Atlantic City, New Jersey, often abbreviated to AC, adopted public gaming 1976, making it one of the oldest sites in the United States. The intent was to create a "Vegas of the East Coast." Consequently AC offers the widest variety of poker rooms in the Eastern states.
Atlantic City skyline
Poker rooms[]
The current number of poker rooms in Atlantic City is three: Borgata, Harrah’s, and Tropicana. There were two more, at the Golden Nugget and Bally casinos, but they were shut down, and there is currently no word on when they will open again.
Borgata Poker Room[]
The Borgata is the only casino in AC that offers poker tournaments, making it one of the busiest poker rooms in the city with 52 tables available at any given time. No-limit Hold'em is the main game played in the Borgata poker room, and there are numerous stakes available. There are also 24-hour single-table sit-and-go events, so there's always something going on. The location is also well known for hosting the famous World Poker Tour.
Harrah’s Poker Room[]
There are just 25 poker tables at Harrah's poker room, but diversity is key when it comes to the kind of games you may play there. Players may choose from Mississippi Stud, Texas Hold'em, Three Card Poker, Let it Ride, Pai Gow, and other games at the poker area of the casino. On Tuesday and Monday, the room is open from 11 am to 6 am, on Wednesday and Thursday, it's open from 11 am to 4 am, and it's open continuously from 11 am on Friday to 6 am on Monday.
Tropicana Poker Room[]
Only 18 poker tables are available for players at the Tropicana AC poker room, the smallest of the three. In addition to the main game of 1/2 no-limit Hold'em, which has a buy-in range of $60 to $300, other options include Three Card Poker, Caribbean Stud, Let It Ride, and Pai Gow. Due to the fact that Tropicana is the only poker room on the Atlantic City Boardwalk, it is rather popular. Given the number of tables, the location could become a little busy, particularly on weekends when the room is open round-the-clock.
Caesars Poker Room[]
Caesars Atlantic City is a Roman themed hotel and casino located in Atlantic City, New Jersey. It has 979 rooms, from $119-$499, and 198 suites from $199-$800. Valet parking costs $10 - $15 on weekend nights. The casino has 115,924 square feet of gaming space, featuring slots, video poker, sic bo, big wheel, blackjack, craps, roulette, spanish 21, baccarat, mini-baccarat, poker, caribbean stud, asia poker, three card, four card, texas hold'em, bonus poker, let it ride, paigow, paigow poker, off-track betting, ultimate texas hold'em and more! Players can get discounts on parking and buffet by being part of the players club. Other amenities include a health spa, shopping arcade, unisex salon, and child care.
Poker chips[]
The New Jersey Division of Gaming, previously known as the New Jersey Casino Control Commission, regulates all gaming equipment, to include casino chips. The following base colors are mandated for all casino chips in all New Jersey casinos by denomination as follows:
25¢ – Peach
50¢ – Slate Blue
$1 – White
$2.50 – Pink
$5 – Red
$10 – Blue
$20 – Yellow
$25 – Green
$100 – Black
$500 – Purple
$1,000 – Fire Orange
$5,000 – Gray
$10,000 – Bronze
$20,000 – Mustard Yellow
$25,000 – Gold
Getting there[]
By car[]
From New York City and North NJ, use the Garden State Parkway (toll) to the Atlantic City Expressway. From Philadelphia, use the Atlantic City Expressway ($2.50 toll to downtown AC).
Toll exclusively from the ACE/GSP junction to downtown is 50c.
Upon arrival, you will see color coded guide signs for the different areas of town:
From the south: See thread below
By bus[]
Greyhound appears to offer some promotional deals with casinos from New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington. See Lucky Streak - Atlantic City.
Academy Bus also offers some casino trips; see their casino tours page. Panorama Tours offers daily trips to several AC casinos from Northern New Jersey with a return ticket costing only $30. Find out more about their Atlantic City casino bus trips.
By train[]
New Jersey Transit offers frequent train service from Philadelphia, with approximately 1.5 hours' journey time from 30th Street Station to Atlantic City. See NJ Transit's train schedules. Beginning in late 2007, NJ Transit will also offer Friday-Sunday express train service from New York City to Atlantic City.
Ordinary game selection by stakes[]
| Limit hold 'em | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Stakes | Locations | Notes | |
| $2/4 | Taj Mahal, Borgata, Tropicana, Harrah's, Showboat, Caesars, others | Everybody has low stakes | |
| $3/6 | Taj Mahal, Borgata, Harrah's | Many tables, $1/3 blinds | |
| $4/8 | Tropicana | ||
| $5/10 | Taj Mahal | $2/5 blinds | |
| $6/12 | Borgata | $3/6 blinds | |
| $7.5/15 | Tropicana | Crazy action game, played with $2.5 pink chips, $5/$7.5 blinds | |
| $10/20+ | Taj Mahal, Borgata | The only 2 places for real high limit action | |
| No-limit hold 'em | |||
| Blinds | Min buy-in | Max buy-in | Locations |
| $1-2 | $60 | $300 | Taj Mahal, Borgata, Tropicana, Harrah's, Showboat, Caesars, others |
| $2-5 | $150 | $500 | Taj Mahal, Borgata, Tropicana, Harrah's Caesars |
| $5-10 | $? | $? | Taj Mahal, Borgata, Tropicana |
| $10-20+ | $? | $? | Taj Mahal, Borgata |
| Tournaments | |||
| Locations | Notes | ||
| Taj Mahal | |||
| Borgata | |||
| Tropicana | |||
| Harrah's | |||
| Showboat | |||
Locations are listed in order of typical game selection.
AC for cheapskates[]
It must be a nice way to live -- take down $1000 a day in the Borgata $80/160, then go shop in their boutiques for something to wear out, after a nice meal at Bobby Flay, to mur.mur that night. Or is Mixx where the beautiful people go?
But that lifestyle's not for everyone. If your modest aspirations are to visit AC, win a little money, and not give it all back in travel expenses, you needn't despair. Here's a simple checklist for maximizing your poker fun while minimizing your expense:
- Try to avoid overnight stays on Friday and Saturday nights, especially during the summer. Of course the games are better when more tourists are in town, so you'll have to estimate if that's worth the added expense.
- Get a copy of the Traveler's Discount Guide for the Northeast. These green coupon books are available at turnpike rest areas and truck stops throughout the region, everywhere from PA/MD/DC/DE northeast.
- Stay in the cheapest place you can stand. You're a cheapskate, so presumably that means you're there to play poker, not to enjoy the plush hotel stay!
- US-30 (White Horse Pike) in Absecon is particularly dense with cheap places.
- When you're not eating off comps, get lots of hoagies, fruit, etc. from the Absecon Wawa. Much healthier than fast food, the sandwiches aren't bad, and the automated ordering system is kinda fun.
- Special Borgata note about using comps in the "cafeteria" (belongs in Borgata but we cheapskates need to know when we can get better food for not additional cost!).
Other notes[]
Throughout AC people tend to bring stacks of red $5 chips into the $2/4 and $3/6 games, which requires lots of making change. A good idea is to buy into these games for two racks of white ($200) and sell stacks of 20 between hands to those with all red. Besides speeding up the game, this also increases physical pot size which many players believe makes the game looser.
Other notes to out of towners:
hold'em games are 10handed
rake is 10% 4 dollars at taj,borgata,trop harrah's properties have 4+1 for the jackpot.
straddles are not allowed. Raising blind is allowed.
Discussion threads[]
- Some AC rules for discussion
- AC Poker Rooms (2+2) - includes rankings in "order of softness"
- A.C. Cardrooms and the B.S. Factor - more room reviews
- AC Borgata or Taj
- ac directions from dc - about directions from the south.
- Borgata $6-12 vs. Taj $5-10 (Two Plus Two B&M forum, Big Poppa Smurf May 2006)
See also Wikipedia:Atlantic City, New Jersey
| Poker rooms of Atlantic City, New Jersey |
|---|
| Borgata | Bally's | Caesar's | Harrah's | Resorts | Showboat | Taj Mahal | Tropicana |
| See also Casinos:Eastern US |
| Poker rooms of the Eastern United States | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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