Is it also true there is no poker room manager now and all the poker room supervisors just report to the table games manager or something along those lines?

Idk, but it sure seems that way.

Spoke with management at Encore. I'm happy they as well as the MGC have listened. Rake will NOT be coming down as the place wasn't profitable before. As the room expands (36 tables) they do plan to offer tournaments and in my opinion because the sportsbook in there too we will have much better service (ie food better cages).

My final suggestion was eliminating any additional rake beyond $10. I was told there is a bit of red tape with the BBJ but they didn't see any noticable increase and they don't think taht alone is the draw. That is my only hope at this point. No stupid promos that just take money off the table, no BBJ, and just the rake. That in my opinion is our best hope.

I wish every room would remove BBJs. I'm fine with hot hands, but BBJs are a cancer on live poker.

True 'dat ^

Yes, removing BBJ would be great. So few people ever benefit from it and almost everyone suffers from the extra $1 taken out.

Is there anyway to convince casinos to remove it en masse? Even if they keep the drop, how about promos that players can see a return on?

This is interesting because I heard back in the first year of the room their revenue was the most for any poker room in the U.S. So that means either they're lying or they couldn't make a profit despite making more money than any other room. I understand Mass is more expensive to do business than LV, but come on. The truth is probably that they were making money, but not a killing. Feels like they're trying to squeeze every last cent out of us. Tight slots, high rake, 6-5 BJ. They're so hostile to their patrons it blows my mind. Def need some competition.

The deceptive practices of the Wynn corporation knows no end.

The current promo dollar that they make you believe is going to the BBJ is actually mostly funding their high hand promos that at this point are only held mon-wed from 11am - 6pm.

Only 20% or 20 cents of the +1 money goes towards the bad beat jackpot.
80% or 80 cents of the +1 money goes towards the high hand promos.

They have collected over $200k in +1 "promo drop" money since February 1st that is just sitting around waiting for them to use whenever they see fit on high hand promos.

If you've been wondering why the Bad Beat jackpot only increases by about $1500-2k a day when it should be increasing by about $7-10k a day now you know why.

This company is such a bad faith actor it's comical.

I was told the room was not making money and the rake keeps it open. otherwise they couldn't keep poker at a loss.

I can't really say either way, i know they mentioned the taxes and regulatory stuff as the reason which does make sense in that MA makes things really non-competitive. then the fact they are in a very expensive place makes it tough.

i can't say its true, but i got the sense I wasn't being bullshit. I agree about the competition and my response to the MGC was bascialyl thanks but it looks like Eastern MA players will need to leave the state and its a joke we can't have more options as clearly there could be at least a few rooms that open up.

at this point I am done and over it, i think it could help suggesting they eliminate all extra rake over 10 and then it cant' hurt to let the MGC we need more poker in the state. probabyl last time i'm in this thread for a while. i'm so over it lol

I'm not sure about other states, but CT does not tax the casino for poker earnings, MA taxes at the same rate as slots and table games from what I remember.

Compromise - lower the rake in exchange for taking away all free drinks ��

I ran out of time to add my edit
Edit: MA poker rooms pay 25% of gross revenue for poker, Twin pays 17%, MS/FW pay zero. NY appears to be 10% while Nevada is 6.75% (not including local taxes for any of these states) but it does appear that MA casinos do have to pay much more taxes for poker earnings than most other states. I have no idea how big of an impact this would have on the effective break even rake rate in each state, but I'm sure it's not zero. Add into that higher costs for almost everything in Boston and clearly $5 rake isn't viable.

Exactly. Our best chance is getting the tax rate changed. anyone got any clout in state politics?

now I'm done. my complaint has been filed with the MGC.

We could start a union of water drinking poker players

i've barely played nl in years but isn't this high hand at certain hour crap fairy common with these promo drops? i know the borgata and parx call out high hands during certain hours only. Or am I missing something?

Could this be the reason they claim they are not making $? They used to have 88 tables, 14 in that closed off area by the ladies restroom/ATMs so really 74 in use and they were full on the weekend days/nights and most of some weeknights with a decent number of tables even during the dead hours like Tue at 5am. With 48 tables vs 24 now they double revenue but operating expenses goes up a small %?

Doubt they double revenue. They don't run 24 games all the time so they def will not run 48 games all the time.

No one here is going to be able to figure this all out from the outside. Some of the unknowns depend on how EBH chooses to allocate shared costs. E.g. parking might be free, but it costs EBH something and how they allocate those costs across all of operations we don't know (or I doubt anyone here does.)

Taken from the MGM Springfield (Springfield, MA) thread:

Does anyone know these players? Did the floor address this? Have they come back to play since?

The floor said they are no longer allowed to play at the same table anymore, also they haven't even tried to show up since (at encore). Anyone who plays the highest stakes games in the area for a while knows them

Why even allow them to play at all... It should be the ban hammer for them and nothing less !!

The latest rumor from the dealers is they're going to start charging for drinks. I don't know if this is just for the poker room or casino wide but man is this company run by a bunch of penny pinching short sighted donkeys.

They keep coming back to this for the poker room. I would assume slots/table games would still have free drinks if you are playing. I am curious if they start charging for drinks if the service will be better. Before it was you get what you pay for kind of thing but if people are starting to pay high drink prices then they're going to be very upset when it takes 20 minutes to get it. Part of the ultra high rake is to pay for these drinks? This is exactly short sighted donkey stuff.

Can't wait for people to stop drinking and start talking GTO and poker strategy at the table instead

Just the poker room.