Live Poker players are so clueless as to why they can't beat the game.

https://www.pokernewsdaily.com/encor...NxtYG2Vh7_uLlY

Word is already spreading

Can we get some trip reports from people who witnessed or partook in this abomination ?

encore doesn't give a flying ****. they're only having the poker room to appease the gaming commission with the bare minimum of tables needed. obviously they couldn't have charged 10 dollar rake when they had the big room pre covid. there's a difference between players "tolerating" it when it's 12 tables open a few hour days that used to fill the demand of up to 72 tables at normal rake and no real competition and other poker rooms trying to charge this much to fill their normal rooms 24 hours a day. I mean hopefully after a few weeks players stop playing here, but Encore clearly doesn't care either way.

Well at least Encore finally said it out loud.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk

Thanks, I sent something along these lines:

"Dear Mass Gaming Commission,

I would like to bring to your attention how poorly the Boston Encore Harbor is treating his customers when it comes to the poker room.

When you provided them a license to operate, I believe the understanding was that they would open a top notch poker room that would make MA look good, provide jobs, and deliver a good experience for customers.

Since the re-opening of the room after the pandemic, the EBH:
-Opened only 12 tables vs 88 tables before
-Have ridiculous hours of operations (Mon-Thu from 10AM to 8PM). This is the first time I see this in the USA
-Increased the rake to insane amounts (10%-10$ cap), which doesn't exist anywhere else

They are clearly taking advantage of their monopoly.

As a solution, I would propose to impose certain rules on them, or to provide licenses to other companies to open poker room in East MA.

Thank you,"

the gaming commission does not care about your rake complaints and makes it really easy to write you off as a disgruntled gambler.

keep it simple - the casino license holder promised to create jobs with a poker room and is failing to do so because of X and Y and you are upset.

dont bring up unrelated complaints that make you sound histrionic by complaining about rake or calling it a "monopoly"

If you're going to highlight job creation, point out that they have the floors doubling as chip runners instead of hiring actual runners.

https://cardplayerlifestyle.com/enco...FFjfRZ_yVXrN5s


Another point of view

Only avenue forward is Rte 93 North.

Twin River! ***crosses fingers***

I'll be doing my part by highlighting their ultra-high rake in every Facebook post they make

My wish for a long time has been MA allowing a poker room at Plainridge, the state's slot parlor. This would bring some competition to Encore in eastern MA. Massachusetts can't get out of its own way to regulate sports betting, so no way they figure out how to expand poker.

Checked out Encore Poker via Poker Atlas at like 7:30 this morning and it stated that 1 1/3 game was running. Checked again at 9am and Poker Atlas states 4 1/3 tables, 2 2/5 tables, 1 5/10 table, and 1 table of PLO.

Why do you think they are opening earlier? Did they change hours already?

I just wrote a negative review on yelp.

Other than not patronize EBH I don't know what else we can do... it would be great if NECN or one of the local news broadcasts ran a story about how Encore is ripping off its patrons. I don't know how to make that happen, or if it would have any effect on their business.

I do not think it covers the rake topic. The rest of the article is pretty fair.

You are correct and to me the hours they are open is irrelevant because you cannot play there and be a winner long term with the current rake structure but as I said just posting another point of view. It is nice to see that there are several media outlets reporting on this gong show of a reopening.


Isn't there anyone higher up than local Encore management (like in Vegas) saying "wtf are you guys doing in Boston?"




Here is yet another reporting of the sh*t show... since we are focusing on rake scroll to the bottom 1/3 of the article it mentions the rake vs winnability:

https://brokefishpoker.com/news/f/li...=Massachusetts

The delusions are running deep here. A major corporation operating a CASINO has no interest in your “long-term profitability”. Shocking as it may be they actually don’t want anyone to turn a long term profit on any of their games. If you think rake is going anywhere but up at poker rooms worldwide you need to take a few deep breaths and revise your expectations.

That said - it probly won’t be too hard to get them to change 5/T+ to time game charge. 1/3 and 2/5 are doomed.

Sticky the above somewhere prominent.

If you're a multi-billion dollar corporation, and one part of your clientele is not giving you a worthwhile ROI while also being a pain in the ass, it makes sense to tweak things so that either those clients make you more money, or they go away. Raising the rake to $10 is a great way to get one or both of these, presumably with the former being preferable, but the latter being fine too from EBH's perspective.

FYI everyone remember to hit them with bad reviews on google

3PM on Thursday, 5 hours down, 5 hours left, 47 people on the 1/3 list with 26 checked-in, 8 games running.

I live 4 miles away, and if I had the day off I'd drive to Salem.

I think you guys are missing the larger point. Encore is ripping off all of their customers. They've been ripping off blackjack players with 6/5 payoffs, ripping off slot players with low payback %, ripping off hotel guests with outrageous rates and low comp rates. Now they're ripping off poker players with outrageous rake.

Yes, EBH has no interest in the longterm success of poker players or the poker economy, but it's not because they hate poker. They're ripping off poker players because they are running a monopoly with monopoly pricing on every aspect of their business.

Our best hope is making enough noise that they see it has the potential to harm all of their business.

Right but the people who matter don't care about this stuff. "I can't beat 2/5 nl with this shitty rake and 6/5 blackjack is a scam" isn't going to change their mind on anything.
A big poker room with lots of jobs was promised and not being delivered has a much better chance of moving the needle.

Or perhaps the larger point is that EBH has shown that it's not going to be the institution that runs poker the way people here want it run. Standalone poker rooms have to take care of poker players in a way that large casinos don't if they don't want to. EBH's current management has clearly shown it doesn't want to and so perhaps a better strategy would be to lobby for a standalone poker room in eastern MA.

"EBH has rake far above and operating hours far below industry standards, so MA players are going to NH, CT, and illegally playing online." might be a place to start.

I invite the ones who did not email the MA gaming commission yet to do so. Along the lines of the above is a good start.

I read some people giving constructive criticism to the message I sent them in this thread. I appreciate it. It should not deter others to not send a message by fear of sending something not perfect. The message has to go out: the more ppl, the better.

Any effort count (I can already hear the "The gaming commission doesn't care if poker is beatable or not", if that's your take you are missing my point)