nd $1/3

($500max) table and was seated.

Didn’t take me very long (played for 20 minutes)

to figure out this wasn’t where I’d be spending

my poker time in vegas. The table was VERY

aggressive and obviously very skilled.

There was only myself and one other guy

who were not local full time players or shills

(players employed by the casino). I wasn’t sure

if I was the fish, or the other tourist guy was,

so I cashed out my chips before I found out.

Floor manager Michelle was super friendly

(not to mention attractive) and TI had

the fastest dealers of the whole trip.

Headed back downtown to the EL CORTEZ.

A very smoky casino. Has that old school vegas

feel to it. It was very busy, lots of older folks.

There were 2 limit tables going, Old rocks vs.

Old donks. If you dont mind the smoke,

a very cheap place to stay ($30-60/night).

Café was closed, so we went over to

Boyd's CALIFORNIA casino and the

Market Street Café. Probably my favourite

(cheap, good value) place to eat in Vegas.

Late night specials 11pm-9am like their

$2.95 breakfast (2eggs, 2bacon, 2toast, hashbrowns)

& the $4 chicken fingers (3 big ones) w/ fries.

Friendly service, 2 can eat for $12 including

drinks and taxes and always leave full & satisfied.

Their $6 breakfast buffet is great too,

I just have a hard time getting up and active

before 11am, so its usually when I’ve been up

all night and stumble in there around 6am.

Went back to home base at the SAHARA

to play some $1/3 NL poker. Sahara has

some of the oldest dealers in vegas.

Half of them are named Bill. Avg age 55-60 ?

The one guy said he’d been dealing poker

for 43 years …lol.

I wasn’t in on it but there was a hand

where the dealer (and floor) made an error.

Hand played out like this:
X1 raises to $12 (+9)

Y2 raises to $32 (+20)

Z3 raises ALL IN to $48 (+16)

X1 calls $48 (36 more)

Y2 raises ALL IN to $400
Even though I’m not in the hand,

I’ve seen a couple of the dealers misread

the board and attempt to award pots

to the wrong person, so I suggest to the

dealer that Y2 cannot make the 2nd raise,

just call because Z3’s ALL IN was not a

full raise (atleast equal to the previous raise),

therefore this did not reopen the action

for Y2 to raise again.

Y2 claimed it was legal because her raise

was atleast 50% of the previous raise.

The dealer agreed, but called the floor over

to make a final decision. Floor manager agreed

that as long as the raise was 50% more

than the previous raise, the raise was legal.

Citing the questionable rule knowledge

of the poker room staff, the mediocre dealer

skills, and worn out cards, I picked up my chips,

cashed out, and headed up to the room for

some shut eye. (didn’t return to the sahara

poker room after that)