I am thinking of playing in the old guys' tournament.

How well does MC run the show?

They run the show very well, primarily due to their tournament director Jim. He cut his teeth at WSOP Vegas and elsewhere. He's the best thing that has happened to MCC since MGM took over as top dog. Not only are the tournaments run very well, they're very well structured and conceived.

I've also heard good things so far about the regular Saturday event .. My issue from afar is where are they going to get all the Dealers? When they struggle to get even 10 cash games going how are they going to support all these tournament tables for this many days in a row? My fear is that the Dealers will be wore out by the time the ME starts and the wheels may start to wiggle a bit .. I certainly hope not.

It's very possible that they are bringing in Dealers .. there's been quite a few Dealers from WMich that have done stints with WSOPc or WPT as of late to help keep the events going smoothly. They have been very pleased with the experiences when they return. If you can take being away from home for stretches then this may be a very good way to make some short terms 'cashes'. GL

What is the deal with this 1 Million Dollar Guarantee poker tournament at Deep Stax Poker Club near Toledo Ohio, September 16-26th for $600 buyin? 200k for first.

Overheard someone talking about this at MGM and it sounded pretty good to me.

Interesting concept .. Two poker clubs combining forces to offer 18 Day 1s in an effort to cover the $1M gar.

1) Day 1s in 'Toledo' and Dayton .. $600 .. assume re-entry is allowed
2) $1000 Day 1 bag payout .. 10% advance
3) $3000 Double Bag payout
4) Not very clear, but a few of the Day 1s will have a Turbo structure? (First time ever for a ME format?)
5) Day 2 and 3 will be at the Dayton club .. Mad River
6) They need an average of 93 entries per flight to cover

Don't get that way very often .. must be this club takes a lot of action from Hollywood, eh? GL

As the Motor City Fall 500 draws closer I've been hearing some really good things about them bringing in Dealers to handle the tournament tables.

I've yet to play there post-CV and definitely want to play the PLO Deep/Seniors if time permits. GL

Did anyone play the 500?

Well .. it's still going on .. The PLO event starts today with the Seniors tomorrow

The Bounty drew over 300 entries and actually spilled into a 2nd day, which I don't think was expected
The RxR drew over 160-170 entries
The Deepstack Bravo clock was kind of weird when I looked at it so not sure there. I think it showed over 200 entries but only 7 were getting paid .. something was not correct there.

The ME will have 3 Day 1s, thur, fri, sat and finish up on Sun and Mon


... then on to the MSPT at FKeepers the following weekend .. GL

Thanks

I may play the senility series tomorrow.

I'll be playing day 1B which is tomorrow. Looks like they have 128 entries day 1A (so far). Lets hope the run good is on for all of us!

End of day 1B, 49 left, 32 get thru... AK v AJ aip for 50 bbs. Woulda had a nice day 2 stack. Jack on flop.

Bravo shows over 600 entries into the ME with the FT taking place later today, Monday. I would hope that MCC is pretty happy with how things went. I've got zero live feedback as of yet since I've been out of town and didn't play any events. But from afar I think they should be satisfied .. possibly wanted a few more in the ME, but I think 600 should be 'good'.

Looks like $12K for 9th later today in Level 23 of the structure. I think the MSPT events usually don't go past Level 26/27 (but can end at 2-3AM) so perhaps the Levels were longer at MCC. Players will have to judge the 3-day commitment for 'only' 10x the BI for themselves .. obv the winner's share will be worth the time/effort put in. GL

I've been around for a long time and I don't think I've ever seen such a goofy payout structure. This ran at a Toledo social club "HOME OF THE NO ANTE TOURNAMENT" that should have been a warning to those who played as to what you'd be walking into. It was 10k guarantee, 5k guarantee for 1st with a $200 for double bagging. It was a $50 buyin, with $50 rebuys and $20 add on with 20 min blinds. Apparently the joint is only open 4 hrs a day and I guess the final table lasted 3 hrs.

So here it is.



The difference between 1st and 2nd was 90%, if you double bagged you got $200 which was more then 5th place. I don't think I've ever seen such an insane top heavy payout.

When you make a guarantee you should stick with it, eh?

Website suggests 5 hours of operation with Sundays off. Barely into Ohio off I75.

This tournament had 5 Day 1s and needed over 200 entries to hit the Gar .. only 40-ish per flight. Obv didn't make it.

No mention of cash games, but pretty much a tournament every day. Must be a Turbo structure to start at 7 and be over by 1130pm.

But if you are filling a need and have limited time to do so .. then give it a whirl. GL

The tournament director went to OSU.

Gaming has clamped down on the Charity Rooms in the W MI area with regards to tipping Dealers.

Players MUST hand Dealers cash, not chips.
Players may not exchange chips or cash with another Player
If a Player wants to tip from their stack they must get the Charity to redeem chips and then hand the cash to the Dealer themselves, not the Charity.

I've seen the letter sent by Gaming. I'm not sure if the clause stated in the letter is part of the modified law or part of a Supplier Guideline issued by Gaming. If it's part of the law, then Gaming can simply say they are just doing their job by enforcing the law as written. A portion of the letter indicates that Gaming has discussed the issue (behind closed doors) and has come to this conclusion, but won't indicate any reasoning behind it.


Just some FYI .. there's activity at Gun Lake indicating that poker may return in December. No official announcement but they are making changes to the Gaming Floor and are hiring staff. This may not affect Detroit Players since there's still no hotel (also in progress).

I would also assume/hope that most Players aren't going to think that they'll be tons of fish available when they room does (re)open. Certainly an opportunity to play against a mostly different Player Pool, but don't expect to see the amount of unskilled play you might see in an otherwise untapped poker demographic. GL

Any validity to the crazy rumor that Motor City might close their poker room?!?

IMO that would be no surprise since a vast majority of the action has gone down the street.

Did they lose their butt on the tournament series?
Is the overhead too much for the games they do run?

You never know what's in the minds of upper management in a casino .. poker is labor heavy and if they aren't seeing enough profit for the floor space and/or residual gaming in pits and slots then they could pull the plug.

Good news for Greek Town I guess .. GL

I was down at MC last weekend and asked the floor about what happened to tournaments. His response started with "they don't tell me much" but then explained how its a union issue in litigation and that he didn't expect tournies to come back anytime soon.

I do know for the Motor City 500 that they brought in dealers from outside...which I'm sure was the reason as to why there is a union issue.

So yea...not looking good for tournies which sucks because that was the one good thing they had going for them, however not sure that means the entire room would close down, but anything is possible

I was working on a project about the history of the WPT and was searching old rec.gambling.poker posts about it. Out of boredom I went searching for Michigan/Detroit poker posts. It was fun reading the Greektown posts. I still remember when they only had Stud and Limit Hold'em games, but every so often someone would ask "Hey when is MCC getting a room" There were a lot of posts saying "higher ups don't want it" "there are no plans on getting one and when they move to the new building they won't open one there". Eventually the popularity of the boom force their hand into reluctantly open one. If I remember right it was on the 3rd floor and higher ups were unhappy losing that open space that BlackJack tables were sitting. When it opened they did the opposite of what you'd think a new room would do, they had a dollar higher rake then Greektown really hoping it would crash and burn. The rest though is history, Greektown has always been a mismanaged mess from the word go and a new place to play was a breath of fresh air.

From what everyone in the past has said about management hating Poker and the room being a distant 2nd to MGM, I wouldn't be shocked if they folded up.

I like how went from the peak of Detroit tournament poker to nothing overnight.

Nah.

It not only takes a great person with the love of poker to make things tick. It takes management support.

If I remember correctly (or would just go back in this thread's posts for review) when MGM was making the move from upstairs to downstairs there was talk, even a promise, of a remodeled room at MCC. When it was evident that it wasn't going to happen MCC lost a very important part of their room .. AND (once the non-compete cleared) that important part ended up at MGM. Wow, and 'all' the poker eventually followed.

As is complained about all the time in the Horseshoe Hammond thread, poker rooms can't just rely on tables and chairs once there's competition. Players are waiting 90-120 minutes to play at Rivers rather than play at GV or HH.

MCC is 'locally' owned and that could be both good and bad when it comes to an issue like this. How does the casino 'make good' to the union over an issue like this? It will depend on how the relationship has been in the past (of course). But in the age where unions are less and less relevant to daily business (IMO) it could be a situation where the union decides to make a bigger event out of this than necessary in order to show the world that they still hold their own. GL

I doubt MotorCity closes, but I am shocked Greektown hasnt shut down by now. Both rooms are not very healthy. MGM is where 90% of the money is at.

Where is Jimmy Hoffa when you need him?