Craps used to be the game in town. Now it's poker. It'll be like that for the next 10 or 15 years. -Drew, a dealer at the Sahara. LAS VEGAS -- First off, the old Horseshoe in downtown Las Vegas will always be special. Downtown is where many people from Hawaii stay when they are on package tours and Vegas has always been the meeting place for members of my family. (If you already live in paradise, where would you go for vacation???) In addition, up until this trip, I've pretty much stayed downtown. Recently, however, I found the Sahara's poker room offers the same great rates as the Horseshoe ($39 weekday, $59 weekend). The Sahara, of course, is in the middle part of the Strip, only a few minutes' drive to the Wynn and a little closer to fishy places to play like the Excalibur and Luxor or my favorite, the Bellagio. The rooms are simple but nice and the Sahara's expanded poker room is great to play in. The Horseshoe rooms seem like they've seen much better days. The Horseshoe, of course, has been the main venue for the World Series of Poker until this year when Harrah's (who now owns the WSOP) moved it to the Rio Pavilion behind the Rio hotel and casino. Last year when I went to Vegas during the WSOP, you could hear the clatter of people playing in the crowded WSOP play area at the Horseshoe. This year, I didn't know what to expect when I drove to the Rio Pavilion. It basically gives you your regular conference center feel. Until you walk into the main WSOP playing area. There are so many tables there -- I guess you have to if you're going to hold a 6,600 player tournament! Right now, with the bracelet events that lead up to the WSOP going on, the place is not jam-packed full. On one side of the vast room you had the tournament going on. On the other side was a cash game area. Very convenient and it keeps the energy of poker going in one area. In the tournament area, you pretty much can stand right next to people playing. Yesterday, Doyle Brunson, Scotty Nguyen, Clonie Gowen, Jennifer Harman Traniello and Barry Greenstein were still playing. Greg Raymer was nearby, in PokerStars gear, signing autographs for people. Lots of young 20-something kids were taking pictures and you could tell if there was a pro nearby because of all the people swarmed around his or her table. In the hallway outside the playing area are exhibitor's booths plus a concession area where you can buy pizza, snacks, drinks, salads, which is great because you don't have to run very far from your table or miss play for too long because you're hungry. It'll be interesting to be back in a few weeks to see the full range of poker exhibitors who will be there for the main event and its crowds. Seeing all this confirms for me how popular poker has become and how great the game will be for quite some time.

Source: Poker Cats