See post #379.

I did. Pretty well written post. Too bad I read it before and was inquiring if anything had changed again?

Sorry...I guess I misunderstood what you were asking.

When I was there this past Thursday, the curtains were still there, but tied open. So they were basically window dressing. They still let in plenty of sunshine and views of chunky tourists.

Glad to hear. I thought management would change their minds again and demand that they be totally shut.

back to back final tables there at the 7 pm on mon, tuesday 7/22 7/21 thanks 2+2! net = $1.6k

yes they are open

The 5-5 game didn't go today. As I was coming into work one of our regular 5-5 players was leaving and me and another dealer greeted him and asked him where he was going. He told us Harrah's because he couldn't get a room at the SB. I hope this isn't permanent because they are all nice people and it hurts the room to not have a unique game like that, I just hope management will be hasty to figure out a way to keep them around.

I was there this weekend and the curtains were open. One of the dealers also mentioned that 17 dealers were written up the 'other day' for infractions like turning around, looking out the windows and looking at the TV. Obviously I have no way to verify.
Played 2 tournaments, Friday and Saturday 2 PM. Busted out of both with pocket K. Had a blast though.
What is interesting to me is that when one dealer came to my table, she called 5 players at the table by their first name. Well, there went my chance to get any chips .

played in the Saturday 7PM tourn. Got knocked out after about 2 hours, but had a good time. Love playing in that tournament. It's a fun mix of players.

One guy at my table was playing just about every hand and was getting a piece of every flop. I think I only played two hands, heads up with him: I had AJ and raised preflop, he called and the flop came out all hearts. Not having a heart in my hand, I folded when he lead out with a bet and he flipped over 2 hearts. Early - like the first round - he called a guy's all-in re-raise with KQ. All-in had AT. When a K and Q hit the board, he started saying how he'd "play KQ over AT any day! Any day! This is my favorite hand! I love it!"

Was there a hiring spree recently? I've played in weekend tournaments at the Showboat, probably 3 or 4 times in the past month and a half. Yet, there were a ton of dealers I didn't recognize this weekend.

All in all, fun time.

I was there all day....mostly tournament play, got deep in 11am and 7pm.

The 5/5 game started around 1pm...went late with a ton of cash on the table...probably about 20K when I checked before going to bed around 12 mid...game went till 3 or 4 to the best of my knowledge.

As for regs going to harrahs, some people wanted to try out the new room, in general I don't see much change on Sat or Sun, mostly just a change of pace for a few people....

Personally, I am not a big fan of Harrahs, room is very dark and depressing as far as I am concerned, also the tables are a bit smaller....

The Showboat's big advantage from my point of view is the size of the tables...even with ten people, as long as people don't spreadout like its their living room, there is plenty of room, and you're not rubbing up against your neighbors constantly....

As for something the management can do Rod....the simpliest would be to institute some form of poker rate....if upper management wants to be stingy, just make it a large number of hours...say 75 in the previous month, that would take care of the 1 day a week player and cater to the more serious player....I figure someone coming down for a total of 10 days worth of play a month (8 hours/day) should be able to hit this number.

I guess ultimately its a question of the Casino/Hotel's estimate of what a poker player generates interms of cash (ie rake)...I have no idea what they use as an estimate.

Rod, another way they could make it work would be to increase the comp rewards per hour of play and then players could "pay for the room" with their comp $....

Right now, 1/2 NL pays $1/hr; 2/5 NL = $2/hr and $5/5 = $3/hr (I think)....figure the average poker degenerate plays 12 hours per day/session....also figure on the weekends rates at showboat during the summer run around $300/night....then say that a nice poker rate would be say $109/night (I think that's what Harrahs gives, I know borgata is like $149 if not a bit more).

So if you increase the comp payouts by say 3 times...that would mean that a 1/2 player could earn $36/session in comp, so that 6 sessions would make enough to effectively lower the room rate to around $100 cash out of pocket, for a 2/5 player it would only take 3 sessions and a 5/5 player could pretty much do it in 1 to 1.5 sessions....

Such a system would allow the hotel to keeps its rates as they are and would also motivate some people to play a little bit higher than your typical 1/2 nl game....

Just some thoughts.

The Showboat already has a Sunday-Thursday poker rate. I think it is $49+tax for 5 hours of play at any level.

I spoke to a couple of the floor people this weekend, the intention was for their always to be valences (the things that tie back the curtains), it was just the normal harrahs situation of one thing getting done and then a little lax on the follow through....

Now this may be the story that was created after the fact, but judging by the fact that the ties match the color of the curtains, it definately seems that there was always the intention to put up curtains as they do tend to "dress" up the windows.

I think your right, the big problem for a couple of the people I am familiar with are the weekends....where the rates skyrocket, especially during the summer.

Personally,I have enough other play (in other words ... Leaks) to get good rates no matter what...but I definately sympathize with some of the other people...

Bottomline is that if someone doesn't play anything else but poker, their value to the casino is somewhat limited....now before someone says, "but they do other things and bring friends with them who do other things", if either of those were the case then they would either have enough comps to pay for the room anyway, or have enough "play" to get a better rate from the casino anyway.

From what I can gather, to get discounted weekend rates you need about 20,000 - 25,000 of the Harrahs Total Rewards Points, at that point if you just go to their website say 4 or 5 weeks ahead, you can usually make a reservation with a discounted rate on the weekends. For a full freebie, I'd say you probably need to get above 30,000 points...

I don't know for sure, but that's what my gut tells me...

There just aren't enough rooms at showboat with all these towers going up other places. they need to build a tower.

In my experience you do not need anywhere near this level of play for free/discounted rooms. I get them and and currently have 1000 Tier and 2500 rewards points.

With $1 and $2 blinds, a pot-sized raise is to $7. (The pot has $3, it's $2 to call making the pot $5, and the max raise is $5 more.)

For a valid raise to $10, you would need $1 and $3 blinds.

-Tom

So, it sounds like I should be in for a good time when I get there Wednesday late night. Hope some good games in my range get going (4-8 LHE or Omaha/O8, maybe some NL if I feel froggy, maybe higher if I'm feeling lucky or rich)...guess we'll see.

re Room discounts: Pitifully easy to get midweek or anytime during the winter...my wife plays penny slots (and not all that much of that) and we are innundated with $49/night midweek, Free midweek in the wintertime, and somewhat of a cut rate (around $50/night) offers for weekends in the summer.

That's what we're staying on this trip, in fact. 4 nights, including a Friday and a Saturday, total bill around $500 before taxes, room service charges, etc...I'll take it for a vacation. Keeps the wife happy to have room service access.

Question: Where is the best place to go for a good dinner *outside* the casinos in the Showboat area one evening? Looking for a reasonable American type meal in the $50 range for 2 people.

You just described (in parentheses) why a raise to $10 is possible. The pot after you call is $5, so matching the pot for a max raise would be another $5.
$5+$5 = $10 total max you can put in the pot as the first one in. Your "call" is counted as part of the pot for the purposes of the max raise.

Edit: This is how I always thought it worked, but now after looking around online I am not so sure. I still would like to know for sure how it works, but this kind of thing is really more appropriate for its own thread anyway.

The pot is $5 after your call, so you can raise $5. But you've only put in $2 so far so you are raising to $7. This is definitely the standard.

After your raise, the pot will have $10 in it ($5 + your $5 raise).

-Tom

I am talking about weekend...weekdays are easy.

who was the young asian girl playing 5/5 at the boat on saturday.... pretty big stack and she was killing it I heard

PLayed the showboat 1-2nl game on saturday, i got seated at a table where no one was drinking and there was a couple stacks over 400+, there was one interesting hand with a old Italian gent with a stack of 350. Hero ( me ) is dealt pocket JJ, raise to $20 preflop in the SB, BB Calls 18 more and back to the old italian guy who calls 18 more. Flop is 10d 7c 2d, I lead on and bet 35, bb calls and so does the button, turn is the 4c lead out again for 75 bb folds and button calls, river 3c. I check thinking old guy hits a set on the flop he bets 100. I call ,(pot odds and really just wanted to see what he had) i show my J's and the old guy shows Kc2c for a runner- runner flush. Did i play this wrong or what?
The old guy went on to win another 400 pot with Kc4c for a runner runner again when i left the table to get on another he was well over 1k sitting at 1/2
In my opinion I love the showboat, but it all depends on what table your at, tried to get a 2/5 table going but the tall brunette floor person killed that idea.
I wanted to play in the 5/5 game ( had the cash with me ) but there was just a insane amount of loot on that table, played a couple times with a bunch of the guys and women at that table, got felted by the guy with yellow shirt before for a 2k pot when pocket AA's and flopped a Ace got runner runner straight on my @ss.....the females that play in that game are good too.. just tooooooo many regulars down there next time borgata.... O ya left poker down -500 played blackjack cashed out for 1700 lol

There is some event where we (the employees) get to voice our concerns to the director of table games, and this is the one and only thing I plan on bringing up. The 5/5 game is the pillar of the room, you manage to lose that game it makes it difficult for me to sit here and speak with confidence that we legitimately have a room that has a lot of potential. I would have thought that by now the room would be 10x what it was when I first started there and it has improved a ton, but if we had 1/3 the budget Harrah's was given we would be 10x the room they are.

I just am not sure exactly how I want to phrase just how important giving back to the players even a little bit makes such a huge difference, especially your regular players who are really nice and take care of the staff.

An Asian girl that deals elsewhere was at my 1/2 table about 3 weeks ago and absolutely demolished it. She was dead on with almost every read. I guess that's not so hard with 7 drunk guys at a 1/2. I lost about $200 and laughed my ass off leaving.