Jackpot, Nevada trip report

[DayTripping]

Long story short: I'm on a cross country road trip that started in New Hampshire two months ago and will end sometime in Las Vegas. I was in Yellowstone and Grand Teton this week, and yesterday I drove from Jackson, Wyoming to Jackpot, Nevada on my way to Great Basin Nat'l Park.

On with the trip report...

Jackpot is a town of about 1000. Highway 93 goes right through the town so you have to actually stop, you can't just buzz through at 80 mph. There are about 5 hotel/casinos, with the only one of significant size being Cactus Pete's. CP's also owns the Horseshu (no idea why it is spelled that way) across the street, and this is where I got a very nice room at the rock bottom rate of $28.

After unloading my stuff I drove across the street to Cactus Pete's and found the poker room. There was only one game going, and it was 3-6 limit. The blinds are $1 and $2, and if you raise preflop it goes $5, then $8, then $12. Kinda weird. I put my name on the list and the guy told me they were also starting a list for 1-2 NL with a $40-$100 buy in. I was told that there sometimes get a 2-5 game with $300 cap buy in. Also, the next night they were having a $75 buy in MTT.

After putting my name on the list I wandered a bit. I kept checking back, but the list was not moving at all, and they weren't getting enough names to start a second game. When all was said and done I ended up waiting about 3 1/2 hours to get my seat! No joke. The result was me dropping abot $120 on video poker and another $25 on blackjack. Side note about blackjack... all the tables are single deck full pay and most have $5 minimum. Can't find that in Vegas.

Finally they started a second game of 3-6 with about 6 players. This lasted about a half hour before some guys left and we were down to 3 handed. It was me, and older guy, and a young drunk guy. We played this way for a few minutes before it broke and we got put on the list for the main game.

Finally I got seated at the main game. After a little while it became apparent to me that for some reason, literally half of the people at the table were not tipping the dealers, at all. There was also a drunk old irish guy who was asking the cocktail waitress for drinks with extra alcohol and not tipping her. I've never been at a table with so many tight asses, and one of the dealers was having trouble hiding his frustration. When somebody did tip him he would give an exagerrated "thank you", and when you pushed another dealer he would make a comment to her about how few tips she got. I guess he should have held his tongue, but still, it was pretty brutal.

Play was pretty average, but for whatever reason it was slow as hell. There was one young guy in hat and shades who would take 30 seconds sometimes to agonize over a $6 call. He was also openly colluding with his buddy next to him and a couple of players at the table bitched to the dealer about it. There was also an angle shooter sitting next to me who pulled $20 out of his pocket in the middle of the hand, and when the dealer asked him if he had the money out before the hand started he lied and said "yes." The great thing was this angle shooter lost the hand and it ended up costing him the $20 he illegally pulled out. That was the highlight of the night for me.

Play was nothing special. I've seen better, I've seen worse. I treaded water for most of the night and ended up leaving at 3:00 AM down about $15.

Right now I'm in Ely, Nevada staying at the historic Hotel Nevada. I signed up for a 1-5 spread game that starts at 7:00. That's all they offer tonight, but apparently tomorrow they have a pot limit game that I will have to check out. Will post a trip report for here if there is enough interest.

[Rottersod]

Good report so far.

[KurtSF]

So, no poker between New Hampshire and Jackpot?

Looking forward to future installments.

[DayTripping]

Actually Kurt there was lots of poker... Atlantic City, New Orleans, Tunica, Council Bluffs (Iowa), and Deadwood South Dakota.

No trip reports though... lack of time, laziness, or lack of internet connection are my excuses. Sorry. :-)

[NaturalSelection]

Heh, your thread title says repot, a word you'll hopefully be saying alot tomorow! GL

[Tom Ames]

[ QUOTE ]
CP's also owns the Horseshu (no idea why it is spelled that way)

[/ QUOTE ]

The U in their logo is in the form of a horseshoe.

[Clarkmeister]

Nice report.

[Smartluck]

How did you like Tunica?? How would you rate it against the others???

[DayTripping]

Tunica was awesome in terms of player friendliness and how generous the rooms are to players. For instance, at the Horseshoe all you have to do is ask for a meal comp and they'll give you a full comp to either the buffet or the adjacent snack bar and they'll even ask you if you want one or two. The Gold Strike also gives food comps just for the asking. I also stayed at the GS under the poker rate, but I was basically told that it didn't even matter how much I played there, I would still get the rate. For the first couple days I played at the GS just because I felt like I should at least put in some time there, but on my last two days I played exclusively at the 'Shoe and had no problems getting the poker rate at checkout.

In terms of games, however, I have to say that Tunica sucked. Just about every 1-2 NL game I played in was a complete rock garden, with the exception of 1 game where it was crazy like just about every other 1-2 game in the country for like 30 minutes, then it died down again. If anybody has had different experiences, I'd love to hear them. Also, it could have something to do with the fact that I played during the week, not weekend, but then again I had played up in Atlantic City on weekdays just a few weeks earlier and those games were juicy as hell. Tunica had the tightest players of any place I've ever played. Just my experience...

By the way, I played tonight here at the Hotel Nevada in Ely. It turned out to be a pot limit game rather than 1-5 like I was told it would be. I was thrilled when I heard it was gonna be PL, but my excitement quickly died down once the game started. No action whatsoever. Standard pre flop raise, on the rare occasions there was one, was about $3. I'd say the average pot size was less than $20. There was one pot that got over $100, and that was a QQ vs AA situation where a Q was flopped and they got it all in on the flop. Very slow players, very slow dealers. Dealers were not incompetent, just slow. I was having a really hard time staying awake during the game, and when my friend called I stepped away and ended up talking to her for like a half hour until the dealer called me over and said they had a player waiting. I apologized then racked up and left.

The atmosphere was entertaining. The table games here at the Hotel Nevada are located down in the basement, and you kinda feel like you are playing in your buddy's basement. One of the dealers frequently dropped the F bomb and was relaying to one of the players his latest drunk driving incident. I get the impression there isn't a whole lot else to do in Ely besides drink and gamble. Overall if the Wynn is on one end of the poker ambiance scale, the Hotel Nevada is on the other end (which is fine with me). Smoking is allowed at the table. One dealer and one of the players at the table had mullets, and I also spotted another mullet on a nearby blackjack player. What else would you expect in Ely?

There's supposed to be another pot limit game tomorrow and I'll probably check that out. Not like I have anything else to do here. From what I gather, they only have poker here on Friday's and Saturday's.

[DayTripping]

One more thing about the PL game here. They have an interesting blind structure. There is only 1 blind, and when it is your blind you can put out any amount between $1 and $10. Most people put out $1.