To use up the promo fund, they ran a small tourney in the fall and gave away 10 or 12 WSOP main event seats.

I think they dumped the fund before WSOP, that is why people started thinking they were not going to open back up. Except of course for the dealers mentioned that were surprised last week about the news.

Yes, seeing the above post, I remember that happening now.

I'm really sad about the Flamingo closing permanently. It was a much better room than Bally's, at least before El Dorado pillaged it. The turnover under Mike, the old manager, was almost nonexistent. They had a culture of helpfulness and cheerfulness that no other room could match. The place became poison under the new management. Under the cover of limited hours they fired a bunch of the staff and immediately brought in a bunch of temp dealers, some with no experience, to replace them. I was there when the manager would ask over the sound system "Do any dealers need a break?". Many of them were afraid to say "yes", so they kept on pushing thru often getting only one ~25 minute break their entire shift (I know, I know, a lot of jobs are that way but dealing requires your mind to remain sharp or you start making glitches which start small but often snowball. I don't blame the new manager, either. She had her marching orders and nobody worked harder than she did. The bean counters for El Dorado know nothing about poker. The only reason Bally's is remaining open is that the WSOP is rumored to be going there for the foreseeable future.

I have to find a new home away from home, I guess.

Blah, I don't like any of those rooms.

Stayed at Bally's yesterday and was surprised to see the poker room is back open. Had 5 tables going and like 50 people for the tournament

I think it's been open for two weeks now, since the day after Thanksgiving?

Bally's opened back up on Nov. 26th, I was there for the first hand dealt as I had an hour to kill before my flight. Glad it seems to be getting semi decent numbers. I know the Flamingo 3-6 limit game moved there at the start, which will help numbers as well.

Don’t understand your surprise. When it shutdown for WSOP they annouced are opening date. They did not say when for Flamingo which is why few were surprised that was permanent.

Also, while the certainly could, why would CET move the WSOP to a casino that doesn’t even have a poker room. (Yes I realize Paris doesn’t have poker but they appear to be the secondary with Bally’s, to be Horseshoe by then(?), the primary.)

Per post in the 2022 WSOP thread .. Bally's will be rebranded a 'Horseshoe' property before the WSOP begins. This is per poster who supposedly played with poker with 'Jack' in the last day or so.

Any chirps from anyone at Bally's? Not that it really matters what 'words' are on the front of the building .. Cesar rewards are all the same card, eh? GL

Bump, Anyone else get this email today about flamingo promo fund? Some great notice getting the email on the 18th when the promo started on the 17th.

Yep, got this today, too late to swipe for a chance as I'm not in town. Strange that they found additional $ in the promo funds. GL to all who can enter in time.

I got the email this morning, in time to get a swipe today, but obviously to late to get in a swipe on the 18th.

All in all, it's another reason to not frequent rooms that do promotions. Sure, the funds have to be distributed when the rooms close, but the closings of this past few years have shown that the rooms aren't interested in an equitable distribution of the funds.

The Flamingo had $84,177 in their promotional fund? I guess that's what happens when you take $2 a hand but all your promotions are shitty.

It sure sounded the Flamingo's drawing was opened to anyone who swiped their card in Las Vegas yesterday and today between 1 pm and 5 pm. If that's the case, then the most, if not all, of the money will go to people who never set foot in the Flamingo poker room.

The money from Planet Hollywood's poker promotional fund went almost entirely to Seven Stars and Diamond members, because they were the only ones who could get a seat on the day they closed out the fund.

Mandalay, Luxor, and Mirage funds went to a limited entry tournament, and who ****ing knows how many friends of the employees got the heads up to enter before it filled up.

All of this is a pretty good argument for avoiding the rooms that take a promotional drop, ESPECIALLY the smaller rooms.

I think you were too late. My email showed that you could swipe on the 17th and 18th to be eligible for a drawing at 7:00pm on the 18th.

Did they post a list of the winners anywhere?

Nah, that was a typo on my part. I meant to say I missed the chance to swipe on the 17th, because I didn't get the email until the morning of the 18th. I did manage to get in my one entry on the 18th.

According to the fine print:

Potential winners’ name will be posted at Las Vegas Caesars Rewards® Center and Las Vegas Caesars Rewards® Cashier Cages.
• Potential winner(s) will be contacted via contact information associated with their Caesars Rewards® account.
• In event that a potential winner does not respond to the initial prize announcement within 48 hours, a new potential winner will be drawn for the same prize amount.
• This process will be repeated until all prizes have been awarded and the Casino’s Poker Room Promotional Fund is exhausted.

Harrah's Joliet poker room had the fairest distribution of jackpot money. They had a bad beat jackpot pool, and this was their method:

Using their player card tracking info, each player received a number of entries based on minutes played in the room since the last jackpot. They then picked at random, and gave out (I think) $1000 per winner until the pool was exhausted. They had sent out an email about the drawing, but I don't recall if you had to opt-in to the drawing to win.

Pretty sure you needed to 'activate' your entries for Harrah's Joliet.

My home casino also had drawings that were only for people who played poker, but you had to basically go to the casino every day of the week for 7 weeks to maximize your entries for each Saturday drawing (and be there every Sat to collect).

While I did get my fair share over the 7 week 'ordeal', unfortunately there were some Limit Players who only played on Sundays for 2-4 hours that won quite a bit (including the 'grand' prize) since they were older and choose to make the drive each day. You got one ticket per day 'free' and then a 'bonus' ticket if you gave the casino $200 in action each day as well.

Poker staff said the Marketing took over the promo fund and came up with the payouts .. of course sucking even more money out of Players by 'forcing' them to give action to gain what might've been 50% of your available entries each week.


Interesting the way this went down .. I'm sure the casino hosts knew about it and had their group of Players swipe during that 'odd' entry period. 1-5pm is a time frame where poker players aren't necessarily in the casino and/or if they were they were probably already playing and not looking to swipe at a kiosk.

Maybe they wanted to make sure Trooper was out of town? GL

I also didn't get the email until the afternoon on the second day lol, didn't even bother wasting my time with the sht show. I would however LOVE to see some sort of winners page or anything showing where the money actually went.

Good news on Ballys returning.

I guess since it will be renamed to "horseshoe" it will have more poker. Wonder if poker room changes will be made?

I've heard the changes will be minor, new chairs, maybe new felts.

They are tearing down the video poker bar outside of the poker room and expanding the poker room all the way out there. It could end up being bigger than their Caesars Palace room

Wow, that's surprising but great to hear.

late but flamingo was one of my fav poker rooms on strip. the ambiance was kinda laid back, and while small, was pretty chill and overall decent vibe for me personally