Button straddles, or mandatory straddles, in small games are bad. If the players wanted to play $2/5 with a <$200 stack, they'd sit at $2/5. But they're in a $1/2 game. Let it be a $1/2 game.

I played 2-5 NL and 1-3 PLO at MGM Grand on Monday night and they allowed button straddles there too in both games. It was pretty quiet in the poker room on Monday. They said a lot of the 2-5 players have been playing over at Motor City because of the high hand promos being offered at MC.

Mandatory straddles I agree are bad. But allowing players to straddle can make a game much better. If someone wants to put more money in the pot before seeing their cards, in all for it. No for it to be every hand but when a couple guys on the table want to put extra money in, in all for it.

Is it worth coming to Detroit from the Lansing area? Or should I play elsewhere ?

Firekeepers is closer. For most low stakes games it's probably comparable to the Detroit Casinos. Not sure about bigger games.

I've never played at Firekeepers but I've played at the Detroit casinos and FWIW I love the MGM poker room. Well run, clean, good food/comps, and the 2/5 game is good action.

Firekeepers is pretty smokey, but then so is MGM. I highly recommend trying every room you can a couple of times before you decide where to play regularly.

I personally don’t find Firekeepers that Smokey. I’ve done the smell test on my clothes and it’s not even close to MGM or MCC. But those are by far the smokiest two casinos I’ve ever been in. I mean Motor City is on another level.

By the way, what ever happened to that MCC WPT deepstack tournwy?

Although Gun Lake's air system is a bit too much at times where you can feel the air move across your neck, there's no way that I would put FKeepers into the smokey category. I will say the issue at FKeepers is that 'everyone' smokes 6" outside the room, especially during tournaments, which will cause a short term issue until things get filtered out.

FKeepers has been able to get their 1/3 'match the stack' NL game going as of late. I'm not sure if there's a pattern to the days it runs, but I've heard good things about it. That's not to say that you couldn't find just as loose a game in the 1/2 with a $400 potential BI.

That being said, if I lived in Lansing and I had a very wide window of time to work with I would probably lean towards MCC/MGM just because I know that I would be able to have more choices. (Can't say 'better' since you never know in poker.)

If you are willing to drive to Detroit don't forget about Gun Lake either. There are plenty of Lansing area folks that wiggle their way to Wayland for poker.

MCC staff just confirmed that WPT Deepstakes is coming in August and is bringing their own Dealers. There is no dates or times that can be released as of yet. GL

I talked to Tony last Friday. Word is Michigan game is dragging their feet on the WPT tournament series. As of now, it won’t be in August. There’s been no promotion of it and it’s not on the WPT website.

Tony said the hope is September or October, but gaming needs to approve it soon and then they’ll pick the dates based up the availability of the WPT and the tournament director they’ve picked to run the Detroit tournament (a gentleman that works as a TD for the WPT and the WSOP...they’re all technically independent contractors).

But most importantly, unless something changed in the last 5 days, it won’t be August.

Anybody else in the thread play MSPT? 59th place here. Just a great tournament. Million guaranteed with so many guys qualifying through satellites.

Just shy of 1600 players is a ridiculous turn out for a tournament in Battle Creek. They definitely run a good show over there. And of course Chris Moon decided to run good (and play well) again.

I didn't play this one but knew a number of Detroit area players who cashed. Can only hope they put some of that profit back into play at MGM and MotorCity.

I played the measly $85 in Toledo. Finished 8/620ish. Cashed for 950, first was 9000. Had a blast. 4 of us at the final knew each other from Vision Lanes, which was pretty cool. Lots of other Michigan Charity room regs I knew made the $.
Couple of memorable hands: 1. I have 107dd in the bb. I defend after a 2.5x and a call. Flop 734dd. I call the cbet. Turn 5 brings 2nd club. Check bet call. River 3, brings third club. I bet small, blockerish. Guy ships like 40 bbs. I tanked for a long time, called, was right. Felt really good, also did very well for my image for the rest of that table.
2. Maybe 25 players left: I have J9 in bb. ep raised I defended. Flop jack high. Check bet call. Turn something, check bet call. River I had like 1/3 pot left. I was going to check, he'll check almost every time. I changed my mind, was thinking about how the payouts were so flat at that point and how I really needed to chip up at a chance at big money. So I shipped when the 4th undercard to the jack came on the river. No flush/ hard to have a straight. He tanked for at least 5 minutes. He had around the same amount left as me. I was begging for the fold in my head. Finally got the fold, whew. That pot propelled me to the final table. That guy was actually top 3 in chips when I got knocked out though.
Final table I was absolutely card dead. Won one hand I think. Last hand I had A3o in the bb. Active button 2.5xed pf, I had 10 bbs total, 2 of them already in the pot. I decided to go with it, I think it's close to correct or slightly wrong. He had 55 and held though.
Felt good to run good over a long period of time anyways...

Going to Arcadia Bluffs to golf next week and it's supposed to rain. Are there any poker rooms near there? Actually, I guess nothing is "near there," but Traverse City is an hour away so that's not bad. Do any casinos there have poker?

The Traverse City poker room recently shut down. Closest thing to you is going to be Soaring Eagle in Mt. Pleasant.

Thanks. Looks like there won't be any poker if there's no golf. Damn sure hope it doesn't rain.

Finished 13th in Toledo this weekend. Crazy, crazy run. Was down to 2 bbs Saturday night, then I got dealt 104offsuit. My last 10 hands today were nuts. Up to 30 bbs, down to 3, up to 10. Had a chance for a full triple up my last hand. 99<AK<Kj. gg youngbeak.

Bout put on an absolute clinic in short stack play on Saturday night, was fun to watch, less fun to be on receiving end. Gg wp etc

I haven't checked every county, but I think that the Traverse City room closure leaves Muskegon (Northway Lanes) as the only poker room of any kind in a county bordering Michigan's eastern shore--unless you count Four Winds Casino, which is barely in Michigan. I live in Muskegon Township, 17 miles from Northway Lanes, but even so I'm really discouraged that are no other lakeshore rooms.

Grand Haven tried to get a room a while ago but that lasted about a week. Holland has had so many rooms open and then quickly fold that I lost track.

Welcome to the Lakeshore, Michigan's poker wasteland.

Looks like Motorcity is giving up on the static $30,000 bad beat idea. Starting June 1 it’s going back to quads over quads and they’re going to be adding money to it from the promo dollar (or two at some times) that they drop. I’ll be curious to see how this impacts the high hands dollar amounts. They’re giving away $200,000 in high hand money in May. I’m guessing that number is cut in half or worse in June now that they’ll be putting money into the bad beat again (or the bad beat is going to grow very slowly).

Ever since I found out the game was $6+$2 I’ve said, no thanks. Part of that is just out of principal.

It's not $6+2 all the time. Just curing certain promotional windows. I'm almost never playing at times where it's $6+2, so it hasn't bothered me yet. That being said though, I'd skip any game where that's happening, especially with MGM just being down the street

Well it’s $6+$2 during the high hands and then $6+$1 all other times (I believe). I feel like it’s even worse to play when it is $6+$1 as the $1 is going towards promos you don’t even really have access to, or they are really ****ty like the splash pots and tigers hitting a home run or something.

It's some weird combination of that. I think it's 6+2 for any high hand that is $500 or greater. I play a lot more during the daytime and that used to mean more likely than not I wasn't there for the $500 high hands that seemed to mostly be at night or later afternoon.

June's high hand schedule is interesting. Still lots of money given away which makes me think there's minimal money being put toward the now growing bad beat.

Here's the June promo schedule for anyone that's interested. Splash pots are back. When they do splash pots, I haven't heard how many tables will get the splash pot (I'm assuming two randomly selected tables).

HIGH HAND / SPLASH POTS
Day: Every Sunday
Time:2pm till 8pm - $100 Splash Pot every 20 minutes
Time: 8pm till Midnight ($500) 30 minutes
Qualifier: Aces Full

HIGH HANDS
Day: Every Monday
Time: 10am till 4pm ($200) 40 minutes
Time: 4pm till 8pm ($300) 40 minutes
Time: 8pm till Midnight - Top two (2) hands will each win $1500
Qualifier: Aces Full

HIGH HANDS / SPLASH POTS
Day: Every Tuesday
Time: 10am till 12pm ($1500) 2 hours
Time: 12pm till 6pm ($400) 60 minutes
Time: 8pm till Midnight ($200) 60 minutes / $100 Splash Pots every 1/2 hour
Qualifier: Aces Full

HIGH HANDS (WILD WEDNESDAY)
Day: Every Wednesday
Time: 4PM TILL Midnight
Qualifier: Aces Full
Period: 40 minutes ($500)

HIGH HANDS
Day: Every Thursday
Time: 10am till 12pm ($1500) 2 hours
Time: 12pm till 6pm ($500) 60 minutes
Time: 8pm till 11pm ($1500) 3 hours
Qualifier: Aces Full

HIGH HANDS / SPLASH POTS
Day: Every Friday
Time: Noon till 6pm $100 Splash Pots every 20 minutes
Time: 8pm till 1:20am ($500) 40 minutes
Qualfier: Aces Full

HIGH HANDS
Day: Every Saturday
Time: Noon till 6pm $100 Splash Pots every 20 minutes
Time: 8pm till 1:20am ($500) 40 minutes
Qualifier: Aces Full

Just say "show or fold" and wait until he does one or the other. Your mental state should be "haha this loser is whining lol", not trying to argue with him or whatever