I'd love to hear why the tournaments are a "joke".

Wed and Sun Hold-em tournaments are 4,000 chips with non-aggressive blinds that pay back 75% ($60 of $80 to prize fund) and last approx 5 hours

Mon Hold-em tournament is a bit more turbo but pays back 84.6% ($55 of $65) Plus a chance @ free goodies (shirts,etc.)

Thursday is an Omaha Tournament that plays faster (it is Omaha after all) and pays back 84.6% (Same as above)

Local Charity rooms pay back 75 or 80% and use gimmicks such as 30,000 chips, but just ramp up the blind to insure the tournaments are done in a timely manner. Plus when you factor in the quality of dealers and speed of players you easily get 1 1/2 times more hands per level @ a casino.

I do not go to Detroit often and I hear Soaring Eagle has a nice month end tournament, but for my money I'll take Firekeepers Tournaments over any other in a 2-3 hr radius.

What are the blind levels for the tournaments? That's all that really matters.

http://www.firekeeperscasino.com/def.../Structure.pdf

Above is a link to the structure. I consider this tournament a joke because I like to be able to play a few hands rather than have an all-in fest. The average stack is always short-stacked after about thirty hands, about an hour of play. Once you reach the 200-400 level, usually about 55 of 72 players remain, meaning an average stack size of only 13bb. These are not non-agressive blinds at all, in fact, they're among the most aggressive I've seen for the few number of chips in play.

Compare that to a structure like Golden Nugget AC runs (see link below), and the average stack is still about 70bb after the first hour. It allows for some play without being an all-in fest.

http://www.goldennugget.com/Atlantic...df/wake_up.pdf

I completely agree with you that the Michigan charity rooms aren't therea good opportunity either, the dealers are slow and crooked. Unfortunately, Michigan doesn't really have a good, lower limit, poker tournament option which is why I often choose to go to Vegas or AC several times per year.

That's a bad structure, Snookers has a better structure than that by a mile.

If anyone would like to get a 2/5 game ever going at Firekeepers please pm me. I think the only way to make a game happen is to network. I'd like to see it happen.

Played this past Saturday (1/12/13) and will remember to bring an extra buy-in next time!

I was caught off-guard by the loose/passive play on the table I was at. I opened or re-raised with AK(3 times) AQ, KK, and KJ all in position and got called down and drawn out on everytime. 1 buy-in gone in 90 minutes.

I know I'm not the only person to ever have this happen, it's poker, but wow...if you have a bankroll to survive the variance, this room would be easy to consistently make $$

Try and play twice a week at Firekeepers... games can be very nitty on weekdays. I played yesterday and all tables were going. 1/3 had one table going... all others were 1/2 and 3/6 limit. Overall, my favorite poker room in the area and well worth a visit. .80 comp an hour.

Anyone else going to be playing in the Mid-States Poker Tour event in March at Firekeepers?

I play at Keepers now and then. I really like the room and I'm friendly with most of the dealers there and the games are always decent at least.

I'm really looking forward to this MSPT thing both for the 1k and the likelihood that 1k max 2/5 is gonna run every day probably

Definitely playing in the MSPT thing, just not sure how yet.

It sounds like the $55 Sat Super Sat is a decent deal. I might try the first one or two of those and try to get into a $250 qualifier cheaper.

Nice to see the $1/$2 buy in is now $400.

This is awesome awesome news. The 200 max was the only annoying thing about playing in that room. In your experience are many people buying in full since they changed it?

Some, but I see quite the variety. I'd actually say it's an immediate tell on the experience of the player. If someone buys in for $400 or even $300, they are generally more experienced then the $50-$100 buy in. Important to note experience DOES NOT equal ability.... lol.

Agreed this is the best possible news to keep this room worth playing In. The last couple summers I have played quite a bit here. My parents have a lake cottage on the in/mi border and I would usually play wed and Thursday and rarely Friday because weekends were partying at the lake time with family. I would have played 1-3 or 2-5 mostly but it never ran on we'd or thur when I was there. I absolutely loved all of the dealers and staff and thought for a smallish room you can't really get better service. However, the 200 max rule I felt killed the action. It is the most frustrating thing in the world when a fish stacks you (or anyone else for that matter) and u can only rebuy for 200$. I told the floor repeatedly that if it was 300-500 max Or have a max up to 50%-75% of largest stack at table it would keep the games much better. I was against the BBJ but feel like it has to keep fish coming ESP with pay the whole room payout. Playing mostly during the day I felt I was better off playing online than a 200 max sometimes nit fest. I am very excited to get back up there with the 400 max buyin. If any regulars can tell me how the games are from noonish and later on random weekdays I would appreciate it. I'm more concerned with avg buyin than anything else. Thanks for the responses!

Starting Monday Firekeepers is going to make the button straddle available and you'll be able to run it twice in PLO and 2-5 NL.

Nice! So I haven't been in the room since August. Are things improving? Are 2-5 nl games actually running now?

Hurrrrrrraaaayyyyy for button straddles! 400$ max with button straddles>>>$200 max utg straddle only. Gonna have to get up there soon.

MSPT Main Event starts tomorrow, sounds like a field of approx 200. From what I can tell if your intentions were to show up and play Sat you better get there EARLY. They shoehorned their last 2 qualifier winners into Thurs and Fri to save room for some cash buy-ins on Sat, but there can't be many left.

Can't wait to get back home so I can start grinding FireKeepers on the reg. I wish I was at this 1k so bad

The 1k was confirmed joke soft, wasn't a single player with a clue at my starting table.

There are definitely going to be over 200 entries with the re-entries, there were 81 today and saw a few re-entries, i'm assuming saturday will sell out and friday will be similar. Not to kill anyones action but i am assuming friday will also be significantly softer than saturday (this was why i played thursday and it was probably the softest 1k i've ever played personally).

Very disappointed that I learned about this too late and wasn't able to clear the work/social schedule.

How much did you bag stanski? Keep us up to date with field sizes/soft play.

Cash game action during MSPT has been phenomenal. Played in the 1/2/5 PLO last night and it was deep all night until about last call. One of Dean Hamrick's room mates cashed out around $2,500.

The max $400 is going to be a game changer for Michigan poker. The games are so much better that deep and the action is ridiculously good. Room was completely full with cash games after the Day 1c was over as they cleared the 80+ waiting list for cash.

Finally made it down to Firekeepers since the max buy was increased. Awesome juicy games. I was at a table full of ridiculously bad players. Impossible to bluff, got called down everytime. On the plus side, if you were patient and hit your big hands, you got paid off by the same players. Playing that way is SO boring though because you HAVE to wait for hands.

Dealers also said that after the current BBJ hits, that the Qualifying hand will be Aces over Eights, and you don't need Pocket Aces to make it happen. The board can flop AAA and two players could have 88 and 99 and qualify. Also said that instead of funding the BBJ with $1 out of every $30 in the pot, that it will be funded $1 out of every $10.

Took 4th in the Tournament today. Some old guy was pissed I wouldn't chop and snapped called my set of 3's with a 4-out wheel draw and hit it on the river. Other than that, a pretty good experience at Firekeepers.

I'll be back down there.

So I am curious as to how busy the room is during the week?? like on a Wednesday??

is it mainly NL?? or do they get a PLO game going too?

Not sure about an average Wednesday, but I've been playing there this weekend and the room has been packed till late. They draw from pretty far so they get lots of action. Last night I played with a lady from Indiana and a guy from Detroit.

How is the new manager working out?