you are asking the wrong question. Borgata and Taj comp rooms for poker players, (and have other very attractive offers), so does Tropicana and so do the Harrah's properties.

on the plus side I walked in yesterday and saw a number of very competent folks working there...

A lot of summer tourists who go to casinos do not play poker. Those who do and have any sort of experience whatsoever might give Revel a try, but then if there are persistent issues, they will play elsewhere.

I think it is great that there is a nice poker room on the boardwalk, but as a poker player, going to Borgata is no big hassle. Simply put - you don't get a lot of recreational poker players who just stroll into a room like you do recreational slot players.

Finally made a visit to Revel last night. I will frame this as saying I'm a generally optimistic guy and was really excited & hopeful about the poker room & casino as on a whole.

Unfortunately the location of the room is really as bad as advertised, its the most out of the way room I've ever been to. You have to find a single staircase that takes you to an isolated 2nd floor, and then walk through tons of dead & unused space to find another staircase, past more dead space until you find the room. The dead space is baffling, I know we're in the soft opening period but it looks like it will never get utilized.

I don't smoke but people that do will have a problem with the room because its location. One guy left the table for 20+ minutes because it took him that long to get from the table to the casino floor to the outdoors and then back.

The rest was pretty positive actually. Dealers were trained and super professional, no mistakes and kept the game moving at a good clip. The lighting situation is overblown, I thought it was fine. Chips are super crisp (for now) and I don't know the make of the playing cards but they're of the thick/sturdy variety. People have complained about cell phone reception but I have Verizon & it was fine. Also they have free WiFi on the floor. The play was super fishy @ 1/2 although I don't want to make generalizations about the players just yet.

One complaint is that they're raking $1 for bad beat but haven't defined what a bad beat is yet. Kind of a big issue in my opinion. When my quad 8's loses to quad 9's, I don't want them deciding on the fly that its quad 10's or better. Either put the criteria in place else stop collecting the $1.

Lastly I think the resort on a whole is absolutely spectacular & that people will be blown away. There's tons of common area space for hanging out, outdoor space with benches, chairs and even rocking chairs. They also have fire pits lit up at night & people were just chilling outside. The overall feel was really welcoming & the staff was super friendly. Just wish the poker room was more accessible & not so remote.

I guess you are not a smoker... Not that I will do it. I will just take a longer break and smoke two while looking at the beach.

you don't honestly believe this drivel right?

showboat and ballys have yet to close their rooms, but the newest casino in town will never ever be able to find the traffic to keep theirs running

Don't know if it was mentioned, anything about poker tournament schedules if they even have one as of yet? And if so, how is the structure and such?

Why would they need 1.5 chips. Use 2.5 chips

In regards to some of the comments in here, everyone is saying that it's an awesome place/resort but that in order to compete in the poker landscape a lot of corrections have to be made. Let's not forget that Revel is a resort FIRST and the other stuff, including the casino, is just seen as an amenity. So they are not looking to be the top poker room in the city. This place is more of an attraction for the non-AC regs. I know we want the best of everything but it seems as though part of their business model is not geared towards pleasing regular poker players.

fling I am a die hard degenerate non apologetic smoker but I hope you take your own advice and not do this. This is the WORST thing you could possibly do in reaction to their policy. I have and will continue to take every opportunity that presents itself to tell smokers not to visit Revel. To break their rule would make matters worse.

You have already done the worst thing you could by simply going there for three days. This tells them exactly what they want to know, which is that although smokers do not like the policy they will still come and drop hundreds of dollars per night on a room and take a 10 minute walk from a poker room to feed their habit in whatever dark out of the way corner we stick them in!

DO NOT GO THERE! Anything else you do, most especially breaking the rule, is bad for every smoker.

JMO

I had the same thoughts. Another problem is that the glass barriers outside in the Sky Garden area are really short. If somebody got into a fight out there and/or was drunk, it could lead to a major problem. I'm sort of surprised they didn't build the barrier a little bit higher to prevent such accidents from occurring.

I was there on April 3. Some thoughts:

Revel (pronounced as if it rhymes with "rebel") is very, very nice. The designers and architects clearly took advantage of the water views in designing the property. When you enter from the Boardwalk, you enter on a level with large escalators going up and down. If you go down, you get to where the car entrance is (for valet) and the front desk. If you drive up that way, the first thing you would see is the ocean. If you go up one level, you get to the casino floor. The casino floor is designed in sort of a circular fashion and it's a little bit confusing to navigate. There really aren't any central walkways like at the Borgata. Overall, the casino has a modern design (it reminded me of Aria a bit).

The casino level seems to contain all of the restaurants - most of which are situated so that they have great ocean views. There is going to be a steak place, there is a lounge near the water, and Italian restaurant, a quicker Mexican "lunch truck" place, and a seafood place. Chef Michel Richard is also going to have two places, including a fancy French restaurant.

If you go up another level, you get to the poker room on "The Mezz" level. This level also has the event center and the conference room center. On "The Mezz" you find the SkyGarden, an outdoor space which has really great views of the Atlantic Ocean and the Boardwalk. I don't think there's really anything else like it at any of the other casinos on the Boardwalk. The SkyGarden was not fully open, but it looks like it will be pretty big when it is complete (there's also another similar space another level up, but I didn't go there).

If you go up the escalator to "The Mezz" it is quite a hike to get to the poker room (10 minutes or so). You basically have to walk through the entire conference center (which is extremely large) and down a winding hallway to get there. It would be quicker to go through the casino and go up a set of escalators near the poker room, but it's still not close. The poker room itself is very nice. It's sort of an L shape, rather than a square of rectangular room. There are good sight-lines to TVs. It has darker lighting, which I actually liked, and dark-green waterproof tables (someone put a little water on the table and it just beaded up and stayed there).

Complaints about the table leg space are warranted. I got stuck in one of the seats where I couldn't fully extend my legs (and I'm short). I only played about an hour and a half, so it wasn't a big deal, but if I was playing longer, I would have switched seats whenever possible. I played 1-2 NL there - there were about 6 or 7 games going on. The dealers seemed to be of pretty high quality - based on what a few of them said, it sounds like they had experience dealing elsewhere. I recognized one of the floor guys too - I had either seen him before at the Borgata or Showboat.

I think the poker room will be successful and surely draw people away from the Showboat room (not that there are many people there to begin with) and the Taj Mahal, since it's a much nicer place to play. However, I think the fact that the room is on the second floor away from anything else will make it less likely to draw casual players who come by and just randomly decide to play. There is literally nothing near the poker room on the second floor except the conference center, though there is an escalator down to the casino nearby.

Overall, the place is extremely nice and the employees were extraordinarily nice, with one exception (a restaurant hostess who was not nice and complained "there are too many people here" when I asked to see a menu). They are also obviously trying to cater to a younger crowd with a burlesque-themed nightclub and a "interactive gaming" area which are basically automatic table games (like roulette) with young hostesses there to "assist."

Overall, it's a great hotel. From a poker perspective, I think it's going to be hard for them to draw the higher limit games from the Borgata, but I am not sure that's their goal (especially since they only have 37 tables). That said, I think Revel will draw a younger more casual crowd than any place but the Borgata, and with it will likely bring some juicy games. I can definitely envision Revel as the type of place that draws guys there for bachelor parties, etc.

Poker players may find the dining options lacking too. As someone else mentioned, there really aren't any casual options open yet (except the Mexican place) and I am not sure if any more are planned. The shops are not open yet, so perhaps there will be more options there, but it doesn't look that way. There is also no food service to the poker room or eating allowed at the tables. There is nothing remotely as convenient as the Cafeteria at the Borgata.

There are definitely pluses and minuses to Revel, but I think overall, it will be a nice play to play poker, but I cannot see the bigger games moving over from the Borgata - at least not now.

I don't see why it is the wrong question....clearly Revel is operating under a different business model than Borgata or Taj. And the point is that this business model has worked for the large poker rooms in Las Vegas.

Whenever I am in Las Vegas, I get a comped room from a mid-level CET property, and then play my poker at Venetian or Aria (except for the WSOP). Why couldn't Revel survive on a combination of tourists staying at their resort and regular poker players who are staying at neighboring properties?

^ I agree. When I'm in Vegas, I play almost exclusively at Bellagio, Venetian, and Aria, although I've never stayed at any of those properties. When I play at Borgata and get into conversations about where people are from and where they are staying, it doesn't seem like most people have a room at Borgata. Most seem to be staying somewhere else or driving straight home. There are probably enough of those types of players (like me) that would fill a room the size of Revel.

http://www.atlanticcityweekly.com/ar...146138085.html

some pics of the poker room/tables in the gallery linked in that article.

the 1/2 players there look like the lively type

Hey,

Thanks for your honest opinion. I will not break Revel's non-smoking rule. I will be staying at Taj Today Thurs and Fri (comped room). Was thinking of walking over and play few hours and feel the place. I will decide after if Revel is worth of my future play and become my main room. I doubt it since of no-smoking rule.

I am somehow disappointed that Revel is making it so hard to even walk outside to take a smoking break. 10 minutes to outside, 10 minutes smoke, 10 minutes to walk back. This might be good if the dealer is one that usually kill you on the river.

I misread your post fling...thought you were booked at Revel. I realize it's not something most people will do but I am trying one smoker at a time to convince people....it's my useless hopeless plight for those of us who still fire up...lol

Good luck @ your tables this weekend.

Are any tournaments going on down here yet?

I am thinking of heading to AC tomorrow night and am looking to play in a big one.

Most likely will end up at Borgata but if Revel has something I might as well check out the new spot!

I obviously haven't been there. But couldn't this escalator be used to save time getting there? Also if I understand it correctly you can watch down onto the casino from the pokerroom? Why couldn't they just have put some stairs going up from the casino somewhere?

According to my Bravo Poker Live app, right now, The Borgata has 44 cash tables open. For the other casinos in AC, I see: Caesar's 3, Bally's 8, Harrah's 7, Showboat 4, and Revel 5 (one 2/4 LHE and four 1/2 NLHE), with 3 people on their waiting lists.

They have a LONG way to go to be the top poker room in AC. They have some work to do just to get up into a clear second place.

Of course, it is just the first week of the soft opening. A more fair test will be comparing these numbers on a summer weekend.

I can guarantee you Revel never had any ambitions of being the #1 poker room. They probably do have ambitions of being the #1 high end casino in AC and putting a hurt on the Borgata's 20 year supremacy in this area. From the early reviews, Revel seems to be the can't miss destination for the Jersey shore this summer. Revel's ad compaign is also just beginning, billboards promoting Beyonce are now up in Northern NJ. Most people have no clue that a new casino is even opening in AC.

Is Village Whiskey open yet? In in Philly they have amazing burgers, fries and pickles.

Went to Revel on Tuesday. Frank, the poker room manager, took three of us on a tour of the property which was pretty cool. We started a 5/10nl game three handed and played for 4-5 hours. Two other people sat in with the minimum a few hours in (buy-in is 500-2k). As others have said, the place is really beautiful. Location of the poker room is pretty bad but overall it was a positive experience. I can see the room being pretty busy in the summer time especially on the weekends and the games being really good on weekend nights. I don't think it will compete in any way with Borgata but I think it will get more traffic once everything is open than the other rooms in AC.

Village Whiskey isn't open yet. Also, Borgata has only been open for close to 9 years.

well just got back from playing 5 hrs of 2/4 no fold em hold em... i love this room.. all the dealers are great and are from other casinos..
won $110, sat in the 7 seat and was pretty comfy, lights werent a problem at all..
highlight of the day was an older woman in seat 6 hitting on me, and getting drunk on white russians lol..
wanted me to come back to the taj with her to her room LOL, she was at least 70, and not attractive LOL..

of course being the degen that i am, i played slots and lost everything.. OOPS.. slots at the Revel suck!!!

i will def be back soon, from what i saw the action at the 1/2 NL games were pretty fishy and soft.. so i will be dabbling a bit there in the near future!!

I think the escalator is the way to go, but it's hardly shorter. In fact, you walk through the whole casino and out of the casino area into another area and then the walk the whole length of the escalator to get to the entrance to it that then brings you back toward the casino and upstairs. It feels like they went out of their way to make you walk as far as possible then add the length of the escalator to that just to rub it in. Most people would never find it unless they were already at the poker room and took that escalator down from there. When you get to the bottom, you're like "where the **** am I?" I assume they'll eventually have some signs that will at least tell you which way to head on your trek.

Only one thing that might work in the poker room location's favor: Since it is near the big theater, maybe a bunch of drunk/stoned/happy concert goers will head to the poker room next door as they file out of a show. The big theater holds over 5000 people.

For those of you that have been to Casino de Montreal, would you say that the poker room is harder to find at the Revel or there. The poker room there is kind of hidden and lots of people find their way to it.

Oh yeah another thing.. BBJ was a tad under $13k.. Still dunno their qualifier though..