cool, I live in ATL...can't wait to give it a try!

Enjoy

BTW. Crazy action up there last weekend. On Saturday all five tables were full with healthy waiting lists most of the day.

So plenty of poker action at Harrahs Cherokee.... poker in NC .... who woulda thunk it.

Lou

Maybe Judge Manning's ruling will stick and it will end up everywhere. Harrah's tried several times to bring live poker to that non smoking area. That is why they build it originally. I always figured your company's machines would fill that void.

see Lou, I'm not the only person that thinks it was Judge Manning's ruling that got pokerpro tables in Cherokee.

Any 2+2ers want to say hello, I'll be there Friday, 20th, late afternoon into the evening. (Maybe Saturday too)

I'm 50, a little heavy, dark beard, may have on a Gamecock shirt.

GL to all of you. (Unless you're at my table )

bobaby

You're wrong about this, just wrong. People still re-check their hands on the machines and the way they hit the buttons provides tells just like handling chips does. If you can read players nothing's lost, just slightly different.

I don't see how this is possible. Mannings ruling was that because there is video poker at the Cherokee, the State can not have an absolute ban on video poker everywhere else in the state. I don't see how that translates into the Cherokee being able to spread regular poker.

Also, Lou hinted that this was coming way back in October.

That wasn't what I was saying. IMO this is positive for PTEK because this can go two extremes if it is upheld.

1. NC will be forced to repeal its video poker ban and allow the entire state to offer video poker again. Now keep in mind it was illegal to win cash before and I would think that would stay but there is an easy back door to this if the product is marketed well. Really who cares if you have to win bar tabs or Walmart or gas gift cards instead of cash. This will benefit PTEK, especially because so many of the old Pot O Golds have been destroyed or were past their useful life. New machines would have to come in and PTEK is already based there.

2. NC decides to void the gaming pact with Cherokee. There is no way in hell this happens and if it did this would cost NC tons of legal fees and they still might lose and have to allow video poker everywhere.

For those not familiar with Harrah's Cherokee it is 100% video although some of the games have dealers and chips they are still video. This was allowed because at the time the gaming pact was signed NC had limited legalized video poker everywhere. Since then NC decided to ban VP and go for a lottery instead because the VP industry there was shady as hell. Under federal law though they don't really have the right to give the Cherokees something they don't allow the rest of the state to have. I always thought it was crazy that NC banned VP everywhere but Harrah's and knew this day would come in the courts. While NC appeals (or plans to) Judge Manning's order is stayed.

I would love to hear if PTEK has an official opinion about the court ruling. I would imagine they want to wait until this has gone through the courts.

PokerAddict, I remember your post in the main PokerTek thread last year talking about this, and you were correct.

Sorry, you are still alone in your correctability Your original statement was missing a few parts in the correct deparment as well

NOTE TO SARDU: here is an example of correct statement. As a matter of fact this statement is UBER correct. Joel is smart. Be more like Joel (you know I am kidding.. you are the best, even if you are correctedly defecient)

and we close with dash more of correctedness.

With the room being so busy (especially on weekends) what is the plan to
add more tables?

Also

Is $2/5 running regularly?

I am heading up there tonight to check it out, driving over from Knoxville. I am hoping I really like the tables since this is only two hours away for me...as opposed to 6 1/2 for Tunica.

Not really sure if anybody that plays is reading this, but if you see a late 20's guy with a goatee and a red/white/blue horizontally striped polo shirt then that is me. It sucks about the no alcohol thing, but it is a reservation and not a safe drive back over a mountain for some people.

Several (you included) suggested five tables would not be enough. I was not sure as its a hard thing to predict. Pretty clear now that you and others were correct.

Yesterday, two tables going by 11AM, four tables going by 2PM and then all all five tables by around 4PM. All five tables ran until 5AM and then some.

Good action during the week as well.

Haven' t confirmed this but I heard that all five games were going before 1PM today.

I cant speak for Harrah's Cherokee, but clearly there is demand for more tables. I will udpate this thread as soon as we know something definitive.


Yes, ran on Friday from around 5PM until 5AM. 7-10 handed the whole day.

5PM until 10PM on Thursday but short handed.

Lou
PokerTek, Inc.

I played Friday. Word from the floor personel is that they are adding 2 more tables sometime in the next 2-3 weeks. Also, one of the floor told us that upper management is "shocked" at how well the poker room is doing. I heard the floor tell people several times that "And this is without any marketing!" Indeed, last time I checked, you can't find out from the Cherokee's website that they even have poker.

Harrahs Cherokee is in the process of a 600 million dollar expansion. The floor indicated that when the new space is complete the poker room will expand to 20 tables in a new location.

2/5 actually didn't get going until a little before 7 last night. When I got there about 6:45 I was third on the 1/2 list, four 1/2 tables were running and one 3/6 limit, but there were ten people on an interest list for 2/5. Shortly before 7 they broke one of the 1/2 tables and started the 2/5 game.

By nine pm there were 19 people on the 1/2 list and 9 on the 2/5. Wait times were about 2 hours to get on the 1/2 game. At 11:30 there were 19 people on the 1/2 list and 12 on the 2/5. At one am, there were 13 people on the 1/2 and 13 on the 2/5. Wait times and list lengths started to come down after that.

Down to one table of 1-2 around five am, when I busted my second buy-in and decided to call it a night causing the second 1-2 table to bust.

One annoyance, around 4:45 there were nine on one of the 1-2 tables and 6 on the other and the floor let one of the players from the 6 handed table move to the 9 handed table, and before that was letting players sit at the fuller table.

The table I was at was very tame, not particularly juicy with average pot sizes ranging from mid 40 bucks to upper fifties for most of the night. Around 3 am it suddenly picked up and for two hours the average pot sizes were over a hundred bucks peaking at around 150 dollars pot size average for a while, until one of two large stack maniacs packed it in. Unfortunately despite having position on both maniacs I couldn't take advantage, and dropped one buy-in with pf all in with my KK running into AA and a second buy-in when I flopped the nut straight but got rivered by a higher straight.

Everybody playing seems pretty excited to have poker at the casino, and I heard a number of comments from players either praising the automatic tables or to the effect of: these are much more fun than I thought they'd be. A number of people commented on the no tipping. There was some general disgruntlement about the no-comps.

I'm quickly getting used to the tables and like them much more than I thought I would based on my previous experience playing on cruise ships.

Just got back from Harrah's Cherokee.

The poker room was packed Friday night.
3-1/2 NL Tables
1-2/5 NL Table
1-3/6 Limit

I played from 4:00 to Midnight; they were 19 players on the 1/2 waiting list.
Today, Saturday, played from 8:00 am - 4:00 pm. The room was packed when I left, with a waiting list.

The 2/5 was playing big Friday night. One player was up $5000; I think he cashed out about $3200.

I met ZeTack; he beat me a hand, set-over-set.

Made a small profit over the two days. Still a lot of soft players, but some solid ones also.

Two more tables coming in early April. This will make seven.

The Harrah's staff are making a great effort to ensure this is a good room. They need a little tweaking, must move tables, etc.

Eric needs some work; nah just kidding.

Overall, good room. I think these PokerPro tables have a place in the Poker World.

Not like playing online at all; more like a live feel.

bobaby

Bobaby..

thanks for the update. Its probably best if we keep all TRs, comments questions, etc about Harrahs Cherokee, over in your original thread

RR, Pwnshortstacks? could you all move this over there.

Thanks

Lou

Sorry Mods... we are all pretty excited about FINALLY having poker in NC, SC, GA, Eastern TN, etc.... sorry for the dupe threads.

Done.

Sorry.

Might want to just start an "Official Harrah's NC Poker Room" Thread

I'll never go near one of these tables, just so artificial, why go to a casino to play on a machine, even if it's against others. You can list all the reasons for how similar it is to live poker, but without cards, chips, it's just repulsive.

I'm not convinced by any of the reasons or rationales offered by their reps, with all due respect. It's just repulsive in my opinion.

Sure, it's great for people with no other access to live poker, but if Foxwoods ever switched over, I wouldn't go there ever again.

Thanks for encouraging words. I'll pass your comments along to the management team at Harrahs Cherokee. Process for games opening, breaking down and overall seat movement will continue to get better. Poker is brand new to the property, and the crowds have sort of overwhelmed all of us.

Zetack,

Sorry about player move issue. Harrahs Cherokee management is aware of your comment and will work with poker room staff to improve. Nothing changes in this room vs manual poker room, players are not free to move at will. Players need to check with floor to request a seat move/table change.


Fairly typical comments from players. Not everyone will LOVE the PokerPro tables. Some will love them, some will like them but like manual too, some will hate them, some aren't even willing to give them a try.

But, most everyone who gives PokerPro a try agree it is much better than what they expected. It's just poker, minus the touching of clay chips. To some touching of clay chips is a big part of their poker experience, they will not like PokerPro. Everyone plays poker for different reasons.

I have also found the more sessions played on PokerPro, the more normal it becomes.


Lou
PokerTek, Inc.

I drove over from Asheville on Saturday the 21st, arriving at about 3pm. Full room, full since about 12:15 from what I heard. I was seated on a 1/2 NL after about 45 minutes and I played until 2 am. My tables were typical decent 1/2 NL live games, nothing overly crazy, but pretty reasonable action with pot sizes generally in the mid 40s.

I enjoyed the room and tables, though I did observe some minor violations of the 1 player to a hand rule with a pair discussing what a raise meant from another player down the table while one of them was in the hand.

The one problem I saw with the room management was that they were giving people on the waitlist way too long to show up after being called. There is no reason to wait 10-15 minutes after you call someone before moving to the next name. Later in the night the names they were calling had been on the list for approximately 4-5 hours and most had already given up. It literally took about 45 minutes to fill a seat on my table at one point, while the waitlist was over 30 people long, which I thought was a bit ridiculous.

Hey, on my way atm to cherokee, anybody gonna be up their? i'm wearing a blue/white striped shirt 25 year old named matt, should be playing 1/2 table. Holler @ me if ya see me.

Cherokee management just OK'd me to confirm Zetacks info.

Two additional PokerPro tables being installed on April 1st (no not april's fool... really happening)

I know some of the waiting lists have been insane at times. Things will get a better with the two additonal tables.

1/2 NL, and 3/6Limit going strong all week. 2/5 is OK during the week (mostly runs at night) and strong on weekend. 2/5 ran from 11AM to 5AM on Sat, and 5PM through 4AM on Fri last week.

If you can get up there during the week, that is best time to show up and get a seat right away. Else, the earlier you get up there on Friday or Sat the better. usually all tables full by 11 or noon.


enjoy matt, let us know how things go.

Lou

Really liked the tables. Staff was excellent. Broke even @ 200nl but only played for 3 1/2 hours. Going back monday and should be playing all day then.

Is the age requirement 18 or 21?