At 9:00 I put my name on the list for 1/2 NL and gave them my cell number so they could text me when a table was ready. I gave up waiting at 10:30 and came home.

Its now a few minutes to midnight and have not gotten a text from the podium.

Not all tables were 1/2 NL however. There were 3/6 limit , a few tables of PLO and 2/5 NL

The texting doesn't work all of the time. You should've checked the desk. They would have probably just sat you.

I've been there 3 nights since it opened. Every night I'm on the waitlist and have been told that I will receive a text when a table opens. I've never once gotten the text and I have just gone in and sat myself with no problem. The room has a problem seating players and its a little disorganized. There's lots of tables playing 7 and 8 handed with lines of players waiting to be sat.
Three times now I have bought chips and gone and sat at an empty table and get dealt in right away

Whoever made that ruling should be snap-fired.

and +1 to everything tom1975 said

how much was the raise? sb has a ton of "steam equity"

So people are just cutting in ahead of those on the waiting list?

Must be playing ultimate hold'em.

There's no way to tell if players are really cutting in line in front of other players. For example, last night and I went and stood in line to register. It Took about 20 minutes. The board said there was 72 on the waitlist for 1/2. There were about 15-20 players kind've standing around the poker room entrance getting sat in no particular order. As I looked across the room I saw multiple empty seats at various tables. I went to talk to a friend of mine who was playing 1/2 at a table in the back right. There were 2 empty seats at his table and they said it had been that way for at least 15 minutes. So I just sat in, got welcomed by the dealer and was dealt in right away.

I'm not sure weather or not I was cutting in line, but I do know that right now the room is very busy and somewhat disorganized. Players and coming and going and being sat not by their name on the WL but by whoever is closest to the room entrance and gets the attention of the floor. So I feel that you kind've have to "put yourself out there" or else other players will get sat ahead of you.

This always happens in situations like this where there are far more players wanting to play than tables. The lists get really deep and therefore get stale. Let's say there are a bunch of 1/2 tables and a total of 10 seats are open. They call the first 10 names on the list. The problem is that those people have probably been on the list a couple hours and most have probably given up and left. So of the ten people that get called, only 2 or 3 show up. So you call the next group of people and only 2 or 3 of them show up. By now 20 minutes have gone by and you still have 4 or 5 open seats, plus some more have probably opened up by now.

There's really no good to solution to this problem that I've seen. I mean if the list is only 20 or 30 deep you can go through it periodically and see who's still there but once it gets 80 or 100 deep this is pretty much impossible.

I think what you did is fine. It's one thing if there's only a couple seats open and there's an orderly list of people who are known to still be there and wanting to play. On the other hand, If there are a bunch of open seats which been open for a long time and it's obvious that most of the people on the list are no longer there, I think it's ok to just grab a seat.

Can someone quickly summarize what games regularly go?

Also, it seems the rake is too damn high. $6 per hand is bad, they're going to rake their game dead.

1/2 and 2/5 NL, 3/6 limit are the regular games so far. They've also gotten 1/2, 2/5, and 2/10 PLO off but not every day. As for bigger NL, they had a 5/25 game the first couple days. Last night they had one 2/10 NL.

I've seen rooms with pagers. It works well in theory as anyone who returns their pager is removed from the list. In reality, I'm not sure if they end up getting left all over the place or if it is even practical to have 72 of them (although the real number is surely less). They required a players card and said they'd hold you responsible etc etc, but idk how effective that is.

I totally agree. $6 is outrageous in my opinion. That's not even counting the BBJ & tipping. Many say that even with the high rake, you can still make a living if you are good and the table is mainly fish. With the high rake, however, one would have to perhaps conclude that EVERYONE (except the dealer) sitting at the table is a fish. The rake may be too much to overcome for anyone. Sooner or later even the "pros" will get worn down. I agree with you Riverman...they will eventually rake their game dead. There may be a sea of fish for a year or two, but eventually the casino will cause a severe drought and the sea will run dry. I have seen a player or two short-change the pot a few times and getting away with it, but even that is not nearly enough to overcome the rake. My guess is that a year from now will be very different than it is today. The poker room will then realize what their greed has caused. Luckily for them, Columbus fits quite accurately into the "sucker born every minute" quote, actually it is probably every 15 seconds, but it won't last forever. Dead fish can't swim.

What's the ratio of good: medium: bad players in the 2/5 NL game? ....generally speaking...

The texting worked fine tonight ...
(Seat is available) Please check with the Podium in the Poker Room as your seat is now available

About 24 on the list for 1/2NL, wait was about 15 minutes.

It's really 2/10. One $2 small blind, one $10 big blind.

Well said rd8686 give it a few weeks this rooms numbers will def die down...I'd say 75 percent of the room have no clue what the rake even is....$8 a hand will evaporate the player pool...just look around the room with 30 tables times 8 every 2 minutes that's 240 out of the room every 2 minutes....of course not every hand is $8 but u kind of get the point where does the cheese come from?!

Yeah, I gotta admit I'm a little disappointed. It's their first Saturday since opening and out of 29 tables they only have 3 2/5's and 1 1/2 PLO. Right now Cleveland has 4 2/5 NL, 1 1/2 PLO, and 1 2/5 PLO.

Well it looks like they used the 30th and last table to open a 2/10 NL game so I stand corrected. I still would have like to seen a 2/5 or 2/10 PLO.

A couple of people at my 1/2 NL table this afternoon commented that they thought it was really not that busy for the opening weekend.

Saw my first max stack match buy in. Got up $300, then older gentleman sat down and bought in for $600. A few minutes later a huge stack moved to the table (+$2k). We had two other stacks that were +$400. I tightened up, because the sub $150 stacks just were not playing. I chipped up another $100 with a premium hand, 5 callers, 1 caller to my half pot C bet, then he folded on turn.

I had to take off after 4 hrs of play, I'm a 1/2NL player waiting to build my BR before I move to 2/5NL. I did not play at Nick's Shark Tank or Gemini. This did not feel like a 1/2NL table at the end. It felt like a bunch of regulars (is that possible in a new casino) were swarming to our table. Of course, I might just be stating the obvious (at least it was to me).

Yes very possible. Friday night I witnessed many players from the various card rooms around town. To me, those are regs.

Kudos to the dealers as a collective for vastly improving over the course of the week

We had a 4/8 Limit Omaha H/L game going for like 9 hours today. The rake is pretty brutal, especially when the dealers would sometimes drop $1 for the BBJ....We ended up calling the floor on that one, lol