A middle-aged local approached the Treasure Island poker room supervisor early Sunday evening, inquiring about how many hours he had played.

“I want to make my $50,” he said.

At the start of the year, the room announced its latest promotion on signs around the casino, flyers outside the room’s entrance, and business cards on the supervisor’s counter — “GET PAID TO PLAY POKER!”

The 8-table room at TI pays back players with money collected in the rake. For every 10 hours of play (up to 60 hours), a grinder can earn as much as $599 in extra cash each week. This good-for-players promotional trend is catching on around Vegas. Whether it’s called “rakeback” or advertised as an hourly rate, it pays close to a minimum-wage job.

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The redevelopment of the the Palms Poker Room continues. While some of us can’t wait for the state-of-the-art-in-2003 room to step into 2005ish with the coming addition of an electronic Bravo check-in system … Joe, Bobby, Eldon and crew are pushing forward with their plans to bring non-$20,000 tournament action back to the Palms … starting with a Tuesday-night $100 HORSE tournament.

It may not be PLO, but hey, I’m no one-trick pony. More like a half-trick pony, lol. But regardless, I’ve been meaning to sack up and get more live, low-stakes Razz under my belt. (I dominated the $1,500 event in the ’07 WSOP for Playstation — won a bracelet and everything!) The tournament is just a couple weeks old and supposedly has gotten a great response from the start: three tables of tournament action last week, followed by a $4/$8 HORSE cash game as players started busting.

Something similar expected tomorrow. RSVP on Facebook here … and/or just show up @ the Palms tomorrow at 7:30pm.

CORRECTION(S): I got a few factoids wrong. According to Michelle Lau’s FB invite …

Michelle Lau

Every Tuesday night 7:30, last week was our first tournament. Also Palms is gonna spread a HORSE CASH game at 5pm ($4/8) Come on down, lots of fun and very playable structure.

As much as we’d love to be at the Hotel Club Casino Loutraki right now (site of the Greek Poker Cup 2, beginning today) PokerStars, as a place of virtual felts, has kinda dropped off Pokerati’s radar the way PartyPoker did back in ’06.

However, one thing catching my attention — not because of the results, but simply because they’re playing the game — Isildur1′s high-stakes No-Limit Hold’em/Pot-Limit Omaha Mix. (Hey, I know that game … we play it at the Palms! “High-stakes action for low-stakes players” is the buzzphrase I like to throw around.) Pretty sure because it’s heads up they don’t have an “ultimate button straddle” the way we do at the Palms … and I’m not sure if they can run-it-twice … as the nature of the match suggests they’re not necessarily interested in reducing variance.

But still, sounds like Isildur1 is playing it pretty close to the right way.

SuperStar Showdown

Team PokerStars Pro Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom enjoyed another SuperStar Showdown win on Sunday, when he defeated Norwegian player Terje ‘Terken89’ Augdal.

The match, which was a mix of No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha, was over in slightly more than 1,500 of the scheduled 2,500 hands, as Blom blew his opponent away to rake in Augdal’s entire $150,000 Showdown bankroll.

Despite losing $10,000 in the opening hand, Blom quickly got on top and showed his dominance throughout, his win taking his total SuperStar Showdown profit to $651,941. It also means he now has an impressive 9-2 winning record (7-2 versus high stakes opponents) in the SuperStar Showdown matches.

For a full report, including replays of some of the key hands, check out the [report of the match at PokerStars Blog].

2011 WSOP – Episode 16: Brickless Cash Games Reprise (3:22) – Dan and Pauly recorded a quick follow-up to their previous episode while they hang out on the rail of the high-stakes cash games. They spot Eskimo Clark, “Cowboy”, and other broke dicks lingering around seeking handouts from the high rollers.

For more episodes, visit the Tao of Pokerati archives or subscribe to the Tao of Pokerati feed.

The durrrr challenge with Jungleman ran its second session late Monday morning into the afternoon, playing a shade under 1000 hands this time around. Jungleman (Daniel Cates) continued to hold the advantage, and even when losing big pots he was always able to bounce back within minutes. Durrrr, on the other hand, was found felted on two tables and playing shortstacked poker, despite a rule in the challenge requiring a reload at 75bbs. Jungleman ended up winning $172k in session #2, all NLHE, to bring his total to +$692k after 6820 hands, according to FTP’s Poker on the Rail blog. Not bad (so far) for a 20-year-old college student making the 24-year-old Team Full Tilt pro look something like an old man.

JungleMan’s blog on CardRunners here. Good interview with Daniel Cates here.

Keeping with the 6-max NLHE, today we turn to Peter Jennings, aka “Marshall28″ … a low-stakes 6-max NLHE specialist who advises CardRunners students on $.50/$1 play online — instruction that seems particularly well-suited for slightly short-handed $1/$2 and $2/$5 no-limit live game players.

It’s all about stack size and subsequent implied odds, working your opponent’s subconscious, and what small bets on the flop can do to set up bluffs on the river … dependent on scare cards, of course.

Because if that’s the game you’re looking to play, you better know when to pull the plug on a triple-barrel assault with nothing.

Check out his CR blog about poker coaching here and sign up for CardRunners’ free poker training here.

Kinda funny … the other Peter Jennings used to offer journalism training here.

Wax on, wax off, paint the fence, sand the deck … I’m so ready for some higher stakes action — doing well not totally shitty at the PLO — but for some reason my virtual instructors at CardRunners sent me back to the $25 NL cash tables … to work with low- and micro-stakes specialist Matt Doran. Such bullshit I guess it’s all cool, rethinking the basics. We are playing short-handed, too, which I like … and he gives some valuable reminders on how to think through a weak-tight table that is capable of turning on a dime and doing something ridiculously stupid …

You can’t give up, right?

An hour with MDoranD and you’ll be ready to crane-kick your way through the little kids anywhere. Check this out … it’ just one student (not me) … but his before and after graphs are pretty impressive:

More like this available to you with Free Poker Training
at TrulyFreePokerTraining.com

Special running of Pokerati action tonight, Tuesday, at the Hard Rock. That’s in addition to the usual Thursday fare. Should be a blogtastic 1/2 NL/PLO good time, with Joe Speaker, Bad Blood, and The Mark in town, specifically for PLO at the WSOP and beyond … hoping to draw a few Brits as well, you know, in case we end up playing through Honduras vs. Chile.

Though we haven’t run this game on a Tuesday in forever, the list usually starts taking shape at 7:30 … with cards in the air about 8.

Also don’t forget, for a different kinda wild, Wednesday night is the PokerNews Half-Kill game, bringing hardcore $4/$8 limit and higher to the Hard Rock.

You can find/follow many of the players in both these games on twitter (do a search for “hard rock”) and get updates from the poker room about what’s running @HardRockPoker.

Holy fugk, I can already tell … this summer in Las Vegas is going to be an absolute mosh pit of poker … where are my steel-tipped boots I never had?

I knew the Hard Rock’s High Stakes Cash Game was in the works but wasn’t sure what would come of it — as the first thing required for a game of this size is players! I’ve sent my overseers @HardRockPoker a message inquiring who they know will be there. Will pass on info when I find out.

This Friday
June 4th at 7PM

Hard Rock Poker Lounge
Las Vegas

Come play the high stakes cash game
on the first Friday of each month.
Buy-in is $20,000 to $50,000.
Blinds are $25 and $50.

Also wonder if this game will have $50 splash pots like we’ve got in our 1/2 NL/PLO to stimulate action, lol. (Remember, if The Maven makes a huge raise on a hold’em splash pot, you should probably call with J-10 or better … and if you don’t know the answer in the song game, your best bet is either Britney Spears or Cheap Trick.)

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Nice! Used to be people thought of Pokerati only as a place for news, analysis, and mistakes … but now they’re thinking about us, well, maybe for the exact same reasons (lol?) when it comes to quality low-stakes Vegas poker.

Check out PokerNews’s pimp-out for our version of 1/2 NL/PLO @HardRockPoker here. (Still can’t get the Hard Rock, however, to get behind the rule I’m pushing to allow me personally to use three hole cards instead of two in Omaha. Assholes. They also denied my suggestion to have at least two of our regular dealers pitch the cards topless.)

Anyhow, It seems PokerNews wants to cut in on ride along with our action, and thus they’ve added their own special games to the Hard Rock poker menu:

Wednesday night, PokerNews will host the PokerNews half-kill cash game, which will run weekly throughout the WSOP. This will be a limit hold’em game with a half-kill, with stakes at the behest of the players. Like all the games at the Hard Rock, it’s not limited to Wednesday nights and can be played upon request. Players who log the most PokerNews half-kill hours at the Hard Rock will receive a brand new iPad.

Sundays will be all about sit-n-go’s with PokerNews’ Sit-n-Go Sunday at the Hard Rock. Unlike the PokerNews half-kill, which will reward stamina, Sit-n-Go Sunday will reward results. Players with the most impressive sit-n-go results over the course of the WSOP will also be rewarded with an iPad.

IPads, plural? Great, now I get to listen to my players bitching about “why don’t we get an iPad?” Just friggin zip it, Rex. I give all of you one every time I get it in drawing to two outs for a chop.

You’ll be hearing about more Hard Rock action here throughout the WSOP, as well as a whole litany of special World Series promotions. I’m still trying to learn what they all are … but the coolest one that I know off the top of my head: they’ll be spreading rake-free satellites before each WSOP event. Boo-yah, no?

Also, for you mixed-game posers specialists, Scott Fischman hosts his 7-game mix there regularly. I’d like to play, but I’m scared …

Hard Rock will be running shuttles between their joint on Harmon and the Rio throughout the summer.

PLO can be a wicked temptress and a sexy bitch.

Supposedly the Pokerati Game made on its own this past Tuesday around midnight, with @MattCWaldron duking it out into the wee hours with an unusually drinky Rex the Bald PLOcal. Not sure how the stacks ended up, but from what I hear it was some of the most vigorous song-game action the room had seen in a long time. (The Hard Rock background music tends to shift to nuevo-hip hop and variety metal during late hours, and then late-late pre-sunrise it’s a lot of classic rock.)

At last week’s game, I was pretty unhappy because things were going well until I put myself in my first difficult spot of the night. After I failed to hit my 4-outer running it twice, @JaKatkin tweeted:

And @pokerati’s implosion has begun.
10:47 PM May 6th via TweetDeck

Asshole! Katkin clearly had a read on me, as he sat to my left watching my stack dwindle post-tweet to zero, at which point I rebought and re-lost yet again. (How did he know!?!)

That was also the first week we played with officially published rules. However my one copy I had at the table got ruined when a drunk (but good player … think he mighta been a Mavenite) spilled my glass of champagne all over the nicely printed document en route to his seat in the game.

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OK, that subhed might be geographically presumptuous and/or mathematically hard to prove. But hey, that’s how it goes in PLO! So allow me to do a little live poker pimping …

As twitter followers know, I’ve been hosting a new-ish game at the Hard Rock here in Las Vegas. 1/2 no-limit hold’em/pot-limit omaha. While there are plenty of 4-8 mixed games around town, there are, perhaps surprisingly, few if any low-stakes half-and-half games — and none where players have the option of running it twice. So in an effort to create what Dan personally wants to play top-quality action that serious amateurs, local grinders, and late-night drunks can’t find elsewhere in LV, you can now help your poker evolve by playing:

What: The Pokerati Game: 1/2 NLH/PLO (round of each)
When: Thursdays 7pm-? or upon request
Where: Hard Rock Poker Lounge
Buy-in: $100 min/$400 max
Who plays: Nitty locals, Euro-tourists, Action Junkies, Poker media geeks, loose-aggressive douchebags, off-duty Vegas dealers, disciples of Isildur1

We know you all know hold’em, but if Omaha’s not yet your game, check out this video of how gloriously painful PLO can be:

That comes from F Train’s assessment of poker’s #2 game. And across the pond, where they play it more frequently, our ole Betfair pal Marcus Bateman has his own strategy thoughts on the situational EV of running it twice.

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Poker will have to wait to see Isildur1 in more-than-virtual action. Tony G informs us that they mystery Swede has backed out of a staking deal with the G that woulda had him playing on PartyPoker’s televised Big Game IV.

Meanwhile, even without a highest-stakes masked man at the tele-tables, PartyPoker still plans to bring a new component to televised cash games, with each player choosing “walk-on music“.

Click below for the Isildur1-less roster of players who have submitted their personal soundtrack poker theme songs:

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Our good pals at the Hard Rock wanna remind you that they have their $20,000 guarantee tourney tomorrow. They probably don’t want me to tell you that they had to add money to the prize pool the last time they ran this tourney to make the guarantee … but that’s good for you. There were about 60 players, and something like 9 got paid. (I got 12th-ish.)

Decent structure, too. 12k chips for $250 ($225+25) … with a $100 rebuy or add-on for 5k chips. (I didn’t take it. My starting table was soft.) Seriously, it’s not a huge tourney, but it’s a good one, with good payout possibilities. Starts at 6 pm. Details here.

And, of course, they’re always happy to spread 1/2 NLH/PLO … and they usually have enough people interested in dipping their toes into 4-card hold’em waters to make it happen. Just ask them to put your name on the list for the Pokerati game and they’ll be sure to accommodate. You can always text “pokerati” to 25827 and you’ll get a text whenever this game is running. I won’t be able to make it this week, but next week I’m back in action, so you probably need some practice.

UPDATE: Tournament didn’t make. Not sure where the fine print may or may not come in for “guarantees”.