Leaving tomorrow for Tunica. Staying at Harrahs. Will play small buy in MTT's and 1-2 NL and 1-3 NL.

Will play at Harrah's, Horseshoe, and Gold Strike from the recommendations of this thread.

Will let you know how it goes and what the action is like.

Don't forget to ask the floor for a meal comp, all 3 will comp you without it coming off your players card.

In this reply I will talk about the travel, accomodations, and comps. In another post I will talk about the actual poker play.

We arrived on Thursday by flying from Detroit to Atlanta to Tunica. Both planes mid size jets and the flights were fine. We arrive in Tunica in the middle of corn and cotton fields out in the sticks. The size of Tunica aiport is about 1/3 size of Flint Bishop, very small.

They shuttle us about 15 miles to Harrahs Casino and the driver tells us to wait in a line outside the Casina for another shuttle to take us to our hotel. I am with my wife and another couple. My wife asks if the hotel is connected to the casino, and she replies no. She is not a gambler and has only stayed in Vegas and we expected the same thing, walk out of your hotel room, go downstairs and gamble. Not at Harrahs.

We take the shuttle to the room, nice room, nice view, nice pool. We go back down stairs and take the shuttle back from the hotel to the casino. My wife asks how we get to the other casinos. The driver says you wait outside (it was in the high 90's all the time we were there) and every 15 minutes or so the shuttle will take you to other casinos. During the week the shuttle ends at 10:45 and weekends 2:45.

We go inside gamble a while and a guy tells us if we gamble for 1/2 hour at Horshoe you get free buffets. We head to Horshoe, which is probably 3-4 miles away. We get to the Horshoe, I head to the poker room at the Gold Strike next store and the others play slots. I play for an hour or so, then return we go to the buffet and the food was very good.

We eat go out and gamble a little and then my wife's friends wants to go to Sam's town. We check with the casino host and they say the shuttles only run from Harrah properties. We check around and we can get a shuttle but it will cost us $30 apiece. We also find there are no taxis in Tunica. We check with rental places and there is one at the small Tunica airport and there are no more cars left. Okay we are stuck at the Harrahs properties and that is it.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, we shuttled between Harrahs and Horshoe. Played at 4 casinos, Gold Strike and Roadhouse the others. The crowds were slow on Thursday and early Friday but was good on Saturday. We ate at Paula Deens buffet at Harrahs. I thought the food was good but the others thought it was very salty. I recommend the pulled pork, it was excellent.

Overall we enjoyed out trip. the food was good and the staff were very cordial. We never will return without renting a car We are dissapointed that Harrahs on the Total Reward sites never mentions the transportation system in Tunica. My wife works for a large financial services brokerage firm and will write a letter to them. She finds out who is on the Board of Directors and top management group and they all receive a letter. We have done that for other large corporations and have gotten action, usually from the secretary to one of the CEO or VP of Marketing.

What would you have them "mention"? Please, write us a quick little blurb that you would put on the site if you owned the casino.

You go to the casinos everyday and you haven't been to the Shoe yet?!

There is a taxi in Tunica but you have to call them like you would at home. There is also Enterprise car rental in Horn Lake and Southhaven both will deliver to the casino. Also I would assume that you were on a Harrahs charter and they don't really want you playing anywhere but their casinos so what are you going to tell them I used your charter for either a free or discounted trip but wanted to gamble at Sams Town. One of Harrahs hotels is semi-connected to the casino and does not require the use of their shuttle. Also if you get stuck at another casino after Harrahs shuttle quits running all you have to do is ask that casino and they will take you back to Harrahs (an undisclosed bit of infomation). And since you posted here before your trip you could have asked anyone here about transportation and we would have answered your questions.

tunica is a fine gambling destination. if you have any questions in the future you need to come to 2 + 2 and folks will gladly help you out. it has been a wealth of information for me--thanks everyone.

i have been to tunica many times. the key is to fly into memphis and rent your car there. rent-a-cars are off site and you have to shuttle to their offices, but that is the only hassle. the shuttles for all name brand companies run regularly. talk to the bus driver for info, especially about the hours that the shuttle runs--it is not 24/7. rent-a-car prices are not always cheap--a few extra taxes and add-ons. the drive to the casinos from the airport is about 30 minutes.


with a car you an visit all of the casinos at any time you like and even go to memphis to see graceland--don't miss the jungle room. i don't do much sight seeing in tunica but you could.

i do not know how you managed in tunica without a car and i offer belated sympathy. i would never go to tunica without an auto.

jack

Been in there, just haven't played poker there yet.

I would say something like, "If you intend on gambling at non-Harrah casinos, you will need to provide your own transportation."

You are right. I take much of the blame for not posting sooner about this instead of waiting just before the trip. Live and learn.

When I was at the Shoe, on Friday night and Saturday, 8/20 & 21, the room was packed. Lots of action, several Omaha and Limit games going along with the NL games.

The Shoe is the busiest and has a manager Dale Carden that has been in the business for 30+ years and knows how to run a room.

I didn't know Dale was running that room now. Good for him, he's an awesome guy.

Yes, as busy as it was, they have you swipe your card and within a couple of minutes you are seated and ready to go. Well managed room. They even put the tournament on tables just outside the room to house the 2 final tables of an afternoon tournament so they could open up more cash games in the room.

I played at Harrah's, Horseshoe, and Gold Strike.

I played 3 tourneys at Harrahs, $60 on Thursday, $100 on Friday, and $70 on Saturday. Small fields, most was 33 on Saturday.

Overall, the fields were very soft. Finished 4,6,5 respectively and bubbled on Thursday and Saturday. In the Friday event, we had 22 I beleive and my first table had 5 women at it. Two were okay players but the other 3 were not very good. Hard to find betting patterns or ranges with the group and many all ins early.

I played cash games at all 3, playing $1-2 NL at Gold Strike, and $1-3 at Harrahs and the Shoe. As I mentioned earlier, the best action was at the Shoe.

Played several sessions at Gold Strike. First on Thursday afternoon and the room was dead, one table going. Played for a couple of hours, very tight table, and lost $45. On Friday morning came back and played, still only one table but action picked up as the 11:00 tourney began coming in. Better game, not as tight. Ended up down a few dollars. Low buy in tourney had at least 5 tables, think buyin was $35. Played again on Saturday and broke out about even, some action in the room. Had considered buying in to $100 Saturday afternoon tournament but a player at Harrahs told me that they rake more than what the first prize player gets, so I didn't.

Since we stayed at Harrahs, I played a lot there. First couple of sessions didn't have much luck and lost about $100. The buyins for the $1-3 were $100-$300. Friday and Saturday the room was pretty full.

The best game I ran into was on Saturday night when I came back from the Shoe about 1 o'clock. I walked in the poker room and sign up for $1-3 and Harrahs only has 1, maybe 2 automatic shufflers, the rest are hand dealt. Well they had combined tables from the evening, since there were now only 3 or 4 tables going. I buyin for $200, and there were 4 young white guys, 3 young black guys, and a middle aged asian guy. The average stack size was well over $700. I put the table stakes at around $6K or more because they allow you to put money up under your chips and several players had 2 or more hundreds under there chip stack.

About 1/2 hour in to the session, we get a monster pot. Now the 4 young white guys are all LAGs, as are 2 of the black guys and the Asian guy. There is a straddle on nearly every preflop for $6 and the range for a typical preflop raise was $20-$50.

There is a multiway pot (5 players) and preflop raise is to $50, and of course 3 callers. The flop comes q,5,2 with 2 clubs. The Asian guy bets $50, he is called and the last to act raises $50, all 3 call. The turn is a 7 non club and the Asian goes all in and probably has at least $600 behind the line. He is called buy all three players. This creates a main pot of $960 (4 players could cover $240). One of the young guns has an additional $200 plus left creating a sidepot of over $400. One guy turns over a,k no clubs, the other pocket jacks and the third turns over a,5 clubs. The asian guy turns over q,5 no club draw. A club comes on the river, one of the young guys takes it down for nearly $1400.

I played until 5:00 in the morning when I had to go since I had to catch the shuttle at 7:30. The average pots were $300-400. I picked up a pot for over $480, picked up about $250 for the session.

Harrah's now making some questionable decisions? In addition to the 75 people they laid off, now they took out the tournament area at the Shoe. All but two of those tables outside the poker room are now gone. Guess what is in their place???? Slot machines. Also heard from an employee that the Casino Tower (at Harrahs) will be closed during the week. Hmmmmm?

I play at the GS and the Shoe, don't really think anything else competes at all, and its awesome they are right next to each other. In terms of getting buffets comped... the Shoe will give you one every session, GS is not as loose.

Both the Shoe and Harrahs give the best food comps of any casinos I've ever been in. (Poker room)

Just got back from Labor Day weekend. All casinos seem to be packed until Monday, but Monday night was dead. I understand people were returning to work Tuesday, but I mean really dead.

Sam's Town poker room comps are $2.50 per hour not to bad either.

Guys I am heading to Harrahs Tunica in about 3 weeks on a private junket flight. I have a few questions and any help would be greatly appreciated.

1- I will not have a car, I have heard a shuttle runs from harrahs to The Horseshoe. Can I walk from the Shoe to any close buy casinos. I understand Tunica is very spread out but I am trying to see as many casinos as possible without renting a car.

2- I will rent a car for 1 day to travel into Memphis, I will have my girlfriend with me and need to take her someplace fun, since she will have to put up with my degen gambling for the other 3 days. Suggestions??

3- Best BBQ and Bar/blues club in Memphis

Thanks in advance

1. I think Harrah's still runs the shuttles but have reduced the hours. I'm not certain though, so maybe others can help with that. You can not walk to any other casinos from Harrah's. From the Shoe, it's barely a step outside to either Gold Strike or Roadhouse (another Harrah's property--formerly Sheraton).

2. Depends on what you like. See #3.

3. Park downtown and hit Beale Street after dark. Pick your spots. The Flying Saucer (on Main St just off Beale, IIRC) has terrific selection of beers. Best BBQ ribs IMHO is at Rendezvous which is in an alley across Union Ave from the Peabody Hotel. It's an easy walk from Beale St--when you get close, just follow your nose. If you time your walk correctly in the late afternoon, you can see the ducks in the lobby fountain of the Peabody catch the elevator to their housing on the roof (check the Peabody's website for details).

During the week the Harrah's shuttle ends at 10:45 pm and weekends 2:45 am.

Blues City Cafe has tasty ribs, I assume it is still open. I haven't been to Tunica for at least two years. I wanted to try the Rendevous but it wasn't open Sunday or Monday.

Interstate BBQ on the way in from Tunica was nasty.

**** corkys. Go to Rendezvous. best in the city hands down.