Thanks for the update. I'll be there next week.

So you're saying there is a chance! ( dumb and dumber)

Of course not. Hiring Karina has done nothing for the room, and the poker room manager sits in the back room and never interacts with the players so how does he know what is going on in the room.

Add me to the list of players who will not play here if they go with a jackpot drop.

WAT?

I dont get that statement... I love the MGM grand poker room even though they have had a tough year moving back and fourth from the normal spot to the temporary spot.

staff is REALLY nice and professional... floor is always right there and friendly... perhaps you should give them another try.

This^^^^

The dealers are very good with the exception of one (from Indiana) who doesn't have a sitting where at least one of his cards aren't exposed. Really annoying and he doesn't seem to care much just checking out the scene in and around the room. He's been there for several years too.

I visit several times a year and won't play at the new hot spots (Venetian, Aria, etc) due to how comfortable and welcoming i am felt by the floor in the MGM room.

Having said that, the traffic in this room was down significantly from last year. 1/2 tables were breaking up at 1am on a Friday night and you didn't have that consistent flow of partiers coming in late night to make donations. One of the dealers told me there is an all-staff meeting this week where the high hand will be announces among a few other changes. No word if it will include $2 comp but as prior poster said it needs to as this is the new market for poker comps on the strip. I would like to see them steal a page from what Venetian is doing by allowing players to use comps towards tournament fees. This would be a great incentive rather than feeding you two brisket sandwiches instead of one for a day of poker.


Thank you for the response however i was already there when you posted. I had called ahead to confirm it was back so i played there Wed-Sun. The middle of the casino is an eye sore being shut down as it is.

Card player has a timely article about poker rooms.

Notes the common problem of putting former pit managers in charge of a poker room are the same ones, who think forcing all poker players to participate in a jackpot gimmick is a good ideal. But it actually hurts the room long term.

Here's the link.

http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news...e-slot-machine

Despite their success, even the best rooms screw up sometimes. According to Raymond, the jackpot system at casinos that attract a lot of tourists is a dreadful idea. When locals pay money into the jackpot fund and then a tourist wins and takes it away from the local economy, everyone loses, except the tourist, according to this logic. The casino prefers a local regular wins, not only so that they are compensated for the extra rake they have paid over a considerable amount of time, but also because they are likely to spend that jackpot money at the property.

Have they started the drop yet? I'm getting into town on Tuesday and was going to play there but if they are dropping I won't even waste my time.

I played there last week and no drop yet. But the tables are now outfitted with the second drop slot for the jackpot drop. Dealers I talked to didn't have a start date yet.

Karina, are you still out there? We haven't seen a post from you since july. Are you still a poker ambassador? What about a response to the jackpot drop? Thanks

Lol good luck.

I question this logic. Whether you like bad beats or not, the probability of a tourist hitting the jackpot relative to tourists' contribution to the jackpot should be equal to the probability of a regular hitting the jackpot relative to regulars' contribution to the jackpot. I understand that a tourist is less likely to IMMEDIATELY spend the jackpot money at the property, but the good memory/karma alone will likely increase the probability that said tourist will return to the property in the future.

quote the correct OP please.

as of last weekend, no jackpot drop, but the room has moved back to the
temporary location with even fewer tables.

I'm planning on returning in mid-November. Any word on when a return to permanent location is planned?

from what I hear, the room will be in the temp area until at least January.

Hi 2+2,

I want to let you know that the room is back in the temporary location with 15 tables and will be moving back to the permanent location with 22 tables soon after NFR week. Most likely, we will be back in the permanent spot late December/early January.

Also, to address your concerns about the promotional drop, I did confirm that there are no plans to take the promo drop from the $2-$5 NL game. Administrative processes are still on-going before the promo can be implemented in the other hold’em games. While initially it will be geared toward high hands or similar promos, there is something quite impressive being discussed that could be very exciting in the near future. Unfortunately, I cannot offer any more details about that at this time.

Additionally, there are many other exciting things that were planned to promote and improve the room, but due to the unfortunate timing of the relocation this past March, most everything has been postponed until we are back to our permanent room. We want to make sure we are promoting the best product and we need to be in our permanent location to do that. It has been a trying 7 months for everyone involved as the poker room has moved many times and been unable to sustain any long term momentum. I know that everyone including players, dealers, and management is looking forward to getting back to the permanent location and capitalizing on the remodeled rooms, casino improvements, and the opening of the much anticipated Hakkasan nightclub/restaurant located right across from the poker room.

Thanks for your patience and I hope to see you on the tables.

Karina

Thanks Karina,

I never liked the MGM poker room because of all the noise from the nightclub.
Was in LV for several days in August and called them to see about your Horse or Mixed game. They had no information and really couldn't be bothered to find anything out. So I played at "V" instead.

Woo Hoo... any updates are appreciated.

I think deep down we all really like the grand room, but the patron momentum needs to be maintained and this is impossible to do with ever changing room positions, competition from other rooms in the city and nothing to really make the room stand out above all the rest.

MGM, don't sell yourself short, you could be a premier room with some work. I think the Grand room has the best, and highest visibility, placement of all the big rooms in the city. Use it to your advantage.

Like Karina said, I think once the room heads back to the permanent location, and the new Hakkasan nightclub/restaurant opens, along with that Centrifuge bar going again...it will be a good hotspot.

Anyone have any idea about how many runners the Friday/Saturday $125 7:00 PM has been drawing? Might be interested in playing this, but not sure it's worth it when Aria across the street draws 80ish plus for sure on these nights for the exact same tourney (same rake, same structure, etc), I believe.

Stew,

We average about 30-40 players with Saturday usually better than Friday. If you're looking for a reason to try MGM instead of Aria our juice is actually $3 cheaper ($100+$25 vs. $97+28) and I've been told the competition at MGM is a little softer since you get many people coming in to play the $80 tournament and they end up playing the $125.

Karina

the $1-2 players really don't want a jackpot drop either.

Thanks Karina! I really appreciate the answer and I always forget to read the fine print that says, "3% taken out of the prize pool" which Aria has and MGM does not. So, you're right Aria is effectively $97+$28 now. I'm gonna be in town and plan on playing a week from tonight on my birthday! Interestingly, when I was in town last I ran into Chip....like literally ran into him on accident because I wasn't paying attention to where I was going (on foot, not in a car). He was very nice and cool about it and I appreciated that!

Staying at MGM Grand in a couple of weeks for my first trip to Vegas.

I will check out the poker room for sure and perhaps do a TR of a newcomer to this particular room.