Pics would be good. Does the Flamingo even have chips higher then $100 Denom?

Just got back from a disaster of a session at Flamingo. But I did ask one of the dealers how such a big game was going on, and what the story was. Apparently, there's a group of guys who have been coming in for the series for years and they always come to the Flamingo to get away from "the chaos at the Rio" and play in a more low key environment. I didn't recognize any of the guys, but apparently its a closed, private game and they want to remain anonymous. There was a security guy assigned to the table and the dealer said the players don't want anyone taking pictures.

Seems kind of stupid, and over the top but whatever. Just wanted to confirm the game is for real.... feel free to close/lock the thread.

Against gaming regulations for them to have a private game in a casino...

If its against gaming regulations for a closed game, why werent the big name pros salivating to get in this game? They probably don't even know where the Flamingo is

Because 25/50/100 isn't even a blip on the radar during the series for "big named pros"

There's a 200/400 and a 500/1k PLO that runs at RIO almost daily.

So we think this game, as described, actually ran last night?

there is a rotating highend card game that moves around from room to room, and is usually closed off to most players... I would suspect that is what you were seeing.

you can usually tell because these guys sit at the back/segregated of most rooms where there is little to no traffic.

100% true. If someone had the sufficient buy in and wanted to sit in the game, if there was an open seat they could not be told to take a hike and would have to be given the seat.

The security guards would have a hard time stopping people from taking pictures.
About 6 years ago I took a picture of A-Rod in a 2/5 NL game on the main floor of Bellagio from about 10 feet away and he mouthed "no pictures". A security guard came over and asked me to not take any pics, I told him I already got a pic and walked away.

no... the others would simply SIT OUT.

More info on this please?

It is technically true that you can't have a private game, but in practice you can do it pretty easily.

The Venetian held a private tournament for me and about 23 others a few years back. It technically wasn't private, but registration was only open for about 30 seconds. It cost something like $35/person (basically the rake they'd take from normal tournament).

There is so much poker money in Vegas right now that this game is big but not big enough that some mid-level pro with the bankroll to play is going to rush over and try and argue his way into a game of friends.

Then the game would be over cause they dont want to let some outsider sit in the game.


But my point was they can't just tell someone "sorry this is a private poker game, you can't sit in this open seat".

If there's a game going on in Bobby's room with 7 people playing and I walk in there with $100,000 no one is gonna tell me sorry you can't play in this game unless there is a list. They can all sit out if they want but guaranteed that would never happen.

During the WSOP it's pretty common for big games of various sorts to pop up in random small casinos. It's intentional. They're trying to do a quiet private game. That's hard to do in the Rio. It's easy to do at the small joints like Flamingo or Tropicana (Bravo showed a NL5/10/20/50 game going there recently, I think--mighta been 2/5/10/50). Nobody with a roll is likely to find the game, and if someone does they will usually accept "this is a private game and we don't want to play with you". If the wanna-be player doesn't take the hint, then it gets stickier. They might claim it's an 8-max game and the table is full. Or they might have set the min buy to $50K or some very large number hoping nobody will have that much on 'em, or they might just do as has been suggested and refuse to play. 'Course if the player wanting to play is fresh from the pit games with a pocket full of flags and asks "are youze guys playing that no limit hold them game I see on TV" they may let 'em in.

I've seen "this is a private game--go away" work. Never seen someone try to push the point and insist they were going to take an open seat anyway.