What are they raking?

still $5 + $2. i haven't played this year tho so no idea if any increase is planned

Omaha/Council Bluffs. A lot of limit Omaha/8 runs here.

so basically 2-3 games in the entire city vs what it was 15 years ago?
yea dead.

Good to hear, but my point was that the smallest games have died with inflation.

20 years ago those players probably played 1/2 or 2/4 LHE.

i never said it was the same. nothing here is anywhere close to the same as it was. i just said it constantly runs, which it does. it also regularly plays in philly. AC has basically dwindled down to two rooms where 15 years ago we had seven. so if a game is always available with what we've got, i don't consider it dead - yet

Horseshoe in Vegas still has 4/8 LHE (I think, or maybe 3/6). It's a favorite of the high hand hunters since it's easier to stay in if you flop a pair or better.

And I never said 3/6 is dead. I said the lower stakes were dead and 3/6 is probably available in one room each in Las Vegas and AC, as you seem to have confirmed for AC.

It’s 4-8 with half blinds (one dollar small blind, two dollar big blind), so people basically play purely for high hands.

and drinks! It's a terrible poker game, but it's a great drinking game!

All casinos need to ban 1/2 ,1/3 TODAY.

It's penny slots, get rid of it. With inflation, it's meaningless.

When Wild Bill Hickhock was shot back in the 1340s. They were playing 1/2 and it meant something. Get rid of these people. 5/10 or go play the nickle slot machine. Too bad you lost a dollar to rake at your penny slot. Hit the bricks pal.

The penny slots are the highest revenue source for any casino, and its not even close.

1/2 and 1/3 are still the games of choice for a large percentage of poker players. The customers have spoken and that is what they want to play.

Kind of.

4/8 died cuz of nlhe and people getting better/going broke. I won like $1100 at 4/8 once. That was when you'd see 7 way pots capped to the flop.

Now it's effectively much lower stakes than it used to be and unbeatable or close to it.

There is a place for unbeatable games. Some people can't beat any game, but they still enjoy poker. Might as well play in a small game and loose less. And never deal with regs.

I think 1/2 is morphing into that. It's already happened in California.

Above is absolutely true....

3/6 and/or 4/8 (sometimes with kill) LHE can be found at Horseshoe, Orleans, Nugget, Boulder, Southpoint regularly (bonus chasers, and IF caesars is still doing the hours based freeroll its unbearable, people checking trips and fullhouses to essentially sit there and not attempt to win). Rake seems to be consistent $5 or $6 + $2 or $3.

with a crossbow?

Your recollection of 1/2 and 2/4 flourishing 20 years ago and then dying off just does not ring true to me. I'm not saying that 3/6 is thriving now, but I don't remember anything smaller than 3/6 ever being popular in the last 20 years. My earliest memories of Las Vegas strip poker go back more than 20 years, and 3/6 LHE has always been the popular low stakes game.

How far back do your memories of AC go?

The first time I went to AC, in 2004, I played 1/2 LHE. I know for sure that's what it was because they used 50c pieces for the blinds instead of chips.

On return trips in the next year or two I played 2/4. I took a trip to Phoenix in 2005 and played 3/6 for maybe a half hour because the list was shorter, but it felt way too big for me so I went back to 2/4 when I was called.

I don't which limits were most popular, but I know the smallest games were lower than 3/6. I don't know when 1/2 died off but it was probably soon after I played it. I watched the 2/4 die off (but by then I was playing mostly 4/8).

By the first time I went to Las Vegas I wasn't playing that low anymore so I don't remember what their lowest game was.

I definitely remember 2/4 being the most popular low stakes game in Vegas. I remember it being in places like Flamingo, MGM, Excalibur, and several locals casinos like Orleans, South Point, Green Valley Ranch, Fiesta, M Resort, etc.

The next most popular limit game was 4/8.

Never played AC, I was thinking mainly of Las Vegas, but also Oklahoma and some California. I remember when they would break a dollar from every pot into quarters for tipping and maybe for raking less than a full dollar (in 3/6 games).

Have you actually played any of these recently? It sounds like you're making it up. The Bally's and Orleans 4/8 I've played are anything but the way you say.

I think it was Luxor NL that used to have a 50 cent blind. They made change with real half-dollars.

Yes, regularly.

“Bonus chasers” was directed at Caesars properties, not Orleans, Orleans is the only place to play low stakes limit games.

I remember the last .50/1 tables were at Barbary Coast before it became Bill's Gamblin' Hall (now it's Cromwell). Games were there in 2011, gone by 2013.

Looking on Bravo/Atlas now there are 67 1/2, 1/3 or 2/3 open tables in Vegas, and 14 2/5 (or 2/4 and 3/5 at Venetian/South Point). There's also 6 3/6 and 7 4/8 limit open tables. That's a nearly 5:1 ratio in favour of the lower limits on a Monday evening in the middle of winter. I'd say the vast majority of the players at the 67 lower limit tables would not be playing 2/5, or if they were, they'd be buying in for the minimum and short stacking it, making the 2/5 games horrible.

Summary: Even with rake raises, 1-2/1-3 in Vegas isn't going anywhere because thats what the casuals want to play.

The bad thing about Barbary Coast is it had only one table, and if it was full the players took root. I got on the list once and left after 45 minutes because the list didn't move.