Gold Strike Casino Resort Tunica Poker Room

Impressions: I usually go to Tunica twice a year. I usually go once in January for the WPT World Poker Open that is held at the Gold Strike and I try to go once in the summer between May and July. I usually try and make it to the Gold Strike to play a little poker and feast on the nice fishies that swim in the poker room. I enjoy this room and it is my second favorite poker room in Tunica.
Atmosphere: If you go into the Gold Strike through the front door you will need to take a right and keep going until you reach the escalator. Take the escalator up and you will find the poker room. The room itself is a little dark for my taste, but nothing you cant deal with. The tables are nice and have the automatic shufflers. The tables have green felt and the chairs are nice.
Dealers: The dealers professional and very knowledgeable of the game. They keep the games moving fast and rarely make any mistakes. I do not have any complaints about the dealers.
Food: Drinks are easy to get at the poker room, just ask a cocktail server to get you something and reward her with a toke and she will be back. I usually do not eat at the Gold Strike, so I am not sure about the food that is offered. I have seen people ordering off a menu and grubbing out at the table.
If you just want to snack, they have a popcorn machine and some Goldfish crackers that are free in the rear of the room.
Service: The wait list is old school. They use the clipboard and pencil method. Just go up to the person at the podium and tell him/her to put your name on the list and wait around or you will get passed up. The PA system is not very good, so keep an eye out where your name is on the list. I usually start playing in the early morning or mid-afternoon and there is usually not a wait. If you go to the 'Strike at 7pm on a Friday night be prepared to wait at least a hour.
The 'Strike usually spreads the biggest variety of games. They usually spread the following games:
Limit- $3-$6, $10-$20 or $15-$30, and sometimes even higher during the WPT Event in January
NL- $1-$2NL (no max), $2-$5 (no max), and higher games will be available during the WPT Event in January.
They have Omaha running pretty much all the time. I have seen $5-$10 PLO/8 and $10-$20 PLO, and of course higher games will run during the WPT Events as well.
Comps: It is a toss up if you get a room at the 'Strike. You have to call the poker room and leave a message with a lady who 100% of the time will not call you back. You must keep calling until you get in touch with someone, but once you do it is a breeze to get a room and for $35-$40 for a weekend it may be worth it, but I usually just stay at the Grand where booking a room is much easier. The rate during the week is $25 i believe.
They have a BBJP which is never under $50K. I was fortunate enough to be part of a BBJP at the 'Strike the last time I was there and the winner (loser of the hand) walked out with $99K less taxes and the loser (winner of the hand) walked out with $35K.

After catching 3 hours of sleep in order to rest up for the supposed 3am weakening of the tables at the $1-2 cash game this weekend in Tunica, I sat back down at the Horseshoe to see 2 Asian guys that were there when I had left at 9pm. The rest of the table was new and a few were drinking. I sat about an hour and was up only a little when the table slowly started to dispurse and the money started to come off the table. I decided to walk over to the Goldstrike’s cardroom to find a better table.
I walked up to the hostess and ask for a $1-2 NL table and she pointed me to the table in the middle of the card room. There was a little bit of money on the table and I felt that this would be a good seat. I walked to the counter to buy my chips and a crazy looking fellow with wild eyes walked over to me and ask me to come play at his game back in the corner. He said that there were 3 live ones sitting over there and that I needed to come cash in. This sounded like an even better seat.
I sit down UTG and immediately straddle. Someone raises and is called and I have to dump my worthless hand when it gets back around to me. The next hand is forgotten, but the third hand will be etched in my mind for eternity.
I’m in the small blind and the action limps around to the wild-eyed man in late-middle who bumps it to $10. I fold along with all but an early and middle position limper. The flop comes down Jd,4c,10d and the limpers each check to the raiser who bets out $20. The early position player folds and the middle player moves all in for $50 more (one of the obvious live ones as he was almost falling asleep at the table and very short-stacked.) The pf-raiser grudgingly calls. Mr. Sleepy turns over 8d-7d for a flush draw and a gutshot str8 draw and Mr. Crazy eyes turns over Kd-Qd for the Royal flush draw. (do you call this an open-ended Royal flush draw?) The table points out that Sleepy is drawing dead to a 7 or 8. The 7c falls on the turn bringing Sleepy into the lead.
Then the most surreal thing that I have seen in all my life happens. The most beautiful card in the whole deck falls off, the 9d!!! No one even realized it for a second. Then, simultaneously, people start to realize what’s on the board. “He’s got a straight flush! And look, he’s got a straight flush too!! Holy *&$%^!!! That’s a bad beat! You guys just hit the bad beat jackpot!!!” The table erupts and jumps to their feet. High fives go around the table and people start to hug like we had just won the Sugar Bowl! The room takes notice and soon the place erupts. The dealer asks everyone to please step back from the table. Play in the entire room completely stopped for 15 minutes solid as everyone walked by the table to check it out. The cards and chips on that table didn’t move for 45 minutes as everything was verified as legit. It took almost 7 hours for the Goldstrike to iron out all the legal stuff, which meant that I played longer than I should have to burn the time away, but it was worth it. The only down side was that there wasn’t a table share. The rest left over after the winner and loser got paid was spread equally throughout the room to anyone playing holdem. Luckily it was 5am in the morning and there were less people than usual. It was one of the most amazing poker moments of my life and I just thought that I would share it with you guys.