Wow already? I heard that it has to be quads over quads... is that true?

Yes. Four-of-a-Kind vs Four-of-a-Kind. And both player's cards must be in play.

And you have to have a pocket pair to play quads

+1

For all people complaining about the dealers I am sure you never made a mistake at any new job (especially when you were younger) after you had been there two weeks.

I am a player also and a dealer (though not poker at HCC) so I can understand your frustrations. But I can also attest that the dealers you speak of do not want to make mistakes and really want to be good dealers for you, the players, and the casino. They try very hard. There is alot of pressure from the players and from the dealers themselves and that makes them nervous. Unfortunately that doesn't help them initially. As many have said, they have improved drastically. Their training wasn't for months it was for one month and for each 30 dealers they pretty much had one trainer for 4 hours a day. If you are totally new poker (as in playing much less dealing it) that makes it difficult to get up to speed.

Please have a little more patience and help where you can. The patience will help to alleviate the anxiety the various break in dealers are feeling which will in turn help them to concentrate on the game more and to get better.

Played 2-5 in this room night before last. Very nice room, nice tables, comfortable chairs. Action is great, but who knows how long that will last. Dealers vary, many need practice, but patience is called for. Everyone has a good attitude and that's what you need to get better.

wow, yea i assumed you had to play both cards but was unaware it had to be pockets. so on 22333 board 22 vs A3 is really not a bad beat?

correct

76 wait on 1/2NL, plus >30 in line to get on list.

Use the call ahead # (614) 308-4655

First real complaint. At the end of the night (3:20am) the floor refused to reduce the rake when we were five handed, after telling us they would if we dropped below six. They effectively kill the game for four of the five, i headed out rather than drop in on a new table. The dealer was in shock, given that they make their real $ off tips, the lack of flexibility prob hurt him most.
Exceptional dealers tonight just under eight hours of play. only one really did not know how to deal the cards well, she also was missing the personality the other dealers exhibited. She won't last long.

Yes it is. Hold'em is a 5 card game

A3's final hand was 3333A < note the ace is higher than the 2 twos on the board so it plays

The 22's final hand is 22223

I understand where you are coming from but it doesn't matter in most rooms. Most rooms have a rule that says in order to qualify for quads you must be holding a pocket pair. I would check with the floor to verify this.

Right, in your example both players have quads and two live cards. That doesn't matter though. For the purposes of the bad beat, the room has a specific rule that you must have a pocket pair if you're playing quads for the bad beat. They have the rules posted on the wall, you can go read them if you still don't believe me.

The rigid enforcement of the "no electronic device on the rail" rule is pretty irritating as applied to ipods -- wish they'd limit it to ipads and smart phones.

First impressions, played 2/5 NL Friday and Saturday:

Dealers varied, but overall I was fine with them. Really only a few that were annoyingly bad / new / nervous. Many were excellent.

I like the room setup - nice, new, big. Comfortable chairs.

Checking in - seems crazy as one might expect given the newness of the room. I was sure to arrive before the big rush both days, and I got seated pretty quickly. At first, I thought it was nice to have chips at the check-in station, but it kind of slows down the line when they are opening new tables and everyones getting chips. You CANNOT buy chips at the main casino cashier window, only return them (dumb). However, they have pretty prompt chip-runners, so you can just sit at the table and pull out your cash and start playing.

There were 3-4 2/5 NL games, and the floor seemed confused about whether there was a must move or not. Didn't really seem to matter, though. People were chipping up pretty big, plenty of stacks over 1k, some 2-3k, some with more at times.

No bigger games went off this weekend. Someone said the 'big' players in town went to Hammond for WSOP circuit. Friday night had a 2/5 PLO, but some PLO players were annoyed there was only one 1/2 PLO game all of Saturday night.

Food options are pathetic when it's busy. Have to go to one of the restaurants (no food carts / stations). Long lines at the 24/7 Grill, etc. No ordering / delivery to room (but you can bring carry-out from the Grill into the room). Free soda station and rest room right around the corner from the room.

The cashier window is incredibly slow. LONG lines I noticed even at 2-3 AM. I cashed out around 6 AM, so no line, but they are very .. careful and take forever.

Overall, I like it.

When I cashed out the night I was there, the person at the counter seemed really excited that their count of my chips matched what I thought I had. It was very bizarre. It was like they were giving themselves a little self-applause in their head for doing such a great job. It was $356.

Funny traveling button situation occurred today. The player to receive the button leaves table. So the next hand the small blind is the button, I am the first big blind and the player to my left is the second big blind. Standard.

The whole table mucks. The small blind mucks. Dealer pulls in small blind. I ask the other big blind if wants a chop. He agrees and we both muck pulling back our big blinds. But the dealer objects stating that since the small blind money was in the pot that we could not chop. However we were allowed to chop "just this time" since we had mucked our cards.

I was the small blind in that hand who wouldn't shut up about celebrity look-alikes lol. That was probably the tightest table I've seen there yet.

Hey man! Actually of the five times I have been there, all the tables I have sat at have been that way.

Decided to play 2/5 tonight. Not sure if I'll ever return to 1/2.

Edit: I will return to 1/2 at some point as I'm sure there will be times the 2/5 game is simply too tough or there are no decent seats avail. When I left tonight, the two players to my left were both better players than me and had a combined $4k in play.

Also, the 2/5 game is now a must-move. According to some of the players at the table, this is a recent development.

Hey Donni,

Why do you plan not to go back to 1/2? How was your table? I've been thinking of going 2/5 myself.

My last few experiences at 1/2 were awful. Not due to the casino, but due to the horribly slow players and boringly slow pace of play. A few friends have been on me to try 2/5 so I finally decided to try a short stack strategy @ 2/5 and in my one session sample, I liked it. Decisions obv much easier, and the flow of the game was way better. I'm not going to sit 2/5 w/ 1k any time soon, however I'll sit w/ 1k if I started w/ $200 and ran it up...

My table was great at first but eventually got too tough - I had about $650 in play and the two players to my left had $4k combined. Player in mid-pos spewed $1,500 in one hand and immediately whipped out ten $100 dollar bills and rebought for $1k. Nutso.

Definitely give it a try. PM me sometime as I plan on being there 2-3x / week.

short stacking is one of the main reasons y 1-2 can suck. so now your doing what makes the games bad at 2-5 lol

+1 to not wanting to see short stacking become popular at the 2-5 tables; obv it is a perfectly legitimate strategy, but many players including myself are not going to be pleased to see a short stacker enter the game --- just something you should know to anticipate, whether it's fair or not; fwiw, the few short stackers who have employed the strategy @ the 2-5 tables don't seem to be doing very well

I played 1/2 full stack and it was still painful.

While you may prefer to play 2/5 with $1,000 to start, I prefer $200. Luckily for us both, the limits and rules of the game allow for both.

Hey, I searched this thread and couldn't find anything definitive on their regular tournament schedule? I think I heard they start in December/January? Any official word on this? Thanks.