The problem with Revel was that you couldn't find the room even if you had a map.

Silly Johnny and logic

Definitely lol'd at using Revel for comparison to anything....

That was when Borgata first opened. They didn't move it downstairs. Not a fair comparison.

I cant speak for how it used to be set up, but the borgata is currently directly across from the club, and its kind of a known thing to make sure youre seated at a table when the club is closing for the night, because a parade of drunk people wander in to spew.

Anyone who thinks drunk whale wandering into caisno is a myth need go no further than the borgata on a prime clubbing night.

I dont think moving it would cost you a large number of customers, it would just cost you some small number of the best customers for the rest of the players, which might affect the casino ecosystem in the long term.

As someone who went to the revel caisno, the issue wasnt really who could get there, it was the atmosphere. It just felt dead inside. It didnt have a gambling atmosphere. Im sure thats why no one showed up.

A lot of regs want to soundproof from the slot machines and whatnot. Its a bad idea though. Those sounds were designed to encourage gambling, whether or not they are annoying.

Parx did just fine for a long time.

Of course, feeling like you're in the mix of the hubub is better. Room is sweet now, so nobody is gonna be that thrilled with any change, tbh.

I don't think it's the idea that the whales will stumble into the poker room from the pits but more so the idea that recreational players can leave the room and be a super short walk to the tables or anything else for a break from poker. I've seen a lot of players leave the table, win a few thousand at roulette or blackjack, then come back and continue playing. The 30 minute time limit along with the longer walk makes it unlikely a lot of these players would return IMO. The atmosphere also plays into keeping rec players in the room. They're more likely to stay if there is noise, excitement, music, etc. as opposed to the relative silence of a distant poker room.

I don't think it's as simple as "the players are going to find the room regardless of where it is." Sure maybe the whales in the pit may not play either way, but I do think recreational players who go to the casino with friends to drink and have a good time are more likely to play poker when they walk by and see a busy full room.

Hey Mike, the Bravo doesn't show a start time for your Sunday tournament.

Another thing to consider is the places you are comparing to do not have the wait times that MGM has. A lot of people probably put their name on the list and play nearby and check back speradically until they get a seat. If the room is separated from the casino then they probably won't make the trip to check in as often if at all. If you're not going to implement a text notification system then the poker room will lose buisness from existing customers as well.

If location isn't important then this wouldn't even be a discussion. The fact is, in retail, good location and positioning of products leads to more interest. Anyone who doesn't understand this doesn't understand what differentiates certain businesses. If it was true that positioning doesn't matter then mgm would just be content leave things as they were and expand to new sections with what needs to be expanded. However, in their mind they see table games slots as more important and want them to have the prime real estate that poker currently occupies.... I hope you are able to convince them that is not the case.

I understand that occasionally management will force you to make decisions that are not beneficial for the player base but when you consistently try to sell inferior products as improvements like you did with the Comp system and this it creates distrust with the community.

The inconvenience of long wait times could be alleviated by implementing the text messaging system, regardless of room location.

I don't think anyone could argue in good faith that the poker room would be better off anywhere but the main floor, but I also think that it wouldn't cause much harm to the health of the room to have it elsewhere.

You say that but in this thread he's doing exactly hat.

The main problem I have with this situation and more importantly the Comp situation is everyone knows that moving the room is not a good thing and then johnny comes in and says stuff like this.

I understand you want to sell your poker room and always want to be positive but this ruins the trust with the player base.

There could be some positives of having the poker game up stairs but having the pits and food right there will be hard to make up for...

Maybe just scale the room back to 30% it's size and move all of the 1-3 upstairs?

Short of providing any details that I am not permitted to discuss, I have no way to support my argument. Lack of table space is an ongoing issue. If we were able to secure more table space with the move, would that be a positive? We cant do large tournaments on weekends at this point. Those large events allow us to draw players from longer distance, increasing business...

No shot. A split poker room is worse than an upstairs room.

How would you have me address this?. I think everyones concerns are.a bit overblown....

I don't think splitting up the room is a good idea, but if there were to be a split the obvious move would be to put the higher-stakes games away from the main floor. Those are the games that players would be more likely to seek out as opposed to wander/stumble into. Also, many higher-stakes players value privacy and/or isolation.

In my experience, its always been a pretty even split between those who want the seclusion and those who want the exposure for the chance of a random seeing the "big game"' and wanting to take a shot. Those guys usually wanted the game on the rail in a high traffic area

Wild guess: you don't play 1-3?

Well, the Horseshoe in Baltimore has a ballroom downstairs that they use for their tournaments. Why don't you do the same?

I guess you can't discuss this but if it was to get more tables which will help with the weekend crowd and bring in more tournaments during peak time I doubt anyone will not prefer the move. I think peoples main concerns are that poker is getting pushed aside and just put somewhere else as an after thought but I think i was incredibly unfair so I'll wait to see more details before I am critical in the future. I think you are right that it's really not a big deal and more tables/better cocktail service etc that it could bring could way out way the minor negative of not being as accessible.

No but this is what they did in Charlestown.

Our convention is/has been booked up since pre-opening

I am a bit confused. If the room is moved upstairs... where exactly is it going to be moved? I was thinking one of the ballrooms near the hotel and the theater. But if it's there, how will you handle the need for having security?

Is there somewhere else I don't know?

as someone who has wandered around the property but never upstairs because it's not an obv place to go, not really in favor of the move. I was sitting at table 5 in the corner on Sunday night and had a bit of an Aria feel to it, which is meant as a compliment. Also noticed quite a few people railing from the literal rails.

That being said, we all know poker won't be making the decision on where the room is, and looking from a non-poker perspective, removing poker would probably alleviate a lot of the crowdedness and add additional revenue-producing machines and tables.

To visualize, imagine the player pool as circular layers where:

- the small inner core of the circle is formed by the pros. They play 5+ days per week and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

- the layer surrounding the core is the non-pro regs and weekend warriors. Like the pros, they'll play normally unless something drastic changes, but they will be there only for the good promos and weekends.

- the recreational players form the next outer layer. They'll play once per week or so, but their presence depends on quality of the room, promos, entertainment, how much they're up or down, etc.

- the outmost layer of the circle is formed by people who wander in, out of towners, people who lost in table games who want to "slow down," etc. These are the people that really soften the games up just enough so the recreational players don't go broke quickly. They're also the people that aren't there to play poker and could be negatively impacted by the room's relocation.

The deceiving aspect of this model is that the people who are affected most by the relocation make up the thinnest outer layer of the circle. However, it's important to recognize that the layers depend on each other. As each layer is peeled away, it weakens the one beneath it until it eventually peels away itself. It's a slow process, but it does happen. I've seen it happen to my hometown's room, which is the entire reason I moved to the DMV area.