I'm going to be heading back to Vegas and realized that the drop/rakes have changed. Where do things stand currently for different strip casinos? Is there a place with the updated rakes and jackpot drops for each casino?

I remember places being $4 without jackpot drop and worst case $5+$1 jackpot for Caesars properties other than Caesars Palace itself. But now I heard places are $5+$2 jackpot drop or just $5 without a jackpot drop.

Pretty much looking for a list with up to date info for Bellagio/Aria/Wynn/CP and also the places with a jackpot Venetian/MGM/Ballys/PH/Flamingo and the off strip places like SouthPoint/Orleans/Red Rock and I guess Golden Nugget downtown if we make it that way one of the nights.

Bellagio 2/5 is $5, that's the only one I can speak to. Assuming the other MGM rooms are similar.

Don't know how updated it is, but Poker Atlas is where I go for that info:

https://www.pokeratlas.com/poker-rooms/las-vegas-nevada

Caesars, Bellagio, Aria, Wynn are $5 no jackpot.

Venetian, mgm, flamingo, ballys, ph, all 5+ 2.

Orleans and Nugget 4+2, I think southpoint also 4+2. I think the stations are now 5 plus 2, was 4 plus 2 in past.

Why would anyone choose to play at a +2 room?

Because people that don't care play there while people who do care, don't.

Poker Reg Nits don’t understand that when people with good jobs with benefits, savings, and health insurance go on vacation to Vegas to relax and play poker, they don’t give a **** if the rake is an extra dollar a pot..

Also the promotions paid for by the +2 are an attraction for many players. It's up to you whether you're one of those players or not. I generally hate promos unless they are the rare kind that promote action. Usually they just bring out the extreme nits.

which is why the regs should just play at venetian. its the best poker room in town.

mrducks, we doing the under/over on the pushup prop? PM me if interested :P

well think about it, if none of the nits/pros who post on 2p2 play in +2 rooms, that means all that is left is tourists who don't know what rake is. i know which game i'd rather play in.

Promotions bring people in to play. Contrary to what a lot of people seem to think here, it actually loosens pf play if there is a high hand promotion. You can't win it if you don't see a flop. So a lot of people will limp/call with any suited connectors and rappers pf because it could hit the jackpot. People playing lot of hands pf and folding when they miss sounds like a good game to me.

Small sample but when I visited there the games has zero action during high hand periods with people focused solely on high hands and not gambling or betting hands. The best action was at rooms without such promotions (ie Wynn). Nice room and staff etc but worst action the couple times I played there.

It should, but a lot of LLSNL discussions seem to focus on how to reduce number of players pre-flop with bet sizing.

In instances where these HH chasers do hit a flop and stack the preflop aggressors, they go crazy.

So in many ways, HH makes the game worse for these "thinking" players.

I think the big question is: are the +$2 jackpot rooms more profitable due to certain players staying away (due to the higher rake) to a higher enough degree to overcome the fact that dozens of extra dollars are taken off the table every hour due to the higher rake. Even if the extra $2 don't come from your stack since you don't win every hand, it also reduces how much you can win from your opponents since their stacks shrink as well. Gotta account for the loss of potential profits from stacking the donks.

Anyway, here's what I have so far for the rake breakdown by room. Please correct anything that is incorrect:

$5
Aria
Bellagio
Wynn
Caesars Palace

$5 + $2 jackpot drop
Venetian (man, I miss the days of no jackpots here!)
Bally's
Flamingo
MGM Grand
Planet Hollywood (does anyone know if they are $2 or $1 jackpot drop? Poker Atlas lists $1 but I could have sworn they are the same as Flamingo and Ballys)
Westgate

$4 + $2 jackpot drop
Golden Nugget
South Point
The Orleans

Sahara is $4 + $1 jackpot drop (is this true?)
Red Rock what is the rake and drop here? Is it $4 and $1?

I also feel like less poker rooms is a bit better right now because it consolidates the games more. Has anyone noticed more traffic at MGM Grand since there is no Excalibur, Luxor, or Mandalay Bay to compete with them currently?

Also, is it true that Resorts World will have a poker room at opening later this month? I will be looking forward to checking that out for sure. Any news if it will be a jackpot or none jackpot room?

Ph drop is $2. Resorts world poker room opening June 24, 30 tables and I heard they will have jackpot drop

Of the 5+2 rooms, which have promos which are best for toursits (high hands, quads, RFs, bomb pots, etc) and which are best for locals (hour based free rolls for example)

I think Flamingo, PH, and Bally's all have the freerolls for hours setup. I'm not sure about the other ones.

I remember Venetian doing high hands every few hours but that was a few months ago.

Red Rock BBJ was at 204,000$ just the other day.

You seem to be treating the +2 as though it were just extra rake, but it isn't. It is ultimately paid back to the players.

But it is important to consider how it is paid back to the players. If you are just visiting the room, and the main promotion is a freeroll you'll never qualify for, you might as well treat this as rake. But if the promotion is a high hand bonus that is ongoing while you play, you do stand a decent chance of benefiting from this, and this might even be +EV depending on the time you are playing. Even a bad beat jackpot, while very unlikely, should be factored into an EV calculation.

Totally agreed but I prefer to keep the extra $2 in the pot and on the table rather than risk getting it back or not depending on the promotion running.

In all honestly, I understand the rake going up from $4 to $5 because the overhead on running a poker room has probably gone up due to inflation over the past several years but I haven't seen the promotions really change all that much (same freerolls and same high hand bonuses) but the jackpot drop doubled.

I know that poker rooms keep those funds separate and they belong to the players (Mirage, Excalibur, and Mandalay Bay had to giveaway the reserves when they closed the rooms) but just curious to see how much goes in and how much actually come out. I know PH had a history or employees taking the money and they put a stop to that but for some reason I don't necessarily trust the accounting on that money. Also, I'm not a fan of rooms using that money for covering tournament guarantees on non-freeroll tournaments and other ways they probably try to use that money.

It doesn’t all go back to the players. Some of it does, but even when you get some of it back, some of it goes to the dealer as a tip, and some of it goes to taxes. Also, rooms often aren’t giving it all back right away. They often give away larger amounts at certain times and will give away fewer amounts at others.

If you’re one of the local nits that is able to play in rooms when they are about to close, then okay maybe it’s different. They’re giving away all that promo money they didn’t give back to the players before, and maybe you are getting a decent amount back.

It is true that some promotions encourage looser play though, sometimes even to the extent that if you raise PF, you come across as too serious and ruining the experience for everybody. I’m reminded of an old reg that got mad at another old guy for raising PF telling him, “I don’t want your money. I want the houses’ money.”

The bbj is basically a lottery. Very few of us are winning that. But it can make the games better and tilt your opponents when you play aggressively.

High hand promotions aren’t too bad and I’ll admit I often enjoy playing in rooms with them. And they are simple too.

Anybody ever been at a table where the BBJ was won? How much did you get for you're table share? They don't have this promo at my local room in CA (Turlock Poker Room)

2 or 3 years ago it hit at my table. However, the BBJ had hit something like 8 times over the previous year. All of the backup jackpot money had been drained out.

My table share was $138. I think the losing and wining hands got $2k and $1k. Dealer announced Bad Beat. Not a single player cheered.

Later that year, I was in Vegas and got a room share at Orleans for $180.

After 17 years of playing poker, I was finally at the table for one last Saturday at an LA-area card room. It was a 5/5 game, the loser got $6200 and the "winner" got $3k. My table share was $1300.

I have been at a poker table once when a BBJ hit at my table. Was at the Red Rock in 2014. 4 of a kind > 4 of a kind. the hand winner sitting next to me on the left (grrr, y not me?) got $21k iirc, the hand loser got $36k. Room share was in the lower $100 range...maybe $140ish.

I have hit several high hand bonuses ($180ish was the highest iirc), not sure if those are part of a typical BBJ rake or not.