Agreed. Just sucks I literally live 2 mins down the road from the Harrahs making it hard to ignore

I've never played poker in a casino before, but I went to Harrah's Joliet for business today. (Unfortunately, my defendant's shift hadn't started yet, so I'll be back again next week.)

I checked out the poker room while I was there and will come back to give it a shot.

How much do you tip the waitress? Same as a restaurant or bar (i.e., ~20%)?

How much do you tip the dealer when you win a hand? Do you tip every winning hand or only when you win more than just the blinds?

Do you tip in chips or cash?

Thanks in advance for answering my newbie questions!

Tip rates are totally up to you. I generally tip $1.00 per wining hand assuming the pot is over $20.00. If a dealer deals 30 hands per hour that works out to about $70,000 a year give or take. That is a reasonable wage.

As far as cocktail waitresses, I tend to tip based on the service that is provided. My range tends to be between nothing at all and 2 or 3 bucks.

Ultimately all of these decisions are totally up to you. Given that I spend about 30 to 40 hours a week in a poker room all of these decisions add up.

OK, my first-ever casino poker experience. Played 1/3 (there were two tables of that and one table of 2/5).

Cold cards to start, finally caught a break with a 998 flop while I've got Q9s and limped from the Small Blind behind four other limpers. Get it all in with the guy to my left (Albert???). He says he has a nine with no kicker and I say, "I have a nine too," then proudly flip over my Queen and...WTF???...a four??? I misread the hand? You have GOT to be kidding me!

Fortunately he had only $75, so it wasn't a complete disaster.

I later had some luck (a River flush after an all-in when I had the second nut straight vs. the first nut straight), made some moves, made a sick (correct) call-down with bottom pair, and generally had a lot of fun.

I don't think I played all that well, but still made $440 in four-and-a-half hours. Nice work if you can get it!

Table played pretty loose, lots of multi-limped pots and a lot of smallish post-flop raises with lots of calls.

And I agree with those who said the chairs are comfortable.

I'll be back, especially because my work takes me to Joliet on many evenings.

It's been said in many places that you should never have to look back at your hole cards as it gives off tells. But I would posit two things;

1.) Most players (but not all, of course) at 1/2 play their own cards and aren't going to be able to reliably read such a tell.
2.) If you do it on EVERY hand, especially when you've flopped the mortal nuts (i.e. making a point of re-checking your AA hand on a AAx board) it cuts down on the chance that it does give off a tell.

Just my two cents.

Saturday morning we had 5 waiting for enough players to start $1/$3 NL --- we all reached agreement to play $1/$1 PLO with a $2 rake while we wait --- Floor has no problem with it -- so we played for about 1/2 hour or 40 minutes until we filled in a couple spots at our table

Wish I had the time yesterday to play longer because we could have had a table of PLO going by about 1:30 or so ----- not sure if it got going later in the day --- had an interest list about 6 deep when I had to cut out

It's been a few months since I last played there -- but I really appreciate the staff -- very helpful

Just got this via email, Joliet Harrahs will be starting a wsop ME league.

Each League will run for nine (9) weeks. Players must play in a minimum of six (6) events to qualify for the League Finals and the $10,000 Main Event Seat.

The Weekly Tournaments
Each Tuesday at 7pm will be a $45 +$5 No Limit Texas Hold’em Tournament comprised of 10 to 80 Players, where they are playing until there is one man OR woman standing. In each tournament every player will receive POINTS. The higher you finish, the more POINTS you will receive.

The Rankings
The player rankings will be posted every Wednesday in the Poker Room. Last Tuesday’s results and each player’s current average total will be posted.

Points & Qualifying
With a minimum of six (6) events played, each players average point total will determine their overall ranking. Players who play in only six (6) events will use all six rankings to determine their average. Players who play in more than six events will use their top six point totals to determine their average.

* * * Players who play in ALL of the nine events will have a * * *
* * * 25 point bonus added to their final average total. * * *

At the end of nine weeks, the Top Ten (10) ranked players will receive an invitation directly to the FINALS. Players ranked 11 thru 60 will be invited to the Semi-Finals.

Semi-Finals
Players invited to the Semi-Finals will play in a 50 player max FREEROLL tournament. This tournament will play down to the top ten players. These 10 players will have played their way into the FINALS.

The Finals
The Finals will be a 20 player FREEROLL tournament (top 10 from the League and top 10 from the semi-finals). These 20 players will be playing in a winner take all No Limit Texas Hold’em Tournament where the winner will receive a seat in the $10,000 Main Event at the WSOP in Las Vegas (or cash equivalent).

Fun, Poker and the WSOP
Most of all, the Harrah’s Joliet Poker League is about great people, great poker and great fun. So if you love to meet new people, play poker and have a chance to win a $10,000 Seat to the WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas, then the Harrah’s Poker League is perfect for you!!!

Dates, Times & $
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 – 7pm $45 + $5 NLHE Tournament 1
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 – 7pm $45 + $5 NLHE Tournament 2
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 – 7pm $45 + $5 NLHE Tournament 3
Tuesday, September 27, 2011 – 7pm $45 + $5 NLHE Tournament 4
Tuesday, October 4, 2011 – 7pm $45 + $5 NLHE Tournament 5
Tuesday, October 11, 2011 – 7pm $45 + $5 NLHE Tournament 6
Tuesday, October 18, 2011 – 7pm $45 + $5 NLHE Tournament 7
Tuesday, October 25, 2011 – 7pm $45 + $5 NLHE Tournament 8
Tuesday, November 1, 2011 – 7pm $45 + $5 NLHE Tournament 9
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 – 3pm FREEROLL * SEMI-FINAL *
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 – 7pm FREEROLL * * FINALS * *

I see some problems:

1) only one person wins a ME seat, at $45 per week 80 players, that's over 32k.

2) Also if they are capping it at 80 , after you play week 1 are you guaranteed a spot week 2?

Did you read weekly prize pools? I spoke with the manager and stated weekly prize pools would reduce that amount way down.

I've played in a lot of the tournaments there already. They average 50. 80 would be nice to see and fun to play against.

I'm sure the rest of the cash, if any, will be handed out. I reread my email and it is all there. The breakdown of everything. Take the weekly money out and you only have money for 1 seat.

Nice.

There were five or six tables running last night when I got there around midnight. Not sure of the breakdown, it was probably one table of 3/5 NLHE and the rest 1/3 NLHE.

Plenty of min buy-in donors. I tried to keep the table fun and upbeat while they inevitably lost their money. (Glad to see it being lost at the poker table rather than in the pit!)

Some highlights:

1. One player all-in for $39 pre-flop with two callers. Board comes 3347A. There was no side pot when one of the callers shoves for $141. The entire table knows the other guy has an ace.
   
   He tanks for a while and finally folds. The shover turns over 42 to show his bluff. And of course loses the pot to the all-in guy with QQ. This guy risked $141 to win nothing! (He couldn't possibly think his hand was good there. Maybe he was trying to get the all-in guy to muck? LOL!)
   
   
2. Really Drunk Guy (RDG) sits down on my right and proceeds piss away $200 in about four hands. (None to me, unfortunately!) He rebuys for another $200 and quickly bleeds that down to $5. He posts the BB on the next hand and tosses his last $2 in on the flop. Five callers.
   
   Then RDG turned over his cards to reveal A7. The floor was called and he ruled that RDG could take back his hand, but warned him that the next time he showed prematurely his hand would be dead.
   
   They checked it down and a 7 hit the River. Oddly enough, RDG's pair of sevens were the best hand and he had $30. By the end of the night he'd turned his last $5 and a dead hand in $540! He was going to take a cab home to Lockport, but I gave him a ride because he was on my way home.
   
   
3. They were about to shut us down (1/3 closes ~5:20 AM) when a crazy-ass hand developed. Four all-in shoves on an A22 flop. The hands were AQ, A9, 42 (Winner, winner, chicken dinner!) and...a pair of fives?
   
   That's right, some guy who is apparently allergic to money put over $300 in the pot with a hand in which he had to have known he was miles behind. The final pot was around $800. The guy with 42 was the biggest all-in stack and scooped.

guy who plays every hand and called a raise oop with 42 offsiut says "i knew I would eventually catch you donks!"

Is there a prizepool that is distributed for these $50 tournaments, or does all the money go to the wsop pool? Freerolls sound cool, but every tournament I have ever played there has a horrible HORRIBLE structure. They usually last about 4-6 hours and your basically in push/fold mode by hour 2. Its kinda like playing a superturbo.

Has the tournament structure been released? Is it the same one as the existing Sunday tournament? Is there more play for the FINALS?

Based on the start times of the semi-finals and finals, the semi-final will have to end in 4 hours. I'm guessing both the weekly event and the semis will play like turbos.

One can only hope the finals will have more play...

Is there info on how the points are awarded?

The best part about Melissa is that she really keeps things moving by asking, "Check or bet?" if there hasn't yet been any action in the round.

I just called the room. The structure hasn't been finalized yet, but it looks like the league will be the same as the Thursday night tournament (i.e., 20-minute rounds).

The big difference is that because they're playing for points they'll have to play it out. No chopping at the final table when it becomes a shovefest.

I'm guessing the rounds will be 30-45 minutes for the finals since it's only 20 players.

Are you sure?

Of course. I'm not always right, but I'm always sure.

Or maybe they'll keep the same structure with 20-minute levels and double or triple the starting stacks instead?

Is anyone gonna be playing this Poker League. I'm a regular 1/2 & 2/5 player at Horseshoe, I'll be playing in it every Tuesday.

I plan on playing cash from 12-7 and then playing the tournament.

I'm guess I'm now a regular 1/3 player at Harrah's. I won't be playing in the league (I much prefer cash games to tournaments), but I'm happy to see it bring action to the room on Tuesday nights.

I see a number of people working desk (Murph, Jim, Bill, Brenda), but who is the actual manager of the poker room?

Not a problem bringing in food and drinks from outside, though I wouldn't try bringing in alcohol.

I believe it is Derek

The reason they aren't giving tier points for poker (and the comps are only 50 cents/hour compared to 75 cents in St. Louis and a buck in Tunica) is because the Illinois casino taxes are ridiculously high. (This chart is a few years old, but it gives you an idea of how absurd the casino taxes are here compared to other states.)

Harrah's is currently paying $5 for every person who walks into the casino (which is why they stamp you're hand if you plan to come return, such as smokers), plus ~50% of their profits.

More taxes = less dollars available for comps and rewards.

Fun160:

Your logic would be perfect if it were only true that Harrah's Joliet also had lower tier points for their slot players and table game players. I know that the tier points are the same for the slot players. The tax rates are exactly the same for slot players and there is no reduction. So, I have to hold to what I have always thought about this policy here. They are just screwing the players over as hard as they think they can possibly get away with doing. Remember, the rake started even higher than it is now. This room is Harrah's corporation testing grounds to see what all they can get away with doing to poker players.