Nothing like a couple of weeks on the road to bring new life into a stale game. Going somewhere else is as good a remedy for running bad as anything else. I didn't get to Biloxi, or New Orleans - Robinsonville, MS was better than anything I read or heard about it. Imagine, poker players are customers - not just furniture to management. You have four card rooms to choose from. They all vie to offer various promotions, jackpots, and daily tournaments. Stayed three nights at the Grand. Poker rates are uniform, $25 weekday $35 weekend ($19 at the Gold Strike, but that's primarily a $3-$6 room). All you have to do is put in five or six hours a day at any limit. The Grand will give you the room for free if you do your time in the red chip game ($10-$20), but that wasn't going daily and broke up quickly on the holiday weekend. I didn't catch the $10-$20 hold'em there, but soon found the main room is at Jack Binion's Horseshoe, and moved over there. Unlike most other card rooms, you don't have to put in excessive hours to earn points towards a meal. They feed you three times a day (three hours will get you the equivalent of a $15 comp); it isn't dining - primarily the buffet trough. Piece of advice, cut back to two meals and don't try to get full value out of the buffet. You don't have to pig out, because there's always another meal coming on the house.
The games are about the softest I've seen anywhere. The Horseshoe spreads $1-$5 Stud with no ante, $4-$8 $10-$20 and $20-$40 Hold'em daily. The $4-$8 seems to go 24/7. They also had a pot limit Omaha game with $5 and $10 blinds and a $25 manditory straddle on the button that lasted three days. The Grand has a regular $3-$6 Omaha-8 game that apparently goes from about noon until midnight daily. They don't escalate the time charges for the big games, it seems to be fixed at $5 per half hour per player regardless of the structure. If you're a serious low-limit player with nothing but a bankroll and a solid game, you can make a good living playing at the Horseshoe and staying indefinately in the hotel. All you have to do is make a nut of about $40 per day. Okay so the rooms don't have any cost effective Internet access, but I don't think it will be too long before they offer some DSL or cable hookup. The only other drawback is the state bird of Mississippi, the mosquito. There ought to be some high tech way of keeping these pests out of the card rooms, but there is some compensation in mosquito related tells. These are variations on some of Mike Caro's more general and reliable weak/strong indicators. Heads up on the river against someone who makes no effort to kill one of these within obvious grasp, needs to be called or raised. Someone who makes a show of grabbing and missing (real or imaginary) has a legitimate hand. 80% reliable at $4-$8, 60% reliable at $10-$20. There's a whole category of low limit players who just call with a hand like KK the whole way, even if it's an overpair and the board is not threatening. Only a handful of players who raise for value is what I saw. You can't isolate preflop or on the flop in $3-$6 or $4-$8, but you sure can on the turn. Hardly ever saw a checkraise below $10-$20, and no one made it three bets the first six hour session at the Grand. This is as good as it gets for low-limit anywhere. I doubt this is due to the bet and four raises (Vegas rules) in effect, it's just a whole bunch of weakass weekday regulars. You get the occasional zipperhead, maniac, or drunk and the low-limit games start to get a little wild. But this seems to be limited to the Friday-Sunday crew. I didn't play any $20-$40, but put in enough time at the Horseshoe's $10-$20 (often with players waiting for the afternoon $20-$40 to begin). They are fairly solid, but most of them have the weakness of overusing the semibluff raise. You tend to get paid off on your solid hands by the extra bets on the flop and turn. A lot of fancy play syndrome, just ignore it - don't try to outplay it. Here's an example I fell for: Early position limp, folded around to my rockets in the small blind which I raise out the big blind. Heads up on the flop of Q Q 8 rainbow. I bet 10, the limper raises, I make it 30, he makes it 40. I muck my aces and he shows me T9o, probably trying to tilt me. This could have been an outstanding road trip, except for AK top pair. I think I had that situation about 16 to 20 times (always beaten), and lost $1000 with'em. No straights, no trips, no overcards on the flop, just top pair cracked. Strange sequence for AK. I had AK three times today back at Ameristar KC, and they all won big pots with top pair on the flop, flop, and turn. Go figure.
I could write on and on about the fantastic service at the Horseshoe and Grand, but those of you who play there or have been there already know anything I say will be an understatement. If you're a player and you haven't been to Tunica/Robinsonville, it's a mini Vegas only better. An absolute must stop for the road warriors, that could easily be the very best place to make a living off poker. Every solid player on this forum can consistently beat the limits I played. I'll be back, it's too outstanding to stay away. The eight hour 526 mile drive from Kansas City is almost all Interstate, and seems to go quickly. Absolutely no problem getting a room without reservations on a holiday weekend either. I should have done this sooner is my only regret. |
Tunica - The real deal, Andrew Wells, 17. Jul 2003 20:18