Caesars have raised rake.

They've also raised the max buy in at 1/3 to $400 as of today.

I remember when they used to have it at $500 and then lowered it to $300 to get more business and it seemed to work.

a large percentage of people that come to Vegas to play poker just want to play and enjoy poker. they (we) don't want to buy in for $500-800 a pop and risk burning it in half hour. they (we) are willing to put down $200-300 and let it ride for a few hours.

rake doesn't mean a whole lot to rec players.

this is why still a large majority of the games in town are still 1/3 (or 1/2).

I have never understood why anyone would not want to play at a place because the buy in max was higher as long as they're allowed to buy in for the smaller amount they are wiling to risk.

because most people don't want to be put all in or risk half their stack anytime they want to play a hand. other people's larger stack increases the level of variance and faster variance.

I don't want to play for $180 pot every time, I am more comfortable playing for $80 pots. I don't understand why this is hard to understand

Max buy-in attracts tougher competition. Also people want to fit in with the crowd. They don’t want to look around and see big stack sizes and people playing bigger pots while they sit there with a tiny amount of chips and look like they are scared.

Other players having bigger stack is good for you. Playing the smallest stack gives you advantages no one else has, because those other players have difficulty finding a strategy that works both against you and the other players in the hands.

I learned this by reading the most basic NLH book published by 2+2.

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/3...tarted-205229/

Those people should care more about winning than about "looking weak". It's ideal to look weak if you really aren't.

But you guys are probably right about the irrational reasons why people who can't read a beginner's poker book don't like playing against bigger stacks.

As a lifelong Chicagoan, I must say I'm considered a TAG at the 1-3 tables at home,
but in Vegas at 1-3 I'm considered borderline a maniac and it shocks me every year I go.

I'd never dare play 2-5 at home, just cant take the swings and the cap is $1000 - $1500
but in Vegas I often will play 2-5 at Bellagio and Caesar's ($500 cap) just to not be completely bored.
To start the day I'll always play 1-3 and it does feel great to know I'm the most aggressive and best player at that table
But even then some days it's just too boring.

I'll never forget the day a few years ago I was at Caesar's and flopped 4 sets in like the first 2 hours and couldn't build a pot over $40 no matter how small I cbet the flop
And I was opening pre and cbetting almost every single hand I played.

Vegas 1-3 is embarrassingly tight and sad but good for the ego if you're even a decent player
and I only go during June which is WSOP time, for whatever that is worth

And they raised the $2-5 to $1000!!
Just saw it now

He’s hilarious

Actually the casinos have decided not to offer anything smaller than that.

If they offered $0.5/1 that would be the most popular game at a lot of places.

Probably same with everything else in the casino. Most people play penny slots and if the Bellagio offered $1 Blackjack they would have a wait line. Probably without anyone asking about payout structure.

FWIW, that's not even a casino thing. We experimented with pricing at our bar. #1 selling beer is always the cheapest one.

Where do you play that it’s embarrassingly tight and sad? I’ve been in countless 1/3 games at Aria and Bellagio where people went absolutely crazy, usually late night drunk games. I remember a couple of months ago a drunk 1/3 game at Bellagio and we were playing 1/3/6/12/24/48 with the entire table allin every single hand.

Yes I agree Caesar’s 1/3 and 2/5 are bad and a nit fest 99% of the time, but there are plenty of rooms in Vegas any day of the week where chips fly like crazy.

I also have several hundred hours in Vegas 1/3 games and some 2/5, and i have to say i have experiences on both sides.

Yes, i have been sitting in plenty of fantastic games during my volume in Vegas-but also lots of basically unplayable nitfests. Especially at Bellagio or Aria during the daytime i have to say.

Its all about game selection obviously, and changing tables/casino if you arent happy with the table.

Cool story bro, you want to let me have $200 then since "it's meaningless"

No? What a hypocrite

If I remember correctly, I played a NLHE game with a $1 big blind at the Quad (now Linq) in 2013. So that must have been either a 0.50/1 or a 1/1 game. Also, I'm pretty certain I've played at a joint downtown that same year where the dealers worked with half dollar coins, prolly just for rake purposes. Players could also tip with those. I think that was 1/2 at the Golden Nugget. Do they still do that?

Golden Nuggets rake is now 5 + 2

I played $0.50/$1.00 at Bill's Gambling Hall (!) - which I believe is now The Cromwell - back in 2011 during my first ever poker trip to Vegas. I bought in for $200, which was the max, and the entire table looked at me like I was this crazy high roller. Most sat with stacks between $40-$100 if I remember correctly, and game was obviously super nitty. Which at the time suited me well.

(who am I kidding, I am still only able to beat super passive games even now)

If they didn't change anything after rebranding from IP to Quad that game was 0.5/1. I didn't even know they still offered that game after the original O'Sheas closed in 2012. At the old O'Sheas where they had the poker tables half-way outside on the Strip that was one of the most fun games in town.

IIRC Bill's Gambling Hall closed their poker room around the same time. During those years they also had a "beginners" 0.5/1 game at MGM.

Those good old days...

Pretty sure there was 1/1 at the Quad when it was the Quad.

Fun fact: It's been over 10 years since the Linq Promenade opened with the new O'Sheas. I think the rest of the property rebranded from Quad to Linq at some point in 2014.

Will never forget when a dealer asked me where my accent came from and I told him I was originally from Germany. Then he told me that they celebrated Hitler's birthday in the hotel back in the day. At that time, in the early smartphone days you weren't allowed to use your phone at most poker rooms. So I had to get up to look it up on the internet.

I tried to play that Bill's game way back when. Put my name on the list, first up. And waited, and waited, and waited. After it became obvious those house plants around the table would be there until the grim reaper came for them, I left and went elsewhere. As someone else said, a lot of forty dollar stacks. I figured someone would eventually go broke and leave, but I figured wrong.

Oh yeah, the Imperial Palace. That place was really old and dirty. And smelly.

When it rains hard if you got to the parking garage you see at its core it's still the IP.

One of my great laments was never playing that O'Shea's game...and I'm not sure why I never did because I always had the goal to play in as many poker rooms as possible back in the salad days of all-poker-all-the-time.