as an asheville resident and longtime homegame enthusiast (not a fan of casino play), I can tell you that the majority of casual & fishy players I play in asheville home games with say that they don't play poker at Cherokee because its "rigged" (ie, run by computers).
They all say as soon as they can play with chips and cards, they are in.
I agree with Lee Jones about all of Pokertek's positive attributes (speed, no tipping, accuracy of dealing, etc.), but I don't think that makes up for a room full of fish.

lol i guess no one is interested my friend...I really thought it was +EV for everybody

Two days before grand opening

Are there any games going on Monday nights? I am thinking about driving up from Atlanta here in a little bit. Any PLO? Thanks.

I obviously don't live in NC anymore and don't play here, however it's pretty tilting that I don't think anyone has asked the only important question you should be asking with regards to the inclusion of live dealers.

How will this affect the rake in the game? Are you going to implement a jackpot drop? If so will it only be for a bad beat or will you implement other promotions?

Keeping the smaller stakes games on the pokertek tables is actually fantastic for the players if you absolutely insist on bringing in live dealers/cards.

I think a compromise for the Cherokee poker room with regards to having a live table for 1/2NL is to force a higher min buy-in. Instead of $100-500, perhaps a $300-$1,000 live 1/2NL table. This way there won't be annoying nits buying in for $100 and then nursing their dwindling stack occasionally raising to $12 pre with their $40 stack, not getting any callers and totally ruining the dynamic of the game.

The higher min buy-in would lead to larger avg pots and justify the decreased h/hr for the regs to keep the game going at the 1/2NL level. Perhaps have one table like this and see if it catches on. Accordingly, the live 2/5 or 5/10NL tables could play even bigger.

BTW: The $8/hr security guard with tattoos all over his arms told me the poker room opens on July 4th not June 19th. WTF?

The Rec players would love to lose 300 dollars on a betting round. Raising the min buy in is stupid. A 50bb min is perfect.

How is new poker room?

Very nice room. spacious and will have a nice view of the rotunda from the entrance. There is a beverage situation atm imo. I think they are gonna fix that by adding a station in the room for drinks. AC doesnt work yet from what i hear, felt alright tonight. Gonna be hard to really judge before they finish the rotunda whether or not volume picks up in the pkr room.

TV's can be tricky to see if you arent sitting on the correct side of the room.

The poker room will be down this morning until approximately 11am. Sorry for the late notice, I just found out myself.

I love the new poker room. I played in the first 3/6 Limit game.

to be honest, the games are just full of fish all the time. if you can't already crush the games, i doubt you'll be winning when they switch to live cards.

+1.

Every time I try to convince myself "no, they aren't the worst players in America" I ultimately realize they probably are. Awesome fishy weak gem although the stakes aren't that impressive. If you can't dominate Cherokee, you won't do much better elsewhere, live cards or not.

I played last night in the new room. I dont have many issues other than weak presence of waitress's and self drink centers which has been mentioned. It's going to go well I think when they get everything running smoothly.

Yeah, the room is very nice. And Brio's is right next door so good food is only a few steps away.

A couple of little things....I think it's a little too bright, especially when seated and facing the Floor's desk, it has two or three dozen brilliant white lights that shine out from under a shelf and into the player's eyes. I suppose it's a good excuse to bring sunglasses, LOL.

There are no TV's mounted on the wall at the front of the room, they're only on the back walls, so folks on one side of all the tables can see a bunch of TV's and the other side can't see any.

With half the room unable to see TV's I'm really hoping they will allow the use of some mp3 players for music. Perhaps all players facing the front of the room and unable to see any TV's could be allowed to listen to some music.

The air in the room is some of the best in the casino since it's no smoking; all the neighboring areas are smoke free also. Smokers are being told, I believe, to go down to the first floor, the casino floor, to smoke; and the nearest stairs and escalators are not in service yet. LOL. It should be much easier to get downstairs when the new front entrance is finished and opened. It looks like it's ready now, the folks are saying it'll be open by July 4th. The new entrance and Brio's looks nice and very Vegassy.

It's +EV to not face the TV's.

The new poker room is a big improvement. I like it. When do we get our first hand dealt game?

From a casual players perspective, I do hope there are live dealers for 1/2 vs only electronic at this level.. I don't play often and when I do it is at these limits. I don't want to drive from Charlotte to not be able to look at real hole cards, toss in real chips, and actually scoop pots and stack the winnings.

I have never been to Cherokee simply because of the electronic tables. I don't think they are rigged, I simply don't want to drive and essentially play online poker. You may get more casual players to come and check it out if you offer 1/2 live. If I showed up expecting a live dealt 1/2 NL game and was told it is only electronic I would likely not come back...I imagine there are many others who feel the same way as I do.

My suggestion would be to keep the electronic tables mainly for SNGs, satellites and then have a fair mix of electronic and live dealer games across multiple limits and game varieties.

With a little luck, maybe this will change in the near future. There's a lot of huge changes taking place at Harrahs Cherokee right now, so a tweak like adding music-devices is a relatively low-priority, but it's not been forgotten.

I mentioned to someone last night that that it was like playing in a library. It's SO quiet in there. (Our table had little to no volume on the sound effects.) Another player commented that it was louder in a tree stand.

My big fear is that if the players don't bitch now that in a few weeks it may never change. We all know how Harrahs feels about procedural changes. Gotta strike while there's a tiny bit of hope. LOL.

+1. I like the new room, but it really feels sterile in there, especially if you're facing away from the tv's. The traffic last night also seemed pretty poor for a friday; when are the stairs/escalators opening?

I know it's been mentioned before, but once those are opened any kind of promotion to drive traffic to the room would be excellent. Why not something like they run periodically for new TR members? Give anyone opening a new poker account $10 free dollars in poker chips with their first deposit (with or without a playthrough if that wouldn't be too hard logistically). I feel like that would drive a lot of on the fence gamblers to give the poker tek tables a shot

Hey folks.... I dont get up to Harrah's that much but wanted to make a trip up maybe sometime near the 4th of july holiday. I was just curious, I have a few 'express play' coupons i get in the mail, and the newest ones for july just came in... I know they are supposed to be used to get people to play the slots, but is there anyway to use those on your poker account; and if so, can you use more then one?

Also, does anyone have any more pics of the new room??

Thanks in advance for the info.

U can cash them out, I never played the slots in my life lol

As playertee said, you can just put them into a slot machine and then cashout before playing. There is no play-through requirement. It will trigger a day for your ADT, but if you're playing poker that day, it won't matter.

Pretty sure you can just take it to the poker counter and they'll give you cash. I've never even touched a slot machine.