Their rule is, raked games have no must moves and timed games do. But I agree, seems silly to not protect some games. Such as a 2/2 PLO yesterday and they open a new one while the other game was short handed. The original game busts and the new game goes. (This happened yesterday).

Uber/Lyft is probably easiest, especially if cost isn’t a factor. Taking the MBTA would require taking the Green Line to the Orange Line, to Wellington or Malden Station, and then taking an Encore shuttle from there.

If he's in Fenway, it's only 2 stops on the Green Line (10 minutes max) to get to Copley, then walk 4-5 minutes to Back Bay (Orange Line)

Alternatively, he could just walk to Ruggles from Fenway (15 min walk) and take the Orange Line to the shuttles. Quicker if he just gets off at Sullivan Square and takes the 109 bus that drops off right in front of the entrance (5 minute bus ride).

Uber/Lyft is the way to go for coming from Fenway just to save time and it will be $15'ish each way.

Outside of 1-3/2-5 NL and 2-2 PLO the less popular games are still taking a long time to fill the seats or get announcements out about next person up. This happens quite a bit at 2-2 PLO8 and 4-8 O8 and even 4-8 Limit Hold'em. I am not sure if the floor is a little overworked in that area catering to the section by the bathrooms as well as 1-3 NL players.

I just spoke with a floor that I’m friends with regarding the new beverage options. First he said that there have been a crazy amount of ejections due to players being drunk but that doesn’t make sense unless the pours truly are shorter.
He also said, and he says this is 100% at least part of the reason, that it is to speed up drink service.

This supports my theory that you cannot get drunk off bud lite.

This does make sense - yesterday there was another ejection - kid I’ve seen there a million times who does not shut up - hope he gets banned

missed you itt

Uber/taxi is a decent bet early afternoon. Traffic should be managable. Take an Uber back.

The MBTA subway is fine early afternoon but stick to this route. Take your closest Green Line train *inbound*. Kenmore Square is physically closest to Fenway but you may have options depending on exactly where you're staying. They might have letters but that doesn't affect you traveling inbound. You're aiming for North Station to switch to the Orange Line. Some trains might go all the way, some might make you switch to another train at Park Street. Ask the driver when you get on. (aside: you can walk to the Orange line from Park Street without going outside, there's a concourse that will connect you with Washington St. station; Orange line runs through that)

Get all the way to North Station and you can switch to Orange Line *outbound* from there. Take that to Wellington Station and Encore runs a free bus from there every 15 minutes. Burdz is not wrong that you could walk to Ruggles and get orange line directly but I'm going to politely disagree that it's the best route for an out-of-towner.

Might be a 20 HK running midweek, might not. Feel free to PM me with more questions if you have em.

Wonder what folks think of the vodka (was told they use Jenkins vodka)

I can't find much of anything about it on Google, other than it appears to be cheaper to buy a handle of it than Popov, which IIRC is the lowest of the low

I found that they sell it at the NH State Liquor stores. 1.75L for $8.99, that tells you all you need to know (Grey Goose is $57.99).

Suddenly Heineken sounds fantastic.

What does it tell you? Vodka is an odorless and flavorless substance and it is impossible to taste the diffetence.

Casinos are stingy on drinks because drinks cost money, even if it just cheap alcohol. I have never been to any poker room where drink service doesn't get slow. The big reason why poker players even get free drinks is because it usually comes out of main casino hospitality budget. Most casinos are cutting back on drink service even for slot players who are burning $30/hour so I would not expect to be served like a restaurant guest at a poker table where a casino makes peanuts.

Cappuccinos and juices and redbull are your best value.

I don't mind paying $10 for a hot dog and I pay almost that at Five Guys for a good hot dog. But I saw the Encore hot dog someone else ordered and it is such a sad sight. It looks like a cheap dollar hot dog they slapped on a cheap bun. Looks terrible.

I like playing short handed so for me this is a plus. But the biggest reason why they dont keep games moving is this stupid online signup. You end up with a huge list of no shows and its not like this poker room is busy that anyone needs to preregister, aside from a few old nits who expect to be seated within 2 minutes of arrival. At that point, it comes down to the floor being on top of things. They see status of the games on the computer. They just need to be more diligent and on top of it.

So maybe this will shed some light on the whole Food and beverage situation....I spoke to a friend of mine who knows the executive director of F&B at the Las Vegas properties. Basically scoop I got was something to the effect that the restrictions on who they’re allowed to hire based on the deal with the state are making executing luxury operations very difficult.

In Vegas they have supply of UNLV grads (which is a great hospitality school) and cost of living is obviously very cheap etc. and they can Also get a lot of talented international workers seasonal visa processes etc. they Have access to the best culinary and hotel operations talent without restrictions

I think this has been discussed previously and was fairly publicize but I honestly haven’t followed it closely but I believe there are restrictions on who they can hire in terms of at least the initial round of employees - This is making executing menus services etc. very difficult I mean at the end of the day I’m not making excuses for them but having worked in the hotel business and in recruiting I know this is extremely difficult

When they won the licence I think there was a stipulation that they must hire X number of Everett residents. Are you saying Everett is not sending their best?

Worse. He's saying they are.

Taking one car via Uber/Lyft is a lot less of a hassle than walking to and taking the T, transferring lines, and then taking a shuttle.

Lol.

Everett = ghetto

Encore = Fabulous

Encore Boston Harbor = Ghetto Fabulous

Blaming the locals for Encore's failings seems like a cop out to me. You can't serve a decent hot dog because of the staff? Give me a break. It's a money grab. It's the same reason your "comp dollars" are still "in the works". They're worried about next quarter and hitting wall street's estimates.

I was there Wednesday and after poker I felt like degen-ing a little in the pits. As it's a weekday I figured they'd have $25 3-2 BJ. Nope, only the 6-5 tables were open. I wanted to dust off some $$$ and Encore's response was "ok, but only if we can't stick it to you at the same time" This corporate, short-term thinking doesn't lend itself well to "5-star" hospitality. All that said, they did have $15 craps and it was a lot of fun. The dealers were great and kept it entertaining.

As primarily a poker player, it's waaaay better than driving all the way to NH or FW. I don't like to eat when I play and if I drink i'll have maybe 1 or 2 beers so the food and bev is whatever. Still, if in a year or 2 they sell out to MGM, I won't be shocked.

I still think they are testing the waters locally with some of this stuff to see what they can get away with. They have a fairly captive audience - you yourself even state above how much more convenient it is for you....they probably did their research and are seeing how far they can push the limits. I also agree it’s super lame they only open 3 to 2 BJ when it’s busy and even then, it’s usually 50 min.

If one understands how public companies function they will understand that this is not “at” the top of upper managements priority list. It is the ONLY priority on the list. Every action is based on how it affects the bottom line. The fact that they seem to be altering their “5-star brand”’ suggests to me that their projections are way off target.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.mas...outputType=amp

Why do you think you know more than everyone? Read above

Unless you actually think that they can repeat the opening month's numbers for 12 months straight (doubtful IMO), I don't see how that article refutes Rhody's statement.

I will look for the August information but I’m there frequently it does not appear to me that business has dropped off much. RhodyGuy seems to have it out for encore for some God knows what reason. He posts in this thread constantly about how they are not hitting their projected numbers. I say tell us your source or stop stating your opinion over and over and over

It would be nice to know the breakdown of who they were forced to hire. It is true that while they were lucky to poach the best housekeepers, bartenders, janitors, security guards, cashiers, etc... from other establishments because they're paying slightly more and have better benefits and it is a very nice environment to work in. But you can't have a quarter or a third of your team be people you're forced to hire just because of their address and expect that to make operations go smoothly, and of course it is the exact opposite when a housekeeper who has 10 years at the Four Seasons gets paid the same as a rookie or something like that it is not fun. The old saying of good help is hard to find is most true especially in hospitality but compound that with money on the line when everyone is fighting vs the house or poker opponents makes for testy situations.