Speaking of Greektown, does anyone have any info on if they're running any daily night tournaments before I call there and talk to someone? I heard someone mention they were but not much much info on Bravo.

Went down there tonight and played it. They had 27 entries paying the top 3. Down to final 8 and I shipped 16BB and JJ<AJ. GG

The dealers made a few errors where they counted the stacks wrong a few times when players would go all in and they aren't exactly the speediest. Luckily we spoke up and corrected it, but sheesh...Overall it was a typical small tourney. I've never seen so much open limping in my life lol. Could be a profitable game in long run but they won't do anything to promote and the floor hasn't changed much...

Hey all:

Was in Greektown Friday night. First time I've been out in a while, and first time I've back at Greektown for many months.

No charge for parking around 10 PM.

Unfortunately, smoking is allowed on the 2nd floor. You've got to walk through this to get to the poker room. Why they allowed smoking in wide areas, I just don't get it.

There was a tournament running Friday PM. I went to about midnight or so. They all decided to chop when it was 5 or 6 players left.

I was very surprised to see the old guy who had such disruptive behavior over at Motorcity playing here. He was the topic of a much earlier post of mine. To his credit, he was 90% calmer than he was over at MotorCity. The past few times I've been to Motorcity, I have not seen or heard him. I wonder if MC put the brakes on him or banned him? I always thought him to be somewhat competent player...BUT saw him make a crazy play. He was on the button or the cutoff, and he went all in on an un-raised pot for a bit more than $100. An odd looking white guy who was very well dressed called his all in with pocket QQ. The loudmouth had 2-3 off! The QQ held up.

Greektown has the fewest players, but perhaps has the most action and loosest players?

There was no smoking in the poker room. Not much smoke got in from the gaming floor, so that was good.

If Greektown doesn't charge for parking AND they consistently have action like I saw Friday PM, might be better place to play than MotorCity?

Greektown allows smoking on the Gaming Floor? GL

Hey all:

I was at Motorcity the past two nights.

They have some new sandwiches which are pretty good. They are actually making an effort at putting food out for the poker players. I think that is good, might help them get more players in.

I was going to go to MGM on SAT. night, but around 9 PM, the wait list for 1-2 was 60+. I don't mind waiting 10-15 minutes, but no way am I going to wait an hour+ when I can get seated right away at Motorcity.

Some news from Motorcity. A dealer was arrested for stealing black chips. Shocked to hear that as she has dealt at my table NUMEROUS times in the past. She worked at Motorcity for years.

It was also interesting that the room at Motorcity was pretty much full EARLY in the evening, say 8PM to 11PM. After the last promotional drawing, players starting clearing out pretty fast. By 3 AM, more than half the tables had been closed.

Was nice to get a few wins in.

Nice report .. I'll be (hopefully) hanging at MGM Friday and Saturday this coming weekend. If too backed up then I'll be a MCC/Greektown trying to get some hours in! GL

Hey all:

I was at Motorcity the other night. The room was pretty busy, but NOT full. Unlike MGM, I got seated right away at prime time.

I can't remember the last time they have used the overflow room.

When I came in there was almost no food out. About 30 minutes later, just about everything got restocked. They usually do a pretty good job, and the food is generally decent quality. Would be nice if they started getting pizza again!

The more tables they have running, the more money they give away in the promotional drawing. I actually won once! and got $250. A nice $250 hit goes a long way towards making up for the very high rake.

A couple of problems that I've noticed though....unless you win one of the promotions every so often, the rake is just silly high. It makes it VERY hard to consistently beat 1/2. Which brings me to the other problem....a lot of players at Motorcity are "under rolled" in that they are sitting down for $100 or less. With stacks that small, it alters the math to a bunch of draws and strategy in general.

The other problem is that I think MORE of the players today are regulars (as opposed to recreational) as compared to before the pandemic. Don't get me wrong, there are still recreational players, but just much less of them. Hopefully this will start to change quickly as the weather gets better and people want to get out.

I am holding out hope that we get to a "roaring 20's" type scenario. If so, people will come out and party, have fun, and blow $$$$$.

Poker just isn't a big priority for casinos unfortunately so we'll never see much in terms of advertising. It's pretty much up to the regs to do their bidding and bring in new players. It's why I get so upset when someone berates a total rec for doing something stupid.

Thanks for the report. I didn't know MC let people buyin at 1/2 for less than a hundo.

I think MCC has always allowed 50 min BI at 1/2 .. you can discuss either way. IMO it's fine in a large room but it will torque over Players who want to play deeper. In the old days when they had 1-4 2/5 tables going it made no impact. GL

Hey all:

Was back at MCC the other couple of days.

I am surprised and it appears that Friday is their busiest night of the week in the poker room. I would have thought that it would be Saturday.

I am also a little surprised at how quick the room starts to empty out AFTER the random table promotion ends (11 PM) AND then again shortly after midnight.

Another observation that I have come to realize is just how many people (especially those that are low rolled) wind up losers. I played about 12 hours over the weekend, and I would estimate that about 75% of the people who left the table lost money. Then, of those that lost money, a vast bulk of them wound up losing their entire buyin(s).

I was playing 1-2 and roughly guessing at the amount of $$$ lost vs. those that won, and a simply incredible amount of money winds up as rake, promotions, and dealer tips. I would think that this might have something to do with the lack of recreational players. That is, they simply don't win.

An example of this was a younger player who was playing like 12 hours on Friday. He had some incredibly luck early in his session and was up well over $1,000. By the end of the night, he lost it all. He also lost a HUGE chunk of it to a middle aged guy who is a semi-reg? I've seen the guy before and he is a decent player, but is kind of conservative, and if he is betting, he almost CERTAINLY has something....So the young kid gets into a pre-flop raise initiated by this guy to like $30 (4 callers). He should have known that the middle aged guy SIMPLY MUST have AA, KK, or AK, something like that. The flop comes KK7, it was checked. The turn is a 7, and the white middle aged guy bets something like $15 into a $125 pot. The young kid raises it to $45, the middle aged guy sits & thinks and makes "1 black chip and 1 white chip ($101). The kid calls. The river is something like a 2, a blank. The kid has like $400 left at this point, and is covered.....and goes "ALL IN", the middle aged white guy calls before the kid can even get his money in. The kid is ecstatic and JUMPS up and says, "I win! I got a boat!". The middle aged guy sits for just a second, and says he is "very sorry, I don't have a boat, I have 4 of a kind". He had 4 Kings (flopped), and takes ALL of the kid's money.

So this dude was just sitting around, waiting for the kid to make a mistake, and he caught him. TOOK ALL HIS MONEY. The kid looked pretty dejected, just walked out dazed. Not sure if he will be back? So that is kinda of bad for the ecosystem. Of course, I don't blame the middle aged guy for winning all of the money, that is what you are supposed to do....but it is yet another recreational player getting felted. What is even worse, is that the kid had a HUGE gain, and lost it all. I would think that hurts than simply coming and losing...losing a BIG gain has got to be the worst.

Anyways, just some observations & thoughts...

There are very few winners that you will see in a typical session. As you mention, rake is a huge contributor to this. There is typically $90-120 taken off the table every hour in rake .. if not more. If you project that there's $2-3k (or less) in chips on a 1/2 NL table that works out to a 5% 'fee' per hour that needs to be 'replaced' in order to keep the game going. It's replaced by add-ons and new Players.

1) 12 hours is a long time to avoid the 'repercussions' of variance
2) Players don't adjust their play when they get deep .. or their 'read' on opponents when both are deep
3) It's very difficult to just break even, much less show a profit in the 1/2 world .. but it can be done
4) Due to the amount of information out there .. and everyone having time to 'study' during Covid .. it really is more difficult for new Players to become Regs since the learning curve needs to be quicker since there are less weak spots at the table every week.
5) IMO Players are showing more Bankroll Management by cashing out when they 2x-3x their stack

I also see Friday as a 'poker' night with less Recs coming through on Saturdays.

On the contrary to that, I've seen 1/2 NL games with $4k on the table and Players gravitating to those table .. willing to mix it up .. on a regular basis on the west side of the state.

It's certainly an interesting conversation .. Poker is harder to thrive at and yet it's going through another (semi) boom right now with record numbers in most tournaments will enough volume in cash games to allow for Players to play whenever they want to.

That young kid will more than likely be back. The sting of the large loss will be short term .. and the memory of building the initial stack will win out. Whether it be the self-promise to play better or just simply the desire for 'revenge' this Player typically ends up back at the table in short order as time or BR allows. GL

Hey all:

Forgot to mention and ask if there are any players chasing the bonuses offered by the rooms in Detroit.

For example, MGM is offering a $500 high hand every 30 minutes Monday from noon till 11 PM. A similar thing is going on Wednesdays.

Starting 4.1.23, MGM is also offering gas cards. You get $1 for every hour that you play during the promotion, paid out in $10 increments (rounded down). I think you also get the $1/hour food comp too. So the trick would be to play from 11:58 AM till 11:01 PM, get the $1/hour comp & gas and get a chance at the $500 every 30 minutes. So you would have 24 periods in that day to make the high hand. If you played optimally for the 12 hours, I would think you've got a decent chance of hitting it once. Maybe a 35% chance every 12 hour period?

Could you also play and make $8-$10-$12 an hour (averaged) from just "regular" winning at the game? You would probably make less at 1-2-3 PM, and more at 9-10-11 PM? Conversely, your odds of hitting the high hand would be better in the early hours (fewer players) and worse at the late hours (more players).

That would be quite the grind...so could you maybe make $25 to $30 (averaged) an hour doing that (counting in the comps)?

how is that a "mistake" ?

It is a mistake as the Kid was vulnerable to a 4 of a kind.

Even more importantly, he was vulnerable to a full house of 3K and 2 7's.

Having a K is definitely in that white dude's range...

What is the Metro Detroit Poker Series?

Can anyone play?

Where do they play?

They have a YT channel.

Interesting .. no address on their webpage and Prince Card Room & Casino doesn't come up on a map search. I assumed it would be a charity room but it could be a private club as well. No rake events are fine but there's got to be a reason to try and get all those folks to the venue. GL

Home stretch for MSPT at Firekeepers at now under 4 weeks away. There will be Qualifiers and Satellites every day once May rolls around, thus suspending the normal daily tournaments.

Quad bonus payouts this Wed

$1k High Hands on Friday April 28th

Remember that the MSPT tournament will be in the event center, thus cash games will be more readily available. GL

High Hands galore next week on the west side of state!

Gun Lake $1k Mon-Thur .. 2pm-11pm
Firekeepers $1k Fri .. 1pm-2am
Gun lake $500 Sat/Sun .. Noon-1am

While initially GLake was full with deep lists, the interest has been waning now that this has been a weekly thing .. now adding Mon/Tue to the mix next week (PLO daily by 3pm)

Firekeepers 5th Sunday $500 .. 30th at Noon .. Although a bit of a turbo I think they chopped 6-7 ways for $12k each last time around.

So if you want a poker weekend at FKeepers .. Friday HH, Sat MSPT tournies, Sun $500 .. mix in some cash .. sounds great! GL

@answer20 Is there still no smoking in the Detroit casinos?

Hey all:

I was at Motorcity Casino poker room the other night. I played for a bit over 8 hours and made a modest profit. I actually consider it a tremendous victory as I battled back from losing OVER 2/3 of my bankroll. So I consider a comeback from being that far down a good result.

The casino in general was very crowded, along with the poker room. They had every table going except for one in the main room.

There were some recreational players there. Some of those players were from wedding receptions. It was great to see them coming back.

Of course, there were plenty of regulars too.

Action was intermittent. For a couple of hours, the table would be tight. Then, a new person would sit down and shake things up. OR somebody might just get "wild" for a bit.

One of things that has been solidly reinforced in my mind is just how big the house rake is over time AND just how many people are likely to be losing players. The casual players really have to get lucky to walk away with any significant win. Of all the people I played with over that time frame, there were a couple of "big" winners. By a big winner, I mean over $200 in net winnings. There were a handful of people who won in the neighborhood of $100, and a HUGE slug of losers. More than 1/2 of the players would lose their entire stacks. There were a couple of losers who got busted by going "all in" and were left with $10 or $15 who simply walked away. Not a total loss, but a 90%+ loss.

There was some sandwiches & snacks out....that is good. I ate a couple of sandwiches.

As before, once the promotion ended at 11:15, players started clearing out quickly. I wonder if the promotions are actually backfiring on the casino somewhat. That is, if they aren't running, everybody clears out. The promotions also take a huge amount out of the pots in time. If you have too many losers, they are probably discouraged from coming back?

Glad MCC had a busy day ..

Tournament Players be aware of a $450 Black Chip Bounty at FKeepers this Sunday at Noon (30K starting, assume 30 min levels) .. One last tournament before you head to Vegas? GL

is mgm detroit the place for plo?

i see 1/3 but have also heard there's really a button straddle on to- is that still the case?

min/max buy ins?

MGM is the 'only' place to go for PLO in Detroit, with as much as three different table stakes running Fri/Sat nights. The 1/3 is a chain of must moves with only one main game .. so you may end up table changing quite often later in the night as Players start to end their sessions. I've found 5-7k stacks at the main game when I've 'finally' arrived.

The 1/3 straddle is optional as far as I know but, as is anywhere, you may run into a combination of Players that put it on quite often.

Not sure the BI .. I'm thinking $1-800 but very unsure. IMO there's plenty of action and with the table changes you're bound to find at least a very good combination of 4-6 Players. Yes, it's a bit tedious if you like your position and it ends up changing .. but I actually prefer the must-move chain as it prevents Players from table or list jumping as the Floors are very aware of who belongs where and they are usually right on top of a bust/cash out in order to move Players along. GL

What’s the closest charity room to Livonia now that their poker golf club has shut down the poker room?