sugarhouse and surrounding areas were dangerous years ago

no libs is basically completely safe now imo

Agreed. Northern liberties and fishtown are two of the most "up and coming" areas of the city. If you walk up Frankford Ave to Girard you'll be surrounded by relatively new bars, restaurants, and various other hip new businesses. These neighborhoods are basically the cool new area for yuppies and hipsters to move to.

The safety concerns are really a non issue imo. Obviously crime still happens and I wouldn't call any part of Philly "completely safe", but just stay alert and aware like you would at any other casino, or any time you're in a big city.

Sugarhouse owns the night. Since 2am Sugarhouse has 50% of total games going local. Sugarhouse this second has 6 tables going at 4am. Parx n Chester combined has 6. More tables and better action in area during midnight to 10am. Sugarhouse jus keeps growing. Watching Chester dealers and parx dealers at same tables battling makes a great game.

Just wanted to throw an idea out there. Without a doubt a portion of players are going to complain about the straddle. Please do not get rid of it for the small minority who complain. I'd say that if enough peope whine and it puts you in a tough spot, have a table or two with no straddle allowed. Nits will be lumped in the same table and everyone else can have fun.

Have a recommendation for the philly straddle. Since people have to post when they first start to play people have been coming in for a straddle instead. Also people who missed their blinds and aren't in the correct position to buy the button have to post the 3 also have the option to come In for the straddle instead. These two situations the player straddling in lieu of posting should have first priority to straddle regardless of position. IF no one is straddling in lieu of posting then earliest position gets priority. As The way the rule is stated on the green placards on the table.

The reason why someone posting missed blinds or their first hand overall should have priority is bc someone shouldn't steal their right to enter the game. And they don't have to be forced to post into someone's straddle as well. If two or more people are posting simultaneousl and want to straddle then earlier position of the the two posters gets priority.

The floor at Sugarhouse has been doing a great job during this opening week as well. They do a very fine job balancing tables and not letting players do whatever they want went it comes to seating themselves and transferring tables. Even In one instance the floor allowed someone to transfer and another player disappeared for a minute who was suppose to fill transferring players old seat. The old table complained and wanted the player to return. THe floor politely apologized but refused to make player to return to the table bc of the floors apparent mistake. It was impressive to see the floor NOT YOYO the player. 1 minute later the guy who disappeared was getting a soda and filled the game as was expected. If the floor caved into the tables demand, The transferring player would of been made to move 3 times for no reason. That would of definitely pissed off the player. But the patience, politeness and decisiveness made the incident a non event. Very professionally handled.

One more option from NYC: Take NJ Transit from Penn Sta to Trenton, then Septa from Trenton to 30th Street. It will take longer than Amtrak, but is much cheaper. $15.50(NJT)+$9.00(Septa) vs. $54(Amtrak) You can decide whether lowest fares or fastest trip is more important to you. I'm guessing that even with the transfer, NJT/Septa would still be faster than a bus, but I really don't know. I just thought all the options should be put out there.

MegaBus\BoltBus from Philly to NYC is quite reasonable. I've gotten round trip fares for $1 each way if you order in advance. From there you could take a taxi / subway.

please tell me there are no $10 chips

(lame post is mostly for subbing)

Every hour between now and Wednesday, November 12, @ 7pm, a player is being selected to be entered into a raffle to win:

• a guest on Poker Night in America
• Watch the Penguins w Phil Hellmuth
• Roundtrip airfare from philly to Pittsburgh
• Hotel Accomodations
• Transportation to/from airport n hotel
• 2 Game Tickets and $250 spending money.

Wednesday, November 12th @ 8pm a winner will be selected from the raffle bin

•••• also every hour the player who wins an entry also gets $5 in comps for food n drinks.

Haven't the tax refund idiots taught you anything about the mindset of most Americans?

I realize the people who play a simple game like NLHE daily for hours on end want to mix it up and make it interesting for themselves, but to me implied mandatory straddling just scares off the recreational players. Everything needs to be geared towards attracting the recreational players, not appeasing the grinders. Give them a good supply of fish and that should keep the regs happy enough.

If you want to play higher, just go play higher. I think when you sit at a $1/2 table, you should for the most part get to play $1/2.

You are playing 1/2. Every 9 hands, you have to post $3 in forced blinds. Someone else putting in $7 (or more) every 9 hands does not force you to play 1/2/4, it just lets you cut your preflop range in half and keep the same profit.

As far as I've seen, most recreational players under 60 love the straddle.

Will Phil being wearing a penguin suit at the game? If so, I will grind 24/7 for a chance at this

Disagree. No one is forced to straddle. Plenty of people have skipped them or don't straddle at all and most of the nitty regs don't do it. However, recreational players I've played with seem to like it. Recreational players that do not like it have the option not to partake.

Yes, that's another option, for sure. There is the aspect of coordinating the train schedule (NJ Transit to Trenton with SEPTA from Trenton). Also, I believe yu can also get off at Market East Station (it's called Jefferson Station on the SEPTA SKED, see link below), no reason to go all the way to 30th Street from Trenton to Philly via SEPTA.

You can get a cab at Market East/Jefferson Station location (10th-12th and Market) or even hop on the El to Spring-Garden at 11th Street Blue Line stop. Choosing the MF El as the final leg would make this a very cheap way to get from NYC to SH (the last 10 minutes would mean walking). Total cost based on Asterix's data would be $27.xx each way. If you have the time, great cheap way to travel from NYC to Sugarhouse.

Getting the MegaBus for $1 is the ultimate cheapie, but not as easy in terms of guaranteed seats, etc.

http://www.septa.org/schedules/rail/w/TRE_1.html

Maybe I missed it, but could someone clearly define the Philly Straddle (great name).
Thanks

I agree.

I don't find that to be the case in limit. I play limit and, even though I don't like the straddle, at Harrah's it only happens occasionally, so I deal with it. I like that in AC you can't straddle in limit.

Since Harrah's Philly lets you straddle in limit, I assume SH does too. Is that correct?

Also, if anyone here plays NL and limit, am I correct in thinking that straddling happens much more and is more accepted in NL than in limit?

Not sure what you mean by "implied mandatory straddling", but it's just simple logic that allowing a player to put money in blind is +EV for any thinking poker player. How you could not want to allow this option is beyond me. If you feel that players are donating too much money in the game your in, just switch to another table

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE keep the PHILLY STRADDLE!!! It's breathing new life into the Philly poker scene and is helping to make Sugar House the #1 destination for action poker in the Philly metro area.

-RJ

I'm 5 days into playing at this room and it's really promising. They're consistently spreading multiple 2.5 games, occasionally bigger. They're not yet nearly at Parx level with game selection, but it's a mile from my home so it's super +EV... lol. I'm also extremely happy with the way the room is run. Some dealers are green, but the floor staff is seasoned and attentive, especially Norm and Dave. Overall a really promising start to this room.

Currently on Bravo, for a Thursday night:
Sugarhouse-12
Parx-23
Harrah's-17

I know it's hard to infer a pattern after just a few days, but it seems like SH has been doing well, while not doing too much damage to the other area poker rooms. Could it be that, while definitely taking some of the business of the other rooms, they've also managed to increase the size of the player pool in the area? Maybe players who normally play at underground games in Philly are now playing at SH? Maybe Philly players who always thought it too much of a hassle to go to Harrah's or Parx (because they had no car, or for some other reason) are now going to SH? Does anyone else think the number of active tables in the area have increased, and it's not just dividing up the existing player base? I'm curious what others on here think.

Also, it looks like SH's opening hasn't had much of an effect on AC. Borgata, Bally's, and Harrah's AC seem to still be going strong. I think SH is attracting players who had already decided they'd rather play in the Philly area than in AC, so I don't think they've taken many more players from AC. Makes me think that if the final Philly casino license is ever awarded, it, too, won't have much effect on AC.

I see that 5/10 has been running. Does anyone know what the buyin and rake is?

There are more total poker games going now in Philly then ever, here are the reasons:

1) Sugarhouse just opened and is new and people want to check it out

2) Parx is running a huge promo for the next two months to try to drive the traffic to parx

3) I believe Harrahs is running promos too, I haven't been there yet.


Just with the promos at the other casinos alone these rooms would be much busier then normal. Sugarhouse will do just fine, they seem legit. But there will be a drop off at the other casinos once the promos end.

Time game, 300 min/1.5k max was the listed buy ins but I think players were doing up to 2k.

$6 pp/hh i would assume