The Palms room is quite small and split into halves, a limit and a no limit side. The no limit I've found is the place to be and I prefer the 1/3 NL over the 2/5 - the 2/5 is a tight locals game to be avoided. The 1/3 is a more mixed crowd, more drinking goes on, and it's just rowdier and more fun imo.

Oh btw I love the fishnet and leather outfits the Palms cocktail waitresses wear here, and I like that the poker room here is so open to the rest of the casino. There are things to see and it makes the experience more entertaining and a better time.

Anyway this hand takes place the first time I played here and I didn't know how bad the 2/5 game was so I went straight for that. A couple of crusty sort of unfriendly locals and me. About 8 pm on a Thursday.

Soon after sitting down and before I had a chance to get into any real hands, I had QcJc in position and raised it to $20 preflop. I had two callers. The flop was AcKc10c. I'm not bullshitting I've never had a royal flush before and I don't feel the need to tell false tales. It was a sweet sweet flop.

Too sweet. The aggressive "captain" of the table checked, the quiet guy next to him checked and I sort of felt the need to let them catch up, call me crazy. I was more worried about not letting my hand jitter like a tweaked out squirrel than anything else.

The turn was a blank. Check check - ok I bet $25 here hoping to look weak. No takers, I suppose I had all the outs, the board was just too scary with me being the preflop raiser.

So it was a smaller pot but the best part of the story is the Palms has high hand jackpots for quads and straight flushes so I got $600 for the royal. Thank you Mr Maloof, you're the man.

I have had my share of bad beats at this game and it felt good to just nail a big hand even if it wasn't a big pot. Made my day.

So I would recommend the 1/3 NL game at the Palms both for the jackpots and the action, after 8 or so on any Thu Fri or Sat and esp these next few weeks with the WSOP in town. And damn I love those fishnet stockings.