Quote:
Originally Posted by PokerGuvnA
That's also not the same thing. I get the complaint, but honestly that is a market reaction. If they weren't getting the volume they wanted they would probably drop it (Chasers switched their 5/10 to $7 time rake and still no 5/10 running). If most or all of the time rake players stopped showing up, they'd probably adjust it. I'm guessing that's not happening.
Rooms are at a premium for this property, even if you played 16 hours a day the room only made $256 (gross revenue) off you so why would they give you a $300-600 room comp?
Foxwoods/Mohegan had each other to compete with when it comes to offers. I imagine Encore is just charging what they think they can get while still attracting enough players for their capacity. I doubt they view FW, MS, or New Hampshire rooms as "competition".
With only 617 rooms on site, I don't expect them to give up free rooms to poker players. What I paid to stay there for 8 nights is comparable to what I pay when I stay at Philly's Kimpton hotels or Minnesota's Mystic River Casino for a suite. The Encore room is lovely, but the amenities nothing to write home about, i.e individual coffee pods, toothbrush, use of an umbrella in case it rains during your stay *eyeroll*. I loved the room although the tub is just a regular sized tub and not the over-sized soaking tub that is advertised. The shower is not as nice as Borgata's Water Club shower. And twice during my stay they chose to ignore my privacy light and entered the room once to clean it and the next time to do a turn down service. The first time they disregarded my privacy notice I was thrilled to see a diamond bracelet I had removed the night before and placed in the nightstand drawer to be left untouched. Thank goodness for honest people. I hope it comes back to them a million-fold.
My gripe is I fly 2400 miles round trip and there are games that I'm interested in on 3 days of my trip. I played a bit of 2-5NL but this game is boring as hell because it is full of nut-hunters unwilling to give action.
The time is not warranted because their dealers are too inexperienced, I'd say 90% of them, to keep a good flow going. There was so much bs, griping about one player not wanting to "participate" in the time pot, which caused the table banker to take him on about it 3 different times before the other player called for floor. Then another stunod would call the floor for bs reasons like why the dealer is mandating him putting in 8 dollars for the Omaha 8 portion of the 20/40 Mix when he is only there to play the stud portion. The games were horrendously stalled and that makes the 8 dollar half hour time even more egregious.
To sit there on a saturday waiting for a fixed limit game to go while checking Bravo and seeing 5-6 of those games going (20/40 75/150 stud) was maddening. A couple of Mass guys even got up and took the drive to FW.
The stud game in particular is so fraught with player bs that I was told the house is not interested in making it more palatable to fill that game. I believe it because it was infuriating to see them take at least 5 minutes of every down to settle disputes that the offending party knew was bs and still they pushed it, stalling the game and eating up our time. The player that refused to pay time for the Omaha and HE portions of our mix game was so ignorant to two floor men, telling them he didn't care what they had to say and wasn't going to listen to them and for them to shut up. They asked to speak to him away from the table and next thing you know he is telling the floor man to go f*ck himself and they bounced him for 24 hours. So the room was full of childish bs like that and too much of it.
I didn't see any food served that I would have ordered, nothing looked appetizing, although I don't eat at the table. Drink service was sporadic although a few of the servers were outstanding.
They're not attracting volume because of the rake/time and also because inexperienced dealers don't know how to keep the game flowing. It's one thing to charge, IMO, exorbitant time, it's another to play in a game that is constantly causing angst and anger because of the player bs needing floor attention.
It will be a great room if they can fill the tables. Hope they do.
I didn't see a single pit table with anyone playing less than green chips.
I saw one man playing 3 500 dollar slot machines at once. You just knew his mother left him millions and this was his idea of a good use for it.
Loved the property, was beyond disappointed with the action or lack thereof.