I was there opening night.

The poker room is smoke free, but there is smoking on the gaming floor. There’s also ashtrays set up just outside the entrance to the poker room, and poker players tend to go there to smoke.

I didn't notice any cigarette smell during my entire visit. Heck, I didn't even notice it when I was outside the poker room to cash out and walk to the exit. I could imagine there being an issue with the tables closest to the doorway to the casino. If so, get a table change to one of the tables further back. I doubt it will be much of an issue inside the poker room.

well that's a relief to hear, thanks guys. though i wonder what it'll be like on weekend nights when traffic is heavy on the floor. guess that remains to be seen...or smelled, rather.

I guess I've gotten spoiled playing in rooms/casinos that don't allow smoking except in very restricted areas.

They are doing a $2 promotional drop without running any promotions? So it’s just a straight $9 rake right now? I’m much less likely to want to play in the room if this is the case.

Seems like it’s working for them right now though; Bravo shows a 58 people on the waitlist for 1/3 and 46 people on the waitlist for 2/5. If the room is that popular, why aren’t the running anything higher?

I was excited about this place being only an hour from me, but I'll be passing on that rake...

I assume that promotional drop goes into a bad beat jackpot, not to the house?

That is a pretty big poker room. Are they close to filling it? I guess Raleigh-Durham it a little over an hour is the nearest significant city.

A promotional drop should go into a bad beat jackpot or some other promotion that is paid back to the players, but right now they don’t seem to have any promotions, so there’s no possibility of getting it paid back. I’m surprised this is permitted under gaming regulations.

The fund has to be built up somehow!

You can't just open up a room and have a bad beat and/or high hand promotions immediately upon opening, now can you?

I'm sure promotions will be forthcoming and will be funded via the promotional $2 they are taking on each pot.

Danville figures in maybe the top country song of the 1920s, "The Wreck on Old 97." The railroad blamed the late engineer for speeding down a mountain. However, he was under pressure to make up lost time, as the railroad had a contract with the Post Office Department which penalized them so many dollars for each minute the train was late.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyk3AEXvmLg

Sure you can.
High hands are usually only a couple hundred per hour, and pay for themselves as they go.
And you could absolutely have a bad beat jackpot at the start, it would just start small. It’s certainly better than nothing.

Typically, casinos don’t take a promotional rake in games that aren’t eligible for the promotions. E.g., there’s no BBJP rake in limit mixed games.
If no games right now are eligible for the promotions, they shouldn’t be taking any promotional rake.

As of right now, they have 11 games running with well over 100 names on the waitlist. The promote the room as having 21 tables, so it sounds like maybe they underestimated the demand for dealers.

Heard that you can sign in and get on the waiting list online, via “the Caesars site” , and that Bravo app sign in does not work…

Have been looking but am not seeing how to do this via main Caesars site, does anyone know?!!?

Bravo is showing them running 10 games right now (10pm on Saturday night) with over 150 people on the waitlist. I’m a little surprised they would be this understaffed for dealers on what they must have known would be a high-demand time.

Regardless, I’ll be coming down for the first time on Monday night and will check it out if I can actually get in a game.

has anyone played the 2/2 PLO yet? i haven't had a chance to make it up there yet but I'm wondering how they structure their preflop raising rules...

I've seen 3 different ways of approaching 2/2 PLO - Parx has it so opening for pot is to $8, nothing out of the ordinary. but I've also seen, at other properties, pot being to $15 (somehow counting both blinds as $5 total), and finally pot being to $20 (counting both blinds as $5 each).

looks like they might be short on dealers already - I've seen Bravo wait-lists very high, and max number of tables running at around 10-12, only half of the amount of tables they have in the room. hopefully they figure it out. and hopefully they give some transparency to the promo drops and BBJ/high hands too. definitely a few concerning things already, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt since it's so new.

I played the 2/2 PLO on opening night.

It was $5 to bring in, a straddle is to $10 (UTG only) and a pot open with no limpers is $15.

The dealers were very inexperienced, and needed help from players calculating the pot. Hopefully that’ll be getting better as they stay open longer, but definitely pack your patience.

That sounds like it has the potential to be a very big 2-2 game. What's the buyin? Rake or time?

1k cap, I think 7+2.

It’s definitely not time charge, I know that.

That's a pretty standard way of running 1/2 or 2/2 PLO. All the Vegas 1/2 PLO is like that as well as some other cities I regularly play.

I played in the Caesars Virginia poker room for the first time this past Monday night and Tuesday during the day (Dec. 30-31). Here are a few observations.

- The room was consistently spreading several 1/3 NL games, 2 or 3 2/5 NL games, and a 2/2 PLO table. There didn’t seem to be much interest for any other games or limits except perhaps a 5/5 PLO. I really hope there can be some momentum to get a little more game variety at some point.

- Rake it $7 plus $2 for promotions. One dealer mentioned there actually -was- a BBJP in play, but it required quads 8s to be beaten and was only at around $5,000, so I guess I can understand why the casino wouldn’t really promote it yet.

- The wait lists were very long when I first got to the room at around 10pm on Monday night, and I had to wait around 90 minutes for a 2/5 seats. The lists cleared by around 1am, and the lists were pretty short the following afternoon. Dealers said the casino was trying to hire more dealers for the busy times, but was having trouble finding qualified people and get licenses.

- The NL games were spread 10-handed. This made for some very slow games, but I guess it’s understandable when the room is so packed. I believe the PLO was 9-handed.

- A few of the dealers were a little slow, but overall I thought they were quite good, usually friendly, and I saw very few mistakes or controversies.

- The first thing you notice when you sit down at the table is these weird circle lights at every seat around where you would normally post the blinds. It’s actually a side bet. You can bet $5 on the light, and it pay out only if the flop is a 3-card straight or 3 of a kind. If you do win, you get to spin an electronic wheel, which usually pays out like $50-$100, but with a very small shot at a progressive jackpot of $14,000.

In general, it seems like a good way for the casino to rake about $100/hour from bad, gambly players. That said, I did bet this twice…once as a mistake when I first sat down. But the second time, someone convinced everyone at the table to bet it at the same time, and it hit! (Flop 678) I ended up winning $250, while everyone else got a measly $50. Still doesn’t sway me that this is anything other than a terrible bet long term.

- On Monday night, more than half the players at my 2/5 table, and seemingly about half the players in the room were Indian/South Asian. This was surprising to me, as I haven’t seen this demographic this well represented in a poker room ever before. I saw a lot fewer South Asian players the next day, so likely the was not typical for the room.

- I thought the quality of the games overall was very good, and enough to compensate for the high rake at least at 2/5. The 2/5 game had several good players, but all more than fair share of very loose/gambly types. Not too many limped pots, but also not that many 3-bet pots, and it was very normal to go like 4 or 5 ways to the flop for $20. I played briefly at 1/3 also, and the players were overwhelming very bad but also very slow (e.g. dealers needing to explain the concept of blinds in several cases). The most common scenario there was going 7-ways to the flop for $3. Maybe 2-3 players at the table actually understood that it was possible to raise preflop, and I might have seen one 3-bet in two hours.

- Alcoholic drinks are not free; I didn’t ask what the prices were. Not alcoholic drinks are free, though the service was pretty slow.

- You can buy chips in the poker room, but you can’t cash them out there; you need to take them to main casino cage, which is close, but they had a very long line when want to cash out late at night, so I just save my chips until the next day, and then cashed out in the morning before I left the following day when there wasn’t much of a line.

- There don’t seem to be any designated line anywhere for Diamond members, only Seven Stars.

- The casino itself is very nice and new-looking obviously, and isn’t terribly large. There is an annoying amount of security required to enter the casino, and some of the restaurants can’t be accessed unless you’re on the casino floor, which means they can’t be reached by minors at all.

- The casino has very little video poker (the only game I play besides live poker). It’s only a couple bartops plus a few machines in the high limit room for $25/spin.

- Parking at the casino is very easy and plentiful, both at surface lots and a garage. They have EV charging at bottom floor of the garage.

- I saw a lot of complaints online about how smoky the casino was, but I didn’t really notice it being any smokier than any other casino where smoking is allowed. And of course the poker room is nonsmoking.

Overall, a nice room that I hope will sort out their capacity issues in the near future, and maybe try to promote more game variety. But the game quality is good enough that I definitely look forward to playing there again.

Can confirm Nick’s description above is spot on!

Also got confirmation regarding online sign ups…. Can get on waitlist via Bravo app (assuming you have players card) but will be automatically removed if you don’t check in at the desk in person within one hour of online sign up.

Likely to change to 90 min window once fully staffed. On that note, beginning next week 1/6/25 the room will no longer be open 24/7 but will close at 4am and then open again at 10am.

Also, 2-2 PLO rake does not include the 2 for promo only the 7!!

The 5-5 PLO is time rake, 8per seat per dealer change. Done by $25 bomb pot (single board), Winner pays full rake $72 if 9 handed.


Was told eventually, if dealer shortages are fixed), they want to be 9 max for NLH and 8 max for PLO games. But for now it is 10 and 9.

Any advice yet on the best time to try to hit the poker room? I'd prefer 2/5 or PLO. We'll be there Friday and Saturday 1/10 and 1/11. Also, will they text you when your seat is open like Cherokee and others?

Anyone know what to expect paying for a premium bourbon?

Thanks!

I didn't visit over a weekend, but just before New Years. My experience was that the wait was short during the afternoon, but quite long late at night up until around midnight. I'm just checked their Bravo at 4pm on Thursday, and it looks like there is no wait right now for 1/3 or 2/5. (There is a list for 2/2 PLO but they only have one table of that, and consistently ran one table at all times I was in the room).

As far as I know, they have no provision for texting people on the waitlist as of now.

No idea about the cost of drinks.

Thanks. We arrived at 3:00 Friday afternoon and left around 3:00 Saturday afternoon. My thoughts:

Pros: small venue, so you don't have to do much walking, sportsbook has a bar and blackjack tables within it, even though waitlists on Bravo show ridiculous numbers, most of the players aren't even in the room yet, rooms nice, 2/5 was a soft and active as I've seen lately.

Cons: drink prices insane ($14 for a single Makers Mark for example, although the pour wasn't too bad size-wise), dealers are looking to players way too much to make calls on issues, mechanics working on machines everywhere.

I live 3 hours from this place and 4 hours from Cherokee, and will make the extra hour drive probably every time until they get some more qualified dealers/servers working there. I will say almost everyone who works there is very nice and trying to do their best.

Best part of trip: As I'm getting it all in with an opponent who had a smaller straight and dragging the pot, my buddy walks up and asks if I'm ready to go. Yep!