Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races (Charles Town, WV) -- FAQ updated 2013.03.18 - Venues & Communities -- Two Plus Two Poker Forums

This thread starts the Hollywood Casino at Charles Town thread anew. Now that the room is open, we're leaving behind the baggage of guessing and complaining without information. Here is the place to complain WITH information

I will quote the few Trip Reports that have been provided so far since opening.

***CT FAQ by Rayzor***

Hollywood Casino at Charles Town official web site Poker
http://www.hollywoodcasinocharlestown.com/Casino/Poker

Dining at Hollywood Casino at Charles Town
http://www.hollywoodcasinocharlestown.com/Dining

Charles Town Regional Communities
(A subforum for discussion among players in live poker "neighborhoods.")
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/20...wn-wv-1302011/

Bravo Poker Live
http://www.bravopokerlive.com/site/s...cid=CTRS&mid=x

Poker room phone number
800-795-7001 Ext 4580

Poker room hours
Open 24 Hours

Can you call and put your name on the waiting list?
No, not at this time.

Number of current poker tables
50
26 Downstairs (Main Room)
24 Upstairs

Parking
East Garage

What games are regularly being spread
$3/6 Limit Holdem
$30 min - $100 max
$1/2 No Limit Holdem
$60 min - $300 max
$2/5 No Limit Holdem
$200 min - $500 ma
$5/10 No Limit Holdem
$500 min - $2000 max
$5/5 Pot Limit Omaha
$500 min - $2000 max
*Note First buy in must be bought from the cage.

Tournaments
See Bravo Poker Live Above

Rake structure
$3/6 Limit Pot Rake 10% to $6.00.
$1/2 No Limit Holdem Pot Rake 10% to $6.00.
$2/5 No Limit Holdem Pot Rake 10% to $6.00.
$5/10 No Limit Holdem $7.00 per half hour @ dealer change.
$5/5 PLO $7.00 per half hour @ dealer change.

When is time rake taken?
If the dealer sits down and everyone tosses him 7 bucks, what happens when a new guy gets seated 10 minutes into the down? The question is, at what point does a new player also pay for the down?
New players usually do not have to pay time until the next dealer after they sit down. So say you sit down 5 mins after a new dealer sits, you don’t pay until a dealer change.

Bad Beat Jackpot info/rules
$1.00 Drop per hand, Holdem only.
$3/6, $1/2 and $2/5.
Started 12/14/2011 $10,000.
Quad deuces beat minimum, both hole cards must play. [/i]

Straddle
Straddles are only allowed UTG. Unlimited on NL, Double BB on Limit

Dinner Break
If you want to go on dinner break you have up to 1 1/2 hours.
When you come back, your name goes to the top of the list of the game that you left.
So you can't leave a 1/2 and come back to a 2/5 you'd just go on the regular 2/5 list.
If you return within an hour you MUST bring back the full amount you left with.
If you return between 1 and 1 1/2 hours you MAY bring back the full amount
or reduce your stack.

Action/Wait Times
Action
Weekdays: Best days to visit are Tuesday and Wednesday
Weekends/Holidays: Fridays and Saturdays are Peak and Sunday till noon.

Wait times:
Weekdays: 10/20 minutes on average.

Weekends: Friday/Saturday an hour or more on average.
Either arrive before 6 pm or after 1 am to avoid the wait. [/i]

Comp/rating structure
Hahahahahaha, LMFAO!!!
As of 12/15/11………..NONE!!!!

Driving directions
From NOVA
495 - 267 (Dulles Toll Road) - Rt 7 – Rt 9 Fastest Route.
495 – 270 - 340 seems to be the quickest way, avoiding tolls.
495 - Rt 7 – Rt 9 Ok Route

Hotel room info on poker rate / availability
There are plenty of close hotels within a mile that have rooms for $60 or less.
Do poker players get any kind of discount or comp on rooms?
Hahahahahahaha!!

Smoking policy
No Smoking in Poker Room.
Smoking in the Grandstand Area.

Food / drink service availability
All rail drinks, beer (natty light), water and soda are free.
Anything above rail is cash.
Hot dogs, sandwiches, etc. available.

Logistical/environmental stuff
All equipment/chips/cards are top of the line.
Individual adjustable seats, auto shufflers, etc.
Bathrooms close by.

***Please contact Rayzor if you would like to contribute to the FAQ.***

Last edited by Rapini; 03-18-2013 at 07:54 PM. Reason: updated FAQ

Quote

07-04-2010 , 08:51 PM

Phineas T Poker

journeyman

Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 394

Quietstorm's TR:

Quote:

Originally Posted by quietstorm

No, they opened the list at 7pm and it was a fairly smooth flow. I think they finally started seating around 830 or so. I was like 116 in line for the 1-2 and got there at 715. I think the 2-5 had 20 or so less names and the limit game maybe 30 or 40 less names. They originally started with the same setup as last night, but added 1 more 1-2 NL and one more 2-5 NL by the time I left around 1130.

I checked back periodically but the line really didn't move because I guess once you got a seat you weren't leaving after just one buyin. Most of the names I did hear getting called were for the limit game but a few for the 2-5 game.

I was told the same thing about the WV Lottery or Gaming commission not letting CTown get an early jump on setting everything up. Basically they weren't even able to have the camera installations going in until the 2nd and are waiting on approval forthe pro per installation of those.

I was assured that the full 27 tables would be running by Wed though. The floor was pretty strict about going to talk to friends and wouldn't let anyone other than players beyond the roped off area. They said this rule would be in place for a while. It was kind of frustrating not being able to check up on my friend, but with all of the other confusion this room has, I guess I can understand.

Quote

07-04-2010 , 08:53 PM

Phineas T Poker

journeyman

Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 394

Phineas T Poker's scouting report:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phineas T Poker

Scouting report:

I went up to CTown yesterday to see the new layouts and eyeball the poker room setup. For the most part, I was impressed, as was my friend who went with me. We went up in the mid afternoon, so the poker room was not open, but we talked to a cute and freckled (and unfortunately married

) security guard who was posted at the ropes. She confirmed the madness from the previous night and said the same schedule was set for Sat night. We weren't allowed to walk through the room, as they were working on the cameras and had live chips on the table, but it's a nice looking rooms. Two long rows of tables, restrooms right there, and it's set in a room totally separate from slots and other tables, so there is no slot noise or smoke coming in from the main casino. Note for those coming in: Do not park in the West Garage; go past it and the valet and park in the East Garage. It's much closer to the poker room that the West Garage. Randy wasn't there, but I spoke with him on my way home. He put in a 24-hour workday the previous day and had gone home to sleep some before coming in for the Sat night madness. He confirmed they are going to try and open more and more tables as they get approved and they have licensed dealers for them.

As for the table games, there were about 20 tables open. I saw 2 craps tables, 2 4-card poker, 2 3-card Poker, 2 roulette, and several blackjack tables open, all in the main pit area by the front entrance. The minimum bet of every table for the soft opening was $25, and went up to $50 while I was there. A little rich for my blood, but I spent some time watching. Let me tell you, if you play blackjack, pray for this dealer I saw. I won't name him, but this guy was the worst BJ dealer I've ever seen. I'm truly unsure on how he passed his audition. I personally saw him pay pushes on 6 different occasions, he declared a push on 3 other hands where the house actually won, and he let the players get away with murder. One player tried to double down on his third card, then when it was not a 10, he told the dealer, "Oh, I'm sorry, I'm not allowed to double on 3 cards". Nice angle shoot. The floor came over, pushed back the double down bet, and said the man had a 4-card hand, and to continue from there. This one dealer cost them at least $500 in mistakes in just the 1 hour I watched. My friend and I commented that the over camera tape of him dealing would be used in the future to train new dealers on what not to do.

Also, they played at least 85-90% into the 6-deck shoe, which was not constantly shuffled. They were machine shuffled, cut by a player, and then played on that shoe for a solid 30-40 minutes. I went home and dug up my book on card counting. They did not have any Pai-gow up yet, which is one of my favorites. They did have complimentary drink service. Apparently, the pits will be offering these table games:

Blackjack | Craps | Mini-Baccarat | Big Six Wheel | Caribbean Stud | Pai-Gow | Let it Ride | Roulette | Three Card Poker | Four Card Poker | Poker | Texas Hold 'Em

Accounting for the difficulties in having to hit the ground running on a holiday weekend while being handicapped by the WVa Gaming, I think they've got a good setup, and once they have the kinks worked out, it will be as good as any AC casino (except the Borgata). One of the pit bosses I saw I recognized as a pit boss from the Borgata. That bodes well to me that they have experienced pit bosses who also know how to take care of players.

On the driving front, I drove up there using by way of Route 7/Route 9 and came back via Route 340/Route 7. While the 340/7 route is several miles more, it was actually quicker due to being 4 lanes most of the way and having much less in the way of narrow, winding sections that 2-lane Route 9 is littered with.

I'm sure others will be heading up in the next few days. Please post Trip Reports so we can keep this thread. I probably won't be able to head back up until next weekend at the earliest. When I do, I'll post another TR then.

Good luck to all.

Quote

07-04-2010 , 08:54 PM

Phineas T Poker

journeyman

Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 394

cds0699's TR:

Quote:

Originally Posted by cds0699

I played $1/$2 NL last night for about 4 hours. Was a great game, fish are deff playing. Dealers are a little slow right now, but most of them do well and are speeding up and we normally got in 10-15 hands every 30 minutes. They have auto shufflers that make it go by quicker. Atmosphere is nice, seats are comfy, and the drink girls come around regularly. All in all, I give it a 8/10 as it was last night.

Quote

07-04-2010 , 08:55 PM

Phineas T Poker

journeyman

Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 394

viii_ball's TR:

Quote:

Originally Posted by viii_ball

Was at CT both Friday night and again this afternoon (Sunday). Was up in the poker room about 6:30. As others have posted there was a line to get on the list. I waited about 30 minutes and when I go to the front of the line there was about 200 people on the list and the guy taking the names said only 6 tables were opening so I did not even bother.

The BJ tables were 3-4 deep waiting to get on a $25 table.

We knew from the web site that the poker room was not opening until 8:00 tonight but we thought we'd go up and try to get on a BJ table. There were about 8 BJ tables open all $100 min and all full.

So far two trips and not one cent gambled.

Quote

07-04-2010 , 08:57 PM

Phineas T Poker

journeyman

Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 394

ycastle's TR:

Quote:

Originally Posted by ycastle

Thanks to everyone for their postings here. It really helped me out yesterday.

I played for about 6 hours yesterday, 1 on 3/6 Limit while waiting for the 1/2 NL.

Here's what I can tell everyone...

-There is a standard rake on the Limit tables.
-The timed rake on the NL tables was fairly disconcerting as I've never played on a Timed Rake table, throughout CA and in Vegas. But to be fair, I don't play much higher than 1/3 NL and I hear it's more common in the 2/5 games. I believe the argument for it is that the players will be saving money collectively once the dealers get up to speed. To me, the math somewhat supports this but you have to assume that every pot is moderately sized and that it's us vs them. But for those of us that play more tight, I think it's a toss up as we won't be challenging for as many pots. Additionally, some of the dealers were very slow though I expect they will improve or get weeded out soon. Lastly, the dealer change was excruciatingly slow. It took almost every one of them 5 minutes to verify their banks and then collect their $6 tithes. Throw in a slow dealer and a couple of drama queens and we were seeing 7 to 10 hands max per down. I'm on the fence here.
-Waitresses regularly came by with beer, water, and soda and I believe you just had to tip. I gave them a buck each time for my soda or water.
-They wouldn't allow anyone to line up to sign up until 5/5:30. They wouldn't even let us up stairs. I showed up at 4 and was sent away. I came back at 6 and they were letting people upstairs to line up and I was already 80th or so. Frustrating.
-They started calling names at 8:30. It took a good 45 minutes before they had all 6 tables going. They were later able to open up 2 more tables, a 1/2 NL and a 2/5 NL.
-It was very hot upstairs but the tables and chairs were very nice. I'm not sure what the chip weight was but they felt like thick tourney chips and not as light or nice as the ring chips I'm used to.
-There are no posted Poker Rules so we occasionally got conflicting info, which was the theme of the weekend for CTown.
-While none of the dealers were fast, most were ok speed wise. There were a lot of simple mistakes but nothing that time won't fix.
-You can live straddle in both Limit and in NL but you can't double straddle. In Limit, you can only straddle for the next sized bet. In NL, we were told that you can straddle for any amount you want. We mostly just did $4 or $5.
-Cashout was horrendous. You had to carry your chips downstairs to the cashier and the line was about 30 minutes long when I left. I was told that we can expect a cashier's cage in the poker room but it will be a couple of weeks.
-Lastly, I tried taking Route 7 to Route 9 on the way there and 340 to Route 15 on the way back. I'm thinking Route 7 to Route 9 was faster but it's anecdotal at this point.

Overall, I had a great time and cannot wait to go back.

Quote

07-04-2010 , 09:28 PM

Qstick333

grinder

Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 548

Does anyone know if they will be renting boxes for chips there? Since I live 15 minutes away, it might make life a bit easier...

Quote

07-04-2010 , 10:43 PM

LEAD

newbie

Join Date: Jun 2010 Posts: 21

Phineus you are the man for starting this thread new. Is there a way you could also link the previous 50 pages so people who have not read that wont ask the same questions over again here? I am new to 2+2 but love it and thank those of you who know how to tell truth and not speculate. I plan to go again tommorow and hope to have some more facts about what is going on since i couldnt make it onto a table on Sat night.

Quote

07-04-2010 , 10:47 PM

Phineas T Poker

journeyman

Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 394

Previous thread

Charles Town Races & Slots

Quote

07-05-2010 , 03:34 AM

#10

Pauky

old hand

Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 1,217

I was up at Hollywood for a bit to see how things were comming along. While I was there I talked to one of the floor/managers and he told me that they plan to expand to 40 tables so they can bring in the WPT. They have to have a minimum of 40 tables to do so. This was already mentioned a while back, but I thought I'd post it for those that may have missed that thread.

Nice start to this thread, Phineus!!

Quote

07-05-2010 , 08:10 AM

#11

NubxXxHabano

journeyman

Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 298

one thing I haven't seen yet in the trip reports is how players cards and the Bravo poker rating card swipe system are working, if any of that is in place.

Also, noob question here, but if the rake at 1/2 is time based, does that mean that nothing is taken out of the final pot? no bbj?

thank you,
nub

Quote

07-05-2010 , 08:12 AM

#12

Freedom4All

enthusiast

Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 97

still hate the time rake for 1-2.

is 27 table enough for poker game?

Quote

07-05-2010 , 10:33 AM

#13

Rapini

ragging

Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 13,096

FYI all, I deleted the post from gamboooler1 and posts quoting it so that this thread doesn't get started off on the wrong foot. I also messaged gamboooler1 and let him know what he needs to do if he wants to become an authorized representative for HC@CT. Please PM me or post in the low-content thread if you have any questions.

Quote

07-05-2010 , 11:28 AM

#14

Ratman138

journeyman

Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 343

Having never played in a time collect game, could anyone answer this for me- If the dealer sits down and everyone tosses him 6 bucks, what happens when a new guy gets seated 10 minutes into the down? what about 25 minutes into the down? The question is, at what point does a new player also pay for the down?

Quote

07-05-2010 , 11:32 AM

#15

Rapini

ragging

Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 13,096

New players usually do not have to pay time at the next time collection period after they sit down. So say you sit down 5 mins after a new dealer sits. You can say to the floorman when he comes by to verify the drop, "I sat down during the last down; do I need to pay time?" and the answer in my experience has been, "No, new players do not have to pay time during the first time collection period."

Quote

07-05-2010 , 11:34 AM

#16

HBdirtbag

enthusiast

Join Date: Jul 2010 Posts: 69

FYI, i called this morning, still not open till 8 tonight, plan on being 24 hours by the 9th of july

Quote

07-05-2010 , 12:14 PM

#17

arctic_fire

stranger

Join Date: Feb 2010 Posts: 13

Quote:

Originally Posted by NubxXxHabano

The Bravo system is in the tables and being used, however as of Saturday it wasn't fully functional yet and they were not offering comps yet.

You are correct that on a timed rake table individual pots are not raked at all. Currently they are not taking a BBJ, from what I heard that's a few weeks away so not sure how they are going to take it when it comes on timed tables.

Quote

07-05-2010 , 02:00 PM

#18

keegan

journeyman

Join Date: Feb 2010 Posts: 280

I haven't seen any trip reports from last night. It was useful to see things like getting in line at 6:15 made you 120th in line. Also, are they still at 8 tables right now? I am wondering if tonight the crowd might be a touch thinner.

Quote

07-05-2010 , 04:09 PM

#19

klezmaniac

old hand

Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 1,571

Quote:

Originally Posted by keegan

I heard there might be 9 tonight.

--klez

Quote

07-05-2010 , 04:49 PM

#20

jjnid

grinder

Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 669

does anyone know if there is going to be a 'grand opening' when they open up the room the first day they go 24-7?

the soft opening on Friday night (saturday morning really at 1am) was very uneventful, they literally justed started calling names from the list, and about 3 railbirds, me included, watched the first hand, not even a floorperson. Not complaining, just saying it was not grand-hoorah style.

From what i can piece together it looks like they are aiming for friday to go 24-7. it would be cool for two plusers to meet before hand.

On a seperate note what is the nickname for this casino going to be? they want to rebrand themselves hollywood obviously, but no one is going to go through the trouble of saying hollywood casino at charles town.

I vote for ho-wood chuckies!

Quote

07-05-2010 , 05:10 PM

#21

bisontee

stranger

Join Date: Jul 2010 Posts: 5

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjnid

I'm more of a KISS method type person. This is obviously, hands down, going to be the name

...The Chuck

I mean, c'mon, it's not getting better than that

Quote

07-05-2010 , 05:32 PM

#22

TAFFYMAN

adept

Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 883

So there will be no poker spread 24/7 until friday now? someone posted that wednesday was gonna be the grand opening no?
also whats the deal on table games has it died down yet i planning on stopping ny tommorow afternoon what are my options?

Quote

07-05-2010 , 05:33 PM

#23

NubxXxHabano

journeyman

Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 298

Quote:

Originally Posted by arctic_fire

Cool, ty. Curious to see how many hours of poker play will get you to the different levels and get that free valet parking.

Quote

07-05-2010 , 05:36 PM

#24

Phineas T Poker

journeyman

Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 394

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjnid

On a seperate note what is the nickname for this casino going to be? they want to rebrand themselves hollywood obviously, but no one is going to go through the trouble of saying hollywood casino at charles town.

I vote for ho-wood chuckies!

Everyone I know is just calling it Charles Town.