The MGM Grand poker room, which recently started taking a promo drop, has been running several promotions that have proved quite popular with tourists and its regulars. The room gave away $100K in October and $75K in November in a series of drawings. It’s expected there will be some variation of cash drawings this month as well. To qualify for an entry in the drawing, a player must make a flush or better. Each player picked has a chance at a prize between $100 and $3K. After each drawing, the tickets are removed and players must qualify again.
MGM also has the Progressive Power Hour Promotion. Each hour a different hand is eligible for a progressive jackpot that starts at $200 and adds $50 every day it’s not hit. To qualify, a player must use both hole cards and in the case of quads, the player must have a pocket pair. The promo started in mid September and the jackpots for quad sixes/six-high straight flush and quad eights/eight-high straight flush have reached $2,500.
The room recently changed its $2-$4 limit game to a $2-$6 spread-limit game. The minimum buy-in is $40. The move reflects the continuing decline in popularity of limit hold’em, especially on the Vegas Strip. To encourage players to give the game a try, MGM has reduced the rake to $2 (with a $2 promo drop) and is offering a $100 high hand of the hour whenever a spread limit or limit game is going. The rake, promo drop and high-hand bonus apply to the $4-$8 limit game, too.
ORLEANS: Just west of the Strip, the 35-table poker room has brought back its popular bad-beat jackpot after a brief hiatus and the progressive prize starts at $50K. Between 8 a.m.-8 p.m., the room is splashing pots ($100 for all games but $2-$4, which is $50) at one randomly drawn table per hour.
Orleans offers tournaments twice daily at noon and 7 p.m. In addition to the usual no-limit hold’em offerings, there are HORSE and Omaha/8 tournaments. On Fridays at noon, the tournament is ROSE, rotating razz, O/8, stud and stud/8. The $125 NLHE tournament on Friday evenings is one of the most popular in Vegas. It routinely draws more than 250 players with a $250K-plus prize pool. The room also has a Tournament Player of the Month prize for most tournaments played in the month.
LUXOR: The poker room, at the south end of the Strip, is offering High Hand Hysteria. The bonuses start at $100 for quads, $200 for straight flushes and $500 for royals. Instead of resetting, the bonuses progress after being hit. Additionally, when a high hand is hit, one to four random seats are drawn for prizes of $100 each. The room just introduced a progressive bad-beat jackpot (aces full of jacks beaten by quads) that starts at $2,500.
PALMS: Through Dec. 21, the Palms will hold drawings every two hours to give away cash ($100-$1K). Players who have a flush or better at showdown will get one drawing ticket if they use only card from their hand, and will get two tickets if they use both cards to win the pot. Only tickets earned in the two-hour period are eligible for each drawing.
WYNN: Joshua Pollock of Las Vegas won the main event of the Wynn Fall Classic as nearly 250 players competed for the $362K prize pool in the $1,600 event. It took Pollock nearly 36 hours to run up his 25K starting stack to more than 6.2 million chips and claim the $84K prize on Oct. 29. Steven Nichols of Arizona took second for $56K and Andrey Rakhamin of Southern California earned $36K for third.
CAESARS: Las Vegas’ Christopher Johnson won the seventh annual Caesars Palace Poker Classic on Nov. 4. He outlasted more than 150 entrants in the $1,080 event that had a $175K prize pool. On the fifth hand of heads-up play, Johnson’s pocket aces survived the pocket 10s of Colorado’s Daniel Hasley after getting it all-in preflop and seeing a flop of 7-8-9. But an ace on the turn and a seven on the river gave Johnson the winning full house. Johnson took home $38K, Halsey won $28K and third-place finisher Jin Jong of Vegas came away with $20K for third.
Also at Caesars, the room’s regular 7 p.m. tournament has been changed to a deepstack turbo. The $110 buy-in gets players 24K chips and 12-minute levels. The deepstack turbo is a popular choice in all of Caesars’ special series events.
VENETIAN: Even before Deep Stack Extravaganza IV finished, tournament director Tommy LaRosa announced plans for the New Year’s Extravaganza, running Dec. 27-Jan. 5. The event will feature two $250 events with two starting days each, both having $40K guarantees. The other events will be single-day tournaments.
— Email Rob Solomon at rob@allvegaspoker.com. Follow him on Twitter @Robvegaspoker and read his blog at robvegaspoker.blogspot.com.
