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The poker room at the Sands Regency Casino Hotel is named 'Mom's Poker Room'. It's a misnomer. It should be called, 'Grandpa's Poker Room' – filled as it often is with older local guys. Even so, it's a lively and noisy place, located in what may be the casino with the best bargain rooms in Reno.
The Sands is trying hard to keep its small, three-table room vibrant. It's open seven days a week, going until the last game breaks at 1:00 AM or so. They spread two $25 no-limit tournaments every day, at 10:00 AM and 7:00 PM. Players get a great deal. Just $1 of the buy-in goes to the house. These are bounty tournaments as well, with $5 of the buy-in awarded for every player knocked out. They tend to last about two hours.
The standard game that gets going once the morning tournament ends is $3/6 limit hold'em. Other games are spread at the customer's request. But the once-weekly Omaha-8 game, that used to be spread on Tuesday evenings, has been discontinued for lack of interest. No-limit hold'em is sometimes spread on Fridays and Saturdays, with $1/2 blinds and a $300 maximum buy-in.
The house rakes 10% with a modest $3.50 maximum per pot. There's an additional $1 drop that funds a progressive bonus hand promotion for players who hit quads or straight flushes. Players earn $.80/hour with their player's cards, and get free drinks while playing.
The room is unenclosed – more a squared-off space without complete walls. It is somewhat depressing, with low ceilings (with mirrors on them), cheap looking tables, older, somewhat dirty chips, and smoking. The casino, in fact, promotes the room as a smoking room. Not surprisingly, it attracts many smokers – shut out as they are from all of the non-smoking rooms these days.
I visited on a weekday evening and played some $3/6. I was the only 'non-regular' player, and the only player without gray hair. I was literally called 'Sonny' when I sat down – and I'm 51! Though the room itself was depressing, the players and staff were anything but. They were friendly, warm, and welcoming. And they all seemed to know each other. I felt like I was stopping in on an inviting home game for a bunch of retirees.
The play of these guys was, for the most part, moderately tight and extraordinarily passive. Were it not for me, I don't think the hand would have been raised pre-flop more than 10% of the time. Typically, three or four players saw the flop for $3. The flop was often checked around. It was not a tough game to beat.
Reno is going through a tough time right now, with the slowed economy. Even so, the Sands is trying its best to attract tourists. The casino is now offering an $18/night rate. Though I didn't stay in one of the casino's rooms, other players told me that they were the largest in downtown Reno. The food, at any of four restaurants, is also very reasonably priced. There are 99-cent shrimp cocktails from the Pipeline Lounge. And the steak buffet, at the restaurant eponymously named 'The Steak Buffet', is only $12.99. Not a bad deal.
As a non-smoker, I can't say I'd return to the poker room, though I surely would feel welcome and at ease if I did come back. Without question though, if you're a smoker and like small no-limit tournaments or easy low-limit hold'em action, this is a great spot to play.
Terrible's Sands Regency Casino Hotel
345 North Arlington Ave.
Reno, Nevada
775-348-2200
Tags
Live casino poker
Sands Casino Poker Room Bethlehem
After renovation and rearrangement, Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem in Lehigh Valley unveiled its new poker room last week. After a brief interruption for the move in mid-March the new space next to the Molten Lounge is now fully up and running with several upgrades for an improved player experience.
The Earl of Sandwich would not approve
The change is a sad one for poker players who also enjoy a good deli sandwich while they play. The new room has moved the poker tables away from the main casino floor and into the space previously used to house the satellite Carnegie Deli eatery at Sands Bethlehem. This was one of the final remaining Carnegie locations after its famous flagship restaurant closed at the beginning of last year.
Poker Bravo
The new 26 table room boasts an overall updated environment similar to the upgrades competitor Parx Casino added in its new poker room earlier this year, such as new tables with comfort features like a USB charging port for each seat, and a perimeter of nineteen 55-inch LCD televisions around the room. Typical amenities such as table-side dining and massage service of course continued to be offered as before.
Table games
While the new poker room has many features for a better poker experience, the move has actually less to do with poker at Sands Bethlehem and is more about other casino games. In transferring the poker tables into the old deli (losing its 27th table in the process) Sands is going to be able to backfill the previous poker space with additional table games, now permitted to go beyond the previously imposed limit of 250. The planned changes will allow the casino to add 14 more traditional banking tables, 29 more stadium gaming terminals, and 74 more slot machines.
This is a good trade for Sands, as it works out to a 7% increase to overall table game capacity in exchange for a single poker table that was rarely in use. The additional 2% increase in slot machines will also prove convenient for Sands’ $30,000 April Slot Tournament on Friday the 13th, and the $10,000 Super Slot Tournament on Monday the 23rd.
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Performance expectations
Recent poker revenues have already been steady at Sands, with February reporting no month-over-month change from January, which itself had a 5% drop from December, though both months still were still 1% above the six-month average.
Both months so far in 2018 also saw year-over drops from last winter, down 10% for January and 3% for February. This, however, is comparable to the 5% January and 4% February drops for Parx, which opened its new poker room mid-January. It should be noted that January of 2017 was an inordinately poor weather month.
Based on typical poker activity at Sands versus capacity and the results Parx has seen, it is unlikely the new room will affect poker revenues significantly but should improve player satisfaction. Beyond the quality of life upgrades, poker players will finally be isolated from the hollers of table game players and the dings of slot machines.
Table game revenues are more likely to be positively affected.
Sands Casino Poker Room
Sands’ poker tournament schedule will continue the same as before, with daily tournaments at the $75 to $300 dollar levels. Its Bad Beat Jackpot promotion is still running, with the current jackpot up over a whopping $350,000 at this time.
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Sands Casino Poker Tournaments
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