Anyone want to post a report on the room opening this weekend for us out-of-towners who couldn't make it?

there were 36 runners for the inaugural tnmt. @ 11 am. today taking in $2,232 in entry fees and giving out $3,000 in cash prizes. Where are all you tournament players? the room opening was a smashing success, lots of poker players, lots of new, but thankfully, highly experienced dealers from around the city. The management has been very competent which I appreciate. All of the cash games I have played in since day 1 have been excellent, lots of action, highly recommended! Aside from the usual 2-4-6, 1-1, and many, many 1-2 NL games there has been at least one 2-5 NL and one 10-20 or 20-40 OE or HOSE game the past few days. The free-roll has been canceled, see bravo poker live for more info. We are still in the process of training the cocktail waitresses how to take and complete orders from the poker food menu, which is quite good, if you can get it! The room is so big that the floor person looks like a secret service agent complete with earphone headsets. Only one arrest on day 1...

Are these numbers correct? What was the buy-in for that tourney? (For 36 players, 3k in prizes and 2232 in fees, that implies a 83+62 buy-in, unless I'm misunderstanding).

Here's an overview and FAQ:

The Ballys Wild Wild West poker area is situated between Caesars and Ballys. You can park at either Caesars or Ballys parking lot. From Pacific Street, you can enter at the Ballys Wild West West entrance. From Boardwalk, enter at the Wild Wild West doors and head straight back to the poker area. The front desk is in the middle of the poker area where you sign up for the tables. The poker "room" has three distinct areas. There is the former Wild Wild West video poker room which has several tables and the cage. This is a nice area with high ceilings and the high limit area. Below the former Virginia City Buffet is another area with several tables. A third area has several tables for tournament games.

Ballys is part of Caesars Entertainment which uses the Total Rewards card. For more details, check out the total rewards website.

On Bravo, room is called WSOP Poker Room @ Bally's, which shows games in progress and waiting list.

GAMES, BUY-INS, COMPS:
Usually 2-4-6 limit, 1-1 NLHE, and 1-2 NLHE will be running. Other games may run on weekends.

Rake is 10% up to $4 and there is a $2 Bad Beat jackpot and promotions drop.

For 1-1 No Limit Holdem, buy-ins are $50 min to $150 max. Comps accrue at $1 per hour. Tier credits is 17 per hour.

For 1-2 No Limit Holdem, buy-ins are $60 to $300 max. Comps at $1/hr, and tier credits at 17/hour.

For 1-2 Super No Limit Holdem, buy-ins are $100 to $500 max. Comps at $1.50/hour, and tier credits at 26/hour. Almost all 1-2 games are now super no limit.

For 2-5 No Limit, buy-ins are $200 to $1000 max. Comps at $2/hr, and tier credits at 34/hour.

Initial buy-ins are done at cage. Players who miss their blinds are put in the "lobby" which pauses the time for comp accrual.

PROMOTIONS:
BAD BEAT JACKPOT
Ballys, Showboat and Harrahs participate in the same promotions. First there is a bad beat jackpot. The qualifying hand starts at quad kings. If the jackpot isn't hit, the qualifier will go down every second Wednesday morning (at 9am?). If the bad beats hits at any of the 3 properties, every person who has not missed a blind, will receive the three property room share. The BBJ payout is 30% to losing hand, 20% to winning had, 5% to the table that hit, and 45% split to all players playing at any of the three properties.

HIGH HAND
From 10am to 2am Sunday to Friday, $500 is giving each hour to the person with the highest hand in the three properties. To qualify, you need quad 2s or above (using only 1 hole card), minimum of $20 in pot, and of course, cards must be shown. (Caveat, I get different rules from different dealers, but hand does not have to go to showdown.). Whoever has the highest hand collects $500.

MONTHLY RAKEBACK:
You earn rakeback on number of hours played in a given month.
HOURS played in month - RAKEBACK AMOUNT
1-49 hours - $5
50-79 hours - $50
80-99 hours - $100
100-149 hours - $150
150-199 hours - $200
200+ hours - $250

In order to collect, you must go to Ballys, Showboat, or Harrahs on the second or fourth Wednesday of the following month from 8am to 8pm (? not sure of end time) at a kiosk in the poker room. Swipe your Total Rewards card, receive a printout, and take printout to a dealer and dealer will give you chips.

BONUS COMPS
At the end of every month, you will receive $10 for every ten hours played in that month up to 150 hours. The comps dollars will be deposited about two weeks after month ends. For me, the bonus comps are kinda flaky. It's not always the correct amount.

TOURNAMENTS:
Sunday to Thursday
There are three tournaments on these days.
At 11am, a $3,000 guarantee for $62+$13.
At 3pm, a $1,000 guarantee for $62+$13.
At 7pm, a $3,000 guarantee for $62+$13.

Friday and Saturday
At 11am, a $25,000 guarantee for $175+$25. Twenty-five thousand starting chip stack and 30 minute blind levels.
At 7pm, a $25,000 guarantee for $175+$25. Twenty-five thousand starting chip stack and 30 minute blind levels.
For both tournaments, there is a $5 dealer add-on for 5,000 additional chips. Unlimited re-entries until the 6th level.

At a later time, I will try to post tournament structures.

OTHER NOTES:
There is a poker room food and drink menu, and players can eat at the tables. Can be paid using comps, cash, or credit.

There is free wifi. It's password protected but just ask for the password.

Parking is paid on the way out and can range from $5 to more than $20 on weekends for Total Reward gold members and non-members. If you earn 25 tier credits, you can printout a free parking slip at a kiosk.

There are some hotel rooms for poker players. You need to call the poker room for more information.

$62+15 with 36 runners

62x36 = 2,232 in buyins (2772 with juice), but it was a 3k guarantee.

there are some mistakes here, the rakeback is on thursday not wednesday, among other misinformation, you are wrong about the buy in for the 3pm tnmt. $30 plus $10. Hotel rooms for poker players may be more fantasy than reality, but why not call...and the $2 promotions drop may be for the $800 they were short in the morning tournamment today and for stud and omaha players who do not pay into $2 promotion fund but will collect rake-back...its worth mentioning that the rake-back was just reduced a few days ago without notice to the players who formed a minor rebellion not unlike the Boston tea party and almost tarred and feathered me when I gave them the bad news, (had they graduated high school they probably would have realized its bad etiquette to shoot the messenger), and the free-roll was just canceled which raises serious questions as to why they are dropping $2 and not $1 for promotions, the taj is able to drop only $1 for promotions and give away tremendous amounts...

The more posts I read from you the more I think you're a troll.

They called the 2-5 game and not a single person except me showed up. Asked floor and he acted like I was crazy for thinking it will take off. I see it went today but certainly did not go on Thursday. The 10/20 game also broke quickly. I only played this game a few times and still recognized all the players. So much for good game.

The 1-2 was just awful, half table was OMC and alot of short buy ins. I walked around to see if other tables are deeper but it wasn't. Lets just say it was the complete opposite of Revels 1-2 but I recall you did't like it.

And location is nothing special, its not in sight of anything, you have to walk all the way to the back and follow signs.

No one should really play there due to their $2 drop.

The 20-40 got off I heard

Pretty scummy to just cancel the gtd tourney tonight. After calling and they said they were def having it. And driving down here just for that. Roughly 20 people at 7pm, and then floor guy demands we all play anyway just without a gtd. lol no thanks.

CORRECTED TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
Sunday to Thursday
There are three tournaments on these days.
At 11am, a $3,000 guarantee for $62+$13.
At 3pm, a $1,000 guarantee for $30+$10.
At 7pm, a $4,000 guarantee for $62+$13.

And based on the previous message, the guarantee is no longer a guarantee.

Happy to see they will cancel the guaranteed tournaments instead of having to cover the shortage with promotion money.

The promotion money is for CASH GAME PLAYERS!!!

Lol ok... Why have gtd's then? Great way to kick off the room.. I sure wont be back for any tourney's.

What a joke this canceling of guarantee tourneys are......

17 table high limit room?!?!? Come on.....

I was there for the 11am tourney (took 3rd), and thought the room/rooms, looked pretty good. However, the tournament area leaves something to be desired. What foot traffic there is coming from outside, literally walks right through the tournament area. As for waitress service, few and far between. You'd see them on occasion, but only as they walked in and out of the cash rooms. Um, tournament players get hungry and thirsty too. Just sayin.

You can see that they did at least put new felt on the tables, but the underlayment is awful. There's no give to it whatsoever, and trying to pry up your cards is a task each and every time. Couple that with being able to slide the cards the length of the table and the padded rails not being secure, it made for several stoppages due to cards sliding completely under the rail.

And now they pulled the 7pm gty? on the first night? That's a poor start to a room that does show some potential.

IMO, I think everyone should just go to golden nugget for gtd tourney's. Where they ALWAYS run no matter how many people show up. And where floor people dont get snobby and defensive when a player/customer is voicing their concerns. My two cents

Real ****ing nice. Cancel at will. What is this? Harrahs Philadelphia where a guarantee is not a guarantee. You're really gonna make a run at Borgata like that. Should we be surprised by a CET poker room screwing their customer base? I think not. Same crap different location. Glad I didn't take the ride like I was going to.

How about they cover it out of the coffers of $ CET has? That would be nice but no they won't. Treat us like **** as always. Glad I've wised up and I'm not so loyal any more. I wonder why? Lol

+1

Coffers? LOL. They are actually quite over leveraged. Not good financial shape. That is why they were asked nicely to withdraw their application for one of the MA licenses.

Another reason why horseshoe will never put a dent in maryland lives poker room

How do you renege on something advertised as gauranteed? Imagine the hell that would break loose if the 25K doesn't get enough players for them.

+10000. So pathetic

if the high hand is quads it will pay $200, - so much for 2-4-6 LHE games at CET properties. Now they lose way too much money, $4 rake, $2 promotion drop, and $1 dealer tip, and they are not going to make up their huge losses with that rake structure with the occasional extra $200...

GN has been my home for tournaments since they reopened the poker room. I plan on coming up for several days later this week and was planning on playing the WWW tournaments to see how they played there. I hope they honor the guarantee's from now on. I played cash quite a while at WWW last Friday and liked the room. Would be a shame to develop the wrong kind of name for themselves in the first week they open. It won't bother me that much if they screw it up though, I am fine playing at GN and I like not paying for parking.

I'm confused here. Yes, cars and buses drive right past the new poker room location - but unless a new walkway has been opened up (and maybe one has, I haven't seen the new set up yet and won't for at least a week or 2) then it is still a hike from where one parks or gets off the bus.

I've never seen a straight line way to make the walk. Or am I missing something?

It's no longer of a walk than the old room used to be, and with good signage a lot more people will be able to easily find the new room. Hardly "remote"! But not, from a practical point, a "few feet from their bus", either. So, neither statement really makes sense to me.

I don't see a problem with the new location. It should be a lot easier to find, and draw more players, than the old one did. Time will tell.

Lee