How Much Does A Casino Night Cost in the USA?

Casino rental services in the United States range from cheap, to ridiculously expensive. Largely, the price of the service reflects quite accurately on the quality of the product you’ll receive. American casino rental services are often general party rental services- few of them specialize in casino party events. That said, the large rental agencies, despite not being casino specialists, generally do quite a good job at setting up wonderful casino nights for all occasions.

Here is a brief rundown of popular games offered at American casino rental services, and an estimate of how much each game would cost for a 3-4 hour event.

1. Craps Table

Renting a craps table, with a dealer, from an American casino rental service will cost around $595 for three hours. For a four-hour event, prices average around $795. Craps is by far the most expensive table game to rent because it is the largest and most dealer-intensive casino game offered by most agencies.

2. Poker Table

Renting one poker table, with a dealer, from an American casino rental service will cost around $395 for three hours. For a four-hour event, prices average around $445.

3. Roulette Table

Renting a roulette table, with a dealer, from an American casino rental service will cost around $395 for three hours. For a four-hour event, you’re looking at about $545. The price of renting a roulette table and dealer is a bit higher than the price of renting basic card game tables. This is due to the size and amount of equipment required to successfully run a game of roulette.

4. Blackjack Table

Renting a blackjack table, with a dealer, from an American casino rental service will cost around $325 for three hours. For a four-hour event, you can expect to pay around $395. Blackjack is the cheapest to rent of all casino games, since the equipment is very compact.

5. Wheel of Fortune

Wheel of Fortune is a game offered by some, but not all, American casino rental services. The game involves a player spinning a wheel, which is divided into sections representing prizes to be won. The aim of the game is to spin the wheel, and have the “money arrow” land on a high-payout section of the wheel. For a three-hour Wheel of Fortune rental, you will pay around $395. For a four-hour rental, expect to shell out around $595.

Heads Up Sit and Go Strategy

Heads up sit and go tournaments are by far one of the most profitable sit and go style tournaments available to a player who knows how to apply the correct strategy. Use our sit and go tips and you will be on the right track. A lot of players suffer a common misconception when it comes to a heads up sit and go tournament. Most players register for these tournaments thinking they're easier to win as there's only yourself and the person you are playing against. However, this is not true and an experienced player in heads up sit and go tournaments can win a lot of money from people with that mind frame.


One of the most important factors in heads up sit and go tournaments is position. This is the deciding factor in almost any heads up tournament and knowing when and how to use it to your advantage is a key to winning. If you are the dealer while playing heads up you will often want to raise provided you have at least a somewhat decent hand. This places the opposing player in a bad position and they will generally fold unless they feel they have a hand that is capable of beating yours. What this allows you to do is to show strength when the flop is shown and puts you in a better position to bluff if you do not have a good hand at the flop. If you are the big blind you should probably check unless you've been dealt a rather strong hand. This will force the opposing player to bet at the flop and if you're happen to catch something on the flop, it puts you in a better position to slow play them and take their money. If you are raised pre-flop and you do not have a good hand, you should probably fold.


Another important aspect in playing a heads up sit and go is knowing about hand strength. Knowing which cards to play and how to play them is a crucial step to winning a heads up sit and go. Card selection in a heads up sit and go differs from playing against multiple opponents. You generally want to be holding high suited cards, pocket pairs or unsuited high cards if you're wanting to bet and play pre-flop. If you are holding a relatively decent pocket pre-flop and play comes to you unraised, don't be afraid to play the hand. Also, regardless of the hand dealt, you should always try not to fold if you are the dealer as being in this position offers you a greater advantage and prime position when the flop shows up as the opposing player will always be forced to make the first move, and this gives you the opportunity to trap them and place them in a position where they're rendered helpless.


Regardless of how you choose to play your cards while playing heads up, always remember to play smart and use our sit and go strategy tips. If your hand is weak and you're not in a position to check it's often in your best interest to fold. If you're sitting as the dealer and you have a relatively strong hand you should raise and give yourself position after the flop. Playing smart while heads up, knowing how to control your position and selecting the proper cards to play is the difference between a first place victory and coming close to winning.

Dream Team Poker Draws Huge Response

The Dream Team Poker tournament is scheduled to start from the 27th of March. The number of entries received so far have exceeded all expectations. This is surprising because for one the tournament is not televised and also the event has a low buy in of only $500 + $50.

What atrracts the poker professionals to this tournament is the unique structure of the event and the fact that it is team based. Players compete as individuals but get scored as a team. In the end there are both individual and team prizes. Dream Team Poker have applied for a patent for this system. The system provides incentives for busted out players to stay on till the end of the tournament and this generates greater side revenues on hotel reservations and meals. Daniel Delshad, the CEO of Dream Team Gaming had this to say, “The overwhelming interest from top poker pros to participate in a non-televised, five-hundred dollar game proves that the Dream Team Poker concept provides a needed, new experience to players.”

It is expected that the team count will cross 100 and the individual player count will cross 300. The favorite team is “Team Favorites”. Only Phil Hellmuth could give his team that name, the man recently in a weird hand malfunction at the USA online poker site, Ultimatebet. The hand was more than just a poker bad beat, it rewarded the winning losing player, Helmuth, the pot.

The others in the team are Mike “The Mouth” Matusow and Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss. The dark horse is an all women’s team named “Team Yo Mama” consisting of Tiffany Michele, Maria Ho and Lacey Jones. There is also a veterans team of T.J. Cloutier, Tom McEvoy and Kathy Liebert called Pro Team 1. Other poker pros who will be participating are Jamie Gold, Jerry Yang, Justin Bonomo, Dennis Phillips, Hoyt Corkins, Todd Brunson, Paul Wasicka, Joe Sebok, Liz Liu and Erica Schoenberg. Mekhi Phifer the actor Chris Mills the NBA star will be having their own team, The Sole Survivors.

Dream Team Poker was founded in 2007 by Dream Team Gaming, a privately held company headquartered in Beverly Hills. It has licensed its unique tournament structure to many of the largest and most popular casinos in the United States. The inaugural tornament took place in November 2008 at Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The Bluff Magazine Team consisting of Eric Morris, Justin Bonomo and Matthew Parvis won. The Super Tilt team was second. Jason Lilly of Team Flop won the first prize. The placements of some prominent pros were as follows. Jamie Gold was 12th, Erica Schoenberg was 30th and Maria Ho was 75th. The competition is stiffer this time.The tournament is being held at Caesar’s Palace this time in the Poker Room. This room is steeped in history as Jim Pedulla the Director of the Poker Room said, “… we are proud to host this event in the World Series of Poker tournament room, which is also the site of NBC Heads Up Poker …”

Which Poker Pros Play at PokerStars.com

Harboring some of the biggest names in poker, PokerStars continues to add to their ever growing list of pro poker players and celebrity friends. They currently have 29 Pros and 5 Friends that can be found playing on online at any given time. We are sure you are familiar with Jason Alexander from Seinfeld and Orel Hershiser who is known as a retired pitcher from the L.A Dodgers. Although it was very difficult, we have compiled a list of our top 4 pros to try and catch on PokerStars. If you would like to try and catch up with a member of TeamPokerStars, we suggest you use the PokerStars Bonus Code to receive a great bonus as well.

Barry Greenstein

aka barryg1

Born December 30, 1954 in Chicago

Barry Greenstein has been playing poker most of his life. After graduating with a bachelors degree in computer science, he went to work for Symantec until he retired in 1991. Since then, his focus has been on poker. He is a master at mixed games and has personal preference for as many mixed games to be involved when playing their high stakes ring games. Barry Greenstein is also known as "The Bear" and more popularly known as "The Robin Hood of Poker" for his massively generous donations to various charities. He currently works on PokerRoad, a website created with stepson Joe Sebok, whom is also a poker pro. They have a radio show and various blogs from other poker pros. Some of his current winnings include cashing in 6 events in the 2008 WSOP for a total of $768,461. He also has won 3 bracelets, one in 2004 for 2-7 Draw NL, 2005 for Pot Limit Omaha, and 1 in 2008 for a $1,500 Razz tournament. If you would like to play with Barry, sign up at PokerStars and look for his screen name, barryg1.

Daniel Negreanu

aka KidPoker

Born July 26, 1974

Daniel Negreanu was simply born to gamble, not to mention play poker. After dropping out of high school with only a few credits to go, Negreanu headed over to Vegas to give it a shot playing poker. That didn't last long however as he made his way back to his hometown of Toronto to rebuild his bankroll. A couple years later, Daniel Negreanu is doing excellent and operating his site, Full Contact Poker, where he contributes daily to his blog and forum. He has an interesting challenge currently, trying to take $10 and turn it into $100,000 through proper bankroll management strategies. He simply states it was because he wanted a challenge. As of recent, he has placed in 5th place at the NBC Heads Up Event for a total of $75,000. His last 1st place finish was in 11/08 at the B.C Poker Championship. A fan of the "small ball" strategy, you can find tips from Daniel in Doyle Brunsons revised version of Super System II or you can pick up Daniels very own book, "more Holdem Wisdom For All Players." He can be found on PokerStars using the screen name KidPoker.

Chris Moneymaker

aka Money800

Born November 21, 1975

The man who started it all, Chris Moneymaker gave everyone hope when he turned a $39 satellite into a World Series Main Event win of over $2.5 million dollars. Prior to his big win, he an accountant and 9 months later quit his day job to play poker full time. He currently has a book out, "Moneymaker: How An Amateur Poker Player Turned $40 into $2.5 Million at the World Series of Poker." As of 2008, his total earning are over $2.8 million. Some of his notable cash finishes include his 6th place finish at the WCOOP event 5, which was the NLHE event and he walked away with $139,000. He also finished in 5th place for event 16, earning $28,000. Chris Moneymaker currently has 2 companies with one being a poker school and the other is "Moneymaker Gaming," where they make poker chips. You can find Chris Moneymaker at PokerStars using the screen name Money800.

Vanessa Rousso

aka LadyMaverick

Born February 5, 1983

After graduating early in 2003 from Duke University with a major in Economics and a minor in Political Science, Vanessa Rousso decided to play poker full time. She has a number of cash finishes under her belt including, 7th place at the WPT championship, 8th place at the 2006 WSOP 5k HLHE event, and 2006 she cashed for $285,450 at the Borgata Open. She currently has her own site where she writes on her blog and has recently done a photo shoot for Sports Illustrated. 2009 has been a great year for Vanessa as she made it to the semi finals in the NBC Heads Up Event and finished in 7th place for $80,000 in the 7th season of WPT. You can find Vanessa Rousso using the screen name "LadyMaverick" over at PokerStars.

The short stack strategy – Pros and Cons

Usually you can buy in for 20 – 100 Big Blinds in No-Limit Cash Games. If you buy in for 20 Big Blinds your stack is one fifth of a big stack that buys-in for 100 Big Blinds. That's a big difference and sometimes a disadvantage. But some poker players buy-in for this minimum and playing the short stack strategy (SSS).

Pros of SSS

A big advantage is that the risk is small because you're only playing with a minimum buy-in. Especially in No-Limit Hold'em one mistake can be very expensive. If you're playing SSS and making a mistake it only costs your small buy-in. The damage is only one fifth compared to the big stack if he happens to go broke.

Furthermore SSS is easy to learn. You're just waiting for the right hands take a look at the flop and move all-in if it's the right one or move in pre-flop after a raise. For novice players SSS is an option because they are looking for easy-to-learn strategies with minimal risk.

Cons of SSS

But there are also disadvantages that should be considered. First of all there is the belief SSS has nothing to do with playing poker. This is understandable because you need no skills to wait for the right hand and move all-in then. You don't need any post-flop skills and this is the most interesting part of poker.

So we're already at the second disadvantage: You don't learn to play properly. You don't have to deal with poker strategy, you're decision is either go all-in fold. You're playing like a robot always with the same program running. There's no need to read poker books or talk with other players about hands. So you'll always be a machine rather than a poker player.

There are two good reasons for novice poker players to start with SSS: small risk and easy-to-learn strategy. But the two disadvantages are also powerful. I highly recommend playing SSS only at the beginning and switch to big stack strategy as soon as possible.

Virtual Poker For Real Money

Using state-of-the-art computer technology, thousands of people play poker online for real money. By linking their computers to the Internet, players living as far apart as New York, London, and Tokyo are able to play together simultaneously in computer-generated poker games - for real cash.

Until recently, such games weren't feasible. The challenge was to invent poker software that would enable strangers to play against each other in live games from different locations -and with enough confidence to back their mouse clicks with cash.

Without real money at stake, online casinos cannot make profits. (They take a rake - a fixed percentage of each pot -just as a real casino poker room does. The only difference is that it's taken electronically rather than by a human dealer.)

Milestone advances in computer graphics, sound, and programming made Internet cash games possible. On January 1, 1998, Planet Poker was the first Internet poker casino to offer poker for cash stakes. Others followed.

But is it legal?

The answer as to whether such games are legal depends on which side of the business you're on - supplier side or client side - and also on where you live.

If you're thinking of starting an online poker casino, you'd better get out of Dodge! In the United States, you may be prosecuted for operating such a business, since federal law likely prohibits them.

Seeing a potential gold rush of almost unlimited client demand, foreign entrepreneurs rushed in to fill the void. Internet poker casinos are based in countries where laws are more lenient, such as Costa Rica.

The clients, however, may live anywhere. In some areas, it is against the law to place bets on the Internet. Depending on where you live, it may be illegal to play poker for cash stakes online.

Easier to achieve monthly VIP Levels at PokerStars

PokerStars lowered the amount of VIP Player Points (VPPs) required to achieve SilverStar, GoldStar and PlatinumStar status. Starting with March, the new amounts of VPPs required are:

Requirement lowered to 1,200 VPPs per month
(from 1,500)

Requirement lowered to 3,000 VPPs per month
(from 4,000)

Requirement lowered to 7,500 VPPs per month
(from 10,000)