I have been to the IP Poker Room, but haven’t made it over to the Beau Rivage yet. I have only heard positive things though. If you are an avid poker, I would recommend checking both the IP and Beau Rivage for your game level. They are both pretty equal on the amount of players. I have heard of higher spread games that Beau, but that is not on a daily basis.

Here is some information from the Beau Rivage site:

With high ceilings and an open floor plan, the new Beau Rivage Poker Room is by far the most spacious and comfortable place to play poker in the South. And with non-stop, 24 hour a day action, you’re bound to find a perfectly suited hand. This smoke-free, exquisite environment features 16 tables dealing a variety of popular games, such as Texas Hold’em, 7-Card Stud and Omaha. Plus, there will be a high-stakes area featuring No-Limit Texas Hold’em and Pot-Limit Omaha, for those looking to really go all in! For your convenience, the Beau Rivage Poker Room provides players with tableside food and beverage service, along with dedicated cashiers, personal safety deposit boxes and private restroom facilities.

And a picture:

http://www.casinobuzz.com

Dear Mark: Do you recommend playing on just one video poker machine or moving and playing on others, especially if a machine I am currently playing on is not paying off? Once when I moved, the next player who came and sat in the seat I had previously occupied immediately hit MY royal flush. Also, suppose I get lucky and do hit a royal flush. Should I stay on the same machine or move since the chances of hitting another one are nil? Frank G.

I’ll get to your answer momentarily, Frank, but first let’s blow reveille: You should always play on video poker machines with the best paytables, period!

As to your question, it really doesn’t make a difference. There’s no way to determine when a machine will hit a royal flush. Yes, people like to see “hot” and “cold” streaks in video poker machines; but that is simply a characteristic of combining wishful thinking with machine randomness.

Also, Frank, hitting a royal flush does not make a machine any more or less likely to hit another, although your question does prompt me to recall a gentleman named Stevey Tyler, who hit three-$4000 royal flushes in a row at a Reno, NV supermarket. The bagger asked “Paper or plastic?” for hauling out the loot.

Many players like you erroneously believe that if they had stayed put and inserted just five more coins, or had pressed the play button on a coinless machine one more time, that royal — that someone else fortuitously hit — would have been theirs.

In reality, when a machine is sitting in idle mode, even for a split second, it will be constantly crunching numbers waiting for the next sucker — Oops! sportsman, I meant — to come along. When the next participant walks over and inserts a coin, the machine is triggered into knowing it has a live gambler on the hook.

When you feed a coin into the machine, the random number generator (RGN) instantaneously stops crunching numbers and picks the combination of cards you will see on the screen. From your moving to another machine, until the next player inserts their coins, the combination of hand possibilities played through is incalculable. Yet the chances of anybody hitting that royal remain forever the same, about one in 40,000, no matter what the machine had been doing moments ago.

I would recommend that you do move from one machine to another if the buttons are sticky, or if the lights are blinking, or you particularly don’t enjoy cigarette smoke, or to hide from your tapped out brother-in-law, or for anything else that annoys you.

Oh, by the way, the odds of Mr. Tyler hitting those three royals in a row were 32.8 trillion to one. He took paper.

Dear Mark: Do you know if there is any blackjack game that allows the player to have an edge against the house, using just basic strategy and not counting cards? Jerry C.

Basic strategy is nothing more than how you play your hand against the dealer’s “up card.” Playing correctly, Jerry, you can lower the casino advantage down to less than one percent, which incidentally, can be done at any casino that offers blackjack.

In the past, I have come across a few casinos that offer a blackjack game that is beatable using perfect basic strategy alone. You’ll need to find the following combination of rules to get this edge: Single deck, the dealer stands on soft 17, and doubling down is allowed after splitting.

Bear in mind, Jerry, scarce as this game is now, if you can ferret out a blackjack game with these rules, you will have a .1% advantage against the house, which for a $10 bettor, will give you an expected return of about 60¢ an hour with perfect play.

I highly recommend you don’t quit your day job.

Gambling Wisdom of the Week: “Playing the slots for any length of time is about as futile as tossing quarters into a wishing well and mumbling, “I wish I had money…I wish I had money.” –Barry Meadow, “Blackjack Autumn”
By Mark Pilarski

BILOXI — Coast casinos continue to surpass their pre-Katrina revenue, helping to make March another record-breaker.

Coast casinos earned almost $118.4 million, while casinos in Tunica and other areas along the Mississippi River earned almost $147.3 million during the month, according to a report released Wednesday by the Mississippi State Tax Commission. It was the best March ever for the Coast, the river counties and the state.

The statewide total last month was almost $265.7 million.

“It looks like we’ve got a pretty bright future ahead of us,” said Beverly Martin, the executive director of the Mississippi Casino Operators Association. “We’ve got the Hard Rock opening in July. I see that as an increase to the market. I think that will grow the market, and I think a lot of the analysts will agree with that.”

Coast casinos earned $63.5 million last March and almost $117.8 million in March 2005. Statewide, casinos earned $222.8 million last March and about $259.5 million in August 2005.

There were five Saturdays last month. Generally, the more weekends in a month, the higher the revenue.

There is great interest in the rebirth of casinos on the Coast based on registration for next month’s Southern Gaming Summit in Biloxi, said Martin.

“We’re pushing a 20-percent increase in registration and exhibits over 2005, which was our biggest year,” she said. “That’s a good indicator. We’ve got pretty much all the Wall Street banking firms registered. That tells me and the gaming industry that these people are noticing what we’re doing down here.”

Source: Sun Herald 

This is great news for Biloxi Casinos and the whole state of Mississippi. I see a continued growth as the region continues to grow. Keep you eyes out for the grand opening of BiloxiCasinos.com it will be opening this summer and will be the number one resource for Biloxi Casinos. Including reviews, pictures, special deals, trip reports, and more. I will keep everyone updated.

This week’s PokerStars Sunday Million featured a lot of familiar faces competing for a monster prize pool. The winner, James “jcamby33″ Campbell, struck a deal heads up and walked away with a monster $180,000. He agreed to tell us a little more about himself and give us a behind-the-scenes look at how he took down the world’s biggest weekly tournament.

A lot of people know who you are already. What was your life before poker?

I have lived in Marlboro, MA for my entire life. I am 24 years old and I am a professional poker player now. I lived away at college at Umass-Dartmouth for four years from 2001-2005. After I graduated in 2005, I immediately went into the “real world” and started my career as a financial advisor. It lasted about nine months until I decided to leave work before the WSOP last year and haven’t looked back since. When I am not playing poker, I am using hanging out with my fiancee, friends, and family. I spend a great deal of time with all of them and that is really important to me. I also enjoy playing basketball which I played throughout high school and college. I was one of the leading scorers in the state of Massachusetts my senior year of high school, averaging nearly 30 points per game. I went on to play four years of varsity basketball at Umass-Dartmouth where I had a great college experience. I was a jock in high school, playing basketball, baseball, golf, and football throughout high school. I still enjoy getting out on the golf course a couple days a week during the summer.

How did you get started playing poker?

I began playing poker about three years ago when I come home from college for Christmas and I saw my father playing online at PokerStars. He taught me the basics and since then I have been in love with the game. He’s still not very good. I started just like anyone else deposited 50 bucks playing $5 sit and go’s. I was your typical fish for the first couple months. I finally started to develop a little understanding of the game by that summer and was able to win my first MTT for like 1k. While I was a senior at college, I made enough to live comfortably without having to get a job. After my senior year, I went into the finance field doing financial advising. I decided to leave that job and play poker full time right before the WSOP last year. I have been playing professionally for the last nine months now.

How does this win compare to your already successful poker career?

This is my biggest win by far. I have won 35,000 multiple times. I have won the 100 rebuy and 200 rebuy on Sundays a couple times each for around 35k. I have also won that amount in a couple other tournaments at different sites.

So, what does a guy do with an extra $180,000 in his bankroll?

I plan on using the money to buy myself a Cadillac Escalade that I have always wanted. The money will also make buying a house this summer a little easier. The rest will just go to my bankroll. I have had a good amount of success through poker, so I already have an idea of how to handle money wisely.

Give us an idea what it was like as you took down the Sunday Million

I was actually playing all of the Sunday tournaments at my buddy’s house. There were about 6 of us over playing throughout the day, but by the time the final table started there was only 3 of us left. The others all had work early in the am, so ended up watching the rest of the tourney at their houses. The last hour was exciting. Whenever I won a big hand, we were running around the room giving each other high fives.

The first person I called when I left my friends house was my fiance and left her a message telling her how much money I won. By the time I ended up winning the tournament, it was 3am and most of my friends were all sleeping by that point. However, when I got home, both my parents were up and were very excited for me. My father is my biggest fan and is constantly watching me play. My family and fiancee have all been very supportive when dealing with my life as a “professional poker player.” Today I have received hundreds of phone calls from friends and other poker players congratulating me on my win.

There were already a lot of people who knew the screen name jcamby33. Now, it’s impossible to ignore. Jcamby33 has won $180,000 in the PokerStars Sunday Million, finishing first out of more than 7,000 players. Final table results are below.

PokerStars Sunday Million Results
Results based on finishing order and two-way deal that left $30,000 for first place

1. jcamby33 (United States) $180,000.00
2. chick x (Canada) $121,421.60
3. cpfactor (United States) $71,090.00
4. SurreyStud (United Kingdom) $56,872.00
5. jonnybsting (United States) $42,654.00
6. cjwill33 (Costa Rica) $31,279.60
7. ValuePlay (Sweden) $22,037.90
8. htd112 (United States) $12,796.20
9. CalBandGreat (United States) $8,388.62