Player reward program at Lodge in Black Hawk

By Mark Lasser

The Lodge for many years had been Black Hawk and Central City’s action room for poker. Before the limits were raised, this was where you would find 5-5 players betting and raising until those hallowed words “Cap it!” were uttered while slamming down stacks of red birds ($5 chips).

With the introduction of $100 limits, not much changed. The Lodge drew the big game and had the longest waits to get on the tables. Then a funny thing happened. The new kid on the hill, Ameristar, introduced a massive bad beat jackpot. They had that new casino smell about them, a very good buffet and lots of rooms for folks who were up till 4 a.m. trying to get unstuck and too tired to negotiate the canyon home. At the same time, The Lodge increased its rake.

But now the Lodge has come back strong, introducing a new program that’s great for players. Manager Ben White offered a gracious explanation to a packed room full of invited VIP poker players in December at an invitation only freeroll tournament. The new program has two tiers. Casual players earn $2/hour in comps for 1-2-100 and 4/8, and $5/hour in comps for 10/20 and higher. There’s an option to also take cash in lieu of comps at half that rate. Comps can be used for hotel rooms, merchandise, and food and drinks.

More serious players can qualify for the Premium Choice Club by playing an average of 75 hours each month from January to March. These players earn double comps, $4/hour in lower limits and $10/hour in 10/20 and above. These points and comps do not expire. These comp levels are an incredible value for players and are far better than anything offered anywhere in Colorado. Most other card rooms are only offering
$1/hour in comps.

A new world record!

The Poker Stars online poker site recently tried to break the record for largest poker tournament ever held. The goal was 65,000 players, but they actually enticed 149,196 players with a $1 buy-in and some good promotion. First prize was $50,000 and a total of 30,000 places were paid. I felt like participating, since I’d never been part of a Guinness record before. With tables being nine handed, I think we started with around 16,678 tables. Commerce Casino in L.A. has been known as the largest poker room in the world, with around 200 tables, so this would be like having 84 Commerce Casinos spreading cards if it were to take place in the physical world. Cool.

12:45 Everyone starts with 2,000 chips. Turbo blinds go up every 5 minutes so folks drop like flies or double up pretty quickly.

1:15 Down a few chips to 1,727 after some limps and misses. No use bluffing anyone here. With fast blinds almost everyone’s a calling station. I’m 102,828 out of 128,766.

1:45 A few good hands and bluffs. 4,062 chips and I’m 26,910 out of 86,256.

2:15 Hit a few good hands including a 2 outer that made me feel like Joe Cada. I’m already at 26,308 out of 36,354.

2:45 Two hours since starting I get big slick, A♦K♦ on the cutoff. I’m thinking final table could happen. I’d love to win it all but even the final 100 would be very cool. I raise the button who re-raises. I shove, he calls and turns over A♣A♠. Big bummer. Flop comes 10♦ K♥ 9♠ leaving me two outs. Turn and river follow: 6♠ A♥. I finish 19,623, which was in the money. It was fun to have been part of the event. That’s a pretty incredible number. Poker Stars is now going through the process of having Guinness confirm and validate the record.

~ Mark B. Lasser is Denver writer and international poker player. He regularly plays in Colorado, Arizona, California, Missouri and Nevada. His work has appeared in Bikini Magazine, Blue Travel and Warp. Readers can send questions and comments to him at ColoradoPokerMark@comcast.net.