Posted by Johnnymac 9:47 PM
Mark, I would say that the reason why there are nothing but Big Bet games offered in the rooms here in town is because it's more lucrative to the owners of the room and not necessarily because there isn't demand for low-limit games. One of the reasons why I quit playing around town, in addition to getting married and trying to straighten up some of my bachelor ways, was that I finally started paying attention to the size of the rake in those games. They may say that it's 5% or $6 straight or something like that, but in reality it's pushing 15% or 20%. The kicker for me was when I saw a dealer take almost $20 out of a $50 pot at the Friendship Social Club and no one else there even noticed - after that I decided that I wasn't a sucker and that the game wasn't beatable. And hell, it's not explicitly explained to the players and even if it was, who's going to enforce the rules anyway?

Of course, this isn't meant to be a statement on the fairness or beatability of a given game rather, it's this: if those f*ckers were willing to try and rake 40% out of a $50 pot, there is no telling how much they are skimming off the top of some of the $500 or more sized pots that I hear about through you and through some other people I hear about. So hell yeah, why would they waste time with smaller games when there are suckers around town who are willing to give even more money away playing large games?

I'm not sure if this is a reason why No Limit will stay on in Vegas, but I'm sure the casinos still make more money off of those games than they do the $4-8, so it's a factor.

1 Comment(s):

Posted by  Junelli, at 1:05 PM, October 24, 2006  

I agree with you 100%. The rake is ridiculous at a lot of places.

But I think those establishments can make more money off low limit games than the higher games.

If I owned a club in Houston, I would offer $3-$6-$12 and $2-$5 PL. I wouldn't mess around with the bigger games because the players get busted too quickly.

A $3-$6 game can go all night and no one will go broke (well maybe Morris). The rake would go on forever. It's not as exciting, but it's a never ending cash cow.

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