They may be taking the same approach to poker as Twin River, only open poker when they can seat full tables, no plexi, no masks.

But Twin has plexi setup on poker tables already!

That's what I get for believing something I read on the internet.

Updated Faq on the Encore website:

https://www.encorebostonharbor.com/h...fLs7XVrrZFR-S0





What is the status of poker at Encore Boston Harbor?

• Currently, we do not offer live poker at Encore Boston Harbor. The current social distancing guidelines related to live table games would only allow four people at a poker table, including the dealer. Unfortunately, three players per table is not enough volume to support our poker operations, therefore we have not brought the game back.

When will live poker be available again?

• It is impossible to know when fully operational poker (nine players per table) will be allowed again in Massachusetts. When that time comes, we will evaluate the viability of the market, the demand for the game, and our facilityÂ’s capacity to support it. Until then, we will continue to operate without live poker.

What happens to my poker points?

• All unredeemed poker points can be converted to Wynn Rewards COMPDOLLARS. Please visit the Wynn Rewards desk and we would be happy to assist in converting your balance.

What happens to the Bad Beat Jackpot?

• The Bad Beat jackpot and its distribution is managed in collaborative oversight with the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. Regulations require that all jackpot monies be re-distributed to poker players. If we re-open live poker, we would prefer to do that with the Bad Beat jackpot intact. If we do not resume live poker, there are several ways to re-distribute the jackpot to our poker players. We will wait to make a final recommendation to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission once we have further clarity on the future of live poker at Encore Boston Harbor.

The faq reads like there's a real possibility poker actually never comes back. Doesn't make sense that it wouldn't; they never got the slot traffic they expected and revenues are still down from pre-covid. But the the way the faq is worded, and the fact that they haven't approached the gaming commission with any proposals for short-handed poker, isn't encouraging.

When they removed the poker tables from the room in my mind that was the final nails in the coffin for Encore poker. I sure hope I'm wrong though and poker makes a big comeback 😃.

I'm sure encore has used this time to increase parking capacity....right???

How would they do that?

Wasn't the poker room killing it? I know its not highly profitable square footage, but it's not like they need more slots or table games. The poker room had high utilization from what I recall. They have plenty of restaurants, maybe they need another convention hall, but those don't run 24/
7 like poker.

I just can't imagine them not bringing it back after full return to normal.

Not my job to figure out how, as I'm just a chump on the internet. I was under the impression they bought the land across the street. But rumors in poker rooms tend to be tall tales.

Anyways, poker players suck up parking spots for long periods of time, which leads to the rest of the patrons to be frustrated upon arrival at peak times. It's a delicate balance for management. To me, this should lead to a scaled back room or no room at all.

I agree, the wording is ominous. Might never see it again. Or maybe it returns, but not until 2022 sometime, if mask mandates and distancing guidelines are ended.

Mass Gaming Commission has to be the biggest group of donks I've ever seen. Every single state has poker at a functional number (6+) but MA thinks it's TOTALLY NOT SAFE to play.

Good grief, lol.

If the casinos wanted it back they’d be proposing it to the MGC the way they did with other games and they’d have it, IMO.

Those idiots should have never been awarded the casino in the first place. It should have gone to a mid tier operator and they should have built it where Suffolk downs currently sits on all that fu-king land! Instead they award it to a 5* name and plop it down in the middle of ragtag Everett where there's no land and it's a horrible place to get in and out of and the closest MBTA station is a 10 minute walk across a shitty bridge to Sullivan square. Suffolk downs had the land like foxwoods and the blue line for anyone to be able to get there via the MBTA. This casino has been a disaster from the get go. They built one of the nicest poker rooms in the country and expect people to stay away? They don't plan on parking constraints? It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out people who play poker would drive from all over and park and plop their asses down for 8-12 hrs and hog up parking spots. It amazes me these idiots couldn't see this coming. If that casino had been built in East Boston they would almost certainly be dealing 6/7 handed right now if not right now, very soon. I hope Encore is a money pit for Wynn, they deserve it after butchering this thing from every angle....

FWIW, I heard from a laid-off encore dealer that they were going to come back with 30-ish tables.

If they don't, or hell even if they do, can we call this whole Wynn saga a failure? I can't think of too many things they did well. For having such a great reputation it seems to me they botched just about everything they did.

I wonder if they abandon poker, could there be poker-only licenses in the future? I mean if someone had the money and a good location I find it hard to believe you couldn't make money as a poker-only room. I mean Chasers has been killing it pretty much since they opened and they don't own their building or have the food/bev and have to give a decent % to charity.

I get poker doesn't begin to scratch the surface of what Wynn needs to make to recoup this 2 billion dollar nut they are staring at but if they don't want a first class poker room then the MGC should give it to a smaller company/operator who can build a poker only room somewhere in Boston. I mean covid-19 has driven a ton of places in the city under there's probably a ton of retail space available for rent. Poker isn't a huge cash cow and for that debt bomb Wynn is staring at it probably barely pays the light bill but for some small company it could be a nice money maker. Wynn never even got a major poker tournament series off the ground in that room. Another travesty. You put a massive high end poker in Boston run by some competent people and start running some massive tournaments and you could be sitting on something big.

It's massachusetts. They'd charge a quarter mill just to apply for that license. Take in 8 of those. Award it to one of those and it'll open in 6 years time.

I have no faith in this state.

In NYS, our casinos aren’t allowed to let players touch cards, thus no poker, so I would say our regulators are trying to give MGC a run for their money...

Did you mean New York State (NYS)? Rivers in Schenectady?

NYS. Two casinos, Resorts World Catskills in Monticello, and the casino you mentioned. NYS allowed casinos to reopen in September, 6 months later and still no poker. People in Mass are not alone in being frustrated.

Turning stone has been open for months

Yeah was gonna say, uh, TS was one of the first in the whole country to open poker

Yeah, uh, turning stone is tribal run.

Excellent post dude!!!

This thing has been a cluster fukkk from the get go!!! One can only imagine how big the payoffs/bribes were to give it to Everett!!! It was a total abortion even before they were awarded the license... starting out with the whole land contamination from being a Monsanto chemical plant in its prior life to the whole shell game to hide that the real owners of the land who were criminals tied to organized crime.

I'm aware that there were two votes on Suffolk since the property straddled Revere and East Boston and that Eastie voted against the proposal initially but that was by no mean the death blow for Suffolk there were many work arounds to overcome Easties initial objection.


If you remember them cancelling weekend tournaments because more people showed up than they anticipated and they were pissed that the poker players took up all the spots in the garage, leaving no spots for the white haired slot players to light their social security checks on fire then it is imminently clear that they are using Covid as an excuse to gas poker permanently!!! Bottom line: Them parking spots are to valuable to let us low ballin' poker playin' curmudgeons occupy them.


The nitwit who approved the final decision for the layout and amenities they went with should be flipping burgers somewhere!! How do you spend $2+ BILLION dollars there and not have an indoor and/or outdoor pool, or a concert venue of any type? Or how do you offer no mid range food options or a food court? Almost every restaurant there will cost you over $100 per person to eat at!!! Who was the bufoon who decided on the number of parking spots they created would be sufficient? But no worries because they got Popeye there!!!

They have fukkked this whole project up so badly that the rumor on the street is that the place is for sale for approximately $0.35 on the dollar... Maybe we get a 2+2 Go fund me going to raise the needed $700mil then we can buy the place and bring back poker in full swing... I'm guessing we could probably run the place better than current management!!

Hahaha oh it's gonna get worse not better for good ol 5* Encore. I am sure they are angling to get one of the coveted sports betting licenses, which is coming down the road. That's gonna be the next disaster for them bc if they think poker players are a pain in their ass, taking away from their bottom line wait until that crowd rolls in on a Saturday an hour before the noon kickoffs with $300 in their wallets to gamble for the day on the slate of games and they take up every parking spot and go in and hunker down all day watching college football for 10 hours. Walking up to the windows betting $50 on Alabama and asking if they can get a free drink ticket lol.

If the MGC had any common sense they would give the Boston area sports betting license to Penn Gaming (barstool sports) bc they are actively trying to become THE behemoth in the US sports betting marketplace. Give them the rights to poker and sports betting let them build out a place where all the poker players and sports bettors who like to park their asses all day can go. This type of clientele is obviously not what encore wants or is trying to cater to so give it to Penn Gaming bc they own some horse tracks and poker rooms and are making inroads to the sports betting marketplace. A massive racing and sports book combined with first class poker room would be a win/win for everyone. Encore doesn't wanna deal with the low roller headaches and Penn Gaming does.

TS is not subject to the NYS regulations that are keeping other poker rooms closed. This is why I did not include TS is my post.