Quote:
Originally Posted by Zach And Tired
I'm going to EBH for the first time since before COVID. What's changed? The poker room is split in two now or something, right? And I heard they closed the cage in the poker room. Do you have to buy chips downstairs now or are there runners? Is the check in both in the same place? Can you still order food at the table?
1) The main thing is there are less tables and the rake is higher, $1 per $10 in the pot, up to $10 plus $2 for the promos. *I think* they only collect for the BBJ when the high hand promo isn't running, and that they take that first dollar at $10 in the pot. The buffet is gone, replaced by a pizza/sandwich/cheesecake place, the sportsbook, and Shake Shack.
2) Room is indeed split in twain, although it isn't too confusing. The brush and cage are more or less where they were. The larger room is now where the slot promo giveaways (for waffle irons and such) used to be; those promos are now downstairs roughly where Red8 is. Kind of annoying since at least a few of those slot-whales would get a spontaneous desire to play poker and games were
always good on promo days. The smaller room which is usually opened last with ~10 tables is what used to be a kitchen... no more poker kitchen, and is right outside the men's room, behind the cage. Sound is poor in that room due to loud slot machines surrounding it, especially the Fire Link ones, and for a while there Encore was going to cram another row of slots on one wall too. I imagine that the fire department told them that wasn't safe. The slot noise probably violates several OSHA standards nevertheless, last I checked.
3) The poker room cage is still open most of the time, and you can buy chips there, though they do sometimes go on meals break. No chip runners for players, brushes and sometimes floors do rack fills still. You can color up there, and, based on some sort of secret arcane system, presumable involving astrological theories about the apsidal precession of Mercury, you can occasionally randomly cash out there. There's no way to know when that is in practice without asking, like a sign or anything. I've sometimes walked to the high stakes cage to cash out when the main cage downstairs starts looking like a Registrar of Motor Vehicles office. Such are the times.
4) The stand alone booth is gone, and the brush desk is now where the Red Card desk used to be.
5) No more poker kitchen. No more massage girls. Encore probably not serious about building an extension anymore, the blueprints of which was rumored to hold a new poker room made of solid jade, and a small farm where all your childhood pets are still alive and frolicking happily because
why not. But the room is no where near as busy as it used to be, probably because Encore's little hand is taking, I might guess, $200+ dollars off each open table every hour. Games themselves are usually good though, imo.
Maybe if a few more people chime in with details I've missed or gotten wrong we can try to update the FAQ.....