I've noticed this at the Gates as well. The games are certainly more aggressive and a little bit tougher than years past. I've been seeing a lot of younger players that I've never seen before, and they're driving the action, to no surprise. Still figuring out their playing styles and proneness to bluffing before I fully adjust my game.

Yes, table game tables fully open

ive heard people i know who make their living at poker say its a good idea to go to colorado now because they said the colorado players have no experience in NL, due to the $100 max theyre used to, so they think the games will be easy for the next few months. i know a guy named Dustin on his way there soon who plays 5-10 NL and thinks the BBBJ at ameristar is worth pursuing, (disagree) but this is what people are thinking and is why all these newcomers are showing up.

This seems about right. Heading up this Sunday for the fist time in almost 2 years to likely play 1-3.

Got to Ameristar around lunchtime Friday (assuming that was early enough to beat the weekend / holiday rush) and was the 10th person on the list. Took almost 4 hours to called for a game. Walked down to M after an hour and they were already about 14 deep on both 1/3 & 2/5, so didn't even bother there.

Are wait times still this ridiculous or did I just have bad luck? That was brutal. I know waits were gnarly when everything opened back up and were still 6-handed, but didn't think they were still this bad since moving back to full-ring. Haven't had to eat that kind of wait since the BBJ was over 800k several years back.

Hey guys, finally got up to Black Hawk after moving to the Denver area shortly pre-COVID. Couple questions came to mine after playing at Gates for a few hours last night:

There’s an actual, real-live Mississippi straddle allowed?!?! I thought its existence was essentially a myth, relegated to backwoods boat casinos deep in Gulf-coast swamps. Is this something that only Gates has, or do Ameristar/Monarch use it too?

On top of that, I noticed it wasn’t really being used - it’s such a monster advantage so I straddled almost every button, but I began to wonder whether there was an unspoken bit of etiquette I was violating. Is it sort of agreed that regulars don’t use it, like a baseball unwritten rule?

Lots of new dealers. Assume that’s a COVID-related staffing issue?

Still felt like people aren’t used to NL. Might’ve only seen one bet between $100 and all-in all night even though the stacks at my 1-3 table clearly supported it.

Last random thing - I know at least one person from the Gates staff posts in here so shoutout to last night’s floor manager Eric. Very on top of things, took care of the players, seemed like an all-around good dude.

Saturday night report (arrived ~6:30p)

Ameristar not taking call-ins, 1-3 line was 30 deep and floor estimated 3-4 hour wait

Monarch poker room wasn’t even answering the phone. Kicked you straight to a mailbox

Gates accepting names, line was ~10 deep. Took maybe 45 minutes to get seated so that’s where we went. If we had enough energy might’ve put a name in at Ameristar and then gone back after a few hours, but that feels like something you’d do if you got there at noon, not in the evening.

fireeyes,

Mississippi straddles are actually much more common around the country than you might think. They are not the massive advantage you think they are though. There are advantages, the greatest being that people adjust to them horribly, but there are also disadvantages, with folks arguing whether the unforced blind bet or the fact that you are making the game play effectively short-stacked just when you have the greatest positional advantage is worse. It's extremely hard to prove mathematically, but most folks who've studied it agree that Mississippi straddles are much less -EV than regular straddles, but they are still -EV overall. Some argue that even though you give up some EV on the individual hand by straddling, the overall effect on the game dynamics swing it to positive. Maybe. Still not a "monster advantage."

All that said, it is likely that the games getting bigger by going to true NL is new enough to folks that they aren't that interested in making it wilder yet by straddling. There's no unwritten rule against it that I'm aware of, it's just that it's not really an unequivocal advantage, and a lot of people prefer to play with deeper SPRs than straddling allows for.

I've been away from Colorado for a long time, and went to Cripple Creek much more often than Blackhawk when I was there, but my limited experience matches yours. Gates was by far the most player-friendly poker room in Blackhawk.

I have been seeing button straddles in 5/10 appx 15-20% of the time. Agree with Garick there are pros & cons, my opinion is they are net negative for the game so have been not participating and would encourage UTG straddle if the whole table was going to participate.

Is the Mississippi straddle a true Mississippi with action starting on the small blind? There are other varieties of button straddle, with different strategic implications.

Also, can anyone report on the PLO and/or Big O action in Blackhawk now?

a true MS straddle the action doesnt start on the small blind. thats a button straddle when u see this. a true MS doesnt need to be done on the button, its done in any position except in the blinds. in a MS straddle, the action starts immediately after the straddle, which is often someone other than the SB.

a button straddle (and also a MS straddle is very negative ev for the one making it) and even more neg ev for the person acting first seated next to him. what makes it negative ev for the straddler too is hes paying $8 per orbit in blinds while everyone else only pays $3 per orbit, and this is too great a disadvantage to overcome

a good idea that loosens up the game is a mandatory UTG straddle. this greatly loosens the game, and doesnt nit the game up and kill the action like a button straddle does. problem is its too hard to talk the other players into it. most of them cant comprehend why its better for the game than a button straddle.

if u ever see a guy making a MS straddle 10 hands in a row or more, and he is in seat 4, try to always sit in seat 3. then u get a big edge over most of the table. (by acting next to last all the time)

Much love, Garick. Thanks for all the feedback!

It can be done from any position and the action does indeed start with the player immediately to the straddler’s left, so yes, the SB in the event the player on the button does it.

Thinking about getting a room Saturday night but wouldn't be up there until about 3-5pm. Anybody have insight on whether things have normalized at all or will the waits still be ridiculous on a Saturday?

Went up & tried the Monarch room. Seemed pretty nice, but not a good fit for me. Just a bit too loud. Even when I played a lot I couldn't have competed with the players I was against., and taking > 1 year off didn't help.

Then went down to Golden Gates, the 7 PM tournament was just starting. Played for ~1.5 hrs, couldn't get much going.

Final hand, I had ~20000 at 200/400/400 Bb ante in CO. Folded to me, I make it 1300 w KJo. Calls out of both blinds.

Flop K42r, checked to me, I make it 1500. SB raises to 4000, I move in. He calls with AA.

Oops. Good one, you got me.

Still had a good time, chatted with some real nice folks. I could tell how "out of ahape" I was for following the action, etc, but I think I'm going to go up more often.

I hope you can find a reliable dealer and replenish your ahape stock. It sucks to be out of ahape.

Been grinding at Monarch, very nice spot, free mineral water on tap, drink station is great. The food, not so great, it’s pricey, but it’s convenient. Last night I made the mistake of going to Ameristar since their list was short. It’s probably the last time I step foot in that place. Person checking ID’s was being rude to everyone for no reason, told her thanks twice with no response. Get to the poker room and had to hover for 2 minutes around the podium to finally get my name on the list. The room is dark, dealers looked frustrated, guy was hovering around begging to get into a game. Just a damn shame that it went downhill so fast. In my 15 years of playing poker at casinos, I don’t think over ever seen a room go from being the best to the worst in no time flat

I was up there last weekend and totally agree about A*. They're not even trying to make the poker room popular again and actually seem to be intentionally killing it.

Anyone notice an alarming trend in the number of poker games running overall in the Denver market? I'm only talking about casino games here, not underground. If you add up all the active tables running on the weekends across Isle, Gates, Ameristar, and Monarch, they don't come close to years past during poker boom phases 1, 2 and 3. Denver metro is home to over 2.9 million people. We're the largest city in over a 500 mile radius. I think the total table count on average has been about 23-26 games on weekends. That is WEAK for a city our size.

Either many of the weaker players have mostly gone broke, greatly reducing the pool of regular players, or we're still under reduced capacities due to lack of labor. I think it's a combination of the two.

Thoughts? Where do you see us headed in the next 5-10 years as a poker market? Holding steady, increasing, reducing?

Not enough dealers at this time and Ameristar only has 7 tables. Add people who still don’t feel comfortable playing without masks. The boom is here, just not enough supply for the demand

I think you touched on a third reason here. There are a lot of underground/home games in Denver keeping players from going up the hill, including myself, particularly when it was all SL in the casinos. Now that we have NL I plan to play both home and casino and I think/hope others will do the same. Would be awesome to have a healthy poker ecosystem in Black Hawk.

Like me, sounds like you were expecting a bit of a post-COVID, post-5/1 boom, but that hasn't really manifested itself yet. Agree the overall # of games are about even to what they were pre-COVID, it's just spread out across 4 rooms now instead of 1. The phrase "the new normal" makes me cringe, but maybe this is the new normal for poker in CO (for now)? Definitely seems like Monarch stole Ameristar's thunder where poker is concerned. I assumed Ameristar would likely bump back up to a full room when everything reopened with no restrictions. Heard this second-hand from a few people at Ameristar, so take it with a grain of salt -- where poker is concerned, the "casino" people are irked with how many machines they lost when the sportsbook opened (and I suppose the associated lost revenue), so poker isn't their biggest priority right now. Could explain why their poker room is seemingly going downhill at the moment.

Overall I think the staffing issues are playing a big part everywhere in BH. To me that's probably the # 1 issue right now. Any dealers or floor people I talk to all say it's been a nightmare trying to get new staff in. Signing bonuses nor any of the state-sponsored "back to work" stimulus stuff is working right now. Sounds like most places held on to the majority of their dealers through the initial shutdown then had a mass exodus when the 2nd (table games) shutdown hit. Could be other socio-economic factors at play here, but maybe the dealer shortage will end once all the unemployment and stimulus plans run out? Are people who would be filling those positions taking the summer "off" to party/travel now that everything is back open? Who knows? I'm sure there are a number of factors at play here.

Agree with other post saying demand is still there and is vastly out pacing supply. Regardless of the time of day, I've still had ridiculous wait times whenever I've gone to play lately. I expect a bit of a wait during peak times on a Fri or Sat night... but the 2+ hour waits on a mid-week afternoon are nuts. Don't think the player pool is drying up due to people going busto. Wasn't up this weekend but pretty sure I saw M was running at 100/200 LHE game Sat night on Bravo, so there's definitely still $ around. I know a lot of the anti Amendment 77 people ITT were worried about games drying up and people going busto, but I don't see it. That might hit the higher limit games like 5/10 NL or higher with smaller overall player pools, but people are always going to have a 1-200 to throw around for 1/3 or 2/5.

Looking forward, once Amendment 77 passed I assumed there would be another poker boom in the area and I still feel that way today, but maybe it's not going to happen as fast as I thought. Definitely not to the likes of what TX has seen, but assuming we might see an influx of players (pros/wannabe pros) moving to the area in the next year or so. Someone already mentioned the "backpack crew" starting to take over at M, so maybe that's already started to small extent? God bless the Isle for keeping 1/3 spread-limit alive in CO, but I can see their room fizzling out in the next few months whenever everyone else gets their staffing issues sorted. Hedging all that under the assumption the economy doesn't completely tank and fall into another recession in the next 2-3 years.

It will be bussy this week during Bally's Open at former Gates. How they will get enough dealers for it?

Please vote for the following options (you may vote for more than 1 game and day). Reply and add an asterisk next to your preferred choice(s). I've marked mine in the lists below (*)

If you prefer/are willing to play a different limit, indicate next to the game as I've done below (4/8)

8/16 crazy pineapple * 4/8, 6/12, 1-3 NL
8/16 stud 8 or better * 4/8, 6/12
8/16 razz * 4/8, 6/12
8/16 horse * 4/8, 6/12
8/16 omaha8/omaha/pineapple/crazy pineapple/hold'em (flop games)

Monday evenings *
Tuesday evenings *
Wednesday evenings *
Thursday evenings *
Friday evenings *
Saturday afternoons *
Saturday evenings *
Sunday afternoons *
Sunday evenings *

Is there a reason these games couldn't be spread limit? I get most players would bet the full amount, just think there are some mental hurdles there for newer players.