Poker in our region, like the rest of the world, is dominated by $1-$2 and $1-$3 no-limit hold’em games. What’s interesting is the huge differences found in variables of these games and various incentives available to players. As a player, you have to make choices about what you really want and what type of poker you enjoy playing. You’ll need to do some research to see what best fits your desire, and you’ve come to the right place.
DEEPSTACK PLAY: If you like playing deep in the $1-$2 game, Hollywood Columbus and Horseshoe Cincinnati provide buy-in options based not on set min-max spreads, but rather as percentages of the biggest stack at the table. These properties also are doing interesting things to help build $2-$5 action, and bigger, by mixing up these buy-in levels, and these changes are making a difference in the games.
Cleveland Horseshoe has increased the spread on the $2-$5 buy-in to a $500-$2K level, which has detractors and fans. Many people believe this will hurt the growth of $2-$5 and $5-$10 in Cleveland, but reports from Bravo show Columbus, and Cincy are really running large numbers of $2-$5 games, including as many as six games on weekends.
In Pennsylvania, the Meadows and Rivers poker rooms each feature $1-$3 games that have brisk action. The Rivers routinely has 27-plus tables of the 30-table room filled on weekends and on game nights.
If you’re planning on taking a little pokercation weekend with the fellas or ladies, check Bravo or make some calls. Each room has an ever-changing situation regarding promotions, the bad-beat size and other things that may interests you off the tables. Some casinos don’t offer promotions on the weekends, others do.
As always, tournaments are changing. The Rivers and Hollywood Columbus are surely focusing on being creative and trying to provide players as many options as possible and overall deeper structures per your buy-in dollar.
— Dan Harkenrider hosts the Division of Poker and Chris Moneymaker radio shows. Email him at anteupdan@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @DivisionofPoker.
