They got HOS going today. Late in the night we made it HOE. Stud 8 got a lot more action.

What limits?

Do you know what MGM Platinum, Foxwoods Platinum/Diamond, and Mohegan Ascend/Soar were paying out?

It was 20/40. It started as a short/breaking stud game very early Saturday morning and ran all day, but probably at the expense of the straight stud game that only got off to an anemic start at 7p. I'm not sure whether it was a mistake because of the timing or something that will become more regular. If the latter, it'll still take some nurturing and willingness to start games short to develop a following.

Foxwoods Diamond gets $500. I only got a quick peek at the laminated sheet but I believe Foxwoods Platinum is $150.

So even if you have a red card already, you still get this?

yup

The laminated card has two sides too and they were matching places from Florida too. The Red Card customer service booth has 3 reps working when I walked up and I got the one on the right and the person in the middle was flipping it back and forth looking for a place that I had never heard of. You def need the highest status from another place to get the $500 and I would say most people qualify for $75 or $150 as far as I could tell.

Once we changed Stud to Stud8 it got a little more action going as it would be multi-way and go more streets/to showdown. 20-40 is just right to get a few players from each game and that is the goal but the game ran all day until 3am. One guy had been drinking all day until then and I think he needed to go sleep and the game broke.

Lead Parking Attendant : New Red Card members get $50 sign up.

They are also doing the Tier Matching for August.

https://www.encorebostonharbor.com/p...ard-new-member

I am going to try and parlay my $150 into something. Deciding on what machines to play while I read up on the strategy this forum gave me.

Drink service is still hit and miss at this place.

I played 8 hours Thursday and 8 hours Friday.

On Thursday the waitresses were constantly at our table, everyone always had what they needed, it was great.

On Friday my table was completely neglected, we sometimes go over 90 minutes before a single waitresses stopped at our table, despite there being a bunch walking by us all night as they took care of other tables nearby. One guy at my table was so anxious for a drink, he flagged a floor down twice to ask about it, and all the floor could really say was he'd do everything he could.

The room was much busier on Friday night than Thursday, though I don't know if that's the only reason for the difference or not

I’ve never played stud but would be interested to try. How friendly are these games? Would you guys expect people to be generally nice/helpful or is everyone going to eager to play with the obvious “fish”?

I played PLO for my first time last Sunday and everyone was helpful and friendly. Which everyone should be for a newbie fish like me! If a mixed game like HOE 20/40 or lower goes, I plan to give that a try too. So if it helps, you're not the only one here donating to sharks while learning new games!

If people wanted to play 10/20HOE with a half or full kill I think it could get a lot of traction - I’d be very interested - 20/40 would be a bit of a stretch for those who have so few hands in Stud8 but myeh, if there is a list or it’s running when I’m there I’m def in

I think in general the 20-40 Stud crew is very friendly they just tend to get into a lot of arguments with each other is my perception but that could all be in good banter/competition.

Everyone at O8 is always willing to show people the game and help read hands, etc... learn the rules etc...

I think a lot of guys there are very eager to eventually get 2-2 PLO8 going. 2-2 PLO has been very popular it is def an action game where as NL it is hit or miss depending on lineups and even if you have 8 drunk gamblers at your table they have to hit a semi strong hand to your very strong hand to pay you off which is not something that happens too often where as PLO there are all ins every 3rd hand.

My personal preference is eventually 2-2 Big O.

The dealers currently need a lot more training just to calculate the pot and in PLO8/Big O there will be many side pots and many splits and quarters and even 1/6ths etc... so it will be very challenging so the management wants to have all the dealers competent first.

I suggested SNG's as a way to get more training and we'll see if they ever do that before tourneys.

Drink service is actually still very horrific. I've introduced myself to most of the waitresses and most of them know me at least by reputation or name for helping get everyone ready to order/tip when they come around etc... and for pushing generous tips for good service but I am not sure what the issue is.

When I am in the middle area with 20/40 and 5-5 PLO they come around very rarely and after you order it will take a super long time. I hate to say it but they're still very incompetent in taking orders and still screw up quite a bit. I think only one works that section which usually has 6 tables or less.

In the 2-2 PLO/3-6 LHE/4-8 O8 section by the bathroom there seems to be two waitresses and they still can't take care of about 10 tables at most.

2-5NL is the most hit or miss. There are times when they are super speedy running back and forth through the VIP area and other times it will take 30+ mins for a drink.

1-3NL area is even more hit or miss as it is the most distance to the prep/bar area so they're forced to trek across the entire room and will often never show up with what you order. I notice a lot of people ask 'is that Corona/Coke/Perrier spoken for' and they'll 100% always say no because better to just take the $1 now and have to grab another for the person it actually is for than whatever.

No idea about VIP room since I haven't put in any time there but I would assume it is fast since it is closest to bar/prep area.

I think there should probably be some young waiter who hustles and runs back and forth with entire trays of waters and sodas/coffees to just take care of that and let the waitresses deal with the alcohol.

I did observe quite a few dealers playing this weekend since it has been allowed. I actually played with 2 or 3 in 4-8 O8 for a little while on Fri when there was no 20-40 O8 and I was waiting for 2-2 PLO and I learned a lot just talking about their experiences dealing and working there. They were very excited to be able to play and they all tipped the other dealers well, ordered a ton of food/drinks, got massages, etc... it was a nice environment.

The drink service downstairs was really bad also, but it was Saturday night so might be unsurprising. What I did find surprising is at that central VP bar at the bottom of the stairs had all of the chairs removed! They were all moved to surrounding tables where people were using them to watch others play. So nobody could sit down and play VP at the bar. I don't know if that's normal or not I found it very unusual.

Took my first plunge yesterday. Traffic on a Sunday at 1pm was still dicey - I dropped off my son less than 5 miles away and it took me 25 minutes to enter the parking garage. Got a red card fast and was 3rd on the list for 1-3 and seated almost as my red card was being handed to me.

Dealers did have a wide range of skill. Of the 6 I saw I'd say two were outstanding, two were barely okay, and the other two were decent. Drink service was poor. In 2.5 hours there I think our table was served 3 times.

The room is superb, but the casino itself feels tight and not inviting. But all the better for me not to waste money on games on my way upstairs. Not sure what I'd opt for if I was there long enough to want to eat - not a fan of doing so at the table, so it would have to be one of the on site properties but they all seem.....how can I put this....too Vegasy.

As for my table, it was standard 1-3. Some tight passive players, a couple of splashers, and one guy who seemed competent. I didn't run well, but still had a good time and will likely be back, probably aiming to go a bit earlier on a weekend.

After working in the hotel business for many years I can tell you openings are very difficult - especially from a staffing perspective. At my former company the luxury brands and the lifestyle luxury brands were especially tough - to hire enough quantities of competent staff that also have the brand look and really the right service culture attitude is extremely challenging - even with plenty of runway to prepare. The reality is, sometimes it just takes a year or so if not a little more to naturally weed out and turnover the weak staff that perhaps the operators compromised on knowing that had quotas to meet in order to open the place. So hopefully over time we just see improvements in talent and service levels there.

Separate but related to the repeated comments about the drink service....I have to wonder if some of it’s intentional. Perhaps they staff only the min of waitresses to keep small fixed costs down and also to keep them happy (too many servers equals too much sharing of tips and they complain if too many are working at once) - I’ve always wondered if they purposely did this in poker rooms because they have much less to gain than serving people in the pit from a revenue perspective - still, people are saying that drinks are even slow downstairs so I don’t know

They don't share tips, asked a very good waitress and a couple dealer friends who used to work restaurants.

I found when I used to manage and bartend restaurants that when tips were not shared, there was more pressure from servers to have larger sections/fewer servers per shift. There's a difficult balance between optimizing customer service and server profit.

The comments about the dealers and waitresses might all be related to the deal to hire a large number of Everett locals to work there?

I would assume all the dealers that have never dealt and just went to school a month or so ago to fulfill a % of the 200+ dealer staff would be the bad ones we encounter and then the very good ones were the best of the regional poker rooms who wanted to try and work at a new place with hopefully better opportunities. The ones that are ok prob had to come from somewhere with a little experience because it is hard to hire so many dealers.

This is prob true for drink service where some were working at other busy places and have been doing this for a while and others are straight up carrying a tray for the first time.

The comment about it is intentional so their drink budget is not astronomical is prob true too. The poker room has to pay for the parking and drinks so they might want to make that not so speedy. The comment about openings for the luxury high end places makes sense too, it is just so hard to hire 5-6000 people and have them all be good and for things to be worked out in less than a year.

I think things will actually be busier in the fall when a lot of students, professors, Cape Cod people, etc... come back into town not to mention all the parents who are tied up with their kids in the summer.

I've worked in restaurants and bars too so I understand what you're saying, but nobody asks to be dumped so deep in the weeds that they can't actually do the work and then have to suffer through all the apologies and being chewed out by customers and managers not to mention being stiffed. If there is an intentional shortage of servers I would expect that has to do more with staffing budget and beverage budget.

Park by the North Elevators and take elevator to Mezzanine. Opens right in the Poker room. Easy way to avoid temptation.