not everyone is playing 1/2 and 2/5 nl .

and even in those games if a few people walk, the others refuse to play you just sit there waiting for them to fill seats with no game and you can't table change. not close to a non issue. i've seen it on other tables as well and it's frustrating for everyone including the dealers.

like i said people should understand the current situation and stop being so self centered.

Cell coverage in the room and on the floor is spotty. Not getting texts isn't a surprise. And the wi-fi isn't secure, so very much AYOR.

While acknowledging that both the rake needed to increase, and the permissible time breaks needed to decrease, here are my main issues with how these changes have been implemented:

1. The two big blind rule for getting picked up is definitely frustrating and unfair. It can be as quick as 10 minutes and the player has no control of this.

2. I don't understand why some games have allowable breaks ranging from 30 - 60 minutes, and others use the two big blind rule. I realize they use the "rake per hand" vs. "time rake" distinction, but I'm not sure why that matters. And, even more annoying, the game I play most (5/5 PLO) switched from time to rake per hand.

3. Finally, the switch from time rake to per hand rake in 5/5 PLO basically increases the rake we pay by close to 100% or more (from $5 per half hour to $5 per hand). I don't understand why the games that switched to per hand rake have such dramatic increases in rake, while others (like 5/10 NL) simply went up a small percentage (for example, from $6 per half hour to $7).

I spoke to the head of the poker room about these issues and he refused to give any type of coherent or rational explanation for this, other than a very generic ".....we needed to increase rake and decrease breaks to keep all the games viable....".

I also agree with others that the messaging system and time it takes to fill an empty seat appears very inefficient. This is a big factor why tables are rarely 7 handed. Having said that, I'm not sure there is a great solution to this.

On the plus side, the comps are still good. And, between the spacing, plexiglass, and mask rule, I felt very safe playing there.

I agree with this 100 percent. I expected it to go up but not switch to pot rake. It's definitely made it harder to start or keep games running which I'm sure makes the dealers who now have 45 minute downs and no table happy.It's odd both 5/10 nl and 10/10 plo went from 6 a half to 7 but 5/5 plo didnt just go up per half.

I never receive texts from them either, but I do get emails. Give them your email address next time instead.

It boils down to money. 7 players paying time instead of 10 players is a 30% cut from their old take right off the top. They make more money with rake but they might not wanna admit it.

It's alil ironic that they're much faster to pick someone up after being gone 9 minutes than filling seats which sometimes takes 30 min. +.

right but 5/10 nl went from 6/half 9 handed to 7 half 7 handed so they're willing to make less for that game

My stereotype of Borgata PLO players are degenerate gambler who will not care for a second what the rake is

Is it illegal to sell comped free rooms?

It is not against the law, but it is against Borgata rules/policy. For forum purposes we treat this as the same thing. Thus discussion about this isn't allowed.

They seem ignore the list late at night/early morning. Had it happen numerous times that I was on the 2/5 list after midnight and came to the room to find numerous seats open and tables breaking. A couple weeks ago I was on the 5/10 list while playing a different game nearby and watched numerous people get sat without them going to the list. I didn’t want the seat anymore so I didn’t mind, but it was very clear that after a certain hour if you want a seat you have to make your presence known and not rely on being called off the list.

Night shift probably not used to ever doing a list lol

You couldn't be more right. If you ask a non-pro what the rake was in that game he would look at you like you from the moon or something. Keep in mind that most of them at some point played in some private game where the rake could have been something like 10% capped at $15-20 per hand so it is close to impossible to scare them away from the game by $6-7 per hand rake.
Oh and about lists...i just played a session of 5-5 PLO. Over the last 2 hours or so, we were playing 4 handed while there were 3-4 names on the list. The action was really good and the players didn't mind playing short. So nobody was asking dealers to check if there was anybody on the list but at the same time, it looked like dealers just didn't care. Why would they care? The shorter the game the more hands they get to deal, right?

they don't care bc way too many of their poker employees don't care about anything.

Well, to be fair to the dealers, the only way to know if there's a list is to yell to the floor, and at least some of the floors don't appreciate that. Some will just call back "No list," but I've seen some get snippy about hearing "Seat open" more than once. So if the floors could stay on top of filling seats, we wouldn't need the dealers to do it on top of everything else they do.

I'd think the Bravo system would have some mechanism to ping the brush when a seat opens in a game with a list. If it doesn't, it should.

As a poker dealer (not at the Borgata, though I thought their staff all around were quite good when I played there) let me say that the dealer's job is to run the game. The floor's job is to ensure games are kept full and the seating coordinator's job is to call the list to fill the seats.

If a player asks me to fill a seat when I am in the box, I will ask a floor to see if there's a list. Unless I feel otherwise or know otherwise, I assume the people I work with know their jobs.

All that said, it was probably a dead list. This isn't $1/3, this is a PLO game with fewer tables so anyone on the list who really wants to play will chime in even if everyone else has fallen asleep. If nobody ever piped up to say "I'm next on the list, is there an open seat," I wonder how fresh that list is.

It's not about it not being your job to keep the seats full when lists are 20+ deep. You work for tips from the players, so you should be able to notify a supervisor that there's an open seat to keep them happy (unless you work in a room that solely relies on Bravo to alert the brush, which Borg is not).

From my experience here (which isn't that long, but almost every day for the past couple weeks) the dealers are responsible to alert a nearby supervisor that a seat needs to be cleaned and filled. It's also my experience that some of the dealers here don't do anything unless the players start to ask about it. And yes, I've also witnessed a dual rate young hot gun talk back to a dealer after being alerted of an open seat and if he did that in other rooms I play in he would be in trouble, if not written up or fired.

I was in a game a couple days ago when a player asked the dealer how long till we get more players and his response was "I already told them" but I politely reminded him when he said "open seat 2/5", there was no one around him for a mile. I intervened because of the attitude he gave the player. I also jokingly said yesterday they pick up players a lot faster than it takes them to fill seats after 2 players got picked up after 9 minutes.

At Borgata they don't allow players to wonder around in the room without playing, so if that was the case, they would have no idea of the open seats.

I don't understand why dealers have to call out to the floor.
The Floor should be able to just look at the Bravo interface and see that there is an open seat! I find it hard to believe that there isn't an "alert/notification" mechanism like we all have on our phones.

There is but the podium relies on supervisors to request players and the floor supervisors don't have access to Bravo.

There are some shifts that are great at it, and others that don't care to prioritize it (same with dealers).

Those terminals throughout the room do have the seat map with open/occupied indicated, and they can view the waiting lists by game. But they don't stand there looking at the screen to see if they should do something. Maybe allowing the person who *is* just sitting in front of a screen to call players without being asked would help.

borgata's staff overall is not good. it was good years ago when Stan was still there. there are still some excellent employees but they are few and far between.

normally i'd agree with you but these days you can't wait inside the room so it's not necessarily an old list.i'm not sure if you have been there since it reopened but they have to text you for a seat. there is no excuse for empty seats with a list of names that are not being texted for long periods of time.of course it could have been an old list but being the players were never texted it's impossible to say.

I'm guessing that if it became the custom to tip an employee $1 for finding them a seat (which seems reasonable), service would be GREAT! ;-)

That sounds like a bribe

America runs on bribery.

It would be if the tip were to occur before the seat were found.

But, if the tip were to occur after the seat were found, it would be a tip.

Nobody who can find you a seat is allowed to take tips, so it doesn't really matter.