Horseshoe Tunica

The Horseshoe Casino-Hotel near Tunica, Mississippi, represents Harrah's luxury property in the Tunica market. The Horseshoe trademark has been promoted by Harrah's as the high-end brand -- "We know what gamblers want" -- and this property fits right in.

Getting there
The Horseshoe is part of the Casino Center complex, along with the Sheraton and the Gold Strike. From US-61 take Casino Center Blvd. east to its terminus. Coming south from Memphis or the I-69 junction, this will be a right turn on Casino Center.

The poker room is located in the back right (northeast) corner of the casino. From the main front entrance, turn right, head toward the east wall, then turn left (north) and head to the back. From the parking garage, turn right (north) upon entering and continue toward the back wall.

Limit hold'em

 * $4/8 - Their most prevalent limit game, this goes constantly.  On a weekend early morning, it was pretty loose with 4-6 to the flop; on a Monday afternoon, it was tighter but still moderately loose, with 3-4 to a flop and one older gentleman four-betting 72o preflop out of principle.
 * $10/20 - Somewhat sporadic, probably goes on weekends.
 * $20/40 - Pretty consistent, with two tables observed on a weekend night.

No-limit hold'em

 * $1-3 blinds ($100 min. - ??? max) - Around the beginning of the year the 'Shoe started a $1-2 NL game and ostensibly began to take traffic away from the Gold Strike next door. However, the $1-2 struggled on weekday afternoons.   For whatever reason they replaced it with a $1-3, and as of August 2007 it appears to run daily and possibly overnight.
 * $2-5 blinds ($200 min. - no max) - This is arguably still their bread-and-butter NLHE game, but not as dominant as before.

Omaha 8/b
$4/8 w/ a kill, usually 1 table a day.

Seven-card stud

 * $1-5 - .25 cent ante, 1-2 tables pretty much every day.

Pot-limit Omaha / Lowball
Spread "every couple of weeks" : - $300 max. bet

Testimonial
The Horseshoe in Tunica is an excellent place to play poker. The best in Tunica, in my opinion. Their action is insane. Alcohol is free and they are very liberal with food comps. They have a poker room rate for the hotel but you have to call sometimes weeks in advance to get a room at the poker rate. My last trip, I only played poker, no house games, got my room for $25 per night [NOTE: see below] and never bought a meal the entire time I stayed there.

The Horsehoe in Tunica treats poker players like royalty.

Poker rate
$30 weekdays, $40 weekends. As of August 2007, the poker rate is being honored just up the road at the Grand's Veranda hotel, also a Harrah's property. Poker played at either the Horseshoe or the Grand counts toward qualification. In theory five hours per day is the qualifier at the Grand, but the 'Shoe doesn't track time directly so pointing out your stay to staff is probably a good idea. (This author had previously tracked over five hours per day in a stay at the Grand, and that appeared to convince management without any ongoing tracking.)

Direct any questions about the poker rate to Dale, available during the daytime hours.

Comps
Very generous. At least twice players stated that, "You just have to play a single hand to get comped." The theoretical limit is one meal per shift. Comps can be issued for the Ace High snack bar, the buffet, or certain snack bar food can be brought to the table. One player's request for bananas was honored cheerfully.

A Harrah's affinity card is required to issue the comp, but no check-in is needed.

Drinks
They seem to offer the broadest selection of drinks in town; for example, they were the only one sampled to offer a single malt Scotch (Glenlivet).