Did they make an announcement when you got to the 54?

They actually payed 55 players. They went hand for hand when they got to 56 players.

It then played down to 40 players who each got $500 cash which was added money.

For most of the afternoon, there were 3 to 4 STS's going at once during the Mega, awarding tournament lammers good for any River event.

BTW, it is possible to register for any River event, including any of the Megas, at any time between now and the end of the alternate period of each event.

I apologize for the mistake. As Dealer-Guy said, 55 were paid.

When we reached 56, we played hand-for-hand. When we reached 55, we were told that if we were eliminated while playing down to the final 40 to wait for our seat card from the dealer and carry that up in order to get paid. When we reached 42, we once again played hand-for-hand and when we reached 40 we remained in our seats and gave the floor manager our Winstar player's card. He came back to the table with our voucher to carry with us to the cashier's window for payment of 2100 chips and $500 cash.

Thank you; I won a sts a few weeks back. I will probably go up July 7th and play in a few sst, then do the Mega on the 8th.
Do you know of a good clean, cheep hotel in the area? Wife is not going with me on this trip so I just need safe and clean. Was looking at the Motel 6 down the road about 20min.

Mr DanC,

I never stay in a hotel/motel in that area. I live close enough to drive and return home. Some other options that I've noticed are in Gainesville on I-35 about 7 miles from the casino.

Super 8 (940) 665-5599
Comfort Suites (940) 665-5000
LaQuinta (940) 665-5700

I don't know the rates.

I played yesterday and got knocked out but played a cash game for a bit. You only need to win a few hands to get a seat in these. The play was as horrific as I have ever seen. I saw a guy that had to be top 5 in chips with ~90 players left not get a seat. I was pleasantly surprised that the word chop was never brought up when approaching the seat number. The only thing Winstar is lacking is a new chip set and maybe a few minor structure tweaks and they have this thing finally figured out. The new bravo system and lammers for the River are the biggest upgrades in Winstar history.

DanC,

No reason to go down to that motel6, bunch of places 10min away in Gainesville.

Have you stayed at any? What were the rates? Was it clean?

I've only stayed at a couple. Never stayed anywhere bad. $50

Pm me if u want

So probably will not get to go up to play in the next Mega. When does the entry level increase. I know if history holds true the first few have fewer entries but I don't know when it picks up.

DG... The $2100 lammers paid out from last Sunday's mega was done so in (4)$500 and (1)$100 denominations... My question is, can I exchange a $500 chip for 5 $100 to make it more transferable and easier to buy into the lower prices preliminary events?

I've stayed at the Holiday Inn Express on I35 (east side of hwy on service road). It was just fine. I've even slept in my car in their parking lot when I was too tired to drive home @ 4AM and all of the hotels in the areas were already booked. It was a nice, quiet sleep. lol

I was there last Sunday and played. And yes, the first 2-3 traditionally don't have as many people. The drawback that I found to that scenario this past weekend was that even though the website says that Megas allow "400 players plus alternates" they only sat 250 people and made everyone after that an alternative. So, not only did I miss the first level ( which really isn't a big deal except that I had to wait) but you have to post when you arrive to the table. People who are 251 - 400 shouldn't have to post because they should never have been alternates in the first place.

Now granted, I almost double up my first hand (which I played because I had to post and no one raised), but it is the principle of it that gets me.

JennD... Were you at table 19 seat 2?

Noper. I was at 24 (or maybe 23) seat 8