I've spent probably 14 or so days so far in vegas over 3 different trips. Each time I land I'm ready to jump off the plane and get in one of those juicy action-packed fishy games I remember from summers past during wsop time in vegas. So far of the 14+ sessions i've had at 5/10 and 10/20 I've left ONE game saying it was a good one. I've really played predominantly at Venetian/Wynn/ a couple sessions at Bellagio. Have you guys that have been in vegas the last few summers noticing the games are much tougher or am I just in the wrong games?

It's just the global economic crizis. Poker got very big the last years, basicly by now it's a semi-established part of society and there will be plenty of fishes to come for generations.

This is what I'm praying for, too.

If you can't spot the sucker in the first half hour…

ive been playing bellagio 10/20 damn near every day and u are right its often not that good...its not tough either just tighter in general which is frustrating live due to its super slow nature

Sadly, the Bellagio 10-20 has gotten progressively worst the last couple of years (I go there 4 or 5 trips per year), the last couple of trips the games were terrible, even on Friday nights. The economy certainly is a big part of the problem, but the games started getting worse before the recession started. It's not just the economy, part of it has got to be some combination of the fish (a) quitting poker, (b) moving down in stakes, or (c) getting better.

People also tend to underestimate/forget that the poker economy requires a constant intake of new deposits, either from losing players re-upping or new players.

Games will probably get somewhat better when the economy improves, but unless we have another catalyst on the order of Chris Moneymaker, I do not think games will ever again be anywhere near as juicy as they were a few years ago.

maybe try the rio? i dunno for sure because during the wsop i play PLO or mixed games and no holdem. in the big (10-20ish) plo games you still get people who misread their hand or dont know the 2 cards play rule, your not gonna find that sorta stuff at a holdem table anymore.

games at the rio were generally pretyy damn good when i was out there a couple weeks ago.

Eh...poker everywhere is easy

Try to get to the rio the 10/25 games have been juicy as well as the 5/10. if they are spreading the 5-10-20 mandatory straddle game you want to be in it as they feed 5/10 list players into it.

I've avoided the rio b/c everytime I've played there in the past I've left saying I would never play there as the dealers were awful and the noise/overall commotion was pretty annoying. I guess if the games have been that good though I should just suck it up. What's been better 5/10 or 10/25?

Point taken about the noise and commotion, The 5/10 game is more straight froward to beat but there have been a lot of big action players in the 10/25 so if you can handle playing really big pots 300bb+ I say the 10/25

the games are great when i play, not sure why but seems verry juicy to me!!!!!!

I found the Rio 10/25nl surprisingly soft. It does play pretty big and deep and aggressive, but I feel like lots of the younger players sit deep (because they want to be a baller or something) but don't really know what to do with a 400bb+ stack.

The Rio poker room itself obviously sucks, but once you get a seat and settle in its not so bad. Ipod obv helps.

Unfortunately I found the bigger PLO games to be tougher than expected, but maybe I was just playing at a bad time (around the 5k and 10k PLO events when presumably the best live PLO players were in town). Also, fullring PLO suuuuucks.