Kind of a trip report from afar ...

1) PLO actually got going before the 2/5 NL game on Friday afternoon/evening, maybe by 530pm, with a list of 2-5 waiting. There was no wait list around Midnight or so, but it shows decent legs to run that long. Hopefully this is a good trend for at least one 'regular' shot at PLO per week. A check of Bravo on Sat night gave PLO almost no chance at starting back up.

2) 2/5 NL seems to have legs. I believe it was still going Sat morning and still shows Sun morning right now.

3) MCC had over 400 entries into a tournament. That is massive, but perhaps not unexpected, as any casino that starts up 'large' $$ tournaments will draw from afar as tournament Players feel that they are the last to return to the felt! hint, hint FK .. GL

Bump ..

BBJ is still a room share and hasn't hit since reopening .. $139K. The reserve is also above $100K so room share will continue.

$500 HH promo on Labor Day. AAAJJ qualifying starts at 10 AM with 10 awards every hour starting at 11 AM.

No word on tournaments .. still grooming new staff. This will be a slow(?) and steady process as per their history with controlled growth. Still plenty of action in the 1/3 and 2/5 games .. Player dependent of course. GL

Thanks for the update. My play volume will be down but I will try to make the occasional pilgrimage out there.

Is there plexiglass at the table? I have not been there since the pandemic hit.

I might have forgotten, but I don't think that FK ever had plexiglass. They started 6-handed in May and went 9-handed around Memorial Day .. pretty sure.

The Detroit casinos had plexiglass for sure, but it also came down around the end of May when things were loosened up.

Some casinos have a mask mandate, even if vaccinated. GL

$143k BBJ hit at 5am Sunday morning when there were 5 tables going. 2/5 table hit it with 62 suited hitting the straight flush over quad 3s.

$57k to the loser, $28k to the winner, unsure of table share, and $800+ to the rest of the room.

Current BBJ is now $119k but still room share if it hits. The reserve BBJ is ~$70k.

Tournaments are back at FK starting Nov 1.

Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday at 1pm & 6pm
$40 NL holdem - 20 minute levels - 10k starting stack

Thursday 1pm
$40 NL holdem - 20 minute levels - 10k starting stack

Thursday 6pm
$60 RxR PLO+NL holdem - 20 minute levels - 12k starting stack

Sunday 6pm
$60 Pineapple poker - 20 minute levels - 10k starting stack
(Player is dealt three cards but must discard one preflop)

the first 'bigger' tournament is back at Firekeepers Casino next Saturday, November 27th at 1:00pm. They are running a 'Black Chip Bounty' tournament for $350 buying ($250 entry, $100 bounty, unsure on how much goes toward prize pool of the $250). Players will receive 20,000 in starting stack and it will be 30 min blind levels.

This is a comparable buy-in and structure to the Motor City monthly $300 (25k starting, 25 min blinds) that sees 250+ entries, so this could be a great turnout for Firekeepers. They haven't given themselves a lot of time to spread the word or market the tournament toward the poker community though, so it could be anyone's guess! (Plus Michigan plays that school down south the same day)

Dropped in while travelling from Bay City -> Chicago on Vet's Day. 'm still waiting for my seat. :-)

Never got a text, but it could be the shitty T-Mobile service/crappy phone combo I got working against me. Also I wasn't able to stick around too long. Wouldn't hesitate to drop by again when I'm in the area.

How was the turnout for the tourney yesterday? Anyone know?

301

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Yes, quite the turnout exceeding my own guess. Tourny got going with sixteen 10-handed tables and a wait list and finished just above 300 entries. Not sure how many of those were re-entries but none the less an excellent showing for a 'toe stab' back into larger BI events. I believe first place was around $12K with the assumed collection of 'lots' of bounties along the way for most of the top 20.

My thoughts are that we will see some sort of 'monthly' weekend BI events on a regular basis 'soon' .. just as we had before CV.

Cash games seem to be thriving with some pretty heavy 2/5 or RxR action on Wednesdays. GL

In a major step back to normal ..

1) Basically all the 'normal' tournaments are back .. check Bravo for the full information

2) Firekeepers has shown up on the MSPT 2022 schedule for May .. no guarantee yet, but I assume they will run a slate of qualifiers and satellites .. GL

BBJ hits Friday at the 2/5 MM table for 172K with quad 7s losing. Room share was around 450. New BBJ is 'already' at 134k due to their formula, still a room share.

I think the Sat Noon tourney had about 50-60 entries. I passed on the Bounty due to potential road conditions but was also told that they only opened 6 tables at the start and there were 'a lot' of Alternates waiting around (good and bad).

They had enough Players to start a PLO early but didn't due to Dealer issue also. Had two 2/5 going in afternoon but one broke due to Players going to dinner.

Not sure if Dealers were sick or just short schedule .. I'm sure they're working out the kinks as they go. Poker ramps up during 'tax season' so hopefully the crew continues to evolve. GL

Anyone know how big the Sunday noon tourney gets here?

Pre CV you could count on a Sunday tournament to have a min of 80 and up to 140 or so entries depending on the BI .. with the 5th Sunday $500 hitting 150 to even 300 at times. There was some chatter about a couple of spots where the structure moved too quickly for some, but obv the same for everyone.

Motor City is showing (IMO) surprisingly high tournament numbers for their Saturdays, so I think tournament Players are starting to come back out and it will only grow. With FKeepers tournament point system they do get a lot of Regs and then it just depends on what else is going on in the area .. which right now is 'nothing' as Hammond is closed on weekends and I don't think Toledo is back up to full speed yet either.

Registration for the 'dailies' is not open until 'day of' ... probably could open the Sat/Sun tournaments earlier. The Ladies and 500 will have two week registration. GL

PS .. This is one thing that I wish casinos would do .. post 'stats' from previous tournaments. Not sure where, but I remember seeing stats in Bravo for at least one Midwest casino .. like the last 10 weeks entries and/or 1st place $$

+1.

Add how long it ran or number of levels, too. The poor girl at the podium (at my local, not FK) would appreciate it...

Here's an almost mid-week update ..

FKeepers could be starting with up to 22 tables at NOON on Sunday for the $500 with late registration ending after Level 8 break (approximately 430). Starting stack is 40K with Level 8 being 1k-2k-2k (so 20bb max late reg). There are less than 30 signed up right now but that will change as the week goes on. GL

500 is on alternates as of 1010am here .. 20 tables to start..

Excellent 'results' across the board all day Sunday at FK and them pulling off the first major tournament since returning from CV. I was in the poker room basically from 10AM to 10PM and really didn't see any major hiccups in either the tournament or handling of cash game lists/requests. Everything was timely other than one table was delayed in starting after the color up process took a bit too long and they probably missed two hands of action.

421 entries, including 12-15 Players who didn't get seated until after Level 9 had started, created a 1st place prize of $36K with 45 total getting paid. One of the last Players to sit down actually did make it to 25/26th place with some instant run good. I believe the money bubble burst around 730PM and there were still 25 or so left at 10PM. The FT of 10 was combined around 1145PM with 4 Players dropping out fairly quick by 1205AM. At that point the average stack was 28BB with 6 to go and a payout of over $9k. I don't know how things ended up ..

Overall I felt the same FKeepers 'tone' from Floors and Dealers that they had pre CV .. no surprise, as there's lots of familiar faces. You can drink but no food in the poker room. You MUST have a Players Card to play poker, even cash games. There is a very short leash on that rule. We had a Player sit down to play PLO and they ended up leaving the table after failing to produce an ID or card after an orbit (we wanted him to stay too).

I got 'carded' when I cashed out even though the amount was below where I though it used to be for that to occur.

The casino looks clean as always. The Sports Book is set up very nicely with plenty of kiosks if you don't want to use the window. I didn't have time to walk into hotel Tower II .. but then again I've never been in Tower I either! They look exactly the same when you get off the highway exit.

My tournament in a nutshell ..
1) Lost 15,400 of my 40k stack the 2nd hand of play to set v set
2) Survived another set v set with only losing 1400
3) Folded AA on an 863 Flop when there was an open and raise in front of me .. (Hey guys, I raised Pre .. ??) Ended up FH over nut flush by the River
4) Shoved 17BB with AQs OTB only to have the BB end up with AKo

The only 'miss' I had was not flatting an OMC raise from the BB with 34s .. 25Q Flop, Ace Turn .. and he blasted 1.5x pot 'protecting' his two pair creating 2 folds .. no River. Just didn't hit very many Boards whether I was in the hand or not. Very jealous of my neighbor who just seemed to hit a lot of Rivers or was just good enough with 2nd/3rd pair on nasty Boards. Made it really hard to do anything since he never folded Pre nor when he had even a piece of the Board .. 'just running good today, gonna run with it til I bust'. This is what you want in poker .. just not to have the guy hitting 'all the time'.

PLO is 1/3 with a 500 max 'to keep it under control' and hopefully rebuild the Player pool. Lots of Players have migrated to the 2/5 match the stack NL game so they can play deeper. The thought is that Player bankrolls will last longer at 2/5 NL than 'any' long term PLO game. Not sure if that's a Player trend or room 'want'. There certainly were plenty of non-Reg Players who would've played 2/5 MTS PLO if given the opportunity last night. We'll see how things go if/when the MSPT rolls into town in May. GL

Thanks for the detailed report, answer! Good to see tourneys are back in swing at FK.

There are reports of a 6-way chop shortly after the FT started and the shorties were weeded out. I saw 4 Players eliminated in less than 15 minutes after the FT started on Bravo. With an average stack of 28bb at the time things could've gone on for at least 2-3 more levels depending Player styles and how the cards fell. GL

Yes, we ICM chopped with 6 left. Stacks were about: x, 2x, 2x, 2x, 4x and 6x. The 6 payouts ranged from just above 2nd place money to 4th place money.

Full MSPT schedule for May 12-15 (as well as satellites starting in March):
https://msptpoker.com/showpdf.aspx?eventID=336

Planning on playing in all of the $70 satellites this year.

Qualifiers and Satellites are a great way to work your way into this event. You can stack um or sell them to others. 'Way' back when, I had a total of 4 MEs in vouchers .. so I essentially min-cashed before the ME even started. I was lucky enough to sell 3 of the 4 and cash in the tournament that year.

Of course LOTS of folks are 'experts' at these preliminary events now but there's still a great path for Regs to get in at a discount. GL