Quote:
Originally Posted by BedBathBeyond
I've played there extensively in 2019 and would agree that the room is going in the wrong direction. The room is comfortable, spacious, the dealers are very good, and the staff is personable and does a good job at making everyone feel welcome, especially the regulars. Lately, the room has put greater emphasis on doing everything to the exact letter of the law and it's a bit of a turnoff. The August promotion didn't go over well, and the constant changing of promotions from month to month feels like too much
The $2-4 limit hold'em games are changing from being a raked game to being a time charge, costing each player $4 per half hour. The $2-4 players are really only there to fold around and try and hit jackpots and/or other promotional bonuses. The room should just kill this limit altogether and move to a $3-6 limit hold'em game.
The August "Virtual Ticket" promotion was one of the worst promotions I've ever seen and the large majority of the regulars absolutely hated it. Thankfully, it will be gone for September, but the new September promotion isn't getting a ton of great feedback from the dozen or so players I've spoken to about it. Simply put, the September promotion has too much going on.
"Timing Is Everything” September Promotion:
Any four-of-a-kind on turn: $100
Any four-of-a-kind on river: $200
Any straight flush on turn: $250
Any straight flush on river: $500
Any royal flush on turn: $250 (in addition to Progressive)
Any royal flush on river: $500 (in addition to Progressive)
Any six-card straight flush on turn: $1,000
Any six-card straight flush on river: $1,500
Any seven-card straight flush on turn: $5,000
Any quads on the flop on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, or Friday: $25
Any straight flush on the flop on all days: $50
Splash pot bonus of $25 added to pot at table that a player makes quads, straight flush, or a royal flush
Six-card straight flush on turn or river or seven-card straight flush awards $100 to each active player at the specific table it was hit
Must use both hole cards for the above
“Daily Hot Ball” September Promotion:
At 10 a.m. PT daily, a “Hot Ball” will be randomly drawn
The “Hot Ball” represents one of the 52 cards in a poker deck
This “Hot Ball” will be used for additional bonuses when a player makes a hand holding the “Hot Ball” card
Make straight or flush using the “Hot Ball” as a hole card and get $25
If holding a pocket pair and one card is the “Hot Ball,” players get the following if both hole cards used to make the hand
Flop three-of-a-kind: $100
Make three-of-a-kind on turn: $50
Make three-of-a-kind on river: $25
Flop full house: $200
Make full house on turn: $100
Make full house on river: $50
Was told the other day that starting in September the room cutting back on drinks offered to players. For beer, only Coors Light, Bud Light, and Miller Lite said to be offered. Liquor and wine will be well products. Even things like Perrier sparkling water won’t be available, unless high status.
The room has pretty much killed off all tournaments and only cash games run. The September tournament is a Saturday morning one at 10:15 a.m. with a $50 buy-in. Of the $50, $33 goes into the prize pool, so there's $17 of rake. That is absolutely out of control to have $17 rake on a $50 tournament.
I would like to say that the dealers and Tammy, the woman who facilitates players as a host to seat them, run for chips, and whatever else, are some of the absolute best that I’ve seen anywhere, so it’s unfortunate the room has been going in the wrong direction lately.
On Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, they have a “Quad Floppers” promotion. Have a pocket pair and flop quads and get $500. If you’re playing $4-8 limit hold’em or higher or $1-2 no-limit hold’em or higher, you get an additional $250 for $750 total. I’d like to see them extend the “Quad Floppers” promotions to all days, keep the “Progressive Royals,” and keep the “Poker Payday” promotion (which I believe is going away starting in September). Those are simple promotions that the players enjoy and can easily understand.
Then, when hockey season rolls around, bring back the $100 random drawing for Vegas Golden Knights goals.
One more thing is that the addition of the $1-3 no-limit hold’em game is a little weird, if you ask me. It came about because some of the players didn’t like how some playing $1-2 no-limit hold’em would only buy in for the minimum ($100) and nit it up, so they asked for a $1-3 no-limit hold’em game to be created and it was. The $1-2 no-limit hold’em has a min-max of $100-300 and the $1-3 no-limit hold’em has a min-max of $300. The players wanting the $1-3 no-limit hold’em game wanted a bigger game but didn’t want to go up to a $2-5 level. I’d suggest changing the $1-3 to $2-3 and also adjusting the buy-in to something like $300-400 or $300-500. Having both the $1-2 and $1-3 as currently structured often cannibalizes one game for the other.
I agree about the room size, layout, the dealers and staff behind the desk, I happen to really disagree about "Tammy"s performance as a floor host, if that is her name.
I think part of the answer as to what might help could be:
1.
simple promotions that the players enjoy and can easily understand.
BUT, do not overwhelm the incentive to actually play poker with 100 different promotions ...
A corollary to #1 is to
STOP trying to fine tune prizing , pay $X for a given hand, without worrying about hitting it on the turn or river, pay X+Y for flopping such a hand, STOP this trend to having 100 variations for which a promo drop is taken, but how it is awarded in fact is obscured....
2. End totally opaque, poorly thought out, wrong-headed schemes, like the "virtual ticket" drawings which are a dud. The manager literally turns his back, looks down and announces, "NO, no winner for the first drawing" ....I understand someone wrote a
"nifty" program to compare the (supposedly drawn" name to the names of players logged in, but come on ..... is it too much to ask that a name be called out at least ? At least when a player or a manager draws a name in a typical drawing, something is announced .... which also builds interest. The "virtual ticket, virtual drawing, no "loser" announcement routine smacks of some programming idea, not a marketing idea ...
Bottom line, , I don't know if I'll play there again, and I am a really bad rec player .... but a ton of promos, coupled with huge promo rake rates and skewing of incentives to promo-chase instead of play poker have forked a bit of sand into the GVR poker experience gears.
The games are NOT as entertaining as those offered in other rooms, are not as action-oriented, and are as much about "bonuses, promos and double-double bonuses" as about playing poker.
Last edited by Gzesh; 09-01-2019 at 01:10 AM.
