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I've been playing poker since 2008 and I only play about 5-10 times a year but I love the game! I've played a lot of rooms in random places such as: New Orleans, Kansas City, Omaha (technically Iowa), Colorado (north of Denver), Turtle Lake WI, the casino just east of Sioux Falls, and Minneapolis. I've also been to Vegas a total of about 25 trips and total about 100 days. Nothing in the midwest will ever compare to Aria/Bellagio/Venetian (in that order) but I think Running Aces is really cool for what it is. The poker room isn't tucked in a dark area, the Running Aces poker room has full floor to ceiling glass windows overlooking the horse racing track and the windows extend the entire length of the room. They also have dark tinted glass & blackout blinds. So that part I think is super unique, cool, and awesome! They do have old/dated tables and chairs which kind of throws me for a loop?
As for the games, overall they're fantastic! I've been at Running Aces with the old grey haired guys a 9 AM drinking coffee playing 3/6 limit with some kind of Aces cracked promotion. The most popular game day-in-day-out is probably the 1/2 blinds $100 max bet "spread limit" holdem with $100-$300 buy-in and this one is really hit or miss. Sometimes the action on 1/2 is decent and other times it's the tightest, nittiest, most boring game you've ever seen. As for my favorite type of game which is crazy action, the 5/5 blinds $100 max bet "spread limit" Omaha with $300-$10,000 buy-in has action ranging from Minnesota tight to bonkers crazy banannas! They have these $300 "pumpkin" chips that are orange and slightly too big and bros sit down with like $5,000 sometimes and not like everyone or everytime but like when "that guy" is there. Anyway, it's kind of like that at this place. As for logistics you got 3/6 fixed before noon, 1/2 ($100 max) basically always, and 5/5 Omaha ($100 max) starting whenever it starts anywhere from early afternoon on and goes until 2:00 AM or later. Their Omaha game usually has a main table with a must move 2nd table, and be sure to time it right to get into the main game.
People like to whine about the Minnesota laws, but these people probably don't play much poker. Minnesota has a $100 max bet, and then a total of 4 or less raises each of $100 or less. So the total max bet per person is $500 on the flop, $500 on the turn, and $500 on the river. The games are plenty big and the 5/5 Omaha game in Minnesota is way bigger than 1/2 & "5 to go" PLO game in Vegas. The straight 5/5 PLO game is then way bigger than the Minnesota game, but whatever I just don't get the complaints.
