I should clarify, there's always poker going on, but it's all old nits for the most part.

Keep me informed!!! I'm not going until March 2nd so let me know what you find.

BTW, I'm going to visit some family there and I'm staying at this resort because I got a sweet deal on a flight and stay through. I just thought if the games were decent I could play some at night.

Riverside room has been there forever, other decent sized room is Colorado Belle. Both are low limit havens, generally. There are some NL games but not consistent. Riverside is mostly 2-6 limit and an O8 game. Sometimes larger on certain days. CB I think has larger games occasionally. As mentioned earlier in thread nice places to drink free and have fun.

The promotion for red Aces is limited hours. They also do things like football squares, freeroll tourney, payouts for str8 flushes and the like. I don't remember all of them. Overall very friendly rooms but no high action at all.

BUMP. Anyone know if things have changed in the last 2 years or whatever. Never been but going in about 3 weeks, not sure what to expect besides the tournaments. Would appreciate if someone who has been recently could comment.

I just went, family trip which is good/bad. Bad is I had to go to Laughlin, good is I get credit for family visit even though I spend most of day gamboooling

As for what has changed in last 2 years, doesn't seem like anything much to me. I played at Riverside and Colorado Belle which still seem to be the two rooms with most traffic. Some of the smaller rooms come and go but I generally don't bother with them anyway. The same games still are there, 2-6 spread HE (sometimes with kill and once with NL overs which was interesting), 3-6 O8 (kill I think), small NL game later in evening. I didn't see much else going but I was there during week so weekends might have bigger games. Average age at table this time of year is about 75

Just in case anyone ever looks this up again here is what I found about Don Laughlin's Riverside Resort and Casino:

The poker there sucks. The room had one table playing 1/2. It was FR but never had more than 8 people sitting when I checked. The average age of the players was probably 80. I didn't sit.

The only gambling I did in Laughlin was slots. Some of the casinos give you a free $5 with a players card, so I basically played with that money. I ended up $5. My sister managed to win $80. We both won at this casino called AVI, which is the native american casino a little ways out of town. That casino has some good deals on food too when you get a players card. Like 2 for 1 buffets and 99 cent breakfast.

Back to Laughlin's casino, the rooms there were okay. It was clean and well kept, but it is old. It was built in the 80's I guess, and probably hasn't ever been remodeled. The bed's kind of sucked. They were hard and not that comfortable. The hotel should really invest in some pillow top things to put over the mattress, if not just all new beds. The bowling alley and movie theater were decent too. The bowling alley was full of kids when I was there, which is odd because the rest of the town is old people. The casino part is old and the whole thing feels like hallways and there are a lot of small shops selling junk. The pool doesn't open until 10 am. The margarita bar sells $1.25 margaritas during sunday-thursday, then friday-saturday they cost $6.50! wtf. They were the slushy kind and in paper cups. No salt, just a red straw.

Next door is the Aquarius which seems newer, or the casino part has been remodeled. It is spaced out more and not as much cigarette smoke. They had a really nice front sitting area by the river which was nice to sit outside in the sun and drink. Riverside had no outdoor seating by the river. Aquarius has $4.25 margaritas, just the mix and alcohol over ice, but it was a bigger glass and it was a glass not a paper cup. You got salt. Aquarius's bars seemed better.

Basically from a gambling perspective Laughlin wasn't that great. Limited poker games, hardly any black jack or roulette running.

My trip was to visit family tho and you can't beat the price. I paid $264 for my flights and 3 nights stay. Booked through the casino, flew sun country.

Also spent some time in vegas

Only 1 table? What time was that? They always have several tables running by mid-afternoon of hold'em and Omaha. And weekends by mid-morning. The Belle also fills up early afternoon. Take Laughlin for what it is. It is not young and trendy or for high rollers. It is snow birds and river rats. The Aquarius was the last property built...in '88 I believe...

The Riverside does have river seating by the water taxi on the dock. As far as blackjack and other games they are always packed at all the casinos there. You must have hit the casinos at a off hour.

1 table of NL, probably, which is pretty standard. Lots of LHE as long as you like 2-6

I only checked at like 10 am wednesday and thursday and about 10 pm thursday night. When I say 1 table of 1/2, that is all there was at those times. I didn't even bother to find out if it was limit or nl. 10 pm Thursday night you'd think would be busy wouldn't it? Maybe all those old people go to bed by then tho. Maybe the afternoon would be more busy. There was a roulette wheel I passed everyday and it never got used.

The place is fine. My trip was to visit family and I got a great deal, I wouldn't discourage anyone from staying there. BTW there are great views. I was on the river side of the riverside on the 22nd floor so I overlooked the river and airport and bullhead etc.

But my gambling trips will be to Vegas. This place was no Bellagio or Aria. If you were going to laughlin to play poker I think you'd be better off going to vegas. It is possible the other casinos have better poker rooms going tho, I only saw the riverside room and it was dead. AVI had a few tables going. I've heard a few times now that the Belle is good.

O about the seating by the water taxi, I did walk down to that but you had to go outside and walk down the trail and it was just some old benches in the shade, and they might have been just for the water taxi passengers. The Aquarius has like a courtyard area outside in the sun off of a buffett and close to some bars. It was just convenient to grab some drinks and sit out there at tables with chairs rather then on benches by the water taxi.

Also the pool at riverside is in the shade and is kind of small. It is probably great in the summer when it is 120 out, but when I was there it was 75-80 each day and it was too cold in the shade there. Lucky my relative has a heated pool (88 degrees) out in the sun so I got to use that like everyday.

The poker at the Riverside is damn near the most miserable poker experience you'll likely ever have. I go there about once a year for the last several years and it's the same rag-tag group of crotchety old nit regulars there every time. It's something like $2-6 spread limit hold'em with the very occasional (damn near non-existent) $4/8 or similar. On Friday and Saturday evening, I've seen them play with overs buttons to NL in the "big" game and the game may go straight NL by the end of the night.

Other casinos aren't any better, actually worse, with the exception of the Colorado Belle. They used to get a $10/20 game on Saturdays that would then switch to NL at Midnight or something. I don't know that they get a $10/20 any more. Maybe the Harrah's is better - that's the only place I haven't played in there.

So... it turns out I'm actually going out there next weekend. Can anyone give an update on what the action's like up and down the strip? I assume it's just as I described above, but I'm holding out some small hope that there's something better happening now.

I spent a week playing the Riverside...during that time one of the regs died!!(RIP Honda)...I'm 54 years old...the regs were calling me Kid lol

Here's my trip report:

I arrived at Harrah's last night, around 7:00 pm or so, after taking the Riverside shuttle from the Vegas airport.

I left rain and storms on the east coast to come out to the sunny desert and found - pouring rain! What the heck? Oh, well - it's bright and sunny this morning.

There are 8 casinos here, all stretched out on the Colorado over a couple of miles or so. Should be a nice walk. I'm heading out to explore shortly.

Harrah's itself is pretty nice. The people are all very friendly and helpful. Certainly not first class Vegas - but it doesn't pretend to be and frankly, I prefer things a little more low key. Just my preference.

The poker room has 8 tables, and when I got there 3 were in use. 1 for a tournament, 1 for a 2/5 NL game, and one for a 3/6 limit game with a full kill. I got a seat on the latter, as the 2/5 game was full.

Seemed to be all regulars, most of whom don't play very well. I was card dead for the time I played there, but still ended up a little.

Lots of limping and calling, so the pots got pretty big - especially when the kill was in effect.

I only played for about 2 1/2 hours last night, because the clocks here are a bit weird. They run 3 hours slow! I mean, when it is really 1:00am, the clocks here show 10pm. So, it was really later (for me) than what the local time is. The locals all seem fine with this, so I didn't bother telling them the truth.

When in Rome, and all that.....

Friendly bunch, so if a laid back sort of poker is what you're looking for - this might well be a good place to find it. On the other hand, if you're looking for higher stakes and a younger crowd........

To each their own.

One interesting thing that I haven't seen before - the waitresses (all young and pretty, from what I could see) work as a team. One comes around with an iPad or somesuch, and takes orders. Then another one brings out the drinks. Interesting approach, and I wonder if it will catch on in other venues.

I'm heading out to explore more, and will report back later.

Lee

Jet lag. I am be (are be?) jet lagged.....

Had a good day though. Started out by getting a haircut at the spa here at Harrah's and then having their buffet brunch, which isn't bad.

Went over to the poker room to play, but the only game going was the 3/6 Limit - and it was full with nobody looking like they were going to leave anytime soon. After waiting a little while, I decided to head on out and see the sites.

There is a riverwalk that one can use to walk from casino to casino - except that it doesn't go to Harrah's, but rather stops one casino short. No problem, I figure - I'll just walk along the beach until I get to it. Shouldn't be too hard, right?

Wrong.

It turns out that the beach walk is heavily guarded by some evergreens with long, hard, pointy, thorns. One has to wade out into the water to avoid them - and the water is deeper than it looks. Almost waist deep, it turns out. Who knew?

Plus, there are lots of rocks - slippery when wet rocks - to negotiate. Stubborn me made it, but at a price. Turns out that my cell phone didn't know how to swim and drowned..... I forgot that it was in my pocket. Silly me. Good thing that it is a cheapie model. Still, it means no phone for a couple of days.

I don't see any signs of a store around here, so I have to wait until Saturday until I'm back in Vegas to buy a replacement. It was a piece of junk anyway, so no big loss. I just hope that the pictures that I have on it are recoverable!

Never mind - I just checked the phone again, and it seems to be working. Must have finally dried out. Plus, all of the pictures are still there!

In any event, had a nice walk all the way up the river and across the bridge into Arizona. Beautiful day for it. Then walked back to the first casino and caught the river taxi back to Harrah's.

After changing into dry clothes, went over to the poker room and played for a while. Had one bad hand, but otherwise found the same weak players as yesterday. Made most of my money back by 8:00pm, when it was time to see the show.

Cirque Shanghai - a group of acrobats who also juggle, do some dancing and pageantry, gymnastics, all of that good stuff. Pretty good at it, and well worth seeing.

Back to the poker room after the show, and finally caught some cards that know how to stand up. Ended the day up over $300 during some 4 hours of play.

I gotta play more tomorrow. I really wanted to keep playing, but exhaustion (darn jet lag) has me off to bed.

Lee

You're one lucky bastard! And I'm talking cell phone, not cards. Sucks that there's not an easier way to walk between the casinos, but a river taxi sounds like a cool experience anyway. Good luck today at the tables.

Bastard? You mean that bastard curse-blocking software doesn't stop bastard?! What if I want to call a female dog the grammatically correct term of bitch? Will that get blocked?

One of the realities of poker here in Laughlin is that the games don't always run. There is a 10:00am tournament at Harrah's every day, and it seems that I should have played in it. For one thing, the dealers were having to explain the rules of poker to some of the players!

For another - the 3/6 limit game didn't finally start until 11:00, so I was sitting around for an hour, catching up on some poker magazine reading. But not playing, which is what I wanted to do.

At least it gave me time to eat breakfast.

I played for about 3 hours, and couldn't catch the proverbial cold. Down $97 against opponents who were betting out with middle pair, and calling with worse! Will I ever be able to win at Limit games???

Off to swim right now, and do some more exploring. Then back to the 2/5 NL game tonight.

Lee

Actually, ended up doing the exploring first. Took the water taxi down to the end of the line, casino wise - the Riverside. Walked from there back to Arizona, mostly so that I could take some photos, having not thought to bring a camera the day before.

Then walked back to Harrah's by way of the main road, not the riverwalk. Wanted to see something different, and also wanted to see at least part of the antique car & slot machine exhibit at Riverside. Very interesting, with lots of cool items. Anybody want to see a DeLorean?

I didn't go up to the 3rd floor, just took in what was in the showroom on the 1st floor. Well worth the visit.

After getting back to Harrah's, I did go for a quick swim. Quick, because that water is *COLD*! Heck of it is, the day before it seemed warm to me. Maybe the lack of sunlight (it was all in shadows by the time I went swimming) is enough for a drastic temperature change? I dunno. Still fun though - and that water is so clear!

Next time, I need to bring some snorkling gear. A mask at least, if nothing else.

I took the opportunity, after swimming and showering and putting on clean clothes, to check out the Diamond Club. Big disappointment. Not up to Vegas standards, let alone A.C. Oh, well - the tuna salad was good.

Back to the poker room and the 2/5 game. Played for about 5 1/2 hours and saw a ton of action. Lots of multi-hundred dollar pots. I still wasn't getting much, and this was no table to do a lot of bluffing at! People were calling with all kinds of weird stuff. One guy called me pot sized bet with nothing but a gut-shot & a live card (7 outs). Of course he hit - that's poker. I did end up, somehow, with a small win. But then again, NLHE is my main game to this really isn't surprising. If only I could do this in limit games!

Some final notes:

The 2/5 game is raked to a $5 max, but the 3/6 game is only raked to a $4 max.

Both games pay the same $1 per hour and 28 tier credits per hour that one gets in Vegas for poker.

Announcements - such as seat open for so and so - are heard throughout the casino. One doesn't have to be in the poker room to hear them. Great idea, because now people can play other games while they wait for the poker table to open up and not miss their seat.

Tomorrow morning, it's goodby to Laughlin for me. I'm glad that I visited, and hope to come back at some point. Meanwhile, Vegas is calling and I'll be there for the next 4 nights.

Lee

Appreciate the trip report. My wife enjoys taking the Laughlin junkets, I have yet to go.

River run Coming up !!!

2012 update: Not much has changed. Harrah's still only room with regular NL, and it is $2/5. Took me over two hours to get a seat on the lone table, as 7 on the list but no new table started. Also had a table of 3/6 limit with kill.

Brush tells me that Colorado Belle sometimes gets a 1/2NL game on the weekends, but when I was there they had three tables of 2/4 limit and nothing else. He also said that River Palms get weekend 1/2NL, but I didn't check that room. Aquarius no longer has poker at all.

Overall a weird place. Joe 6-pack heaven. Lots of boat trailers in all the parking lots, and the most common luggage item I saw were coolers. I guess I can understand why limit dominates here...

Wow this thread is depressing, I'm going to be staying at Laughlin with a tour bus in two weeks Monday and Tuesday, maybe some of the tour bus people will be playing wanting to play poker as well. I may be better off just staying in my room playing online.

Thinking about going to laughlin for comped trip. Sounds like the NL poker sucks here(i hope they havd roulette then). Anything else to do in this town? White water rafting/kayaking, sea-doo rentals, local brewery tours, etc?

Having lived near Laughlin for the past 9 years, I can tell you a few things about it.

We moved 20 miles east of Laughlin in September 2003. I started out playing at Colorado Belle because they had some Stud and the only real LHE games (15/30 on the weekends). They also had tourneys mostly every day. I rarely played the morning ones, but almost always played in the evenings. Back in 2003-2004 I played two O8, two NLHE per week, one monthly $100 NLHE tourney and other weeklies.

After getting kicked out of the Belle in 2004 I moved my play to the Riverside and River Palms later that summer (Palms had the only Stud/Stud 8, O8, PLO8 tourneys in Laughlin). Long story about the boot. Basically I saw a card room employee get sexually harassed. Dealer made me promise to report it. I did. Couple days later the tape is "lost." And I get the call on April Fool's that my business is no longer wanted. Abuser keeps his job, employee is fired.

Later got letters, apologies, phone calls asking to come back, especially after MGM bought them. Never went back. When local girl made good in Card Player and the WSOP got more calls and letters, e-mails, etc.

Repeat: never went back. YMMV.

No worries about ever getting kicked out of Riverside. I remember my Mom once telling me that when the worst locals in Vegas were kicked out of all of the card rooms they would go to Riverside in Laughlin. First time I played there an 80+ year old man punched a dealer at the 1-5 Stud table (you know, those thousand dollar pots at 1-5 Stud just bring out the beast in the elderly). I expected security, police, guy handcuffed and dragged out. Naw, the CRM went over, wagged his finger and told the guy to go out into the pit and cool off a bit. Next time I was there, old man in plain sight, dealer fired. Yeah, in Laughlin the DEALERS get fired when they get punched. Go figure.

I remember another incident. Middle-aged guy from LA with an anger management problem punches RV retiree in the jaw during a 2-6 LHE game. Punishment for middle-aged angry guy? He has to come to work there as a dealer, lol. Retiree never seen again.

Ah, good times

Anyway, I migrated to mostly tourneys and O8 cash games at Riverside. O8 cash games are pretty juicy at Riverside. Mostly played with a kill. Mostly 8-10 every flop. I could go on. Sometimes they get two or three must-move games going, they are that good.

Once the poker boom came, NLHE became the game of choice for the younger (50-ish, lol) crowd in Laughlin. I know this seems statistically unbelievable, but on weekends sometimes the games would go on 48 hours straight and the average on the table was 20k. Yeah, this is like a max $500 buy-in game!!! I was too tight to make the most of it, but I'd try to double or triple up, then cash out, relax in O8 or a tourney, then buy back in another time.

I could quote the other posters all day, but suffice it to say, Laughlin is not the place for poker. Not the place for kids. Not the place for non-bikers, non-smokers, non-drinkers, non-nascar, non-bowlers, non-country music lovers, non-old 80's mediocre band lovers, etc.

If you like your beer warm, women old with a case, hookers in the Loser's Lounge (we always called it the hooker bar), cigarettes filterless, big comps for virtually no play, bad beds, cold coffee, green pools, muddy river, nasty water, old rooms, dark 70's-80's decor, rusty colored water coming out of the faucet when you brush your teeth, river taxis, old nits, angleshooting, poker cheating, floors that side with the locals, average player age of 80, dealers who fall asleep during a hand (only later to get promoted to floor, bonus), locals who softplay everyone but you, 120 degrees in the shade in March, a local economy which rivals Peru, a sucky outlet mall, stealing chips out of your stack at the table boldly, surveillance that is somehow always corrupt or lost, doorjambs that look eaten open, safes that magically don't work, locals with more teeth than IQ points, Harrah's with a $6 rake, then you WILL love Laughlin.

Fast forward to 2008. I went through cancer. I was in and out of hospitals for pancreatitis caused by some old chemo that later got banned by the FDA. My insurance premiums for a bad policy are horrendous. So husband comes out of retirement to get some health insurance cheaply. He decided to work at Riverside. The tips are tremendous, but dealers have to "pay" to work at the Riverside. If one is full-time this amounts to about 6k or more per year. You must pay every day to deal. This was later outlawed by the gaming commission, but my husband paid the first year or two. Then they made this crazy rule about how they are going to become more player friendly, family-friendly by making the male dealers cut their hair and no more facial hair. So Glenn's long, beautiful hair gets cut off. Good deal is that he donates it to kids with cancer.

Over the next 3+ years Glenn deals at Riverside. Things change. Almost every CRM gets fired for stealing. This is pretty common at RS. The blackmail the dealers have to pay, the skimming in tourneys or the drop, arranging rooms on the side for cash, RV spaces, food and drinks, etc. Employee turnover is outstanding, too, due to mandatory drug tests and the ever accuasations of stealing by dealers. Somehow the cameras always work when an employee is skimming the drop.

Since Glenn is their fastest, most reliable, most mistake-free dealer he manages to stay on. He has never taken drugs, never stolen, never gone along with the blackmail policy of dealing. That doesn't make one immune from accuasations and firing, but in the case of Glenn, he escaped injury.

Unfortunately, about a year after he finally qualified for insurance, RS decided to eliminate all full-time dealers and cancel their insurance. Since he was working for the insurance anyway, we just continued to pay via Cobra. It was still a good deal compared to my old BCBS policy. Good beat: so many employees complained that a clinic opened just for casino employees. You could see any doctor for anything and the co-pay was only $5. Discount RX cards, too. We never had to use it, due to having Cobra, but it helped a lot of people.

Fast forward to 2012. Glenn still at RS, albeit part-time and cutting back hours all the time. Poker is dead in Laughlin (not that it was ever that live to begin with). Glenn gets an opportunity to come out of retirement (we retired from AOL back in 2002 and moved to Arizona). He gets an offer in North Carolina back in the tech field. He worked tech for about 15 years, basically his whole career, before we retired.

He snaps up the offer. Other considerations in place are that his parents who retired to NC are getting elderly and there is no one else in his family living NC who can help out. So we can come to the rescue. Even more, there are better hospitals/treatment for pancreatitis in NC. Duke and UNC are close by. Naturally we take the offer and head out to NC on March 12, 2012.

We keep up the Cobra payments. Glenn takes a FMLA for three months while he is on probabtion, just to be sure. Everything works out, he resigns from Riverside and here we are.
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Everything pretty much stopped for me and poker in Laughlin in 2007 when I got pancreatitis in June. Everything in the Laughlin poker world after that is relayed by Glenn working at RS.

I also took a long semi-hiatus from Laughlin poker during 2004-2007 while I played the tourney pro circuit. Getting kicked out of the Belle was probably the best thing that happened to me pokerwise. I never thought I could compete in the bigger events (turned out I couldn't after all. I started playing scared after a good start in 2004/2005). I freerolled almost everything from Vegas to LA to AC to Foxwoods and back again. I stopped playing in the WSOP in 2007 due to not really caring anymore. Plus I got pancreatitis in June when the WSOP was just heating up. I also decided I was better at cash games. Tight play can pay off there, whereas tourney structures got so bad and the juice so high that playing tight was for losers and chumps. Not to mention scared money, but that is another subject for another time.

Ah, memories. If anyone wants more info please feel free to PM me for my old journal archives. I don't want to post the link here, my journal was so horrid.

Hope this helps, and remember YMMV since I haven't played poker in Laughlin for so long, although it seems little has changed, lol.

Felicia

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Cliff Notes: Laughlin poker does indeed suck. Do yourself a favor and make the 90 mile trip north to Vegas if you can.

Felicia, this may be the single most epic post on 2+2.
Best wishes in your current situation.

I'm going to be in Laughlin the Saturday night before Christmas (Dec. 22). This thread indicates NL poker is hit and miss (2/5 at Harrah's and sometimes 1/2 at the Belle seem to be the only possibilities?), but poker aside, what are the nicest hotels and best restaurants? Basically just passing through, but would like to make the most of it while I'm there. Also, if there is a reliable 1/2 NL game these days I'd like to know where. Thanks.