Re taking bus: it's a bit kf a pain to get out of port authority on a friday and it will be magnified by memorial day. The traffic on garden state pkway didn't strike me as being hell but I can see how this might be different on memorial day. Do you already have a hotel room? All of the hotels have been solidly booked for quite a while but the action will probably be very good.

What bus are you taking? If you take greyound at 4, you need to arrive the absolute very latest at 3:30 and have your ticke and everything and even that might cut it close. Remember there will be lots of people on the bus with no job/nothing to do so the line fills up v quickly.

Good luck

I'm used to staying at the tropicana and caesars, but am staying at showboat next wednesday to scope it out for a bachelor party in july. are the rooms half way decent? at least clean, doesn't have to be anything fancy. how's the casino? $5 tables? will there be plenty of tables open on a wednesday or will it be hard to get on a table? looks like the bar and party atmosphere can be pretty good there. in july we plan on spending most of our time at revel. thanks for any info

The showboat rooms arent too good. I was missing lamp shades once and the center of the mattress was caved in. Avoid the room service -- i got potato salad with raw potatoes.

You'll get on a table easily on wed

when it comes to the showboat ive stayed in rooms that were halfway decent and other times ive stayed in rooms that were pretty below average, but ive never really had a problem with cleanliness, they just need to be updated(the beds are small and uncomfortable). The casino is OK, you will probably find some $5 tables on a wednesday and shouldnt have a problem getting on a table. I am personally not a big fan of the atmosphere and the type of crowd at the showboat, I would definitely prefer to walk next door to the revel.

enjoy!

Trip report: AC (specifically Margaritaville) last night 5/24/13

Got on the Parkway in Toms River around 4:30. No backups on the Parkway whatsoever. Lovely. Traffic was worse coming home from work in Monmouth County. I always cheap out and take Rt. 30 into AC rather than taking the Expressway. Never had a problem. This time that didn't work out though. There was a pretty bad accident with debris all over the road on Rt. 30 near the McDonald's in Absecon. Got past it after waiting about half an hour and we're on our way to AC.

Had booked a room at the Showboat earlier this week on a whim. Main reason for the trip was to check out the new Margaritaville at Resorts. Happened to be checking rates and $150 including all taxes for the Friday before Memorial Day seemed pretty good. Wanted to go one last time before summer when it gets crazy expensive to stay. Guess I need to earn more comps. No poker this trip because it was just me and my wife although we did meet up with some friends later.

Pulled into the Showboat parking garage and was pretty surprised how empty it was. Was able to park on the third level and there were tons of spots. Short line to check in too - a pleasant surprise as I'm used to waiting a long time to check in in AC but maybe not a good sign for AC. Room in the Orleans tower was decent - coffee machine was broke but no other complaints. Old TV but whatever. Had a few beers in the room and headed for Margaritaville.

I am not a Jimmy Buffet fan or anything, but I wanted to see Margaritaville and spend some money there because it's good for AC. Margaritaville the restaurant is pretty awesome. The restaurant is very nicely decorated and the prices are reasonable. I had a Hot Hot Hot fruity drink that was actually pretty spicy. Got some other thing with a big chunk of pineapple in it. Both were about $9. Wife had margaritas which tasted good too. We got the volcano nachos which are HUGE. Seemed like it had a whole bag of tortilla chips and a pound of melted cheese on it, plus tons of other toppings. We shared those and finished maybe 3/4 of it and couldn't even touch the El Diablo burger that we also ordered to share. Brought it home and had it reheated today - pretty good but obviously can't judge it based on having it reheated a day later.

The Margaritaville casino is pretty lame though. Just some slots and video poker machines in an area of Resorts that was redecorated with the Margaritaville theme. I don't think that's really the main attraction though. The noodle bar is also right in the middle of Margaritaville which seemed a little out of place. The Land Shark bar outside looks pretty cool from the Boardwalk. Didn't check it out but walked up by it the next morning and it looks like a nice place.

Afterwards we wanted to meet up with some friends who were staying at Caesars. Was too late for the Caesars shuttle so we took the jitney. During the ride over we heard on the CB radio that earlier in the day a different jitney was shot at. That's the AC I know. Anyway the rest of the night is not very exciting - drank and played some video poker and made it back to the Showboat on another jitney that made the trip without getting shot up.

tldr: went to AC, ate at Margaritaville (awesome), Margaritaville "casino" = nothing special, overheard a jitney was hit by gunfire earlier while riding jitney

Thanks for the suggestions on the bus from NYC to AC guys. Actually wasn't that bad of a ride Saturday afternoon. Little over two hours from my door to AC, plus the bus picked up 10 blocks from my house which was nice.

Gave all my action to the Borgata with one 2 hour session at the Taj. Borgata was a beautiful room but the action was pretty bleh Memorial day afternoon, but great on Saturday/Sunday. Had a bunch of higher players sit at my table which for a 2 hour period resulted in an average pot size of 250$. Hand of the night occurred when UTG (one of the players) makes it 20$ UTG, BTN makes it 50$, SB then snap makes it 250$. UTG tank calls with 300 left, BTN calls all in, then SB jams over the top for 300 more. UTG again tank calls. Board runs out 2345T and BTN scoops the main with AK, with SB taking the side with 75ss. No idea what UTG had lol.

Besides that crazy game, the Borgata reminds me of the Venetian in a lot of ways, a lot of games but definitely nittier than your average place because of all the good comps. Taj was...well old I guess would be the best way to describe it.

Will probably be back, played 30 hours over the weekend so hopefully I got a free room or two

Hi all,

I live in Newport News, VA and I try to come up to AC as much as I can(Well, when my wife lets me go..lol). I love playing tournaments which is my strong side compared to antsy cash game fever. I have only played really at the showboat on there 11am,1pm, 7pm and 11pm on Saturday/Sun. I need to know really best place to just improve my game and win a couple. I enjoy showboat bc it is not too serious but, there arn't any antes. Well, I don't mind that I just didn't know if these 65$ tournaments was the best price for my money at low starter stages.

Thanks all!

Ronald

well theres really only one place with good tournament action that has the highest buy ins, the borgata. other than that your options are pretty much limited to the showboat.

check the borgata daily tournament schedule to see if you are interested

also if your making your way up here soon the borgata is running their summer open series from june 4-21. besides the daily main events, there are plenty of cash tournaments being held each day that get lots of players

I see. I just get nervous because buy ins so high. I think its psychological. How is the play over there? I heard its shark city...

in my opinion, now that the summer is here the traffic in the room picks up which means alot of fish in the tourny's and cash games. I also like playing at the B cause its not a table full of regulars who are all friends like you get at most other places in AC

Alright, ill have to take your advice. I just hate dropping 350 on tourney and then my luck will get cooled

most of the daily tourny's at the borgata are around $125. very reasonable buy-in's, pretty good structures and lots of players

Anyone see the promotional calendar for CET properties for the month of June. They certainly are adding lots of promotions for weekday players including full house and high hand promotions. The bad news is that the players will be funding these through the BBJ take.

Beginning June 1st, the BBJ drop will increase to $2, bringing the rake per hand to $4 plus $2. An increase of $1 per hand really adds up, and is only serving to alienate players further in an already declining market. IMO, the promotions should be funded by the casino, and if they are unable to do so, then find other ways to draw in players. This will bring CET properties to the highest take in AC, and with the current changes in the total rewards program, CET is only driving away their loyal poker player base.

If anyone has anything to say on this, please do so. Help by talking with Dan to bring the take back to $1. Would you as a regular player rather have the promotions or the lower drop?

Did not know that all the promotions were being funded with a higher rake. The room promotion in Bravo says "come get your share of $200,000 cash". That's ironic since that is my cash that's being shared! I cancelled my upcoming trip to Showboat/Caesars and will go someplace else.

Easy solution: stay at showboat and play at Revel until you played enough hours for free room.

Are you serious about the 2 dollar bbj drop? Good lord that is a disaster

How is the golden nugget 10k guarantee on saturdays?

literally did this last night

there was an hour or so at my revel 1/2 table when the 10k guaranteed was in the early running so we were between 3 and 5 handed. the floor told our dealer to take zero rake. $6 rake on a 1/2 game is on par with rooms in manhattan

revel is definitely the place to play 1/2 and 2/5, such great value with the comps (love the easy friday and saturday night room offers)

i will not be playing poker at CET properties in AC anymore

Would anybody be able to help me find some sort of public or outdoor basketball court in AC? trying to take a day off from poker and play some hoops while I'm down there. Thanks in advance.

What can my wife do while I play tournaments. She gets really bored and nothing for her to do while in AC. I need advice from the other husbands!

Where are you staying?

Brigantine has an indoor public court and a few outdoor public courts. This is near the marina district.

Margate has very nice outdoor courts. Near tropicana side of things

Send her to the spa is a popular answer.

There is also The Walk which is an outdoor shopping plaza with really great outlet shops -- great prices for popular brands. The Pier Shops at caesars have good stores as well -- lots of high end stuff like louis vuitton she can ogle at.

Revel does fitness/yoga classes, harrahs does a cooking class

Back in NYC entire summer from Canada, so haven't played in a while and looking to hop on a bus to head down to AC for a weekend possibly for my "fix" .

Keep reading people talking about rooms getting comped for play and ppl handing out slot comps off the bus. Could someone explain the logistics of this/how it works? (basically sussing out that, If I played most of the day at 1/2 or 2/5 could I get a room comp). My local casinos in Vancouver don't do comps lol.

Aside from that it seems that Revel on Weekends, Borgota or Golden Nugget are the good places to go for poker?

If the bus stops at the casino it seems to be how you'd get slot play.

If you check the specific casinos threads, it will provide you with more detail.

In short, you would need to put in 8/10 hours a day, for a few days and then in future visits you'd probably get some free rooms during the week. You might get a poker rate if you put some hours in and then asked but it's going to be 60-100 bucks in summer.

Nugget probably wouldn't be in my list of places to go. Borgata, Borgata, Taj, then Harrahs.

Lower drop, of course.

If I were a constant weekday player, I might decide to live with the extra dollar. As a weekend player, there's absolutely no way I'm going to a Caesars room to put in an extra buck to be paid out on weekdays.