Stud At The El Cortez

BY: Ashley Adams
Contact at: (Asha34@aol.com)
Author of Winning 7-Card Stud

I just spent a week playing poker in Las Vegas. What a great time. I stayed at the Orleans Casino, off the strip. They provide a beautiful room at a reasonable price - around $50 a night with the poker player's rate.

It used to be that the Orleans spread a $1-5 stud game and had two stud tournaments a week: a Stud8 and a Stud high event. Not anymore. I had to go elsewhere for my stud fix.

I'm sorry to report that the state of stud in Las Vegas is not very good. There's a game at the Bellagio some of the time - a $20/40 game which had a long waiting list. And you might find a low limit game at the Mirage, the Excalibur or Sam's Town - though they weren't spreading it when I called. The only place that I actually found a live game of stud was at the El Cortez in downtown Las Vegas.

Ah, the El Cortez. It was a great room once upon a time, with five games going nearly all the time, a busy clientele, and a perky attitude. I didn't play there in the 70s during its best days. But I've heard stories. It was one of the early rooms with poker. And it was well run by Ross (the boss) Ferraro.

I stumbled into more as a lark than as part of a plan to find a stud game. I was visiting the gambling museum located on 450 Fremont Street (a nice respite from playing poker - and for only $2.50). I was done in about an hour and decided to walk around. I saw the dated El Cortez sign and decided to see if they had anything going on - having recalled that they occasionally spread some poker. What I saw was, at first at least, disappointing.

The casino now is, to be frank, somewhat depressing. It's in a neighborhood where I felt uncomfortable walking around at night - a block or two away from the walkway that turns into the "Fremont Street Experience" after dark. It's somewhat dark interior, less-than-clean rugs, and somewhat seedy regular clientele are a bit off putting to those who feel more comfortable in the glitzy and glamorous strip casinos. It's not up to the level of ambiance of other downtown locales such as the Golden Nugget or even Binions.

I found the poker room. I was pleased to see that they had two games going. At first I figured they'd be the typical fare of low limit hold 'em. But I found to my delight that one of the two games was 7-Card Stud. It was a very low stakes version, to be sure. But after surveying nearly every other casino in Las Vegas for stud and coming up empty I was pleased to at least be able to find my favorite game.

The game was not quite filled. I was the seventh player - and quickly the sixth player as someone got up to leave just as I was sitting down.

The game was $1-3 spread limit stud, with no ante and a $.50 bring-in from the low card. It was raked at 10% with a $3.00 max, though I don't think the dealer raked more than $2.00 out of any of the pots that I saw. They were taken out in $.50 increments.

The players were an interesting group. The shift manager was playing - a middle aged, heavy set jovial sort of a guy who went through his stack while he was there. There was also a chain smoking woman who was friendly and aggressive at times. A young dealer sat in the game. He seemed to recognize me from one of the publications I write for and was very pleasant - as well as being tight and aggressive. There was one rather peculiar man in the game, who unbuttoned his shirt to his navel so he could scratch, in a very nervous sort of way, his chest. He had the bizarre habit of moving his lips to repeat what he had just said aloud - and also seemed to talk to himself while scratching his chest.

The other four guys who played at one time or another during my two hours of play were each over 90 years old or so. One gentleman seemed to be literally attached to the cushion around the table - so inert was he. He didn't move, didn't speak, and didn't move his head. He just moved his arm slowly as he pushed in chips or tipped his hand so he could review it. The rest of him was motionless.

In general, the game was moderately tight and passive. With the exception of the floor man, the young dealer, and me, players rarely raised. They rarely bet more than $1.00, and generally called the forced bet on Third Street. I watched five hands in a row where there was no raising or betting other than the bring-in whatsoever. "$.50 from the 2d. Call, call, call, fold, fold, call. Check, check, check, check, check, check, check�." Get the picture?

My first mission was to liven things up. I did that with a raise to $3.00 with my unpaired exposed Ace. Everyone folded. I won $1.50 - the bring-in and two subsequent calls. I repeated that on the next hand with a wired pair of Kings. A shift manager, with an Ace showing, re-raised me. I called. He bet on Fourth and I called. He checked on Fifth; I bet with the Kings, and he check raised me. I folded.

Guess he taught me about clever plays.

The game was no cake walk. Twice I bet my exposed Ace to the River and lost to a lower pair who correctly didn't believe that I really had the pair of Aces. The players may not have been especially aggressive, but they quickly recognized me for the wildman that I was becoming in this game that would otherwise have bored me to tears. I tried to bully them with my aggressive play for the first hour - and they weren't buying it at all. I should have followed my own advice.

In the second hour I have up on wildly aggressive play and settled down to play solid poker - figuring that my image had been established clearly enough and that I'd make some money if I actually hit a few hands. Sure enough, I folded most of my hands for the initial $.50. I then got some decent starting cards and bet aggressively - getting called as expected. Unfortunately, though my strategy worked as planned, the cards didn't cooperate -as I failed to improve from premium pairs while my opponents improved significantly. Invariably I'd have to fold before the showdown or I'd lose on the showdown.

At one point I was down $60. How's that for running over a game of low stakes players?

Fortunately, before I left I actually was dealt a couple of high quality hands that held up. Sure enough, when I bet them aggressively I got callers. My Aces turned into two pair on Fifth and three players called me to the River. I recovered all but $19 dollars. It was getting late so I left with a slight loss.

The casino is worth visiting if only to get a glimpse of an old Las Vegas that has largely died. There's a piano player in the bar playing old standards that are as singable as they are well played. And the d�cor is probably considered vintage. There's also a $2 and a $5 pan game next to the poker room. If you don't know how to play it, well, it's probably too late to learn. But it's there for the watching. No faro though - they haven't spread that for forty years. Though after walking through the casino a few times I suspect that some of the staff and most of the poker players were on the premises when it was still a big game.

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