All casinos would rather get rid of poker and fill it with slots. That's been a fact for as long as casinos have been around.

Adding more slots does not always mean more profit. You have to make more people come to the casino and/or increase profit per person. If there's no poker, a portion of the gaming population won't be at that casino.

At best Motor City is getting 9 tables on the weekend and maybe 4 during the weekday. An extra 72 people peak and 36 off peak doesn't seem like a huge group to cater to. You also need 20 some staff members, equipment. Seems much easier to just plop some machines, have a tech, and be done with it.

With poker dying out and the Downtown casinos not wanting to cater to tournaments I have a hard time believing MC and especially greektown isn't just ready to call it quits. MC has to downsize at the very least.

When they reopen motor city and Greek town need to go to all 1/3 match the stack games. Only running 1/2 cap and nothing bigger they are missing out on a big chunk of the pool…

1) Poker is not dying out .. not by any means. There are just so many options for poker that it's getting stretched out. Both Home Games and Tournaments are at an all-time high.

1A) Yes, you must cater to your patrons .. and somehow MGM is doing that over MCC. How? That is the question.

2) A room can only run the games that are being requested, but I do agree that 1/3 MTS and Bomb Pot tables have the full attention of LOTS of low stakes Players right now. 2/5 is perceived as too Nitty. There's plenty of action (and way less street to street tanking) at 1/2-1/3 games. No matter how much content Players watch, they still have no clue as to how to properly 3b. In the 2/5 games I see, they do LOTS of PF 3b and Players still just assume it's AA-AKs or they're just not used to putting in 'so much' money PF and that turns them sour on larger games.

2A) Who's 'responsible' for getting games going at one place or another? It usually takes 1-2 Players and an accommodating Floor. I've seen games survive with less than 20 Players in the 'Reg' pool .. you just need to get the game started and take care of it.

3) Residual Gaming can be a key factor in a poker room's survival .. so don't discount how a casino values (or de-values) those patrons. GL

I should rephrase poker isn’t dying out if a room can’t support games bigger than 1/2 but playing poker for profit or professionally in that area would be impossible.

Also not to be shallow but it can’t be healthy for poker as a whole if limits aren’t rising with inflation right? 1/2 just seems kind of a waste of time for any for profit player in 2023.

Where did all the MGM plo action go?

As i understand it, Firekeepers has been popping off with PLO more often 1-3 and sometimes 2-5. Other then that, maybe the social club rooms in Toledo or if you find a lot of cars in the parking lot of Bagel shops/Italian coffee shops in and around Macomb County.

FKeepers does have 'pre' lists you can sign up for (call them) Thursdays 6pm, Friday 1pm and Saturday 6pm. These tables are 1/3 match games and can have 2-3 10k+ stacks in them once they get rolling. They even had a 40k pot in the Spring that went suck-re-suck with quads winning at River. Thursday will typically have at least one feeder table. There has been other games popping up if Players are in the room at the right time .. even some RxR. Both the Thursday and Saturday games typically run into the next morning .. even to Noon or beyond .. shorthanded, but juicy at those times.

Gun Lake casino also has PLO on Tuesday and Friday (day/night). You will see some PLO at the Charity Rooms but only under the right circumstances due to the 20k chip barrier they are under. GL

Anyone play at the Rosemack Bingo Hall? Thoughts?

I've played there a few times, both in tournaments and cash games.

The food service is surprisingly good.

The tournaments are OK, but with so many other places, you've got severely compressed levels, so there is really more luck than skill.

The cash games are kind of hit & miss. Sometimes they are great, other times, not so much.

I have not played there since the strike started, so they may be flooded with business now?

They will be getting more of my business moving forward (until the strike ends).

Typical charity room, its been around forever and used to be located at the old bowling alley Continental Lanes before it got torn down. I think its only open Fri-Sun.

The bingo hall was all the buzz, their progressive jackpot was at $47,500 dollars last week. Someone finally hit it (covered all the numbers on their card in under 57 numbers. People were sleeping in their cars overnight to stay in line. **** gets rowdy and fights for spaces were happening.

Looks like a deal might have been reached. https://www.playmichigan.com/detroit...-live-updates/

"The Detroit Casino Council that collectively is the five unions representing the 3,700 striking workers, reported that “historic” five-year tentative agreement that includes “the largest wage increases ever negotiated in the Detroit casino industry’s 23-year history.” Specifically, the deal includes:

An immediate 18% pay raise on average.
No health care cost increases for employees.
Workload reductions and other job protections.
First-ever technology contract language.
Retirement increases.

Will the players come flocking back.

Hey all:

I played at RoseMack the other day.

I started off in the tournament. I was doing OK until I donked off a TON of chips with AA and the villian had 2 pair. I was aware that he very well may have that hand, but IF my aces held up, I would have been in a GREAT position. Wound up busting out a bit further than half way through the tournament. There were only 40(+) players, so only the top 5 positions got paid. I don't like playing in tournaments this small. oh well.

I then decided to play cash. The had two tables going. I had to wait about 30 minutes or so. It was well worth it!

That was the craziest cash game I've played in for a while. It played more like a somewhat aggressive 2/5 game. Most pots were raised pre-flop, a decent percentage SIGNIFICANTLY so. It was not uncommon to have $75 or $100 in the pot pre-flop.

What was even better than that was the amount of players who simply would not walk away from any decent pair. There were 3 dudes that lost AT LEAST $500 within an hour. The ATM machine got a good workout in the time that I was there. There were also several people making big time bluffs that got caught.

Perhaps with the casinos being closed, that has made some of the degen cash players EXTRA DEGEN?

I don't know. I was short stacked, but I kept my wits and walked out several hundred ahead.

As a side note, IF you decide to eat there, the beefsteak sandwich looked incredible. A very generous portion. The two players that I saw get it were very happy with it. They have a pretty decent food service for a poker room their size.

Looks like I might have called it, rumor has it Motor City is kicking out the poker room into that little tournament area unto the casino floor with only 4-5 tables. The rumor going around is they plan to turn that big area into a cigar bar.

There is just no reason to ever have an area that huge and only have 1-4 tables go most days of the week.

Looks like Greektown's room will be opening up at noon. <insert joke about Greektown here>

I hope they do turn things around, but Greektown will Greektown. The room still has 10 tables in it and I think that's the best and only option for tournaments in Detroit. That might be the best way to build up a player base again, but its Greektown and they'll find away to goof it up sadly. I really do hope them the best. More rooms are better.

https://www.playmichigan.com/detroit...m9Sy9P5kLcWWAI

Hey all:

Looks like Greektown poker is back up & running? Bravo poker says they are running between noon and 4 A.M. No games running as of 1 PM Weds. I tried calling BOTH rooms. Neither room is picking up the phone.

Looks like the strike will continue at MGM.

IF Motorcity moves the poker room to the overflow room, how long before that simply gets shut down? Four tables is probably not going to cut it moving forward.

Who knows how long things will stay closed at MGM?

Could this be the end of casino poker in Detroit? Will it only be the charity rooms & home games moving forward?

That's about how things were prestrike for Greektown. They might have a game running over night on the weekend but they shutdown as soon as the last game breaks up. They did have 2 tables going yesterday. Motor City doesnt plan on getting the area up and running until Monday. I hear they're going to try and squeeze in more tables, but who knows. It's extremely rare that a casino kicks its poker room out if its dedicated room into the slot area and keeps it going there. I still remember getting into it with Binion's last poker manager when they turned the poker room into a arena slot area and moved the tables by the old hotel entrance. "Are they going to get rid of you guys, they seem to be doing so well across the street" "No, we actually are happy about the move because our player base wanted to be near the sportsbook". It was shutdown within' the year, that same manager tried to explain to me why Big Blind ante will never catch on.


Honestly the frustrating thing is this. I still think the Detroit area has a demand for poker tournaments. None of the big 3 downtown want them, they killed it off when COVID hit...well Motor City pissed off their dealer base when hiring outside workers to do the tournaments. BUT still I think there is a huge demand for tournaments but the main casinos will never provide. The charities could easily fill that void and run better tournaments if they weren't handcuffed by Gaming. I honestly thing thats the only way Greektown ever comes back. Motor City I always felt they wanted to get rid of poker for a long time.

Guys, how is Greektown not getting 10-12 tables a night since all of the MGM and MC poker crowd should be flocking to Greektown to play?

Absolutely not.

Motor City had 9 games including 2 2/5 last night unless MC finds a way to F this up they have a great chance to regain some market share especially at the 2/5+ level the longer mgms strike goes on…

Hey all:

I was at Motor City last night...it was indeed very busy, especially earlier in the night. I was not at all happy with my experience.

They have indeed MOVED the poker room out to the overflow area. NOBODY liked this at all. There were conflicting reasons given for this. Some dealers said it was indeed going to be a cigar/hooka lounge. Other dealers said that it was a Pepsi pipe that burst (up in the ceiling? wall?) and that they had problems with the area directly ABOVE the poker room on the 1st floor. Nobody knew for sure. I also asked that IF the move was permanent would they be putting up barriers or otherwise making the poker area more prominent, and a little better laid out? Nobody knew for sure.

The situation with the poker chips was a dumpster fire. The cage for the old poker room was sort of open, but was also closed for a dinner break. Of course, they also closed down early in the night. You are NOT allowed to buy chips at the table. This frequently led to players having to go the first floor main cashier to get chips! Almost half the time they simply did not come back. Long term, they simply have to solve the chip situation.

There was no self serve drinks. They had some bottles of water brought in at one point. They also brought in a bunch of potato chips later in the night. No other food. I was not happy with this, as that is one of the reasons that I frequent that room. OK, no food in the poker room. No food in the casino either! The hallway to the food court was boarded up with plywood! WTF?

I later learned from a floor manager that the food court closes at 10:30. Not all the employees have yet to come back to work (across all sectors). They were given the opportunity to come back the week AFTER Thanksgiving. So just before the 1st of the month, more things should be open, food might also be served later.

The drink server seemed VERY overwhelmed. I did manage to get a drink, but it took like 30 minutes.

Most of the tables were not wired in to get your player's card information. You had to have the floor key it in.

Some of the dealers & floor managers were VERY depressed & upset, and they let the player's know. This was the case with the female floor manager. I asked her "what was the deal with the room moving", she excitedly pointed and said it was "your fault! you didn't come here enough, and now this! You didn't support us, and now this". WTF? I didn't know I was personally responsible for this move, casino management never asked my opinion previously! Very odd behavior from middle management towards a customer.

A couple of dealers said there were rumors floating about that layoffs were imminent (from the poker room). Of the two who told me this, one said they are redoubling their efforts to become a traveling dealer.

After the 3 card poker promotion ended, the room started to clear. After midnight, a lot of players left. At some point (11 pm?), there were almost NO new players.

There were some fresh faces in the player pool, but a lot of regulars too.

So yes, MC is picking more business now, but what happens if MGM re-opens? What happens if Greektown gets serious?

I played for 6+ hours. Most of the time, the table(s) were passive and not betting a lot. It was simply INSANE how much $$$$$$$ flows off the table for rake & promotions. Very few winners, a lot of losers.

I was not at all impressed with MC's operations. If this is what the future holds, I'll probably play at MGM, possibly GreekTown, and definitely at the charities. Without food & the chaotic situation and low rollers, MC will be at the bottom of my list.

If I were in charge of Motor City or Greektown I would have any promo funds ready to go immediately, lower rake, do whatever it takes to regain some of the market share while MGM is not operating. This is their make it or break it time. They need to do whatever it takes to have players come AND stay long term.

THANK YOU! I should have brought this point up, but my brain is only at half speed today.

You make a very good point. IF MC is going to take market back, NOW is the time to do it. Step up their game and get it done.

That could very easily be accomplished....lower rake, get promotions going (especially a tie in with sports book?), bring food back & improve it. Get the main room remodeled a bit, spiff it up a little.

Maybe turn the overflow room into a "high roller" area? cordon it off, put in better chairs & tables? Then turn the "overflow" area on the main floor into a tournament area & super overflow area.

Any casino that scoffs at poker players is foolish! I was talking to a few players that next to me through the night, these guys were absolute degens on the sports betting parlays. THAT is exactly the type of customer the casino wants. I was shocked at how bad the payoffs were on the parlays.

Because its Greektown, they've pissed off the majority of the player pool for a decade and no one wants to go back. I don't know what it would take to get players back there, but that's the reputation of the place. They used to not have a poker room manager and it was done by committee. A floor ruling at noon would be different then a ruling at 11pm depending on who was on shift.