Poker Wars

The Palms poker room is still without a new manager.

That doesn't mean that those with some sort of say in the matter haven't come out swinging.

As of last Wednesday we reduced our maximum rake to $3. $1 on $10, $1 on $20 and $1 on $30 (10%) in our limit games (and, I believe, in $1-2 and $1-3 no limit) and $1 on $20, $1 on $40 and $1 on $60 (5%) in our $2-5 blind no limit.

This comes shortly after Red Rock and Green Valley increased their max rake to $5 and then quickly brought it back to max $4. While those two rooms were at $5 the "joke" among our shared players was that they were overcoming the higher rake by not tipping the dealer. Not funny at all but I'm sure that is how some of the players reacted.

Some of the Harrah's properties have been at $5 for awhile now. I also have it from a reliable source that:

Bally's has been running their higher rake ($5 max) for a few weeks now.

This past Friday, Harrah's & Rio went to $5 max.
Chances are high that the Flamingo will do so at the end of this month.
That would leave Caesars as the only Harrah's property not at $5

The cold-hard-truth of the matter is that there are still way too many poker tables in this town.....

The shake-out may have started. The poker room at the Hilton is scheduled to cease operations on October 17th.

Rumor is that two other very large and high profile rooms are close to pulling the plug.

The next few months should be very interesting.