Gonna post this in GVC and Rivers threads, so bare with it

Okay, so I just played 3 10 hours sessions at Rivers over the past five days, felt weird, like I was cheating on GVC, but I wanted to find out for myself what was going on there. I think 30 hours of play is enough where I can make a good comparison to GVC.

Parking at Rivers is great, your car is maybe 50 yards from the tables tops. You walk in and moments later you're in the room.

The food there is amazing, the $16 half chicken rotisserie with 2 sides?
Are you kidding me? Amazing. And that was at their lowest level restaurant.
The shrimp and velvet eggs at the late night fast food Asian place for $15? outstanding.
Only Buckingham's has a few things better than the lowest level food options at Rivers.

The lists move really fast, not sure why so many people sign up and don't show, but you can be 20th on the 1-3 list and you wont be waiting an hour, now I know recently there has been no wait at all at GVC, but on "normal" pre-the collapse of GVC, if you were 20th on the list, you werent getting seated anytime in the next 2 hours especially on a Fri or Sat.

They dont do fills or sell chips from the rack, which means more time to play.
I never realized what a hassle that was. I just accepted it as the norm
Still not sure WTF is going on with when the chip runner wants you to give him $100 so he can bring you $100 in whites to then sell to the dealer.
But overall, why do it any other way?, no table fills makes everything easier for everyone.

No meal button, so no empty seats for an hour at a time. I do NOT like how they make you cash out and buy back in the same amount. Why make me get in that line twice when you could just take my ID and place it on my racks and then put it on the table in the cage for me to pick up when I get back? Why is getting in the line a big deal, well that leads me to this major problem Rivers has . . .

The cages are unbelievably slow. I mean absurd amounts of counting and recounting chips.
I added $200 and the person brought two stacks of $100, they count out the first stack, not by splitting it into $25, then $25, then putting those two into one pile of $50 and then noticing that it matches the other half of that original $100. Nope she counts it all out to four piles of $25 and then puts it all back together, now she has two perfectly equal height stacks, one of which she counted out . . . think that's where she stopped? Nope, she then does the exact same thing with the other stack of reds.

You're thinking, "this is not a big deal" but when the line is frequently 10-15 people deep, with one person working in the cage, it matters. They count and recount the chips so thoroughly its all you can do to keep your mouth shut and not be like, "seriously? How many chip stacks from that rack are you going to pull out to count before giving them to me? In vegas, if you buy $500, they yank a rack from behind them, slide one chip across it and then shove it at you almost shoo-ing you away. At Rivers you'd think every chip had to be individually touched for it be allowed to leave the cage. Honestly, have they ever pulled a stack of red out of a rack and had it NOT be $100 exactly? One guy at my table got felted and the line for chips was massive, so he went downstairs to a blackjack table, bought his chips there and just brought it up stairs. He was back so fast were all confused.

Often there are three people behind the cage and only one of them is helping players. I have no idea what the other two are doing, but how hard is it to rip out chips and get that line down to 3 or less?

Table changes. You're on your own. You will get passed over numerous times and when you finally decide to stop being polite and go up and say, "uh, so am I still on the seat change list?" instead of saying how you really feel, "hey dickhead, you've sent at least 10 people off the 1-3 list to tables since I asked for a table change half an hour ago, WTF?" So, when you go up there to gently remind them of your request they go, "oh, ya, you can move to table X right now" So, when you want a change, watch for someone to rack up, then go straight to the front desk and tell them you want to move there in the newly empty seat. One time I asked for a table change and they wrote it down on a post-it note. Really inspired confidence. GVC also was iffy on table changes depending on who was working that list, Edna never missed my changes, but others were very "inconsistent."

Each day I played it seemed like more and more GVC players were showing up at Rivers. From just a few faces I remember to at least 2 at every table, multiply that by 20 tables and that's 40 players not on the GVC lists.

What bothers me most about GVC is that they enforced a phone ban for apparently no reason at all. Everyone hated it, and it didnt have to be that way at all. Rivers opens up and BAM! "We're gonna see about getting that rule changed" and two months later it's gone. Either they were lying to us for a decade about it being an IGB rule or . . . I dont know what else it could be. It shows such disrespect to the player pool. If I were a dealer there thinking of all the hassles and comments and crap they had to take enforcing it. I'd really like to know who is responsible for that situation. One time I asked one of the long term floors and she said they had no idea the rule wasnt actually a rule. I would like to believe that's true. It just shows that the players and dealers were not a priority.


After my 3 sessions there, I'm not sure what brings me back to GVC except some degree of loyalty? I do have an obscene amount of credit on my Caesar's card after my trip to Vegas, got to look into if that money has some sort of expiration. But the no table fills, amazing food, many many more tables to choose from . . . If someone like me who has loved that room and spent waaaay too much time there over the years is willing to move on, GVC's time as the biggest room in the Chicagoland area if not the entire midwest will have been extremely short. Times change, amirite? Wutygunado?

will be very interesting to see what they do for the scheduled circuit stop in October. I can't see how they could accommodate Hammond size events

Tables in the parking lot.

I went to GVC Saturday night 830pm and I had to wait 3 seconds for a seat I couldn't believe it. I used to play there about once a week from 2010-14, first time back since then as marriage and kids got in the way lol. Glad the rake is now 7+1 instead of 8 +1, but still horrible. Players are still horrible like I remember. Some of the younger regulars thinking they are pros playing, and getting pissed you 3 bet them pre flop lol, then making up **** that I showed my hand to the seat next to me in an attempt to see what I 3 bet them on. Things haven't changed, it's still super soft.

I have not made it to Rivers yet. I'm 10 miles from GVC and 25 from Rivers.

As for the circuit event, they used to have a huge tent outside that held 100s of people for boxing matches about 20 years ago. This would probably hold 75 tables for a poker tournament. It was heated and very nice inside. Maybe that's what they will do?

any idea of when the new room opens up?

When they reopened after Covid I was told a good guess is that it would be done by New Years.
The one 9 months ago.

They really squandered an opportunity when they didnt or couldn't get the new room open before Rivers

WSOP circuit schedule has been released. I haven't been to GVC in months and as of then I don't think work had begun on the new room. Anyone have updates?

https://www.wsop.com/tournaments/schedule/?groupid=5048

What are some close hotels to GVC? I’m thinking of going up for the WSOP Circuit event. Thanks!

There are a number of hotels at the junction of 31 and 90 -- I'd say to pick your favorite chain or price. This the Hampton Inn but there are others nearby.

https://goo.gl/maps/ELoh3ydayjn3yF9V9

If you prefer something more high end & don't mind driving, you're better off looking in Schaumburg or Rosemont

I have been seriously thinking about playing the WSOPC stop in November. Im from Milwaukee and had a few questions. Is Elgin a nice place? I see its a Riverboat, does it have any convention space to run a big tournament? Can It fit over 70 tables?

^^^^ I was a reg a Potto for almost 20 years before covid. I started driving down to Elgin in April of this year and have been happy with my experiences. You do have to walk directly through all the slots and table games to get to the poker room (in the basement) but it's fine. They say you have to get your first buy in from the cage upstairs, but this rule is almost never enforced. The biggest attraction is how insanely soft the game has been. The biggest draw back is the massive (for this area) rake at $7+$1. They get less action now that Rivers has blown up, but that won't matter on WSOP week. In fact, I expect it to be positively rockin round the clock.

WRT tourney space they are doing a renovation that is supposed to include a ballroom big enough to accommodate WSOPc sized player fields, but I've not seen too much action. Most of the players joke about how they are never going to be able pull this off.

I guess we'll see......

Despite my recent excursions to Rivers, I'm possibly one of this place's last remaining fans. However, Caesar's has done all it can to kill off poker at that location with endless obvious mistakes, let's discuss some of them, shall we?

Mistakes Caesar's has made:
1) They took out the burger place and turned it into the worst pizza place you will ever eat at. It's like heartburn on a plate, it's insultingly bad for a billion dollar corp to mess up pizza that badly. The "cheese ravioli" has the tiniest sliver of cheese in them you'll ever find. It's obvious they are just tossing out whatever they think people will tolerate to max out the profit margins. River's cafeteria has better options at better prices than anything at Buckingham's and Rivers is barely trying in their cafe. I'd take the $15 rotisserie half chicken with two sides over everything at Buckinghams which would be twice the price as well. If you never eaten at Rivers, you'll look back at GVC and be like, "that's basically a somewhat prettier food kitchen for the homeless" Put me in charge of that pizza place and in a week I'd turn it into a burrito stand and triple the income in a month. EVERYONE would pick one up on the way out, as is, the pizza place people try once and then only get it if they're desperate. It's just so bad. Bring a microscope to try to find any sauce on those slices.

2) They removed the "$70K to $90K" BBJ bump just because, I mean, why not?

3) They took out the water fountain and the little sandwiches which really helped those of us with high metabolism. Covid is over people, turn the water fountain back on. I'm almost positive they cant bring back the sandwiches since they were made with whatever left overs they had at the now, non-existent buffet. I was shocked the water was ever on long ago, since then we didnt have to pay $2 for a bottle of water which is how much at Rivers? That's right, it's free! It may not seem like much until you pay attention to it, Caesar's has done nothing to make the experience there better for the player

4) They knew Rivers was opening a new room and it would be serious competition due to it's location and how it already had like double the attendance overall. They had a year to get it ready during the lockdown, but didnt even start. The said it would likely be ready by New Year's (last New Year's) Then by March, then Rivers opened and suddenly the only thing keeping people at GVC was the massive BBJ. They still cant get that new room together and now Rivers has likely permanently pulled a ton of players away before GVC could show them this supposedly amazing new WSOP Caesar's level room. I've been to GVC recently, you can still see the booths from when it was the buffet, That white cushion with the buttons is easy to spot. And I heard the workers leave each day at 3PM, me sees an iceberg ahead labeled "WSOP Circuit"

5) We were told the new room would have food, and now, nope, they say it wont. So the dream of something tolerable to eat is gone

6) Need I remind you that for 10 years GVC enforced a no-phones at the table rule and Rivers said, "uh, no, we dont do that, that's not an Illinois rule" and then it still took GVC two months to get their rule removed?

7) They ended 1-2 and made it 1-3 Now, in a weird way, I like this change, but they didn't do this for me, they did it to make the average pot size bigger and thus the average rake per hand bigger. However, they could have continued doing what they did before Caesar's took over which was offer 1-2 AND 1-3. But no, Caesar's wants every single dollar it can suck up off the table as fast as possible.

8) They made the 2-5 game $500 to $1500 so now once again, there is no "middle" stakes. You cant move up from a max $300 to one 5 times bigger. Have you seen the $5K stacks at those tables? If you're a strong 1-3 player and want to test yourself, well, good luck, a giant stack at 1-3 has been around $1200, well, that's not even the max buy in anymore at 2-5, so gooooood luck.

9) This one is the best, I was at GVC last week and a guy shows me the flyer for their weekly tournaments and it had all the info except for THE BUY IN AMOUNT. He calls the floor over shows it to her and says, "what's missing?" and she instantly goes, "how did they not put the buy in on here?" So, you have people who have no idea about poker doing things they shouldnt be. We were told marketing makes the flyers. It's a cluster-f.

It's really sad what happened to that place and I dont blame the floors, they arent in charge, it's the idiots higher up that are a bunch of ignorant idiot bean counters trying to squeeze out every possible dollar and now you have destroyed the player base and it's not likely to come back short of a $100K BBJ number and even then after all these horrible moves that could be too little too late . . . the people at Caesar's really messed up.

I would not bet on the Circuit going off without some major glitches. How do you prepare for your first circuit experience without an actual room to prepare? Sure the basement is ready, but that's half of it.

My loyalty to that place is like staying with an abusive partner that I just cant quit.

@Burrat: Elgin is a decent place. It's had a bad rap in the past but is pretty clean and crime-free (unlike parts of Chicago and Rockford).

Despite living very close to the boat, I realized I hadn't been there since before Covid and I stopped in this afternoon and snapped a few pics. The first is the former buffet that's allegedly being converted into poker. Interestingly this is not actually on the boat & I assume some law changed that's allowing gambling on their land. The second is their tournament advertisement. I vaguely remember them running these a few years before Covid but never went to one.

Are the tournaments running ? Is the new room ready?

I think tournaments started this week. The new room -- if it really is replacing the buffet -- is a long way off from being completed. I peeked through those curtains and they're still tearing out the buffet room crap.

Appreciate the updates and pics. I'll be heading out there soon to check out the daily tourneys.

Please let us know how many people register , probably I will go on Sunday but I feel like they didn't do enough to promote the tourney schedule . Yesterday I was at Horseshoe and asked my table if anyone play the tournaments at GV nobody knows they started the tournaments .

I think I may actually go to tonight to play the 6pm if it goes. If not, will play cash. I'll definitely update if/when I go.

Played the Sunday tournament , total entrants 61, 7 paid , min cash $459 , first place $3294.

I appreciate their effort , but I think the structure is not great and for a Sunday tournament I prefer at least 30 minutes levels. First 4 levels are kind of old school with, 25-50, 50-100, 75-150, 100-200, and after level 4 with big blind ante kind of normal structure but they jump few levels , like 100-200 to 200-400.


I am not sure if they want more players in the tournaments but if yes they should do more advertising on social media.

I hope they will have a great success with tournaments but if they want to compete with Horseshoe and soon Rivers they have to change something .

I will support the room on Sundays . Wednesday is still Horseshoe and waiting for Rivers answers.

Thanks for the review. How many runners do the daily tourneys at horseshoe get?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

On Wednesdays around 100 , first place around 5k , but the structure is better .

Supposedly the new room upstairs in the buffet will be opening tomorrow.

I'll believe it when i see it though.

While I'm sure it would be easy to slam some tables into the buffet area and call it done, it looked far from ready when I stopped by last week.

Wow. Didn't realize that many. Will try to get there this Wed.

From what I saw last week, it would take 24-7 work and a team of 100 guys to make that happen.

But I would love to be suprised.

I'll be there Thursday and thru the weekend

GVC proves me and others wrong: the room did open on 6 October. Maybe the cameras and wiring and such were the slow part of the job and the tables and carpet were quick?

I didn't realize it was going to be a combined book/poker room and it all looks nice. It's got a pair of bathrooms and a number of TV's along all the interior walls. The only annoyance is that tournaments buy-in happens on the boat itself. I'm not sure if that'd due to the newness or some Illinois gambling law about cash handling.

I didn't get any pics of the room itself & realize now I forgot to count the total number of tables (maybe 25?)