The Borgata is the best room in the country, imo, but the lack of chip runners is one negative.

It really slows down the game, which is annoying from a player point of view. It's also a deterrent to gambling. . . . If you don't believe me, head out to LA and watch the super-aggro players shove buy-in after buy-in into the middle, only slowing down long enough to holler "CHIPS!" whenever their draw doesn't hit.

However, from the room's point of view, there are at least a couple more considerations:
1) After someone gets felted, they have an immediate choice to buy back in or leave. Standing in line at the cashier's cage or stopping the dealer to buy back in are often factors in a player's decision to stay or go. Players leaving is bad for the room, and bad for the other players. At least some of those players would stay if they could just hold money in the air and get it changed out right away.
2) It's harder to start games. This is especially true in the high limit room, which is geographically separate from the cage, but is also true in other areas as well. Many times I've seen games that could've started 10 minutes quicker if everyone didn't need to go to the cage first.

Chip runners are pretty much the only thing that I see where the casinos out west have an advantage over their East coast counterparts. It's just so easy to shout "Chips!" and get right into action out there.

I'll be there as well. I'll give the first day a shot and hope to secure a seat in day two so I can play 2/5 and PCG against the "amazing" players who shuffle in on Saturdays and Sundays. I'm just overjoyed thinking about the last hour or so of days 1A and 1B when it'll be an absolute shove-fest for anybody with maybe 10-15 BBs. Yeah, I can't see it having less than a thousand entries. But a thousand entries, obviously, doesn't represent a thousand players--I can't see a thousand players. If 1k people showed up over the three days, this tournament would demolish the guarantee.

game report please

1) at the borgata (and probably every poker room in AC), you can rebuy from the dealer.

2) often times the borg high limit area has 'chip runners' (technically not chip runners, but serve the purpose and are just as convenient if not moreso).

The initial buy frequently has to come from the cage. In the high limit room, many times you can buy in at the table, but sometimes not (especially if you're starting a game.) In any case, it slows down the game, and I think it deters rebuying if someone is on the fence. This is especially true in the high limit area, where a floor has to brought in to visually approve every drop.

The availability of high limit chip runners is extremely spotty. I was there last Friday, it was very buys, and I can assure you that the usual guy with the push cart was nowhere to be found for most of the night. Starting the 10/20NL game was delayed when all the players had to go stand in a long line at the same time to get chips. There was then a separate issue to change out all the greens from other games to yellows.

I def meant 1,000 entries....but that's still the same as 1,000 players in regards to prize pool/guarantee.

I think the guarantee is 200K? That's 666 entries. I think the guarantee will be exceeded....handily. Prize pool could/should be north of $300K

yeah, the last two blind levels of Fri and Sat will def be good for gambling for anyone on a draw with 20K or less in chips.

The # of 1/2, 2/5 and maybe even 5/10 games should be sick on Saturday and Sunday....we're talking next weekend of course.

Question for those who are familiar with AC:

What's the poker action like in AC right after Christmas through New Year's?

It's only the same in that they both signal a major blowout of the 200k guarantee. 1,000 entries is a 300k prize pool. 1,000 players probably means at least 1,500 entries, or a 50% larger prize pool--big difference.

It is usually semi-quiet up until Christmas. After Christmas it usually gets busier and busier every day until NYE when it is rocking.

Its like 24/7...

I have to agree with brother cl0r0x70 regarding the chip runner issue. It is one of the few things about the Borgata Poker room that is consistently frustrating. On a busy night the line at the cashier can easily be 15-20 people deep and when you are buying chips for a new game or because your name has just been called it's a real bummer to stand there waiting.

I just don't understand how this Saturday the chip runner will be there but not the following Saturday?

btw I have a potential solution (albeit long term) to this problem which I will post more about after some research and paperwork is done.

Waiting on line in a casino to buy chips really sucks. However, the Borgata has perpetual poker action.

The worst thing is waiting on line to buy chips, at the Trop, where there is never any action in a three quarter empty room.

I solved the waiting on line problem at the Borg though.

Step 1. Go to the horse betting room, right next to the poker room, put 2 win, 2 place on a longshot, receive two free drink coupons,

Step 2. Order up a shot of bourbon straight up, and a draught beer chaser, tip a buck or two.

Step 3. Down shot of bourbon, chase with beer, watch horse lose, enjoy positive EV of top shelf liquor for four bucks on bad horse selection,

Step 4. Bring your beer with you to the cashier's line

Step 5. buy chips, drink beer, play poker, enjoy the ambience of the Borgata, problem solved...

My estimate:

Day 1a - 290
Day 1b - 460
Day 1c - 620

Total Entries = 1370


I'm Playing Day 1c....just booked my 1st ever FREE room for Sunday night....gotta love it....and I just have a lowly red card.

Comp nights might not be available right away, you will have to earn them. What you can get is the poker rate to get you a start at the Borgata.

Sunday $79
Monday $59
Tuesday $59
Wednesday $59
Thursday $79

PM me when you are ready to start the Borgata experience!

Stan

I have read this a couple of times and i hope i understand why you wrote it. I will try and give an answer if that is what you are looking for.

The 10-20 O.E. game is a good game, no doubt about it. The only problem with it is on the weekends. It limits what other games we can spread. If we run the 10-20 O.E. sunday thru Thursday, it shouldn't have any competition and it runs very smoothly. Fridays and Saturdays however, we have an influx of players that want more of a variety.

We have PC 08 players, we have 4-8 H.O.S.E. players, we have 5-10 Omaha players, and we have PC Stud H/L players. So what do we do? Well we can do several things.

1. Put up all of the lists and let the players decide. Does work sometimes but complicates what games are normally run at the Borgata.
2. Limit the 10-20 to Omaha H/L. Let the PC or 4-8 Hose (or combination thereof, O.E., H.O., H.O.E.) be the multi-way game. Offer the 5-10 Omaha H/L to be a feeder game into the 10-20 Omaha.

I am open to suggestions. I do not want players thinking that we will not run Multi-way games. We always will. What we can't do is run all of them at the same time.

Stan

I just want everyone to know that tables will be tight on Saturday. Depending on live games, the tournament on Saturday may be limited to 35 tables. While giving 25k in starting chips, very few alternates will make into the tournament. With this said 360 might be the max number for Saturday. I would look to play Friday and Sunday if you only want to play one starting day. I would hate to see players drive in from far away only to find that they are shut out.

Stna

Why do people wait to buy chips only when the game is called? If you know that you are going to play, buy chips when you get here. It doesn't take a long tidme to get into ta game.

The cashiers are sometimes pulled from poker when they have a lot of call outs. They will re-route the cahiers to other parts of the casino. These cashiers do not belong to or managed by poker.

Stan

Hi taaemt. I've found that yes it is very hard to get a game going off the list. I mean what's the chances that 6-9 players who put their name on the list are idle in the waiting area for hours on end waiting for a non-standard game to get spread?

Last time i went down, I got a 30/60 O8 game with another poster here (who's a regular AC player) when i just went up to shift supervisor and asked for a spread.

FYI, it was relatively slow that day but what we did was just ante up btwn the two of us and next thing we know, there's a full-ring 30/60 O8 game they setup right outside the high limit room so we got all kinds of mid limit and high limit players jumping in.

I think taking the initiative and showing that there are two players willing to play heads up and PRESENT is the key to get games going. I think that goes for any level and any mixed game.

and my next question ot you is why wouldn't you want to play those guys short-handed?! you get the opportunity to play in the best (and maybe only?) casino 10/20 OE game on the whole east coast all to yourself.

if you ever want to play mid-limit mixed games just PM me and i'll come down.

Stan,

I normally try to do this but TBH you may be seeing this through the eyes of the Manager and not the player...Allow me to explain with a story of why I don't do this anymore unless I am going into a game already running...

While waiting for a 10/20 seat one day a new game is called. Like a good person I go to the cage and get my initial buy in. After hanging around the table it is decided that not enough people show up so the game is killed and we go back on the list. Now I am like five people down on the list and standing in the room with 5k in black/yellow, which is a real PITA since I am a degenerate smoker and now I have a 30 minute wait for my seat. So I go BACK to the cage and cash my chips BACK in and then go BACK again when my name is called. Add to this the fact that you have to show additional ID for amounts over 3k and I think you can see how it quickly becomes a little more than annoying.

Since then I haven't bought chips until I am %100 certain that I will be taking cards at the table I am heading to. As C said, it just slows things down.

Hammy is right Stan.

I have limited free time to play poker. So it's a wait up front, and a wait out the door.

Sometimes if I get a few blacks or greens, I will take them home and save them for the next visit, so I can color down right at the table. However, since I play mostly 7.50/15.00 now, I am forced to make the walk of excrutiatingly long delay to the understaffed poker room cage to get the pink chips...

Well with the knowledge of this info....

Re-estimate:

Day 1a - 340
Day 1b - 360
Day 1c - 625

Total Entries = 1325

This isn't true for the higher limits.

I come in with a routine: I put my name on the 5/10NL, 10/20NL, 10/25NL, and start a list of interest for 5/10PLO (see you in a few hours, btw.) The wildcard is the 10/20NL game, which uses yellows where all the other games use greens.

Average wait is about 20 minutes, but I've waited well over an hour before.

Don't tell anyone about this.... but,

When the line at the poker cage is excessively long (which seems to be every time I look), I just walk out of the poker room and turn left. Twenty feet ahead on the right is a craps table. Walk up to the craps table, drop $$$ on felt, receive chips. Take said chips to your seat at the game. You can even get one of the pit critters to give you a rack, if you ask nicely. I've used this for buy-in's ranging from $100 to a couple dimes. Sadly, this doesn't work for Pink. I wonder if a BJ table would sell me 2 racks of Pink?? ... NOT!

I park in the garage, so on the way out, I just cash out at the main cage... which is on the way to my car.

My only complaint about the Borg poker room is the cage. And, that is out of Stan's control. So, I just avoid it, whenever possible.

fyp

the line has never under any circumstances been more then a ten minute wait and that is an apocalyptic scenario