Apparently MGM Mirage has made an offer to the Mandalay Resort Group. I estimate that about 70% of those of you reading these words make semi-regular trips to Vegas with me and my brother, so this news affects you directly -- especially since we always stay in the Luxor (a Mandalay property).
I'm mostly worried about the Mandalay Bay poker room, my favorite place to play poker. The dealers are friendly, the bonuses are plentiful, and it's located right next to the huge, awesome sports book. When I started seriously playing poker, which I think was a little over a year ago, the Mandalay poker room was perhaps in trouble; it was the casino's money-loser, kept around mostly to please those gamblers who might otherwise not schlep out to the very end of the strip. Then, thanks to the Travel channel, poker became (and still is) wildly popular. I guess I shouldn't worry, but any change in management or staff at the poker room could only diminish its quality.
The last time I was there, Carmilla -- one of my favorite dealers -- complained to me that the new batch of poker players, entirely lacking in skill, have found a new and exciting way to annoy poker dealers. Apparently these newbies always wear their reflective sunglasses, just like the guys on the tee-vee. Since these guys suck, they often don't realize when it's their time to act -- or maybe they're just thinking really hard, but the dealers can't tell because of those damned sunglasses. Hilarious.
Personally, I don't like to wear sunglasses inside, so I take a different approach: every time I look at my hand, I stab myself in the leg with a fork. This assures that I will react unpredictably every time, and it also distracts the guy to my left, who would ordinarily have a positional advantage.
I'd like to think MGM wouldn't change the poker room, but you never know. Better get in your sessions this while you can.
I agree with James. I find it hard to believe there'll be any changes in the short term (by the time it goes through and gets anti-trust approval and all that, it'll be 2005) and any significant changes even in the long term (all the casinos already seem a little too interchangable - I can't think of any incentive for them to make them even more uniform).
The only thing I can think of is the player's club. I started earning comp points the last two trips, since I occasionally bet at least $25 a hand on blackjack for a while if I'm up. I imagine that MGM would transfer those comp points over, and it would work out better for us because all the Mandalay and MGM casinos would earn comps to the same account.
By the way, the new Hard Rock Seminole casino opened a few minutes from my house, and I was there for a bachelor party on Friday night.
Basically, it sucks. They can't have any games where players win money from the house, so there's no craps, blackjack or roulette.
In fact, all there is is bingo, poker and slots (which they get around the rule by linking together with computers, so you can only win as much as players have sunk into the other ones).
The poker room is big - I'd guess about 50 tables - and most seem to be Hold 'Em (a few are Omaha and Seven Card Stud), but the stakes are LOW - $1-$2 or $2-$2. I think the rake is 10 percent up to $3.
Evidently, the wait for Hold 'Em is usually 30-40 minutes on weeknights and 2 hours or more on weekends. I smartly thought to talk to the pit boss before we all sat down to dinner - he couldn't get all 11 of us at a single table, even with 2 hours' notice - but did let us skip the line when we came back and had us with at least one or two others from our group.
The good news is that, because the casino is new and everyone's curious and cable has made Hold 'Em so popular, the tables are LOADED with dead money. I only won about $20, but we only played for about an hour. After I left, I bought a book specifically written for low-stakes Hold 'Em, so I'm eager to play again soon... turns out I was playing slightly too many hands and playing the good ones far too slowly, and not paying enough attention to position.
In short, there are lots of places in South Florida that have legal low-stakes card games. The only advanatage to playing at Hard Rock is that it's clean and large - otherwise I'd rather play at the dog track, horse track or - best of all - the jai alai fronton... all of them have other things to do if poker gets boring. The downside, of course, is that there's less dead money at those places.
I had no idea that poker was legal in Florida. Very, very interesting.
Incidentally, I highly recommend David Sklansky's 'Hold Em For Advanced Players,' which has a section on loose games.