Kill Phil author, and LVAPoker.com blogger Blair Rodman, writes:
The good news is that you’ll be in Vegas during the first week of March Madness, so the town will be packed and poker rooms will be busy. This should even apply to downtown, where the poker scene, for the most part, is less than robust. While there’s no poker at the Four Queens, you’ll be steps away from Binion's and the Golden Nugget, the two downtown rooms of note.
Binion's is certainly a must-see for any fan of poker history. The modern, massive World Series of Poker (WSOP) was born, back in 1970, in a small alcove in the old section of the casino. The present poker room is spacious, and decorated with pictures from the early days of the Horseshoe and the WSOP, including Poker Hall of Fame inductees through 2004, when Harrah's (now Caesars Ent.) took over and moved it to the Rio.
Binion's is the closest we have to a poker museum, so give ita look and maybe you’ll find a game to your liking. Their 2 p.m. Saturday tournament usually has a decent turnout.
The Golden Nugget poker room, run at the time by Hall-of-Famer Bill Boyd, was where I started my career, back in the early '80s. While that room was closed in 1988, the present room is near the casino cage and stays fairly busy. If you’re looking for small-stakes games, you’ll probably find something to your liking here without having to leave downtown.
With the exception of the WSOP, high-stakes poker deserted downtown for the Strip with the opening of the Mirage in 1989. Bellagio, which took over fromthe Mirage as the hub of high-limit action upon its opening in '98, is hometo "Bobby’s Room", named after 1978 WSOP Main Event champion and casino exec. Bobby Baldwin. This is the site of the storied "Big Game," and the Andy Beal challenge matches, chronicled in The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King by Michael Craig. Bellagio is where many professional poker players ply their craft in mid-level no-limit hold’em, limit hold’em. and mixed games.
If being in proximity to famous poker players is your thing, Bellagio's also a good place to start, as is Aria, which has made inroads into the high-stakes arena and features a regular, high-limit mixed game with familiar faces such as Ben Lamb, Todd Brunson, and Jean-Robert Bellande. It's home to the hi-limit "Ivey Room," named for Phil Ivey.
If you want to actually play with a big name, 2006 WSOP champ Jamie Gold is employed as a host at the Tropicana and plays regularly in the small no-limit games. Jamie is very cordial and everybody seems to have a good time playing with him.
The Venetian, Caesars, MGM, and Wynn all have large, comfortable poker rooms and could be worth a look. During the week in question they’ll all be pretty busy.
If your game of choice is small-stakes no-limit hold’em, which is by far the most popular game of today, you might find a game to your liking in almost any casino that has a poker room. Or, if your friends don’t mind playing against each other, ask the floorman if they’ll start a game for you.
Don’t rule out smaller rooms, which can be very fun and friendly. People I know have come to town and wandered into a room, such as the Luxor, and ended up spending all their poker time there and thoroughly enjoying themselves.
