Just back from vacation with the family and managed to work in a little poker....was very fun. Got to spend time with the little ones who, as my husband says "have not turned on us yet". We were in Ruidoso, New Mexico and for this trip had rented a house for a week to have a comfortable place for the kids and adults. Usually for our trips there we stay at the Inn of The Mountain Gods with direct access to the casino, golf, fishing, etc. Luckily I was able to go to the casino for a while about 4 times.
This casino has about 8-10 tables and usually has 2 or more going, is friendly and well run. A really nice feature is that at noon on Monday through Friday they feature a Freeze Out tourney each day at noon. It is a $20 buy in and winner takes all at each table (although it in nearly always chopped 2 or 3 ways) and is a nifty way to get the games of the day started. The 3 days I played there were 3 tables each day.
The thing I liked about these little tourneys is the practice of doing live SNG's. It is hard to find on a regular basis and was a good exercise and warm up for playing the satellites for the big River Tournament coming up later this month at Winstar.
Inn of the Mountain Gods Poker Room is a very good small room to go play in. There is a core of regular players, lots of retired guys that live there full time and some of the regulars are horse people from the track that runs all summer but many live there full time. Then there are plenty of tourists to add to the mix. There are solid players, really good players, and the regular donkeys..... The tourists are a mix of some good and many recreational players that play for fun and have so much to lose....very typical of all poker rooms.
One thing that makes this room like most all the other ones you may play in is....take a jacket...for some reason it seems that most all poker rooms have in common is they tend to be on the cold side. I have played in about twenty different poker rooms and casinos and never go without a sweater, jacket, or layered clothing.......it must be good for poker to freeze your ass off....because they keep them all so cold. My theory is that most are on the same AC system as the rest of the casino and the machines generate so much heat that the poker room just gets colder because of that. My other idea is that it is colder because they need to keep the dealers alert and from getting too warm since they are working.......well whatever the reason..........take your coat and have fun playing as often as you can.
