Finally made it out there Sunday around 4. I don't have too much to add that other people on hear haven't already said. Based on other trip reports on here I had very low expectaions but was pleasantly surprised. Only waited about 10 minutes for 3/6 limit and was called for 1/2 nl after 1.5 hours. Drink service was good at times and bad others. They didn't have all 25 tables open when I was there either as I expected after they expanded hours. There were a couple of good players at my table; a couple of tight players; and loads of agressive players who raised and reraised before every flop. One guy who straddled every time he could and then raised blind and raised reraised without looking all the way through the hand. One thing that surprised me was the high turnover rate at the table. Many people were only playing until there names were called for other lists. It was only my second time playing limit and My first time playing cash at a casino. I realized after dropping 300 that I was playing too loose. Got drawn out on a lot but that's limit I guess. Tightened up and came back up 100 but ended for a loss. Even though i lost, there wasn't
any point that I really felt outplayed. Just happened to flop the second nuts against th nuts in a couple of different hands, played too many hands, and then had aces cracked. Getting a read on everyone was pretty easy. I'll definitely go back and would recommend it. I'd say most (at least half the players at the table) were recreational players. The dealers were alright; one was awesome. Some were very new and new to poker but did okay considering- didn't realize a straight on the board was a split pot and didn't understand a bet in the dark. Still nothing too egregious. Oh, one more thing, as someone else said on here they were able to text me when my name was called. Hope this tr helps someone.

What did you have? Wouldn't it have been reasonable for the dude to put you on an overpair to the board, in which case your two pair is now beating his.

i saw another dealer mistake which cost a guy at least some of the action
i believe the board was AA95 board with 2 diamonds. someone lead out on turn for $7 and got 2 callers. then this guy threw out a 25 chip and two 1 chips - obviously reraising to $27. however, this female dealer (who i've not seen before so I assume was new) said, that is a call, you didn't say raise. well, that obviously got the raiser ticked off who said i don't have to say raise, i threw out 3 chips and then yelled for the floor. i think the upsetting part about this situation is that this new dealer is so adamant about being right when it should've been a very fundamental rule in poker.
i chuckled at this fiasco at the time but i do feel sorry for the raiser because after the floor ruled it as a raise and shutting up the dealer, everyone then folded - including the last guy who had the diamond nut flush draw and said "i'm probably drawing dead".
i know that's a call 95% of the time at 1/2NL cuz well nobody folds flush draws for that cheap. i'm not sure what the raiser had but my guess is that he had at least trip aces and possibly a boat.
just an example of play at the tables and the dealer mistakes costing ppl $

Two interesting house SOPs/rules I picked up yesterday at CT:

1) there is no reduced rake for shorthanded tables on timed rake games, regardless of how many people are at the table. This info came emphatically from a dealer (one of the more experienced ones who has dealt prior to the poker room opening), I didn't verify with the floor. This is extremely annoying if accurate; late in the evening when tables are about to break/consolidate it is common to get down to 4-5 handed; sticking everyone with the full rake is just evil/greedy. It broke a table completely & sent 4 players home last night vice waiting for 4 seats to open on another table- great job, CT.

2) side pot procedures: I had a brand new dealer last night who was slow & methodical in all her actions, very closely following her training to the letter. A a big pot came down to 3 handed with one player all in on the turn; main pot was about $400; side pot for another $250+ on the turn; grew to around $400 on the river. All-in player was in the 1 seat; side pot players were in the 9 & 7 seats waaaay on the other side of the table. Everywhere else I have played, the dealer would stack side pot chips between the two players that are still betting it, and maybe push the main (if small enough) in front of the all-in player. Instead, the newbie CT dealer very slowly dragged/carried the side pot stacks in front of the all in player in the 1 seat... right over the monster main pot!

When I gently asked her would make her do that, she replied their training said to put side pots in front of the all-in player that is not eligible for it.

Side pot action on both the turn & river with the same drill- stacks sloooowwwly dragged over in front of 1 seat, and when had was complete, the side pot goes to the 7 seat with the 1 seat getting the main had chips sliding around back & forth with a ton of opportunities for chaos (and delays) to ensue. I quietly got up & checked with the shift manager who confirmed that this is how they are trained, but it is just meant to be a memory trick & not mandatory that they do it, that "when they are comfortable" Dealers had the option to do it the normal/traditional way of leaving the side pot between the still active bettors - when I told him that it was 1 seat vs 7&9 for monster stacks, he rolled his eyes. Had the poor dealer accidentally splashed the main pot with the side pot at any point, the entire table would have come to a screeching halt, tape would have to be rolled, and I would have rolled right out the door vice waiting for that to get fixed.

WTF??

Oh, and special thanks goes out to the donk who called my all-in shove with a flopped set chasing a 3 high flush draw & sucking out on a runner-runner gutshot on the river for an $800 pot. Don't go changin' brother.

9985, I think you should've called the floor about having a reduced rake. I'm could've sworn someone posted before about them allowing it. I would imagine dealers aren't authorized to make the change, but I may be wrong.

yea i def recall someone a few pages back saying they got a discounted rake when it went short handed.

This sorta kinda makes sense to me. At a shorthanded table you're getting in a lot more hands. So where a pot rake would be reduced you're effectively paying less per hand at a short handed table with time rake.

After hearing this and hearing it confirmed I still wouldn't believe it was true. Clearly someone, somewhere transposed those to unintentionally train people to do the exact opposite of what makes sense.

I could see if the dealers were trained to keep the side pot to the left of the main and the dealer decided to do that here even when it didn't make sense but there's no way they'd actually ask dealers to put the side in front of the player not eligible for it.

I've played at two tables (one was an O8 game the other was a 10/20 limit game) that had a reduced rake when short handed so I'm guessing the dealer was just misinformed.

Maybe some dealers here could explain to why this is actually the correct and easiest way to handle sidepots. Hint: Suppose you get 2 or 3 players all-in and have 3 side pots. How many lefts of the main are there?

The reduced rake applies to raked games, rather than to time collected games. When a time collected game is playing short handed, the house IS taking a reduced rake - they are only getting 4 or 5 x the $6 time fee.

When you are playing short handed, you are going to get far more hands in during a down. If you are decent, you should win at least your share of those pots - so you should come out ahead.

You are probably correct. I didn't see the part about it being at a time-raked table. The two times I saw it, it was at limit games that were pot-raked.

On a related note, I saw an issue that came up on a 1/2 table the last time I was there (last week). Apparently, not long before I was seated, they had some major problem at the table where no hands were dealt for about 10-15 minutes. When the next dealer change happened and he went to collect time, a couple players said the floor had told them they would get a reduced time-rake because of the delay during the previous down. They called the floor and he said he would have to check with the supervisor. He came back and said he couldn't reduce the rake. The players said he shouldn't have told them he would if he couldn't and the floor said that he had told them he would check to see if he could, not that he would. The players were a little upset at that.

Both time collected and pot raked games at every other casino I have played at in AC, LV, PA, Tahoe, Reno, Indian casinos in NY/FL, etc. still reduce the rake/collection when table gets short handed (5 players or less for half time; some places even cut it to 0 time collection for 2-4 players, Mohegan Sun @ Pocono Downs in PA is very player friendly & does this at the discretion of the floor, along with discounting time if there is some abnormal delay during a down), this is specifically to keep the table from breaking & incentivize short handed play to those that would otherwise bail out. The increased hands per hour is true, but shorthanded play scares away many players due to the blind frequency increase and general flavor/strategy of shorthanded vice full ring. The thought being that the house will make more money by keeping a table going & the players in the room until either they find enough seats to combine tables without forcing players to draw for them or wait for enough new players to sit down & fill the short table back up.

I will ask the floor next time- although a casino that charges $6 time rake for 1/2NL not reducing time collection for shorthanded 2/5NL game is hardly a surprise, just annoying. I was more pissed that it broke the table & scared off a few fish than me paying it.

Were there really not enough open seats to put all those players in other games at the time? Often a floor will refuse to reduce rake if they can break the table and get everyone a seat.

I'm not a dealer at CT, if I was, I could not post here. I can clear up the side pot question though. Placing the side pot in front of the ineligible player(s) is the easiest way to keep track of multiple sidepots. That is what we, uhhh they were trained. However, there is no hard rule that says that it has to be done that way. In the case mentioned with the all in player at the 1 seat and the others at the 9 and 7, it would have made sense to just leave it right in front of the active players. Most of us, I mean them, are getting much better at keeping a reasonable pace. Also, I would reccomend that players either wait for a chip runner or go to the chip cart to purchase chips. If a dealer has to make change multiple times per down, it will cost every player 3-5 hands. As opposed to costing the busted player 1 hand. The cage should be open very soon.

Why wouldn't/aren't dealers allowed to post here?