This

I could certainly be wrong but find it hard to believe that the increased revenue is due to more physical slot machines being added, and not people having been cooped up for a year and wanting to get out a lot more.

At some point there have to be diminishing returns for adding slots too despite their having little to no overhead. The table games definitely get extremely crowded on busy nights, but I’ve never not seen open slot machines. It seems like they only included poker as a condition of their license, and are using covid as an excuse to kill it.

At this point I’m hoping the gaming commission comes down on them hard which they don’t appear to have the power to do, or another party comes in over the next few years because Encore’s management seems duplicitous even by gaming company standards.

The 2 times I've been there since the repurposing of the poker room to have slot machines it has been a ghost town upstairs. There were four people upstairs playing the slots on a Saturday night a couple months ago. I don't think there is a chance in hell those slot machines are making them more money than the poker room was. Seems like the poker players taking up parking spots is the biggest obstacle to overcome in getting the original poker room back.

Could a concert venue across the street from the Encore Casino hurt Boston-area theaters?
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/12/...heir-business/

Anything that hurts garbage theaters like Wilbur and Chevalier I fully support

Re-opening just over 4 weeks away at this point, has there been any official confirmation on # of tables and limits that will be offered?

No that I know of. Why do I feel they are going to be the absolute worst game in New England? I can imagine the 5-10 NL players showing up and battling with each other while hogging all the seats so no fish can ever enter.

I'm pretty disappointed by the way they're treating poker players with these ridiculous hours and so few tables but I admit I'm still gonna play there. It the closest room to me. Maybe if the demand is high enough they'll expand hours and tables. Maybe I'm just fooling myself.

Honestly, I don't know what is best between playing to show interest and hope they scale up, or complete boycott. Considering the opening hours, I won't play anyway since I am at work. But I am really curious abt the **** show it will be

I understand the mentality but not sure how a boycott really helps the cause. But as you said anyway....pretty tough to even get there if you WANT to unless you are retired or work a non-standard-hour job.

Imagine working there?

It would be endless complaining about the hours they're open. And poker players sure love to complain incessantly.

I can already imagine the mental drain on the staff, the constant complaining about how they have to close by 8pm. Beat of luck to all of them

Update provided today at the Mass Gaming Commission: EBH will begin poker on February 21st. Hours will be 10:00am to 6:00pm (not sure if that was a misstatement because it contradicts what Encore has previously stated). It was also stated that it would be Monday - Thursday, which is one day less than previously stated by Encore. Twelve tables to start.

Also, the Encore proposed development across Broadway has been paused at the request of Encore. It was stated that Encore wanted to review and revise the proposal, probably due to comments received so far but no details were provided.

Encore website says 10am-8pm Mon-Thur.
https://www.encorebostonharbor.com/h...rmation/casino

Supporting article about the development pause.
https://www.wwlp.com/news/massachuse...encore-casino/

Where in the Casino will the new Poker Room be located ?

Wait, you said Feb. 21st? Overlooked that part. Encore website still says Feb. 1st. Also says it'll be in the middle section of old poker room (if I'm reading this right: "center section of The Loft, on the second floor mezzanine level").

I haven't been to Encore since the closure but I've seen some pics on Facebook. It looks like a section of the old room upstairs. It looks like the center section in front of the cage. The area where mid-stakes games used to run.

I forgot to mention earlier, it was also mentioned that the cage upstairs would be open.

Ed: slow pony

There will probably be one table. They’ve hated poker since the beginning.

Guess that's the old HR section? Seems like too small a space for 12 tables to fit comfortably or am I wrong?

If true, that's laughable. This is basically checking a box, and barely so.

I'm not up to speed on things like these, but is it a requirement that they have a poker room of some sorts in order for there to be no other non-charity rooms in MA? If so, I don't get it, since they seem to be treating poker players like low roller parking spot fillers with this schedule, yet at the same time they're worried that if they don't offer poker they'll lose the clientele about whom they don't seem to care?

I guess what it probably boils down to is they want to be able to say they are a true full-service casino, and, to such an end, this lets them tout that they do offer poker.

It's in the old mid stakes room.... Where $2-$5 was usually spread right in the middle across from the poker cage. The high roller area that was the small room kind of in the corner is still slot machines... at least as of Wed night when I was there.


Any predictions on how crowded it'll be, how long the list's will be and what type of players will be there? Will the games be any good?

Absolutely pathetic. Probably better off just getting a list of people together and starting our own room. Rent a VFW or something.

am I the only person in here that doesn’t think the sky is falling?

it’s a soft relaunch with limited hours and limited staffing - once they are back i fully expect them to expand by May if not sooner.

This is already done - it's called Eastern Poker Tour.

Every decision that's been made in relation to poker since the room closed has been anti-poker. Plus, it's not like this is an empty room now. They'd have to unplug slot machines to expand, and it takes one of those probably 15 minutes to net the room more money per day than a poker player and it cleans out gamblers faster, freeing up parking spots, which obviously matters to them since they're not offering poker 24/7 on any day, and not at all on days with the highest foot traffic. If anything this is an excuse to say they gave it a shot but it failed, and then stop offering it entirely, unless, as noted in my earlier post, they are offering it so as to say they do in order to look like a full service casino, in which case they have no need to up the number of tables or increase hours/days of operation.