I'm going to be moving to Mesa, Arizona around mid November. Are there any good casinos/cardrooms around there or the Phoenix area? I play a wide variety by if had to choose one I play the most probably 2-5NL. What are the best casinos for this type of action?

Casino Arizona has good action. The new Gila River casino is opening in late October with about 25 tables and is giving away a boatload of money in the poker room, so that might be worth checking out too.

Be advised that the max bet in Arizona is $500, so it's not true no-limit - but the games are very good.

Max bet $500? Im moving from KC area, and the casinos there had a $500 loss limit for every 2 hours. Meaning in a 2 hour span you could only buy-in at $500. But there was no limit to your bet, you could have 6k on the table and go allin, you'd just have to win up to 6k. Thats good to know though thanks.

To be clear, you can lose as much as you'd like in Arizona, just only $500 per bet. You can bet $500, get raised $500, and so forth and so-on...

There are other Phoenix threads - search for them. Casino Arizona is clearly your best choice, but you've got Gila River on the South end of town, Harahs out in Maricopa (a half an hour past Gila River), Fort McDowell on the way NE out of town, and even the second Gila River casino on the SW part of town. [Both Gila casinos on directly on your path to Harahs, those crafty devils.] You've also got a few strip-mall card rooms where 1/2 no limit is played, but their legality is questionable (see other threads).

I suggest tableside food at CAZ over eating anywhere else.

+1 for CAZ. Fort McDowell might be closer to you in Mesa, but CAZ has way more people.

Mark

And the new CAZ poker room and hotel opens by year end.

So many disjointed threads on Arizona poker now, but...

The Gila construction for their hotel and new casino building is moving quickly and they'll be opening up 40th street south of Pecos.

Alright thanks for all the information. I'll probably be checking out Casino Arizona first. Thats good to know the $500 is one bet, not the total amount. Also this is semi off topic, but is there any baccarat at any of the casinos in AZ?

Oh one more question. Do they spread a lot of 2-5NL games?

Is this true? I heard 2010.

October 30 is the word I hear. (Pretty reliable info)

I've been told March at the earliest.

.

That may be true for CAZ. Gila is promising "this year" on all of their signs. I drove down there today to have a comped buffet with the wife. [So I play some slots, shoot me.] For reasons I don't fully understand (I'm a basic level card holder), Harahs offered me $160 or so in slot comps this week - so after I finished my Gila lunch, I drove further and I turned my comp play into $323.

To the best of my knowledge, there is no live baccarat play in AZ, and I haven't seen a video version either. Depending on the casino, you've got Blackjack and its variants (double-exposure, "Super Fun," Spanish 21, etc.), 3-card poker and other hold'em type games (mostly on the Caribbean stud model of bet/ante/bonus), Casino War, Pai Gow Poker and Let it Ride. There's video roulette (with an enclosed physical wheel) at a few places, as well as video craps (a vile soulless beast!) at Harahs and possibly elsewhere. [Oh, and Keno, live and video... ...but your hair isn't blue, is it? Truth be told, I enjoy keno with dinner. "Sir, for $1 more, there's the unlikely chance that your dinner is free."]

It's not like 1/2, but there's always some games going 24/7/365.

Has the nl raided the middle-limit games of people [yet]?

1/2 plays much tighter than the 3/5 at CAZ IMO.

More importantly, for those of you who don't get there often and might have played 5-150 last (or have never played anything beyond limit poker there), the game varies greatly, but rarely has the "150!, make it three, no, four fifty" that you'd see previously at the 5-150. I gather that some of that action has move to the 3/5 game, leaving nut peddlers to slowly stack casual players at 1/2 -- well, them and the rake.

Should be interesting to see if the new Gila River Poker room steals come of the action from CAZ....

Harrahs had a pretty nice video baccarat machine for about 6 months. It was a lolfail - empty 90% of the time. It was replaced with video craps that does reasonably well.

They're definitely going to make a run at it. They're going to be really aggressive with their promotions when they open. The number I have heard is $10,000 a day given away just in the poker room for the first month. It would be nice to have two excellent rooms in the area. Competition can be a good thing, etc etc blah blah meow chow.

The Palimax, thank you your information has been really helpful. I did a little google of casino arizona, and they said they spread 1-2NL, 3-5NL, 5-10NL, and 10-20NL. Plus a wide variety of limit games. Was there website correct.

The 10/20nl game hardly ever runs. And it isn't really nl, there is a $500 max on any bet. So if you have less than $500 in front of you, can you can go all in. If not, you can only bet $500. Then someone can raise you $500, etc.

Outside of that, everything you read is probably correct.

Mark

Mark... has the 10/20 game ever been 9 handed?