February '10 Home & Family—Susie Isaacs Column

Rants and Raves

I
love to play the mixed poker game of HORSE. I enjoy the game changes and I especially like that every game: Hold’em, Omaha, Razz, Stud, and Eight-or-better are LIMIT games. The most intriguing thing about this game is that you never see a “pants-on-the-ground, Save Me From the Young Guns!

sideways-baseball-cap-wearing, upside-down-sunglass-wearing, smart-mouthed” young bully, shoving all his chips in the pot. These young guns (always male) can’t even spell HORSE, much less play it.

So, I play HORSE every chance I get. Lately, that is at noon every Friday at the Orleans and 7 PM on Sunday evenings at the Orleans. If there are any more good HORSE games (tournaments) in Las Vegas, I don’t know about it.

Upcoming at the Venetian Deep Stacks is a $560 buy-in HORSE on Monday, Feb. 15 at 4 p.m. I’ll be there. BTW: add $10 to any buy-in you see posted or advertised for the Venetian. I wish they would just say $350 or $560 rather than sticking the $10 fee on when you arrive. That’s one of the very few things about the Venetian that I don’t like, oh yes, their seating cards suck. Another big HORSE competition coming up is the Wynn Classic. I’ll be there. It will be played on Monday, March 8 at noon. The buy-in is $545. I don’t know if they add $10 or not, just be prepared.

I really do enjoy no-limit competition, if I can avoid the aforementioned young guns. If you haven’t discovered the no-limit tournaments at the new Aria, every day at 1 p.m. (you can register up until 3 p.m. for you late sleepers). The buy-in is $120 and it is a great daily tourney. You should expect to play for at least 6 hours if you plan to win it. You receive $8,000 in starting chips with a great structure and 30-minute rounds.

On another subject: You know you are in the new age when you are invited out for a nice dinner and you text a thank you to your host and he responds before the check arrives. Wonder what Emily Post would have to say about that!