Super Bowl Sunday is arguably one of the best days of the year for a Vegas grinder. In this town, the game is one big gamble, as evidenced by the pages and pages of prop bets offered exclusively on the NFL championship.

Super Bowl gamblers often spill into the poker rooms, and it’s hard to go wrong picking a place to play. But if you’re looking to pad your stack or you lost a bundle on your coin flip bet, there are a few places in town offering special promotions during the big game. (Kickoff is set for 3:30p PT.)

If you’re playing at Mirage, you’ll be hoping that there’s as much action on the felt as inside the Superdome. They’ll draw a seat number after just about every big play. An interception is worth $50, a fumble is worth $75, a play of 76 yards or more is worth $100. Field goals are worth $25-$100, depending on the distance and touchdowns are worth $100. There are also four pre-game drawings for the four hours before kickoff: $125, $100, $75 and $50.

Players at Excalibur earn can earn raffle tickets before and during the game. They’re paying $50 for field goals, $100 for touchdowns, and $400 for safeties, along with a drawing for $100 at the end of the first three quarters, and another for $200 at the end of the fourth quarter.

The Monte Carlo promo could end up costing you money if you play favorites. They’re giving away raffle tickets for full houses, and players must place their tickets in either a 49ers bin or a Ravens bin. When either team scores, they’ll pull a ticket for $50 for field goals, $100 for touchdowns and $200 for safeties.

The Luxor is giving out raffle tickets every hour for the first four hours before the game and every quarter during the game. Then there’s a drawing after each field goal for $25 and after each touchdown for $50.

At Mandalay Bay, they plan to give away $500 for the high hand of each quarter. The minimum qualifying hand is 10s full, and if no one hits, the prize jumps $250 more for the next quarter.

The oft-overlooked Circus Circus (because they rarely have much more than a 3/6 limit game) is offering $100 to the high hand every quarter, and $100 for the high hand of the hour from  8 p.m. to midnight.

Instead of cash, the Flamingo will splash pots with hats, T-shirts, hoodies, and polo shirts after each score and after each quarter.

I was too drunk to remember my cards, but I remember for a fact (after a night at the Sherwood Forest bar in the Excalibur hotel) that I had laid a perfect trap with my flush (or maybe it was two-pair) and Bill Rini got lucky on the river to take my stack and send me home defeated … like literally with no more money.

That was at a cash game in 2005 (or maybe 2006?) during one of the earlier WPBT weekends.

The World Poker Blogger Tour held its 9th annual Winter Classic tournament this past weekend, at Aria. The $125 no-limit hold’em tournament (complete with lasts-longer bets, team competition, and inside-jokey booby prizes) is technically what brings everyone to town. But the WPBT is so much more — an event that spreads across the entire Las Vegas Valley for a long weekend. It’s the drinking, and golf, and this year hiking around Red Rock Canyon, and drinking, and fancy meals and dive bars, and mixed games, and more drinking, and gambling in the pits, and the occasional hookup of course, and more drinking … I think they’re mighta been a marriage or two linked to the WPBT, and even a couple divorces.

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photo: Flipchip / LasVegasVegas

That’s the word we’re hearing … Excalibur has apparently contacted their previously laid-off dealers and offered them their jobs back — with a return to live, non-electronic play on July 15. Not sure yet whether this a sign of a rebounding Vegas economy or players just not taking to the PokerTek PokerPro tables, despite their offering some of the lowest stakes in town and the ability to play Pot-Limit Omaha at the flip of a switch.

Thanks @Bundas1971 for the tip!

More details here.

The Excalibur Casino, the only place in Vegas to offer PokerPro electronic tables, is looking for creative ways to get people to actually play the things. Recently, they held satellites for the smaller buyin WSOP events that had differing amounts of success. They may have hit on something with their latest idea: “Strip Poker” Saturday nights starting at 9pm.

The $30+10 tournaments will have a maximum of 20 players at two PokerPro tables, with a small stage in between with a dancer wearing “ten removable articles of clothing (and still remaining minimally though appropriately covered)” according to their procedures. Each player starts with 2,000 in chips with blinds at 50/100 and going up every 10 minutes, so they’re definitely not going after players who like a deep stack. The performer will take a lap around the two tables each time two players have been eliminated, taking a lap around the two tables, then go back to the stage to remove one article of clothing. This will continue until a winner is determined, who will receive 50% of the prize pool, an extra $100 from their Poker Reserve Fund and a digital picture with the dancer.

Reading the long list of procedures is amusing, as it appears to take all the fun out of what you would expect from your usual game of Strip Poker. The procedures state that security and poker room staff will be making sure that anyone under 21 isn’t loitering in the poker room to sneak a peek at the action, and that the dancers will act in an appropriate manner. While the dancer may converse with the customers, she can not act in a solicitous manner. If this was held in a more exotic location, it would seem to work a bit better than it would in a casino.

The 4-card hold’em action took place last night, as seen here:

One of the cool things about poker at Excalibur is that it’s the one place where you can find 50-cent/1-dollar action in Las Vegas … and being played on electronic tables, there’s no dealer tipping. Another cool thing … you can change the game being dealt with relative ease. And that’s what they did last night when Lyle Berman showed up (with David Sklansky and a few others) to play $1/$2 Pot Limit Omaha.

($100 min buy-in, $500 max)

Berman (left), if you recall, wrote the chapter in Super/System about PLO. He also happens to be Chairman of the Board of PokerTek — makers of the PokerPro electronic tables at Excalibur.

Las Vegas Vegas let us know this week that the poker room at the Excalibur will be folding its hand but buying in to a new game. The room will close on August 18th and send all of its dealers searching for work elsewhere, and it will reopen on August 21st with nothing but automated tables and a minimal floor staff.

I don’t know about you, but the thought of going into an all-automated poker room – no chips, no cards, no dealers – is not appealing. Sure, it will be cheaper for the casino, but the lack of character, not to mention human contact and any sort of tradition, makes it all too much like a room filled with slot machines – fun for a few minutes, then a little too robotic and monotonous.

Sad to say that this appears to be the start of a trend, but thankfully, some poker rooms like Bellagio and even Sahara, will likely keep their dealers and their appeal to true poker players.

One of the things I’ve started keeping track of with the poker bankroll is food. Just curious if I notice any trends on how I do related to what I’ve eaten, when I’ve eaten, how much I’ve eaten, etc. So far there is no apparent consistency … beyond that I either win or lose within 24 hours of eating … but I have been getting to sample a handful of Vegas restaurants, and thought that might be of interest to other poker players who, you know, gotta eat, too.

Yesterday I went to the ever-luxurious Sherwood Forest Cafe at Excalibur …

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