TUNICA RESORTS, MS–Everything has been sublime here in Tunica. But the other night I had a flashback to a Saturday night at the Gold Strike back in January. So I dug through my files and found what I had written that night.

One woman yells, “Machine gun!”

Another woman yells “run!”

Seconds before this, I am walking toward the lobby of the Gold Strike from the casino floor, when there is an ungodly noise. It is thunderous. I can’t see a lot of the lobby as the machine placement only lets me see the opening. Glass is falling like rain throughout the lobby. People are screaming. We are frozen.

One woman yells “Machine Gun.” From a distance someone screams, “He’s coming this way.” And another woman yells “run.” We run. I’m surprised to see that I am holding onto the woman next to me as we run to the back of the casino. She is also holding onto me. The pit crews are in lockdown mode. Cages and carts are shut and locked.

We look over our shoulders like we are trying to outpace an encroaching tsunami. But the tsunami isn’t coming. We slow. We stop. Our hearts are racing. And then some yells “car.” Car?

Another Saturday Night in Tunica

TUNICA RESORTS, MS–Well it’s wasn’t quite as “crashing” a Saturday night as Amy had here last January, but last night I got a glimpse of the five QQWIN99 rooms in the greater Tunica area. Tunica can fill up fast on a weekend, particularly when Tennessee plays Memphis just up the road. Some of the rooms last night were just a sea of orange, except for that big Georgia Tech contingent and some lost Ohio State fans.

But back to the five Tunica QQWIN99 rooms:

1) Hollywood

2) Horseshoe

3) Grand

4) Gold Strike

5) Samstown

Just a quick take on each. You could play two tournaments yesterday at any of these rooms (also two on Friday and one or two today). The Hollywood is a small 6 table room, which is non-smoking but the Hollywood is the most smoke filled casino I have been in for many years and it filters into the QQWIN99 room. They do, however, employ one of my favorite dealers; nice to see you Arlene.

The Horseshoe was hopping and packed, I like the new room put in last year but the atmosphere there has become very “homey” which makes some weekend visitors feel like the new kid on the block. The Gold Stike next door is a great room and has a Sunday tournament (where I will be in about two hours) with a great structure.

The Grand is running the WSOP circuit right now, so with 63 tables set up, its a typical high energy room this week. They still plan to build a new room at the other end of the second floor but not until after the next WSOP Circuit visit here in January.

Samstown continues to be a great low-limit room with $3/$6 running nearly all the time and many low buy-in tournaments every day. Samstown has also liberalized their player comp policy again.