Biloxi Advice Anyone?

[lightfungus]

This is the closest poker hub to where I live, and am planning a trip this week. Has anyone been there? Do you have a relevant advice? I am treating this like a working trip has I am missing a week of work so I have to replace the lost salary so I will be playing hardcore. Much appreciated.

[lightfungus]

Bueller...

[Quint]

No advice for you as I have never been there myself (there is a little bit of info in the B&M forum on 2p2). But, I'm flying to ATL Wednesday night and a buddy & I are taking off for Biloxi, hitting a couple RTJ courses along the way. We will be there sometime Thursday, leaving Saturday. PM me if you want to try to share a poker table or some beers.

[Talking Poker]

Never been there... sorry.

[Reel Deal]

It's amazing to me that they have casinos up and running in Biloxi after what Katrina did to that area. GL Fung.

[Quint]

Casinos are about all that are up and running! I thought that was a little sad when I first got there, but after seeing the amount of slot playing tourists they brought in and the number of locals they employed I guess it's better than not having them rebuilt.

I didn't get to play much poker at all, but I'll give you the best description I can. By proximity, IP and Boomtown are next door to each other. Beau Rivage (pronounced one word,like Beauregard) stands pretty much alone. Isle of capri and the New Palace Resort and Casino are close to each other. The Palace is only mentionable for it's $59/night room rate (no poker). These are the main casinos right now. Hard Rock is set to open early July and Harrah's and Jimmy Buffet have announced that they will soon be constructing a Margaritaville Casino.

There is some sort of shuttle that goes from casino to casino during the day, but I never used it. We drove most of the time and parking was easy and free everywhere we went. When we wanted to drink at night we took a taxi from the Palace to Beau Rivage for about $5-6, depending on traffic.

I played in the Friday noon tourney at IP, the only poker I got to play while there. The card room is on the third floor separated from the slots by a 3/4 glass wall. There are 15 - 18 tables. They had about 3-4 tables going before the tourney started. It looked to be one $4/$8 limit game and the rest were $1/$2 NL or $2/$5 NL. This tourney started with about 38 people. I think 35 of them knew each other from playing the local cash games/tournaments. I went out on the bubble, naturally, but it was a bounty tournament and I had collected enough bounties to about break even.

I didn't make it to Boomtown at all, so I can't report on it.

Beaux Rivage had about 15-20 tables separated from the other table games by a couple of stairs and and a rail. I didn't get close enough to tell how busy it was or what the stakes were.

Isle of Capri had a poker room separate from the rest of the casino with a glass wall for observation. It looked to be slightly smaller than the poker rooms in IP and Beax Rivage, but still a decent size and had several games going on Friday afternoon.

As I said, I didn't get to play any cash games but most of the guys and gals in the tourney were playing in the cash games before and after the tourney. I wouldn't hesitate to sit down in a cash game with any of them. I think you could do very well if you went there for a week of poker.

Don't expect to find much outside of the casinos. The weather was great while we were there and we looked for a bar/restaurant to sit outside and enjoy a beer and couldn't find one. The only place we found outside of the casino to have a decent meal was at the Schooner (great po'boys). For $59 the Palace was a great place to stay. Although you will be the youngest one there by about 40 years.

[lightfungus]

Thanks Quint. I am going this weekend finally, my earlier plans got pushed back for a bit. I am going with 2 other poker playing guys as the fiance is out of town this weekend, so it will be all poker this weekend. Thanks for the trip summary and hopefully it goes well down there. I'll also report when I get back.

[Quint]

Tear it up!

[lightfungus]

So biloxi is still a whirlwind of destruction from Katrina and the like, but of course the casinos are in good shape. I drove with 2 friends down to biloxi leaving work early for about a 6 hour drive. We arrived at 9 pm and went directly to the casino. There are multiple casinos down there, obviously, but from what we could tell from the whopping 3-4 other poker rooms the Beau Rivage has the best room in Biloxi. We verified that the next day, when places like The Isles has 6 total games running and not a single one was above 7 people and most were only 5. Not too mention they looked dry. The Isles buffet wasn't worth 20 bucks either.

Back to the Beau. We played 6 hours that night, and let me tell you it has been a long time since I have been at a table with that much action in a while. From what my friend told me from his last trip, this is the norm at the Beau. Anyhoo, if you guys like 7 peeps to the flop with a 10xBB raise PF then this is the place for you. If you like 4 or 5 people heading to the turn then this is for you. If you like people sticking around to the river with sub-swa river holdings then this is for you. They spread 3-4 tables of 1/2NL with no max buyin. It is normal to see a couple grand in front of 1-3 people at a table. They also spread 2/5NL and 5/10NL (occasionally). 1/2 is softer than a babys head and 2/5 isn't a giant leap up. Needless to say I finished the rollercoaster of a weekend 40 bucks down after being down 750. Lets just say the timing of my cards was off. If I had had, say top pair, at the right time (and these times were pretty obvious) I could have pulled down $300-$400 pots. I was deader carded at the juicy table than I wanted to be (ask the hair that is left in Biloxi) and my luck averaged out the next day when the place slowed down a bit.

So, during any 24 hour period at the Beau, you will probably be able to scrounge out some tasty fishiness for 6-8 hours. I mean really profitable conditions. Both my friends finished up $1400 (one is ChrisKim47 from TP) and we had a good time. There were some nutty hands, my other friend pulled down a $2k pot with J high at the 2/5 game . They have a players card that gets you a comped meal after 5 hours of play or so which isn't bad (these cards also work at MGM and Mirage casinos, including the Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, Treasure Island, Monte Carlo, NY-NY, Luxor, Excalibur, MGM- Vegas and Detroit). Also, I am working on getting reduced rates for staying at the Beau as a poker player for about 90 a night. I will be flying down the next time I go, jumping on the $22 round trip shuttle from the Gulfport airport to the Beau, playing my guts out for 48 hrs and flying back. That may be this weekend, but we will see.

[Quint]

Sorry it didn't work out better for you. As I said above, all I played in was a tournament. Have you checked into TUnica? From what I understand, it's not that far from Memphis and there is a lot more poker available.

[Reel Deal]

I'm sorry but that is fucking gold.

[Talking Poker]

I +Repped it.