I just booked my first trip out to Borgata since they switched over to MLife. It's been a while since I was a Borgata reg, but it used to be that in order to get the best room offers you needed to average around 15 comp dollars a day, or:

10 hours a day at 1/2
7.5 hours a day at 2/5 or 5/T

Does anyone know if that's still the case?

Are the comp rates still the same for poker? $2/hr at 2/5? Is it $2 or $3 at 5/T? My understanding is that you earn tier credits and comp dollars separately? Or is it all tier credits and you convert them to comp dollars to use them?

Last, but perhaps most important, I have a Borgata Black card that I had earned a few years ago, and matched a couple times since to maintain it. I have an MLife Gold card that I matched. The two accounts have not been linked, yet, even though it's all the same info on both. I guess they aren't cross-referencing them? So I just signed into the Borgata website with my usual login, and they have created an MLife account with the lowest card level, but my offers remained.

So, do I want to go link these in person or am I at risk of losing my free rooms if I get them condensed down to one MLife Gold card? The upside would be combining tier credit earning across all MGM properties to try to earn Gold? Which I assume is ~500 hours of poker a year?

Thanks for any/all help guys!

I don't think there's been any change to the average needed for weekends. Mine must be between 11 and 12 hours/day at 1/2, and I have nearly any night free as far as the calendar goes.

I don't know of any change to the comp rates, so it should still be $2 at 2/5 and 5/T and $3 for higher. Those are Express Comps, which are the old comp dollars. They now expire after a year of no activity (six months for Sapphire). Tier Credits are new, and only for moving up four of the new five tiers. It's 75 TCs for each Express Comp you earn (at least for poker), and you can also get 1 TC for every dollar you spend on the property.

My understanding is that the changeover should have resulted in your existing accounts being merged, maintaining everything from both. You should probably visit the Mlife desk to make that happen. Your old My Borgata card is of no use any more.

Thanks! So that should be 1,000 comp dollars to get Gold, and it's the total earned across all MLife venues? I know some of them do it a little differently, though, and the comps don't actually count for tier status (MGM National Harbor is like this I think).

As far as I know, Tier Credits are Tier Credits. Not quite so for Express Comps, since the ex-MBR account page notes that to use ECs from other properties at Borgata you have to go to the Mlife desk. But 1000 ECs will get you there, same as for Black before.

I should have noted earlier that it's not a rolling/anniversary thing any more, it's October 1 to September 30. Everybody rolls over on the same date now. (So if your trip is before 9/30, that play won't help you for maintaining Gold...but I think the tiers assigned in the changeover are good until 9/30/2018, so it shouldn't matter.)

(And if anybody wonders if the FAQ is going to be updated, yes. I've been waiting for everything to settle so I can do it all at once and have it stick.)

I read a few weeks ago on this forum the buy-ins were changing for 1/2 and 2/5.

Did this happen or was it a rumor.

Happened.
1-2 100-300
2-5 200-1000

How has raising the min for 1/2 to 100 worked out? People sitting with 60 was super annoying.

How has raising the 2/5 cap changed the games? Tighter/looser?

Are they still lobbying the walkers when they leave the table for like 45 minutes after playing 3 hands? If so, has this reduced the number of walkers?

They ever discuss adding 1/3 500 cap? Going from 1/2 300 cap to 2/5 1k cap is a drastic change for some

Going from a $300 maximum to a $1000 maximum is a big jump. But the $1000 maximum is not a requirement. One may still buy in for $500.

I've been curious if this is still the policy or not. It doesn't seem to happen much anymore.

They do that at time games? I have never seen someone put into the lobby at 5/10, even chronic walkers.

The original policy was to lobby on raked games when pitching a missed blind button (and as soon as you got up from stud games). Time games didn't have it except for the third walker at 10/20 & 20/40 LHE.

Some dealers were never very good about it, some were slow to lobby regulars. As I said, I haven't seen it much lately.

is diamond compatible to the M new gold card?

Yes

What is the cheapest/easiest way to get Gold status so I can use Aphora lounge?

I have 28K tier credits and need to reach 75K to get Gold Card. This is not easy at 1/2NL and 2/5NL... Advice?

***

Also, are there any resources/blogs that discuss any +EV promotions that AC casinos have?

10X slot dollars Sept 4, playing near optimal 9/6 JoB it's actually +EV if you can stomach the variance

head to high limit slot area and get on $5 machine, $50K playthrough (about 3 hours on decent speed) should do the trick

Good lord

play the multi-strike version of 9/6 JoB.
you need a COMPLETELY different strategy sheet but it's their best game @ 99.79%.

I didn't even know they had MS, good looking out. He'd probably get killed by mistakes if he's not AP though or would have to grind like 10 hours + for extra .25% edge

http://www.vpfree2.com/casino/borgata

hard to make mistakes if you follow the strategy sheet.
yeah about grinding 10+ hrs to even out the extra variance.

I've hit quads on the 8x multiplier line at .25 denomination.
I've also lost $1500 at .50 denomination in 4hrs

I was actually talking about the need to refer to a sheet constantly which would significantly lower his speed. grinding $50K playthrough at lower limits in a single day is all but impossible for inexperienced vp player

I will be at the Borgata later this week and was wondering if they still have their regular tourneys during the Poker Open?

Daily tournaments are generally cancelled during tournament series. I see it's not listed yet for this series, but it is usually the case.

Thanks!

What I've learned:

The Mlife desk can't see poker play at all. They could see that I was there on 8/12, but no play.

The poker shift supervisors can't see Tier Credits by visit. They could see my 8/12 poker play, but no breakdown of TCs that would indicate that my total didn't yet include TCs from that visit.

On 8/26 I asked at the poker desk, who sent me to the Mlife desk, who sent me back to the poker desk. They gave me the number of someone in poker marketing who they said was their liaison for such things, and she passed me along to someone else who hasn't yet returned my call. This morning, my account showed an increase in Tier Credits that covers my play 8/12 and 8/26. (And now I'm 55 short of a tier increase, which leaves me wondering what happens when I play again 9/23 and that play doesn't hit my account until after 9/30.)