Месяц: Март 2014

During June, The Orleans poker room will be featuring Rack Or Stack Attack drawings. Beginning after 12:01 a.m. on Monday, June 3, $100 will be awarded every hour to a random seat. The drawings will take place during the first three consecutive Monday through Thursday’s in June (6/3-6/6, 6/10-6/13, 6/17-6/20).
The winner will receive a rack of $1 chips if playing in a Limit Hold’em game, or a stack of $5 chips if playing in a No Limit Hold’em game. The amount will double ($200) between the hours of 2 a.m. to noon, and 4 to 8 p.m. The winning seat will be randomly selected from all “live” Texas Hold’em games currently in progress at the time of the drawing and there is no limit to the number of times a player can win!
Players must be logged in at the table with their B Connected rewards card. Any new player entering a game must have taken at least one hand in order to be eligible. Players who have missed their blind, or are in “lobby” mode (paused), will not be eligible to win. Players temporarily away from the table and not in “lobby” mode will also not be eligible.
If the seat drawn is in “lobby” mode, another seat number will be drawn until a winner is produced. If the seat drawn is not in “lobby” mode, but the player is away from the table, they will await the players’ return and award the prize at that time.
Station Casinos: All properties will be hosting a $300,000 Poker Plus Tournament. The qualification period began April 15 and continues through Saturday, June 15. The tourney will be held at Texas Station, June 29-30. The actual time will be posted in each poker room after the qualifying period ends.
During the qualifying term, up to 45% of each properties’ Progressive Poker rake will go into the tournament fund. The total payout will be a minimum of $300,000. If the rake collected is less than $300,000 the difference will be provided by the properties. All amounts collected will be distributed to players in the tournament.
To qualify, a minimum of 50 hours of live poker play must be logged during that period. After doing so, that person will be issued $1,400 in non-negotiable tournament chips prior to the start of the tournament. Management will assign players seating positions and tables. As the tournament progresses and seats open up as players lose all their chips, tables will be consolidated at the direction of management.
This process will continue until one player ends up with all of the tournament chips and that player will be the winner. Management will record the other players’ order of elimination to determine the other winners. The first place prizewinner will collect $40,000! Everyone who qualifies and plays gets $75!
The following Station Casinos poker rooms are participating: Palace, Boulder, Texas, Santa Fe, Sunset, Green Valley Ranch and Red Rock. Visit a Station poker room for the complete prize breakdown and a list of complete tournament details.
Good luck, and may the “nuts” be with you!

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Station Casinos and Fiestas are running $500,000 Free Super Sunday Slot Tournaments every Sunday in June from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Boarding Pass members can get one free entry every Sunday, plus earn an additional two entries for 200 same-day points each. Top 50 scores win cash every Sunday – 2,250 cash winners guaranteed. Winners have 24 hours to claim prizes. Additional information can be found at the Rewards Center.
The prize breakdown is: first place, $5,000; second, $2,500; third, $1,000; fourth, $500; fifth, $250; 6-10, $100; 11–25, $50; and 26-50, $25.
Also, Red Rock Resort and Green Valley Ranch are both offering a special Friday Night Seafood Buffet during June featuring crab legs, shrimp and many additional seafood delicacies. Price is $24.99 with your Boarding Pass card.
Boyd properties: Every Friday in June between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m., B Connected members at the Orleans, Gold Coast, Suncoast or Sam’s Town who earn 100 base slot points and swipe their card at a B Connected kiosk will receive a voucher for free Pepsi products. Each Friday’s giveaway will feature a different Pepsi product. For complete details visit the B Connected club booths.
Rampart: Every Thursday in June, the casino hosts $20,000 Free Slot Play Hot Seat Drawings from 2-8 p.m. Casino guests playing with their Resort Rewards card inserted in a machine, or playing in the table games area, are eligible to win up to $200 free slot play or $200 promotional chips in the random drawings. A winner is drawn every 15 minutes for slot players and on the 45 of each hour for table games players.
Arizona Charlie’s: Now through June 9, receive a free car sun visor when you earn 600 base slot points at either the Decatur or Boulder Highway location. There is a limit of four car sun visors per person, while supplies last. Merchandise may be redeemed through Friday, June 14. No points are deducted. Swipe at any kiosk before 11:59 p.m., Sunday, June 9, and receive a voucher to be redeemed at the Play Center. Base points only, point multipliers are excluded.
Silverton: The casino lodge is offering specialty Wednesday dinner buffets in June from 4-9 p.m. Admission is $19.99 with a Rewards Club Card or $21.99 without.
Every Wednesday in June, Seasons Buffets will offer guests a new themed dinner opportunity featuring American classics and cuisine from around the globe. Featured beverages are at an additional cost. The featured buffets are as follows:
June 5 – Tailgate Nite BBQ featuring Bud Light on Draft;
June 12 – Bourbon Street Night with New Orleans Cajun cooking featuring Bourbon Drink Specials;
June 19 – New England Clam Bake featuring Bud Light on Draft;
June 26 – Asian & Latin Fusion Night featuring Michelada and Sake shooters.
Until next week…good gaming, good eats and good luck!

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On a recent Friday evening, I was playing in a lively low-limit game at the Hustler Casino in Gardena, California. The casino was bursting over with lots of poker players anxious to prove their worth at the tables ranging from $2-$4 to no-limit stakes.
For me, it was one of those (hopefully very rare) nights when I kept making second-best hands. I was quite a bit behind when, from a middle position, I looked down at pocket Kings. Two powerful red Kings stared up at me – the second-best starting hand in hold’em!
My luck was about to change for the better, I thought (or so I hoped). We all know patience is a key trait for winning at the poker tables. I had endured to this point. Perhaps the poker gods were about to reward me. Maybe…
Preflop, I raised the bet to force out some opponents so my K-K would have a better chance to hold up to the end. I call that reducing the size of the playing field. The chance of making a set on the flop is about 8-to-1 against. Most likely the K-K will be your best hand if you get to the showdown – but you never know.
Another reason for the preflop raise is to try to force out hands like A-rag and small pairs. If many such hands stay in, your chance of winning with K-K is greatly reduced.
As it turned out, my raise didn’t get many folds. Six of us saw the flop. And what a flop it was: K-clubs, Q-hearts, J-hearts.
Starting with my two beautiful red Kings, I had flopped a set of Kings. Wow!!! I could hardly believe my eyes. An early-position player opened the betting. After two callers, I raised. I was betting for both value – hoping to build the pot size – and to thin the field a bit.
On the turn: Four of us saw the turn. The dealer calmly placed a third heart on the board. The 10-hearts was a scary card. Anyone holding two hearts in the hole for the flush, or an Ace for a straight would beat my set of Kings.
Based on the betting, I thought my three Kings were still well in the lead. Besides, I had lots of outs: A fourth King was a very long-shot; an Ace would give me the nut straight. Better yet, I could catch a full-house or a straight flush on the river. I silently prayed for the dealer to pair the board for my full-house.
When the betting was checked to me, I assumed no one had a flush or the straight; my set of Kings was still the best hand and I had so many wonderful outs. All in all, I estimated I had over 20. What’s more, my set of Kings still looked powerful. So I made the big bet. Three opponents called. No raises.
On the river: Ah that magical card that so often makes or breaks your hand – was the 3-hearts. I wasn’t pleased; a full-house would have been better. But I did hold the second-nut flush, King-high. I figured only way anyone could beat me was with the A-hearts in the hole.
With no pairs on the board, a full-house was not possible. I could only hope no one held the A-hearts. The betting was checked to me. I hesitated but I made the big bet. However, deep down I sensed one of my opponents was sitting on the big Ace of hearts.
Sure enough, the button raised me. The others folded. I knew the raiser was a loose-aggressive player, I hoped he had a smaller flush than mine as I called his raise.
Showdown: He slowly turned up the 10-clubs, and then, with a big smile, the Ace of hearts. Second-best is costly! Until the river, I had the best hand. But the best hand before the river doesn’t always win. Ah, the River.

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The poker world has responded to the recent tornado tragedy in Moore, Oklahoma.
World famed poker expert/author and longtime GamingToday columnist Oklahoma Johnny Hale arranged through The Seniors Charities to immediately donate $10,000 in 500 debit cards of $20 each to those in need.
It will be donated in the name of the Seniors Poker Players of the World.
In addition, he and his wife, Carol, expect to raise a further $50,000 during the third annual Super Seniors poker tournament event that OK-Johnny created in cooperation with Caesars Palace, to be held June 15-18 at Caesars.
Prize pool guarantee is $200,000. Hostess will be OK-Johnny’s daughter, Oklahoma Sarah Hale.
To participate contact contact OK-Johnny at oklajohnny@aol.com or phone 702-423-8801. Players must be age 50 or over to play in the event.
During the tornado peak winds were 210 mph, killing 24 people, including 10 children; and 377 others were injured. The damage is estimated to be $2 billion. In one elementary school, seven children were killed by the storm. Many homes and buildings were destroyed. President Obama recently visited Moore to observe the extent of the damage.
Hale is an Oklahoma native and first learned to play poker there when he was 19 and a college student living just a few miles south of Moore. The 1947 tornado came through the North Campus.
“I remember going out into the storm and watching the debris fly through the air,” Hale recalled. “I was young and crazy, but I did it. I walked in the tornado and talked to my lord.” – George Epstein

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Starting last Saturday, 36 seats for the World Series of Poker Main Event were up for grabs at the Rio. The 44th running of the game’s most prestigious tournament will be looking to improve upon its impressive 2012 results: 74,766 entries (second most ever) competing for more than $222 million in prize money.
This year a total of 62 gold bracelets will be handed out in tourneys that began May 29 and continue until July 15. The WSOP final table will take place Nov. 4-5 on ESPN. Also an Online Nine Champions Free Roll is scheduled for those same dates.

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A Heavenly Poker fan asked if we would write a column giving some historical background of the game of Texas hold’em. My friend, co-columnist George “The Engineer” Epstein, offered to help.
According to his book, The Greatest Book of Poker for WINNERS, the game of poker was introduced about 1,000 years ago by the ancient Persians under the name “nas.” The concept of betting was established in France during the 18th century and, shortly after, bluffing was created in England.
Over the years a lot of variations of poker have evolved, including draw poker, stud, Razz, and Omaha. None have gained the popularity now enjoyed by Texas hold’em. To a large extent, hold’em has replaced 7-card stud as the most widely played poker game.
It started in Texas
According to Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, the Texas legislature takes credit for its state, and recognizes the city of Robstown as the birthplace of hold’em in the early 1900s. This is a very small city located near Corpus Christi.
Robstown also boasts of two notable professional football players, Gene Upshaw, former NFL player for the Oakland Raiders, inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and Marvin Upshaw, former NFL player for the Cleveland Browns, Kansas City Chiefs and the St. Louis Cardinals.
At first, the game was simply called hold’em. Later it became more firmly identified with the State of Texas.
Vegas and California
As the game gained popularity throughout Texas, later, in 1967, it was introduced into Las Vegas by a group of well-known Texas poker players who enjoyed gambling – Doyle Brunson (Texas Dolly), Amarillo Slim, and Crandell Addington.
Addington was certain hold’em would surpass the game of draw poker, which was the most popular at the time. He explained: “Draw poker you bet only twice; hold’em, you bet four times. That meant you could play strategically. This was more of a thinking man’s game.” Boy, was he ever right on the money!
Initially, in Las Vegas, Texas hold’em was played only at the Golden Nugget casino in downtown. Those were the early days when the Nugget poker room sported sawdust on the floors. The location catered to the locals so the game did not gain the prominence it deserved.
Then in 1969, pros were invited to play at a poker room set up near the entrance to the old Dunes casino on the Las Vegas Strip. And they loved it – especially the money they could win from the relatively inexperienced tourists visiting Las Vegas!
When the World Series of Poker, WSOP (originally named the Gambling Fraternity Convention) began in 1968, it featured several poker games, of which Texas hold’em was just one. In 1970, Benny Binion and his son, Jack, bought the rights to the convention, renamed it and brought it to their own casino, Binion’s Horseshoe.
A Las Vegas journalist, Tom Thackery, suggested the main event be no-limit Texas hold’em; and that’s been the case since as the WSOP grew in popularity, especially after it was popularized on television. Interestingly, the WSOP had only eight entrants in 1972.
Doyle Brunson’s historic poker book, Super/System, first published in 1978, may have been the first book that included Texas hold’em, discussing the game and strategies at length. The section written by Doyle Brunson and Bobby Baldwin predicted hold’em would become the “most popular form of poker” – and indeed they were 100% correct.
Al Alvarez’ famous book, The Biggest Game in Town, published in 1983, helped to gain wide interest in poker, and especially Texas hold’em. During the 1980s, casinos in California were very much interested in Texas hold’em. However, California laws prohibited the game until 1988, when Texas hold’em was declared legal. Then the game became increasingly popular throughout the state.
Finally Europe
In the early 1980s, two Las Vegas bookmakers, Terry Rogers and Liam Flood, introduced the game into Europe, where it quickly became well accepted. And the future of Texas hold’em appears quite rosy as more and more young people are drawn to the game either for recreation or as a career.

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