Just wanted everyone to know that there is a cage to the left after you exit the escalator. It moves much faster as people are mainly cashing out large denomination chips

Excited about Triple Draw and Badugi but most importantly for me the prospect of Big O (5 card pot limit omaha hi lo eight or better) would be amazing. I love the game because so many action recreational players love to play it. They have so many cards, so many outs, so many options to call, fold, raise, etc... they all can't get enough of it.

I've traveled to Florida, Oklahoma, Seattle, Portland, California and the WSOP at the Rio to play it and it is very refreshing to play with the opposite of these tanking 45+ seconds per street/decision hoodie sunglasses scarf green tea drinking GTO wizards at 5-10 NLHE.

Notice a lot of small business owners (laundromats, coffee shops, etc...), drug dealers, action junkies, Euros, Mid-Westerners, etc... all crave the high variance and fluctuations of this game where every street changes the nuts which is often needed at showdown to win.

Let me know if anyone else is interested in playing Big O and I'll be sure to start a game anytime with anyone to get it off the ground.

I played a lot of Badugi and 27TD at Mohegan last weekend. They are fun games!

According to Bravo MGM Springfield already has a 5 card 5/10 PLO/8 game going. Encore should be able to get it going soon.

Back when I played always was 2/5 and it wasn’t a train wreck.
Other than maybe 1 new player to map. Other times ppl were waiting for that game for hours. Just saying...
Of course when mizrachi player we got a rail which was a bit annoying but then floor will clear it.

5 card Omaha 8??

Ugh. Yes, that's what I meant. 5 Card Omaha 8 game.

Thank you for posting this! I’ll be in Boston for WordCamp this weekend and thought about popping into the casino for an hour or two on Sunday morning to check it out.

This means 20/40 O/8

Trip Report: Went to Encore for a third time last night (Thursday night), an 8 hour session this time

Dealers - still hit and miss; There are some truly great ones, and still a bunch of bad ones. Some of the bad ones aren't bad just because they are new and slow and/or timid, some seem like they have plenty of experience, but just kinda stink at dealing. One guy I had was practically silent the entire time, didn't say hello, never called the action unless he had to, etc. Another one just never seemed to be able to correctly tell how many chips were bet on the first try ever.

Food - This time I had the Turkey sandwhich, which was pretty good (tons of turkey, avocado, bacon) and the breakfast burrito, which was great (very filling, good protein, fingers don't get greasy at all from the burrito wrap). However, the speed and quality of the food service is all over the place. Both times I ordered food they came back with it within, I dunno, what felt like aroudn 10 minutes or less. Meanwhile another guy on my table ordered a chicken caeasar salad, finally an hour later they dropped off a cobb salad, he had the dealer hit the food button again so he could tell a food guy they gave him the wrong thing, one hour later he finally got his caeaser salad. Another guy on my table paid for his food via credit card but left white chips in the book for a tip; the food guy must have dropped them along the way and thought the guy didn't tip him at all so he came back to run his credit card again and when he came back a third time is when the guy figured out the chip snafu, it was all quite strange. So in short you never know what you're gonna get when you order food at the table it seems.

Waitresses/Drinks - Still completely hit or miss. There was periods of time at my table last night where multiple waitresses were serving us, meaning as soon as one took orders, another would be asking for orders before the first one had even come back. Other times it seemed like we went a decent while without seeing one at all. I will say no matter how good the waitress is, they all seem to disappear after taking orders before returning longer than at any other casino I've ever been to, for some reason.

Parking - continues to be easy-breezy, when you arrive its easy to find a spot, when you leave the desk will just blip your ticket without asking any questions and it's free. I hope this never changes but presumably it will eventually.

Action - This place continues to be great, I've only played $2/$5 but so far for me 3 tables over 24 hours of play have all had more recreational players than regulars.

Quirks - At $2/$5, the whites don't play for any bets on any street, which is awesome, but they also don't play for all-ins, which makes no sense?

I still can't get a handle on chip runners. Sometimes if you need more, the dealer will call a chip runner and you play with invisible money until they return (which still ALWAYS takes forever). But then other times, they'll sell you what you need from their tray, then eventually when the tray gets low, they'll call a chip runner to re-fill their own tray with all the cash they've accumulated. This makes sooooo much more sense then ever having the players deal directly with the chip runners (other than at first buyin which is understandable), so why don't all dealers do this?

The tiny water bottles they give you if you ask a waitress for a water are filled to the ABSOLUTE top, so always spill out over player's hands, clothes, chips, and/or cards every time they are first opened. Stop filling them so much!


One down, three to go!

I like it. You run good, nice results. 5k next I feel it

Oh he just took those out of his pocket for the pic...overbought the max, then went south. Lol.

What stakes?

Yeah, I finished a session at 5:15 AM this morning, at the same time as several other 2p2ers, and the desk just scanned parking tickets to validate them without asking for a red card or checking play time via any method.

When I left the poker room last Wednesday I had my ticket validated and was told I had only 30 minutes to use it in the garage. I asked what was the thinking for that rule. Was told "It's to keep the tablegames and slot players from using the poker room validation"

Huh ?

I didn't ask for a clarification. Anyone want to guess why this is so ?

Doesn't sound right to me either. Slot players and pit players are what pay their bills. My guess is they don't want poker players retaining parking spaces if they've stopped donating to the casino till.

Many sections of the casino are separate profit centers. The services they used are charged against their revenues to determine if they are profitable. So for example, each drink ordered in the room is charged against the poker room and becomes revenue for the food and beverage group.

Therefore, the poker room doesn't want to pick the parking charge for someone not playing in the room. Nor do they want someone starting the day playing 1 hour of poker, then degening at the pits for the next 5 hours. Let the pit boss absorb the cost.

I suspect they started off just not checking because the staff is relatively new and things could get backed up as they sped up on the systems. In addition, they wanted to create a good atmosphere to encourge poker players to come. I expect they will in the near future start checking everyone and continue to add a requirement for more time in the room to get "free parking."

This has to be misinformation. They can't be serious wanting you to skedaddle off the property in 30 minutes or less once your poker session has concluded.

What if you want to enjoy dinner at one of their fine dining restaurants? Are you supposed to get your ticket validated at the restaurant as well? Doesn't make sense.


jpsychlady, methinks, should investigate and get back to us!

When I was leaving last night around 2:30AM, a few cars were ‘stuck’ at the gate because their tickets weren’t doing anything when scanned. They had to wait for the parking attendant to call someone on their walkie to get the gate open. This happened at the same time for two gates at the same time and a lot of pissed off people were yelling and beeping. I can see this creating a situation where it takes more than 30 minutes just to get out of the garage.

Every time I’ve validated parking in the poker room, no one has every asked me/verified about my poker session. They always say “you will need to leave in the next 30 minutes in order to validate, is that ok?”

Will be interesting if they will be actually checking people’s poker sessions length, and how reliable that process is...

What’s the bag policy enforcement situation?

I ask because I am taking a train (duffel bag in tow) and planning on ubering straight to the casino from Back Bay station to meet up with my entourage. We’re splitting an Airbnb which I don’t think I’ll have access to until much later, hence the bag issue.

If I explain this to the security will I catch a break the first time around, maybe if I offer to let them search it?

If you know what you’re doing, PLO is so much more fun and interesting than NLHE. Set a stop loss and give it a try!

This is bingo. Especially the first two paragraphs. Great post.

Putting a paper towel over the bathroom faucet sensor keeps the water on. You're welcome.

since the majority of conversation is parking,my question is
what happens when people get broke and cant pay for parking



I would assume this would be a HUGE concern