Ultimate Texas Holdem Bellagio
With live poker reopening, one of MGM’s major poker properties is taking a lead in the efforts for the game’s return. The Bellagio became the second Las Vegas Strip property to reopen its poker room last week.
The casino joins the Venetian and Caesars Palace, which opened the same day as Bellagio on June 18. Players will find six-handed poker with plexiglass partitions between players in a more spacious table and room environment.
Jun 25, 2020 On Saturday, the spacious room had 16 tables running with more than half spreading $1-3 and $2-5 No-Limit Hold’em. The Bellagio is one of the few Vegas rooms regularly offering more high-limit games. There were also $5-10, $10-20, and $20-40 No Limit Hold’em games and a $1-2 Pot Limit Omaha (PLO). Staff also offered a waiting list for high.
On June 20, USPoker spoke with Bellagio director of poker room operations Mike Williams on site. The property is making an effort to return to normal as much as possible.
- The Bellagio poker room and renowned Bobby's Room are home to some of the best daily poker tournaments in Las Vegas. Currently a stop on the WPT tour, see what's going on during your next Las Vegas vacation.
- If you’ve never played Ultimate Texas Holdem before, this page is a great way to practice. It’s refreshingly free of advertising, too, which is rare and unusual in this industry. Also, if you like Ultimate Texas Holdem, I suggest you give multiplayer Texas holdem in the poker room a try—if you haven’t already.
- Please LIKE and SUBSCRIBE!Twitch: www.twitch.tv/slotladyFollow me on social media! Instagram: https://www.f.
- Ultimate Texas Hold’em: 5: 100: 1. Bellagio is at the center of the Strip behind its iconic fountain. It takes $50 to get a 3:2 blackjack game there.
Ultimate Texas Hold'em Online
Live poker post-pandemic
After months of casino closings, poker room managers are moving to get players back to the tables. State guidelines call for five-handed play at poker rooms without dividers or plexiglass partitions.
However, the Nevada Gaming Control Board approved Bellagio’s request for six-handed poker games with partitions.
Upon entering the poker room, guests are greeted by service staff at an open and spacious entryway. Players are seated by staff when a table has an opening, often with no wait depending on game and time.
There is a waiting list screen mounted to the wooden wall structure outside the poker room entryway. Players can also get poker room and game updates on the Bravo Pokerapp.
The poker room now has 23 poker tables, down from 37, and is open for play 24 hours a day. On Saturday, the spacious room had 16 tables running with more than half spreading $1-3 and $2-5 No-Limit Hold’em.
The Bellagio is one of the few Vegas rooms regularly offering more high-limit games. There were also $5-10, $10-20, and $20-40 No Limit Hold’em games and a $1-2 Pot Limit Omaha (PLO). Staff also offered a waiting list for high-limit mixed games.
Players returning to a safe environment
Williams noted a number of regular players have returned. The property has numerous cleanliness protocols in place. Dealers are wearing masks and sanitizing the playing area and seats for new players.
“The feedback has been very positive from the players and guests,” Williams said. “The poker room is swapping playing cards every four hours. The cards and poker chips are disinfected by the property on schedule.”
The plexiglass partitions provide better health and safety measures while meeting social and physical distancing guidelines.
One Bellagio guest said the clear dividers are “less intrusive and preferred” over no partition.
Ultimate Texas Holdem Bellagio Casino
On June 24, the state added a mandate for players to wear masks. The previous rule called for masks if there are no plexiglass partitions. Nearly half the players at Bellagio wore masks on Saturday before the new rule.
New perks welcome Bellagio players
Expensive parking fees have long been a complaint of casino players. Williams noted guests will now find free self parking and free cocktail service. However, no food or non-playing poker guests are allowed in the poker room per safety guidelines.
Williams previously worked as poker room manager at Aria, another MGM property on the Las Vegas Strip. Aria hasn’t announced a reopening date yet.
While at Aria, Williams noted the growing interest in PLO and plans to offer more games at Bellagio.
“It’s better when a poker room can expand and have more games,” he said. “We want to grow the $1-2 PLO game at Bellagio.”
TV screens remain mounted throughout the Bellagio poker room. Sports bettors are in luck with one of Las Vegas premier sportsbooks adjacent to the facility.
Checking out the day’s sports action, horse racing, and odds screens is simple. Wagering windows are available and bettors can also use the BetMGM app while playing poker.
The sports bar lounge is right outside the poker room and was also active on Belmont Stakes day, but with fewer masks noted. Guests enjoyed cocktails and some spacious interaction.
Live poker’s return comes after major online growth
While online poker has seen substantial growth during the COVID-19 crisis, it’s encouraging to see live poker return. Poker is the ultimate social game, and while tournaments are not yet in play at Bellagio, patience is the protocol just as it is when playing poker.
The same goes for those hoping for the return of a live World Series of Poker at the Rio. That property is currently closed and the live WSOP is delayed until fall.
However, players in Nevada and New Jersey can play for bracelets beginning July 1 at WSOP.com. The WSOP Online tournaments feature one bracelet event daily.
Buy-ins range from $400 to $3,200 and players can qualify for events in multiple daily online satellites. On July 19, the series expands for international players on GGPoker.
Live poker may not have returned completely, but the WSOP Online adds even more buzz to the industry as a whole.
Casinos are always looking for new games to offer bored gamblers. Over the last decade or 2, these games are more commonly related to poker than anything else. But games like these—including Scientific Gaming’s Ultimate Texas Holdem—are more akin to blackjack than to poker. In fact, dealing Ultimate Texas Holdem is considered dealing a novelty casino game. The College of Southern Nevada covers how to deal Ultimate Texas Holdem in their blackjack class.
What’s the big difference between Ultimate Texas Holdem (and games like it) and “real” poker games? The main difference is who you’re competing with. In a so-called real poker game, you’re competing with the other players at the table. If you win money, you’re winning it from them. If you lose money, you’re losing it to your competitors at the table.
This isn’t a value judgment. It’s perfectly all right to play house-banked casino games. Gamblers do it every day. I’m pointing out the distinction because it’s important to know what you’re getting into when you play a casino game.
With that as a premise—understanding in detail what you’re getting into when you’re playing a casino game—I offer you this post: “The Definitive Guide to Ultimate Texas Holdem.” The idea is to share everything you would ever need or want to know about Ultimate Texas Holdem. Luckily, it’s not that complicated a game. There’s no need to write an entire book about it, like you would do with blackjack or poker.
Ultimate Texas Holdem is a card game where you play heads-up against a casino dealer. Other players at the table are also playing heads-up against the dealer. It features a progressive jackpot, among other payouts.
You start by making 2 equal-sized bets:
- The Ante Bet
- The Blind Bet
At most casinos, the minimum bet is either $5 or $10. The maximum bet is usually between $50 an $500.
You also have 2 optional bets you can make:
- The Trips Bonus Bet
- The Progressive Bet
You start by getting 2 hole cards from the dealer—these are 2 cards that are dealt to you face-down, just like in regular Texas holdem.
When you get those cards, you can choose from the following actions:
- Check
- Bet 3X the Ante (A “Play” Bet.)
- Bet 4X the Ante (Also a “Play” Bet.)
After you’ve made your decision, the dealer reveals 3 face-up cards—the “flop.” (This is also how regular Texas holdem works.)
If you checked when you got your hole cards, you have the option now to place a bet of 2X the Ante (another example of a “Play Bet.”) After that decision is made, the dealer turns over 2 more face-up cards—the turn and the river, in Texas holdem terms. Note that the action here is different than in traditional Texas holdem. Normally you’d have a turn, followed by a betting round, then the river, followed by another betting round.
Once you’ve made your decision, the dealer reveals her hole cards and announces the final hand. If your hand beats the dealer’s hand (using the standard poker hand rankings), you win even money on your Ante bets and the Play bets. On the other hand, if the dealer’s hand beats yours, you lose your Ante, Blind, and Play Bets. If you tie, then these bets are all treated as a “push.” (A push is when your original bet is returned to you, but without any winnings. You have neither a net win nor a net loss.)
The Blind Bet is handled differently. It pays off if you win AND if you have a straight or better. If you have less than a straight but still beat the dealer, the Blind Bet is treated as a push. The Blind Bet is paid off based on a pay table. The better your hand, the more it pays off. (It’s like video poker in this respect.)
Casinos generally use a shuffling machine called an “i-Deal single deck specialty shuffler.” That’s because this game was created by Shufflemaster, which is now a division of Scientific Games. Shufflemaster’s reason for existence is to sell shuffling machines to casinos, so creating new cards is something they do in service to this goal.
The Blind Bet and the Trips Bonus Bet have 2 different pay tables.
Here’s a common pay table for the Blind Bet:
| Hand | Payout |
| Royal flush | 500 to 1 |
| Straight flush | 50 to 1 |
| 4 of a kind | 10 to 1 |
| Full house | 3 to 1 |
| Flush | 3 to 2 |
| Straight | Even money |
Ultimate Texas Hold'em Practice
Keep in mind that the Blind Bet pays off regardless of whether the dealer qualifies. Also, notice that 3 of a kind doesn’t pay off for the Blind Bet, which is an interesting quirk of the game. The pay tables can vary—the casino gets to choose from multiple options. For example, some casinos pay off 40 to 1 instead of 50 to 1 for a straight flush. This changes the house edge for the game, of course.
Here’s a common pay table for the Trips Bonus Bet:
| Hand | Payout |
| Royal flush | 50 to 1 |
| Straight flush | 40 to 1 |
| 4 of a kind | 30 to 1 |
| 3 of a kind | 8 to 1 |
| Full house | 8 to 1 |
| Flush | 6 to 1 |
| Straight | 5 to 1 |
Here are a couple of facts to keep in mind about the Trips Bonus Bet:
- Your hand doesn’t have to win. It pays off regardless of whether you or the dealer wins.
- It wins even if you don’t have to use your hole cards. You can just play the board (the flop, turn, and river.)
- It wins even if you fold.
How the Progressive Bet and Jackpot Works
The progressive bet in Ultimate Texas Holdem is also an optional side bet. At most casinos, this bet is a flat $1 bet. But at some casinos, the Progressive Bet is $5. You can win 1 of 2 progressive jackpots in this game—the smaller jackpot, or the larger jackpot. To win the smaller progressive jackpot, you must use at least 1 of your hole cards. The smaller progressive pays off for hands that are a full house or better.
To win the bigger progressive jackpot—which is 100% of the jackpot—you must use both your hole cards and the flop to form a royal flush. If you hit the royal flush on the turn or the river, you don’t win the bigger progressive. You can also win a percentage of the full big progressive jackpot
Casinos also feature something called an “Envy Bonus.” This is a bonus paid to any player at the table when one of the other players wins the progressive jackpot.
Casino games where you make decisions usually have a house edge that varies based on how well you make those decisions. In other words, your strategy matters. There’s always a mathematically correct play in every situation. In Ultimate Texas Holdem, your strategy is limited to whether you make Play Bets during the various stages of the game. For me, this isn’t an intuitive decision. You can find various websites offering strategies for this, but I have another recommendation:
The house edge is the amount of each bet that the casino projects you’ll lose on average based on the probabilities behind the game. Obviously, the lower the house edge, the better for the player. You should do everything you can to minimize the house edge on any casino game you play.
If you use perfect basic strategy on Ultimate Texas Holdem, the house expects to win a little over 2%. Let’s assume that the house edge is 10% if you don’t know basic strategy. What does that do to the cost of playing the game in the long run?
There’s an interesting post at Two Plus Two from a gambler describing his basic strategy for Ultimate Texas Holdem. I don’t know how close it mirrors a mathematically perfect strategy, but here’s what “nonprofitgambler” says is the correct way to play:
Preflop, he suggests raising with any of the following hands:
- Any ace
- Any k5+, and any king suited
- Q5s+, Q8+
- J8s+, JT+
- 33+ for pocket pairs
That small “s” after the number means that the cards are of the same suit (they’re “suited.”) On the flop, he says most people play the same, and that it’s correct—if you pair anything, you raise. But those obviously aren’t the only hands you should raise with here. You should also bet flush draws, straight draws, and combination draws. This means you have 4 cards to a big hand. On the river, you should bet any kind of made hand, but some boards are scarier than others.
Finally, I’d like to point out that the house edge on Ultimate Texas Holdem isn’t outrageous, but blackjack is still almost always a better deal. With perfect basic strategy, many blackjack games have a house edge of just 0.5%. This means you get the same kind of entertainment for closer to $2/hour instead of $8/hour.
You can play a nice, free version of Ultimate Texas Holdem at this site. It has a place where you can toggle the sound on and off. You can also toggle the “give advice” button off an on. If you’ve never played Ultimate Texas Holdem before, this page is a great way to practice. It’s refreshingly free of advertising, too, which is rare and unusual in this industry.
Also, if you like Ultimate Texas Holdem, I suggest you give multiplayer Texas holdem in the poker room a try—if you haven’t already. It’s a lot more fun, and you have more of an opportunity to get an edge, since you’re competing against other players.
That’s it for my “Definitive Guide to Ultimate Texas Holdem.” I can’t imagine any information you could want about the game that I’ve left out. But if I did miss something, or if you have questions about Ultimate Texas Holdem that remain unanswered, please put a note in the comments.