The poker explosion continues........but at what cost?

Yesterday I made my first visit to the new South Coast casino. The South Coast is located on Las Vegas Boulevard S. about 6 miles south of Mandalay Bay.

My intention was to play my "free play" on the slot machines and then play some poker. Granted it was early on a Thursday, around 11:45am, when I hit the poker room....but this place was d.e.a.d. There was one $2-4 limit game in progress with no other games in imminent danger of starting. I purchases some of their chips for my collection. The new SC $1 chip may be the ugliest chip I have seen for awhile. I decided not to play $2-4 and headed north to the Hard Rock for some "free" slot play and some "free" food in Mr. Lucky's. After lunch I hit the Let it Ride table. I know better, but I LIKE LIR. $200 later I decided to check out the new poker room in Caesars. I'm not sure where the time went, but by the time I entered the room at Caesars, it was almost 6PM. They did have 6 games in progress there, but in a room that large, 6 games looks like a dead room. Again, I purchased some new chips and again, I decided not to play. I visited with a few of the staff while scouting the players. I didn't see anyone I recognized, so I guess the Palms players haven't made a mass exodus to play at Caesars.

Wednesday night I played $4-8 limit at the Palms and booked a $101 win. I'm not sure why I ultimately decided not to play poker on Thursday when I left the house with every intention of playing. Maybe subconsciously I know that if I don't play again in 2006 that I will have had a winning year. **laughing at myself**

And now for the title of today's entry. Early January is traditionally the slowest time of the year in Las Vegas. Having said that, word is that most rooms around town are very slow. As more and more poker rooms open, I wonder where all of the players will come from to fill all of those new seats around town. Being the "glass half empty" type, I believe that before the last new poker room opens in LV, other rooms will be down-sizing or closing. I don't think that this will happen tomorrow or even next month, but I believe that the contraction will begin before the end of 2006.

From the rumor mill: I heard today that Doug Dalton will be leaving MGM/Mirage to head up the Venetian Poker Room. I don't believe this for a second.....do you?