Agree 100%. I live in the far west valley, and it's a 2 hour round trip to TS without traffic. Because of the drive, I usually only go to play poker 1-2 times a month. When the new casino in Glendale starts offering poker, I can see myself going there 1-2 times a week easily.

Without reading thread, quick question: If you're a live pro moving to Arizona, Scottsdale is preferable to Phoenix, correct?

Yes, only place I can imagine making a living live would be playing at Talking Stick. I am completely ignorant about underground games though.

Depends, how do you feel about gangs?

I don't mind a rough area if it means better games

Man I hope whenever the new room opens it really hurts talking stick.

I was in Prescott over New Years and on that Saturday I had a few extra hours so I went to the local casino to play some poker.

I did some searching online prior and what I could find was there were two casinos right across from each other, both owned by same tribe, and the smaller one, Yavapai Casino, was where the poker room was. So I went there, parked up top because it was busy at 2pm on Saturday, and a quick walk through told me my research was very wrong.

So I headed up the mountain to Bucky's Casino and found the poker room within 5 minutes of entering the building. It is on the third level and has 6 (or maybe 7) tables. On Saturday they had a deepstack tourney starting at noon, and even though they had like 7 names on the cash list, they were all in the tourney. I waited around and at like 2:30 they made the final table and 2:45 we had a game starting.

The games to choose from were 1/2 NL and 2-8 spread and me and another person waiting were vocal to start the 1/2 game, but since they have a list for a game starting that evening (5pm/6pm can't remember) they started the spread game instead.

There were 6 of us at the table for the duration and I had the most amazing low limit game ever. I won like 12 pots in the hour and a half I played, and I NEVER showed my cards. I never made it to a showdown at all, I would either fold, or be the bettor and everyone else would fold. There might have been two showdowns in the hour and half I played.

The beer was cheap, the room was decent, and the chips were nice. They had a decent set up for TVs which would be nice for sports watching. I enjoyed my few hours there, but nothing more than a place to go to pass the time.

Thumbs up, would read again.

This may be a dumb question, but do any casinos run 2-5NL or higher on a regular basis? If there are no bigger NL games, then which casinos have the biggest limit games?

Casino AZ at Talking Stick Resort is the answer to both questions.

Like Pope says, Talking Stick is the answer for Phoenix. Multiple 3-5 blind games most every day.

If you are in the Tucson area, Casino del Sol has 2-5 with 1k max buyin that runs Fridays and Saturdays (occasionally other days), and 1-3 with $500 max buyin running most days.

Note that all of these games (TSR and CDS) are spread limit rather than true no limit, because of State regulations. Each individual bet or raise is limited to a max of $500 in the case of Talking Stick 3-5 games and $625 for the Casino del Sol 2-5 games.

How is the Tucson game 625 max vs 500?? Thought the state law was 500, no?

I've heard that the highest allowable bet in the state has gone up, but each casino has a limited number of games they can use the higher limit fir. So the Casino has to allocate the number of tables that can have the higher limit between the pit and the poker room. I think TSR uses their allocation for pit games?

Or at least that's the explanation I've heard from CDS staff. Not really sure what the latest laws actually stipulate.

It's all just weird/stupid imo..I know tsr has 1k blackjack

Indeed. I don't want to probe to deeply into why the new $625 cap is allowed at CDS, just glad to have it raised a little.

Has anyone heard of/played at/a member of "Poker Union" located at Union Hills and 7th Ave?

It looks like a membership place but I haven't had a chance to stop in/call since moving to that area of town.

I am a member but haven't played there in over a year. Hopefully they'd remember me but possibly not.

It was pretty tough to get a membership not knowing anyone who was already a member.

I used to drive by that place all the time when I lived in the area, but I never tried to go in. I didn't realize you had to know someone to join though. They certainly aren't hiding; it's in a small strip mall right at the intersection, and there is a sign

Were the games good from what you remember?

Do they play anything besides 1/2nl? I played there once, seemed shady. Some of those underground north phoenix / west phoenix games are absurd though.

Games were unbelievable. Reminded me of games in 2005.

Check abc15, poker Union got shut down or raided tonight...crazy it lasted that long. I had never been there and I live right around the corner and called to play once and same thing you had to be sponsored or know a member basically....

Moving to Tucson in a couple weeks. How are the games at Casio del Sol?

Pro Tip: Don't move to Tucson.

Now that's unkind For just living life I'll take Tucson over Phoenix every time.

There is a 2-5 1k buyin at CDS that runs every Friday, and some Saturdays when enough show up. Usually starts at 5pm or so, runs into the morning. 1-3 500 buyin game runs most days. And if you are looking for 1-2 level it's there day and night at least a couple of games.

IME the CDS 2-5 games are good enough not to drive to Phoenix for the 3-5 games. But if the bigger 5-10 games are coming back at Talking Stick (on Bravo seems like they might be) I'll revisit.

One thing - these are spread limit games at CDS. So max bet is 635 per each bet or raise, not true no limit. In Phoenix it is max bet 500. Not sure why the difference.