The Arena Poker Room at Casino Arizona's Talking Stick Resort (Scottsdale, AZ) -- FAQ in OP
I figured I would start a new thread on this topic since the grand opening is Thursday April 15th at 6am. The old casin
Instead of discarding, you keep your original five cards and don't get anymore for the rest of the hand. If you super pat, you have to act first on every street after.
Just noticed this, very odd.
Who would go first if more than one player went pat?
Mini TR:
I was at CAZ this past weekend for an annual trip to Phoenix, my second time in the new room, probably 10-15th time overall. Here are some brief thoughts:
* When I parked the first night, a cart swung by and offered to drive me to the entrance. A nice touch, though I only got it that once.
* CAZ is the room with the most different games offered I have ever been in. Not just NL and LHE and PLO, but lots of variety of those games/stakes, plus a whole lot of mix games and misc games like a Big O game.
* The self check in kiosks work pretty well and really lay out how many games are on offer. I kinda wish I could get onto the lists from the bravo app instead of having to arrive and swipe in, but such is life.
* I continue to be amazed at how efficient the brush stand is, friendly and polite, filling seats reasonably quickly and just having a pretty good situational awareness of the room - I wonder if being so high up helps with that
* It's still kinda weird and annoying that the high limit games are totally separate, you can't see where you are on those game lists without walking to the back, and vice versa. Makes it harder to stay on top of where you are on both sets of lists
* The floors are generally pretty active, walking the floor and seating new players - thumbs up. I never saw them have to make a ruling, so not as sure about that part of flooring, but I think most of them have been doing it for years now so I have high expectations.
* The dealers were mostly all great quality, if sometimes a little too chummy with certain players.
* I didn't have a problem with that in the efficiency of their dealing, as you sometimes do when dealers spend too much time talking and not enough paying attention to the action, but it was more a feeling like maybe this might be a locals room and if there were to be an issue, as an outsider you might get the short end of a ruling. I never saw anything like that happen, but it was something I had tucked away just based on the friendliness observed with certain players.
* Having said that, all the other players I interacted with were all very happy and friendly too, it was a great poker environment (unlike, say, Commerce where half the people playing are a-holes, to the dealers or to the other players; or my local room where a larger portion of the playerbase is on their phones/tablets all the time or otherwise grumpy).
* I used to stay at the hotel years back, but their system of offering the poker rate (book at rack rate and on the day of they might offer you a discount if they have capacity and you play enough) sucked and I stopped. Now I think it has been revised to be more normal and offered in advance, but I couldn't easily get info on if and how much when I tried previously. So now I just don't even bother, and just stay elsewhere. If they even still have a poker rate they should publicize it better and I would definitely consider it.
* Historically I am going there to play 20-40 LHE, but that game has been dying at CAZ. (It has already died in my local room, to my dismay, and only 40-80 remains.) This is probably my single greatest negative - at some point my game may stop running, or get so fragile that it's not worth risking making the trip, and if that happens I'm unlikely to come back in future years. This time around, I was lucky enough to get to play it on Fri and Sun, but it did not run on Thurs or Sat or Mon. It broke at 1:30am on Fri, which wasn't great, but at least I got to sleep at a reasonable time. Not sure how long it lasted on Sun as I headed out just after midnight since I needed to check out of my hotel the next morning.
* The other days I played 8-16 LHE which was fun enough, plus when the must move broke I also played a little 2-3 PLO (which I suck at), which I was told doesn't usually run there
* I ran very, very bad. I lost money in every session, in one case losing 8 racks. Too bad, so sad. Good for the local beneficiaries!
* I did win a $100 HH and a $100 Aces cracked promo, on two consecutive 20m periods, which I think may be the first time I have ever won any promo money ever. It was a bit of an annoyance to realize I still lost money on the aces cracked hand, but 100 bucks is 100 bucks.
* I had 3 meals in the room, two dinners and a lunch. All were fully comped, though I have no idea how much comp balance I have, not sure if there is any self-serve way to find out.
* The food quality was adequate but not exceptional or anything approaching great.
* The menu was also adequate but not extensive. I can imagine getting bored with it quickly if I played here often.
* There were plenty of side tables around for drinks, and all meals came on a larger food tray.
* Servers were generally available, coming by quickly when asked for, and just generally circulating.
* The bathrooms are a little too far away, especially if you're in the back high limit area. But not a huge deal (unless you have IBS I suppose)
* It was unusually cold weather while I was there. The room was a comfortable temp throughout. But no idea how the AC will work once it gets hotter.
All told, losing sucks, but it was a fun trip.
Always appreciate your trip report dinesh.
A long time regular that I’ve played with dating back to the first tents (pre-hotel) was on a rant last time I played about Bravo killing the 20/40 game. I know that not to be true, because the game was still very strong in the room pre COVID when Bravo was around.
100% the thing that killed it was NL.
150 limit LHE was king
300 limit LHE was king
500 limit and LHE was getting shaky
No limit and 70% of the games are now 3/5 NL and below
Because people see 5 names on a list and no game going and dont come to the casino.
Before Bravo, you would just show up when you wanted to play, more people playing smaller waiting for a game to go.
Always appreciate your trip report dinesh.A long time regular that I’ve played with dating back to the first tents (pre-hotel) was on a rant last time I played about Bravo killing the 20/40 game. I know that not to be true, because the game was still very strong in the room pre COVID when Bravo was around.100% the thing that killed it was NL. 150 limit LHE was king300 limit L
I don't think NL had that big of an effect. Starting the 3 game mix was more damaging. The thing that really killed the 20 was the 40/80 game. It used to only go on weekends but started going daily. At first they would start off with a 20/40 game but shortly after they would start the 40 and break the 20. They would also start a 20 and then convert it to a 40. This pissed off a lot of the 20 regs who just stopped coming. The 20 game lost quite a few people in the pandemic. It also lost a lot of people to bans.
The 40/80 game right now appears to be reliant on a couple maniacle players. As soon as they stop showing up it's over. I don't want to mention names but if they aren't in the game I'm not playing. I suspect it's just a matter of time before both games are dead. It looks like 4/8 and 8/16 are still going fairly strong.
I wouldn’t call 8/16 exactly strong. Sure it had like 8 games today, but they were doing $1k high hands every 15 minutes
I live 5 minutes from Talking Stick, and have played 400 hours of live poker this year so far, but none there. If 40 or 75 Holdem ran every day I’d happily save a lot of driving.
Get excited. The room is hosting a mixed game series. They should have made the Wednesday tournament limit hold em instead of no limit. I'd have taken off work for that and it would have been incredible. NLHE players get plenty of tournaments without occupying space on this schedule.
Though definitely going to stay in town to play some of these.
I live 5 minutes from Talking Stick, and have played 400 hours of live poker this year so far, but none there. If 40 or 75 Holdem ran every day I’d happily save a lot of driving.
I swore I saw you recently playing there...maybe that was last year? It was only like 4-5 sessions ago for me, but I play like once a month.
I live 5 minutes from Talking Stick, and have played 400 hours of live poker this year so far, but none there. If 40 or 75 Holdem ran every day I’d happily save a lot of driving.
I swore I saw you recently playing there...maybe that was last year? It was only like 4-5 sessions ago for me, but I play like once a month.
I’m pretty sure we saw each other last year when I was still playing at talking stick, apologies if I didn’t say hello. I’ve always enjoyed hanging out with you.
I gradually start playing more and more In LA because there is more Limit Holdem, and I’ve played their exclusively this year.
According to a couple 100/200 crushers I know, what killed higher limit LHE was that it was "solved". In some games people just ended up passing chips to each other.
According to a couple 100/200 crushers I know, what killed higher limit LHE was that it was "solved". In some games people just ended up passing chips to each other.
Not true at all. First, solvers are targeted at NL not limit. Second, full ring too complex to be solved. Third, I’ve never seen a 100 holdem where even half table played well, let alone perfectly.
KevinJ mentioned to me Thursday night they were talking about trying 30/60 and sure enough Friday night that was going. He asked my advice for chip denomination and I said $5, wonder what they ended up playing with. I also suggested keeping a kill but to 40/80
KevinJ mentioned to me Thursday night they were talking about trying 30/60 and sure enough Friday night that was going. He asked my advice for chip denomination and I said $5, wonder what they ended up playing with. I also suggested keeping a kill but to 40/80
In Colorado, we used half red/half green. Every bet/raise amount at 30/60 (other than the small blind) is an equal amount of red and green chips.
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In Colorado, we used half red/half green. Every bet/raise amount at 30/60 (other than the small blind) is an equal amount of red and green chips.
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The biggest action game Talking Stick ever had was 60/120 with brown ($10) chips and a 100/200 kill. Pots were huge with so many chips and every player sat with enormous stacks.
More chips usually means more action, and limit is faster using single denomination of chips.
Having played appx 2000 hrs of 30/60, I promise that someone proficient in using both denominations at the same time will play faster than if they used all reds. Just trying to be helpful.
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Having played appx 2000 hrs of 30/60, I promise that someone proficient in using both denominations at the same time will play faster than if they used all reds. Just trying to be helpful.
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I can see your point, but i can’t see them being faster than 30/60 w/$10 chips.
And I’ve been playing a lot of 1/2 w/black and green chips lately, and even though everyone is experienced there is a lot of instances where people run out of green, forcing change to be made in blinds. Not a huge slowdown but does a little.
Currently I play mostly 20/40 with a full kill to 40/80, and the large number of chips do often slow things down in the kill pots.
I once played 30/60 with greens and reds. It felt very awkward, but I imagine I would get used to it if I played it regularly. I have a feeling that the players I would most want to play with would have a lot of trouble with it though.
The 30/60 is all red with no kill. I misclicked at least twice and only put 40 chips out when I was intending to raise. I don't like it personally, I would like it more with $10 chips but then it should have a 50/100 kill.
