New Orleans Harrah's - Show One Show All

this was our first visit to the N.O. Harrah's. Throughout our travels we've been to many Harrah's properties and I think the N.O. property is one of the prettiest. Harrah's has captured both the decor and the feel of Mardi Gras and N.O. in the casino. I especially loved the poker room which is reminiscent of the French Quarter complete with wrought iron balconies with hanging fern baskets that overlook the poker room. The brush did an excellent job keeping the lists current and moving people quickly into games when openings became available. I enjoyed playing in a poker room where the dealers did not have to yell to get the brush's attention. The use of radio/walkie talkie devices and the computer made the room not only efficient but very pleasant for the players. Harrah's is to be commended for the efficiency of this very busy poker room. Great job! There are lots of other poker rooms who should implement similar systems.

Harrah's New Orleans offers a variety of games and was accommodating when players requested a different game and immediately started an interest list. The room offers bad beat jackpots for stud, omaha and structured Texas Holdem games. (limit) In general I found the games to be tight with an occasional lose player coming into the game. The room had some differences from the Tunica casinos where I play weekly, and I think they are worth mentioning. You can not use ANY electronic devices while at a gaming table. This includes cell phones, blackberries and Ipod type devices. For those of you like me who have become accustomed to listening to an ipod, this was a bit unsettling, particularly when you had a loud boisterous chatty Cathy sitting next to you. I mean, I like to chat and socialize at the poker table, admittedly a lot more than I should, however, I find it particularly annoying when I'm in the middle of a hand, particularly one that requires a lot of thought, to be sitting next to someone who is engaging in loud, boisterous animated conversation. Since there was no ipod to rescue me, I had to revert to the Mother in me and tune out, but unfortunately when I do that I tune out everything. Also of note is the fact they never have a dead button. Instances where normally you would have a dead button, the button moves to the small blind, and that player has both the small blind and button, and the next two players are both big blinds.

Due to a change in our travel plans, I missed the Ladies event. However, I had the pleasure of playing with the winner of the ladies event, , in a 1/2 NL game on Sunday evening. She commented that she won the tournament because she played aggressive positional poker against players that were playing extremely tight. Ok, I'm not the best tournament player around but I thought, is there any other way to play a tournament to win? I mean I've always thought, positional aggressive tournament play was key to winning. That and having a flop, turn and river that were with you! LOL. I also played with Daniel, JT and Chef Paul Prudhomme along with many other players.

I did find some of the poker dealers lacking in their ability to run the table. One evening the table had 3 guys sitting on the end who kept showing each other their cards, and those of us on the other end never had the opportunity to see those cards. It appeared after a while that those players were playing in collusion with one other since they were winning the majority of hands. Finally, a dealer, Joseph (who goes by Lynn) came to the table and during his down, he took the cards and showed everyone, stating very simply, "show one, show all". When the player who had shown his cards to his buddies complained stating he'd been doing it for the last several hours and no other dealer had done that, Lynn simply replied, "well, I'm running this game now, and I follow the rules, show one, show all." Interestingly, during the next three hands, the players left, one players leaving each hand. Kudos to Lynn, for properly running his table. You've got my vote for New Orleans Poker dealer of the year award!

For those of you who play video poker, Harrah's N.O. had plenty of video poker games ranging from 5 cents to 5 dollars. Slot machines were in abundance and I did not see one machine that took actual coins, so be sure you have lots of paper money on hand. There are cash redemption kiosks located conveniently throughout the casino.

For those you who enjoy table games, Harrah's N.O. had plenty to choose from. I was surprised to find that all the tables had a 15 minimum, which I thought was odd considering how hard the Gulf Coast was pounded by Katrina.

I enjoyed playing at the New Orleans Harrah’s. I enjoyed both the poker room and the players. I’ll be back!