I'm surprised this was your experience. They've been cycling through a few different floors, and I guess this was an off night. If it had been someone like Dean, Joe, Garrett, or Josh running the floor, you definitely would have received a warmer welcome than the "none at all" you report.

They've pretty steadily been filling two tables of cash, usually 200 max 1-2. I understand there's a 2-5 game happening regularly on Mondays and sporadically depending on the players, but that's above my level so I haven't paid much attention. The games have been a really mixed bag - about half the regulars are solid, and half of them are not very good at all. There are only two or three I would consider sharks, and they don't spend too much time there. I went two days ago and my table crushed me; I went back yesterday and was possibly the best player there. I've seen them run blackjack in the corner on weekends, and they brought in a masseuse part-time. Seems business is doing pretty well, but I'd really like to see them fill up the room with cash tables before I consider them a major success. At any rate, the guys running things remain optimistic for now, and I'll support them as long as my roll holds out.

Great post by Dean on the website, for all who haven't seen it:

"
So, I’m sitting here with Jess at 6:30 AM and I just couldn’t help but write a blog. I wanna personally thank everyone who has been coming into the club the last couple of weeks. The place is really starting to pick up and I couldn’t be happier!!! I am having a blast coming in every day. In college I met some of my best friends through poker and now I am getting to meet new friends every day. Thursday night we had 100 people in the room, players of all varying ages, races and skill levels. We had different games for everyone, and the overall mood of the room was awesome!!! I left around midnight to go see a movie with Jess and I actually fist pumped I was so excited. This is what we had in mind when we started this thing!!!! We wanted to make Club on the River a place that really keeps the player in mind. From the chairs to the lounge area to the non smoking atmosphere we took everything we would want if we played all the time (which we do so it wasn’t tough!) and tried to incooperate it into the room. I find myself not wanting to leave once I’m there because I’m afraid I might miss something cool. Seeing the room buzzing like it has this past week really inspires me and gets me motivated to come up with new and inventive ideas to make things even better!!! There were times this summer when I was almost reluctant to go into the club, now I can’t stay away!! So, once again, thanks to everyone who sees and appreciates what we’ve tried to do with the place. Seeing as though I spend more time at the Club than at home nowadays, I’m sure you’ll have a chance to see, firsthand, the smile on my face!!! GL at the tables!!

Dean
"

Just wanted to post my experience there after going a couple times over the last few weeks:

As an inexperienced live player, i have to say the atmosphere there is just way more friendly than trippers. I haven't played at trippers much, but i was always confused on various strange live rules, and always felt uncomfortable at the tables, but at cotr anything i had a question about was quickly answered, every little rule and nuance was explained etc. I have to say that as a beginning live player, this is really appreciated and I really enjoy the light friendly atmosphere from the floor workers.

The games are definitely pretty soft, but i mean its 1/2 live of course any game is going to be soft. Usually has been 1 or 2 tables running, tonight we played 1/2 holdem with omaha round by round. There are a bunch of "regulars" that are there, but you will get some random huge fish that come in every once in a while. I feel anyone that can play ABC would have an edge in the games i've played there just by value betting correctly and calling down in the correct spots.

The ability to play online/use your computer is kind of cool too. I hope they eventually figure out a way to get more interest in the place, not really sure how but I can't see it lasting a hugely long time if they only get 1 or 2 tables running every day. Obviously i don't know their finances or anything, but it just doesn't quite seem possible.

Overall a very friendly environment and well run.

Looks like a pretty cool place

I can't wait to play there - will be up in Lansing in 2 weeks. I'm looking forward to playing in a poker room set up by poker players

I'll have to check this place out.

The Club is now running a 5/5 Omaha game on Saturdays. Ton of money on the table last night.

wow looks like a awesome place to play!

I played at Club a couple weeks ago - great place! Friendly, great tournament structure, great dealers and a welcoming atmosphere.

How are the games now that college is back in session?

Pretty terrible tbh. They're talking about going back to 4 days a week. Someone screwed up the charity paperwork, which caused them to be closed for a decent portion of the break. Attendance has been poor since then.

That's too bad. I live like 3 minutes away but I haven't been there yet. My friend used to play tournaments there and told me Trippers was softer for both cash and tourneys, so I just took his word for it.

That's funny that you mentioned you not going to even check the place out because of something a friend said. I talked to Dean the other day. He usually comes in Thursday during the tournament that they get a good showing for. He sounded a little dejected and said theyve had a hard time overcoming some of the negative things one of the other card rooms in the area has said about them(he said he didn't wanna get involved in finger pointing but it has to be trippers). He is such a nice guy, and always willing to talk to annoying young poker players like me. They're going to go back to 4 days a week and do some really player friendly promotions to try and get their player base back. I'm gonna go over there Friday. He was saying he was gonna get a bunch of catered food and stuff free to players all day. Sounds like they are going to try and build one day at a time. Hopefully they get a good turnout. I am rooting for them!

I really like the physical atmosphere of COTR better than trippers and that the club is a room designed for poker play. But, COTR needs to find a way to draw more recreational players. COTR is a shark tank, and the feeling to new comers is that everyone at the table is buddies with the dealers, the floorman, and the other players. COTR just reeks of a clicky poker group playing together and beating up on the fish. The professionalism of the dealers is sub-par, and I don't want to sit at a table where the dealers roommate is sitting at the table catching cards.

Auto-shufflers - I've heard banter of deck stacking and card flashing... Auto-shufflers eliminates a lot of the problems.

Trippers maybe smelly and smokey and loaded w/ drunks, but there are enough weak players there to make the games occasionally profitable to those of us that don't sit at the felt EVERYday. With the addition of Firekeepers to the mix, I don't know that I'll return to COTR except for a tournament here and there.

This is the exact rumor Trippers has worked hard to start and its unfortunate because if you knew Dean or any of the people he has working for him, it could not be farther from the truth. The games are tougher because they have a smaller customer base and don't get the drunks in, but to say they are cheating is just ridiculous and if you knew the people working there you would be ashamed of yourself. I was in there Friday and they had two full tables running and were supplying free food to players. I hope they are getting their **** together again.

I wouldn't call it rumor.
Fact - I have no affiliation w/ trippers
Fact - I have sat at tables w/ players that live in the same house as the dealer.
Fact - There are is more than one dealer that now works at COTR because of being fired from Trippers for cheating.

i'm going to be up there tomorrow with a buddy of mine to play the thurs night (deepstack?) tournament and maybe play some cash game. i went up there once before to play the same and something janky happened. we got there late (like 7:30ish) and wasn't supposed to be a big deal because they have late reg. i pay for my and my buddy's entry and extra add on and the floor guy only gave us 10k stacks even though with the add on we were supposed to have 15k stacks. neither of us noticed until we were driving back but i feel like thats something that shouldn't happen.

also about the dealers, what is awesome is how they are all good at dealing, however i too find it shiesty when people who are good friends are the dealer and 1 seat at a table. that being said, there definitely are fish that play there, just seems like none of them are super spew fish and only will play 100max

Easy there bud, nobody has accused anybody of cheating at COTR, and I've been around there and talked to enough people to know. People were fired from Trippers for a lot of reasons. It's a friendly group at the Club, and that includes players and dealers, but nobody's cheating for anybody else.

I played at COTR this weekend for the first time and will not play anywhere else from now on. The club has such a laid back atmosphere that is condusive to good poker, and fun in general. These guys will go out of their way to please the customers and that is hard to find now a days. Thank you COTR, its about time!!

Should point out that the Club managed to get their alcohol license recently, so they're selling beer by the bottle.

You should seriously never sit down in a charity room without counting your chips. The people who handle the chips are by law volunteers of the charity, a lot of these volunteers have never touched a poker chip before, so you gotta count em

Is this place still open?

Yep. They're actually expanding quite a bit, putting in a full bar. They've been running an Omaha game pretty much every day with a pool of 30ish regulars and assorted guests. On Wednesday Dean's hosting a "player appreciation day" where he pays for everyone's food and runs usually 2 tables of 1/2 NLHE. He's clearly committed to keeping the place open with all he's investing in it, so even though the non-Omaha traffic isn't great except on Wednesdays, it'll probably pick up quite a bit once the bar goes in (which they've already started work on).

I'll try to remember to get some pics of the construction to post next time I'm in there. It's pretty impressive.

Thanks for the update.