Not One No Limit Texas Hold’em Game in Las Vegas?

The answer is YES! If you go back only three years, that is. That’s right. In about December 2002 and January 2003 you could not find a no limit poker game in Las Vegas. No where. Not the Bellagio. Not the Mirage. Not even…. BINION’S HORSESHOE. The most common game at that time was LIMIT Texas hold’em. It is still to this day debatable if limit hold’em poker rules over no limit. In most rooms it’s a tie, from what I have seen. No limit has taken off hugely due to four main reasons; Here they are;
1. Chris Moneymaker
2. Greg “Fossilman” Raymer
3. ESPN (World Series of Poker)
4. Travel Channel’s broadcast’s of the World Poker Tour

In mid and late 2002 you could go to any room and play seven card stud or Omaha 8-or-better and have no problem finding a game. Nowadays? Forget about it. I work at the MGM Grand poker room, which will be celebrating the one year anniversary of the re-opening of that room on March 28th, 2006. We have not spread one game of seven stud or Omaha, even though it is offered. Why? Because MGM Grand players are lining up to play TEXAS HOLD’EM. 22 tables and every day the lists to play hold’em are a mile long.

The games at Wynn, Bellago, Mirage ( I opened the the Bellagio and Mirage poker rooms in 1989 and 1998 respectively) and the recently re-opened Caesars Palace are half no limit and half limit hold’em. This would have shocked poker management to read this in the tea leaves (the future) years back. This is because there is a reason why there was no ‘no limit’ being played in Vegas poker rooms in pre 2002. Las Vegas poker management didn’t want to spread no limit and even pot limit because they didn’t want players in their customer base to get busted by the sharks. Their theory was if they opened and hosted no limit games they would lose all their action. It was a FORBIDDEN game.

This all changed when Chris Moneymaker won the 2003 WSOP. TV shows such as The Travel Channel broadcast no limit events in the World Poker Tour. This started the ball rolling. Households around the country and the world (where US cable was broadcast) flooded homes with no limit poker. Tons of shows in various formats showing people that poker was all about NO LIMIT TEXAS HOLD’EM.

Las Vegas
By Darryl "RazzO" Phillips
www.razzo.com