I was cruising in the O'hare area recently and saw the new Rivers Casino off the highway. Any plans for poker at that location? Website says no poker now. I'd never stay downtown again if that place had a decent poker room.

You didn't have to make a new thread...

No it doesn't have Poker and I read that it won't have a poker room for at least the first 5 years. Even if they do decide to build a poker room in 5 years, it is in the corrupt state of Illinois which means $8 rake, $2 jackpot drop, and dealers share tips. So it will be absolutely terrible...

If you are looking for a good poker room in Chicagoland, try Indiana or Wisconsin. Isn't that ironic?

If you are not looking for a good poker room, try Elgin, Aurora, or Joliet.

elgin is lolbad

The DesPlaines newspaper has a poker room going in next year.

your just not going to find good poker in IL. just like mp said.

This will be so depressing for me if true.

I live ~5 minutes from the new Rivers Casino, If they opened a poker room it would be like a dream for me.

Although, I know I would be driving 45+ minutes to the Horseshoe anyway because the new poker room is gonna suck ass

Talked to dealer from Hollywood last night and he was told the poker room next year at Rivers will have "slightly less" tables than Potawatomi has in Mil. Potawatomi has 20 tables so I'd expect in the neighborhood of 15 tables. But like the previous posters have stated, this is still Illinois poker, so the rake will be obscene and the room will suck. I still expect the Shoe to be the best option for Chicagoland. Which is pathetic, since even though it's a nice casino, the drive sucks for most and it's in the middle of a depressing industrial wasteland, and there is no hotel attached.

I thought it's illegal for a casino to have more then 8 poker tables in Illinois...

No, it's just that each table counts as '10 gaming positions', and casinos are only allowed to have x amount of gaming positions per casino(I believe it's in the area of 1600). Therefore, they usually rake it far too high and limit their overall exposure to poker eating into potential Slot profits.

Man a poker room at Rivers would be like a dream come true for me.

But if its anything like GVC in Elgin, $8 rake & no 2/5, I will be making the drive to Indiana...

With the slots revenues down Ill casinos are opening more poker tables.

But I highly doubt its more profitable to a have a hammond size room and rake when you could get 10 slot machines to a poker table.

The casinos in IL want to have a room so they can SAY they have a room. Being able to advertise a room will be suffiient enough to get the stereotypical recreational players who don't pay any attention to rake size, and stereotypical lol-live-poker players, the old nit regs every casino has, who confidently think their poker skills are such that the rake size won't stop their eventual guaranteed double up -we all know the type who play fit/fold every flop and running a trap when they finally hit, only to curse the lack of action they got, to come to the casino and fill seats. A customer is a customer, whether its a 2p2 poster or a 75 year old nit.

The only relevant question for me would be whether the game is SO soft because of the fact that the majority of the players will be of the above two types that it could still be beatable even at obscene rakes. And it is possible to be beatable.

I think it depends if all the slots are being used. I imagine after the "lets goto the new casino" interest dies down the slots will only be "full" on fri/sat nights whereas the poker tables would be active during "down" slot time throughout the week and of course the weekends, thus making up for the lower $ production per "gaming position".

It's probably just a balancing act: will the extra hours of collecting rakes make up for the loss of the slots during fri/sat nights..... I'm sure an outrageous rake would make up for it

Holy four month bump batman!

Those times you speak of, when the casino is nowhere near full, the poker tables will only have one or two tables running. Not exactly going to be raking in huge profit for the casino, and the days it is filled, having a 15 table room means 150 less slot machines. Remember, it's potential gaming spots, so having a 15 table room that plays 10 handed means 30 less blackjack tables or 150 less slot machines.

I stand by my initial post. They will open a poker room so they can SAY they have a poker room. It will have an $8 rake, with a BBJ, piss poor comp rate, and the only games that are going to run are going to be 1-2NL and 3-6 limit, with maybe a 2-5 once in a while. The room will exist so they say they have a room so they can get the rec guy who just lost some money playing blackjack and figures he will give this poker thing a try and doesn't even know what a rake is, and the grumpy 75 year old min-buying nit who grumpily nit-folds his way until he gets AA and then gets no action or gets stacked by a draw since he min raised, who believes he has mastered poker and would always win if it weren't for loose donks sucking out on him, and honestly believes he is so good that he will double up each session, so the difference in rake means little......and he brings his wife who plays nickel slots all night.

They won't need to do much more. They have a prime location and all the rooms in IL are equally lol-bad. The above types who live in Chicago will choose rivers over Hammond or Poto regardless, so get into a rake/comp battle with Hammond if you can get decent to good attendance solely because of location with the gouging rake that every other IL room has?

I disagree with 1-2 tables running during the week, If "Rockford Charitable Games" can routinely get 200 people to show up to their events during the week in nearby locations the Rivers should have no problem getting 5-10 tables full on weeknights.

Actually poker is a great off-peak money maker if you are in a decent population area and limited competition. The new PA casinos can get 10 tables going during weekday, daytime hours and more at night. I don't see why the Chicago area can't be the same or better.

Agreed, Its tricky here though because to add a poker room you have to take out other games b/c of Illinois "gaming position" restrictions. Casino's here have to balance: taking out slots, bj tables, etc (which during peak times make more $$) vs. adding a card room (steady stream of less money)

Personally I think its a good idea in the long run for them but currently The Rivers is getting great turnouts (longer peak periods) because its new.

RCG gets people who think the fact that it's for charity somehow makes it better for their moral values, and also people between 18-21.

But you're right, at night. You'll get a bunch of tables on any weeknight. It'll still be all 1-2 and 3-6 limit though. And from 2AM to 5PM, the room will be dead.

this place was built with limited space , when i first saw the floor plans i laughed. The state or whom ever owns it had no intentions of putting poker in that place. It's a slot casino.

IL sucks for poker. The reason they won't get a Chicago casino running is because no one can agree on who will get what % of the money. Also its a space thing , everyone plays the NOT IN MY BACKYARD card about a new casino. "It brings alot of unwanted trash blah blah blah" type crap. This is why Chicago doesn't have a casino. Oh by the way thank you Indiana for saving us. Maybe one day they will have an epic gambling center downtown but today isn't the day.

Might be closer than you think:

http://www.wifr.com/home/headlines/Q...131990683.html

And this one came out today:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...,2244475.story

I've read tons of reviews on how small des plaines casino is. No way it will have poker until it adds an expansion and even then maybe not. I wish they would put slots and poker in at arlington park. That would be the nuts! Horse racing isnt doing well much these days but if they were able to add these two forms of gambling it would do real well. Would love to be able to take the train to arlington park and play poker and gamble on the ponies.

At Harrah's Joliet it's $6 max rake ($7/half hour for 2/5 or bigger) and a $1 bad beat. And they're good about reducing the rake if the table becomes short-handed.

The room is very nice and there's been more action of late.

Do you work for this room? I've never herd you say a bad thing about it.