Matt Berkey has been brutally honest with young professional poker player Lewis Spencer over his lack of ability to get into good high stakes cash games in Las Vegas.
He says it’s always been impossible to find much high-stakes cash action in Las Vegas because private games always made up the bulk of it.
This isn’t a recent shift. Private games have made up the bulk of high stakes action since the dawn of the game. Rarely ever has bellagio ran anything bigger than 10/20/40 public. Be it Robl, Antonio & Rast running private 25/50+ around Blitz way back in the Victory poker days,… https://t.co/RFtyUc2f4M
— Matt Berkey (@berkey11) November 18, 2023
The 26-year-old pro was griping over not being able to find anything running bigger than $10/$20.
He reckons that switching to tournaments was the best decision he’s taken, allowing him to avoid all of the politics to get game invites.
“The public cash game scene in vegas is really crazy now. It’s borderline impossible to play above 10/20 publically (once in a blue moon) and private games in casinos pillage walk in players to the point where every game above 5/10 within the next year is going to be private”
Switching to tournaments was genuinely the best thing I ever did for my own sanity because playing the politics game with the private game scene is incredibly exhausting. There are now 6 private games 25/50(!) to 100/200 across Aria/Wynn/Bellagio alone.
— Lewis Spencer (@llewisspencer) November 18, 2023
Matt Berkey Says There Has Never Been a Public High Stakes Scene in Las Vegas
Incredibly, Matt Berkey says there has never been any kind of high stakes scene in Las Vegas in the 16 years he has lived there.
$10/$20 has kind of been the limit, often with the Bellagio the only card room spreading games that high.
The answer to anyone moaning about this was brutal:
“This industry isn’t driven by the players who study the hardest. The industry is driven by the players who understand the nature of gambling and zero sum games.
“If you want to play stakes you enjoy against competition you can beat then help curate a game where the incentives align for both you and your competition.”
Simply put, if you want to play against rich whales, take some responsibility for getting the game going yourself instead of moaning about it online.
Dan Smith posted a tweet to agree with how much more private the high-stakes cash game scene has become in recent years.
50/100+ public games would run whenever there’s a tournament (five diamond, WSOP, etc) or even just a guy guys looking to play some cards up until Bellagio/Aria decided private games were allowed if you pay double rake.
The scene has gotten MUCH more private over the years.
— Dan Smith (@DanSmithHolla) November 19, 2023
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