A little off-topic, but does anyone remember which hotel on the West Shore applied for one of those "mini-casino" licenses (or whatever they're called) ? I think it was in Camp Hill or Mechanicsburg...?

And what ever came of that?

Holiday Inn Harrisburg West in Mechanicsburg.

http://www.pgcb.state.pa.us/?pr=337

was out last Monday-

Surprised and happy that the room was full when I go there at 7pm. There was a short waitlist for 3/6, 1/2NL, and a longer list (about 10) for 2/5NL.

Sat at a 1/2NL table until a 3/6 spot opened up (weak sauce, I know.) Dealer was as fast and good as any i've seen in AC.

For what it's worth, from the back of the room I couldn't hear the speaker system call my name.

Anyway, got my 3/6 table and had a great time. Our dealer was SLOW, and seemed a bit lost at times. Her relief was fast though and understood the game. The vibe at the table was friendly, probably because I was the only 'newcomer.' Everyone else had been playing there since the room opened.

The relaxed atmosphere is a nice change from the AC rooms. One of the reasons I'll be back is that the silk shirt, moussed hair d-bag quotient seems pretty low.

I've also heard they're going to expand the room in the near future. This will be my poker room until further notice.

The speaker system sucks. We were all talking about that yesterday morning. A few of the floor managers with string voices can be heard but thats it.

Tuesday night was a circus at my table. Tons of mistakes by multiple dealers.
A guy called the floor and asked for compensation. Floor manager got a little rude, which is surprising since they wear the "We Care" buttons. Then most of the table jumped in on it. (I was trying to catch a hand while everyone was so distracted) Next thing you know the floor manager is getting really rude to a guy sitting to my right. The guy says, something like "at Delaware park..." The lady interrupts and screams..." Then go to Delaware park...the guy stands up and announces to the room that the floor person just informed him that everyone should go to Delaware park. She gives him a 10 minute time out...He says no hes not going anywhere...and he didn't. Hysterical. Needless to say we had three babysitters for the next half hour...including one floor manager that thought he was in the movie casino staring down one of our table mates. All in all it worked out...we got a new dealer, who did a great job, and I had a good session.

Is there a consensus about what time this place gets unbearably crowded? I'm thinking of giving it a try tomorrow (friday). I'm off of work so I can get there early. Would around 4pm be early enough to not have to wait 2 hrs. for a table at 1/2nl?

Fridays are pretty crowded. Last Friday 9 ish it wasn't even worth waiting. It starts around lunch and gets increasingly worse. My guess would be you'll be about 35 on the list and waiting an hour. But thats just a guess. You'll definitely beat the majority of the crowd. You'll end up running into a lot of gamblers who want to: "take a shot at poker" with a hundred bucks...Could be worth the wait.

Has anyone played at 11 pm-ish (or later) on Friday or Saturday? What's the player pool like around 11:00 or midnight? By that time are there any crazy people just wanting to "gambool"?

If it's late and I'm bored, I wonder if it'd be worth it to head on over.

Last week seemed to have been busier than this week. Last Thursday night, the list got as deep as 50+ people for $1/2nl but this past night (Thursday) it was no where close to that.

Fridays are usually busier but this week will probably be less so than last week. It seems that it gets less and less traffic every week which could be due to people trying out the room and not coming back.

Last Friday, you could get there around 4:30pm or even 5pm and still only wait less than 20-30 minutes. Anything after that just gets worse and worse. Most people get off work between 4pm and 5pm so add travel time and then that is when it is packed. Some take off early on Fridays so try to get there as early as possible without getting fired.

Was there yesterday to play 3/6. There was one other person on the list at 11:30 when my friend and I showed up. Our names were placed on the list, we were told it would be noon before they opened up new tables as she was getting in a lot of dealers then. We came back to the room at 12 and noticed an empty seat at the 3/6 table. My friend asked about it and was told they were working on the bank, can't do anything now. Finally,at about 12:45, they called the first name on the list, who was waiting.

My friend got called about 5 minutes later, and I went on about 5 minutes after that. The floor was VERY lax until this older gentleman, Jean-Pierre was the nametag, showed up and then boy, were those bees busy. I'm thinking JP is a big boss at the casino or for the poker room. While he was in there, seats were filled fast, floor was everywhere, it was like a different room.

Even tho there was a wait list for our table, openings took forever to be called. We left at 3 and there were 4 seats open, but about 10 on the list. While it is not all the fault of the floor (some go to other tables and don't remove their name, some just don't hear it, etc) JP had left the room and it was back to slow...s.l.o.w...s...l...o...w.

yeah there will still be fresh "gamboolers" there ready to donk off some money at like 11 and 12.

I wish JP came around to the poker room more often because some of the floor are just...it's ridiculous

My experience late last night was that they are not taught customer service. Had a couple of decent dealers, but anyone on the floor, chip runners, waitress, management had very little interest in being helpful.

made my first trip up there last weekend and although I didn't experience this first hand, it was by far the most frequent complaint I head about the staff.

I only live about 10 minutes away, but have been waiting to make my first trip until the crowds, hopefully, died down a bit. I decided that today was the day and left my house around 11am and after a quick stop by the gas station for money and breakfast, I was on my way.
I should have known I was doomed from the start when as I'm leaving the gas station (still about 10 minutes away from the casino) a New York/New Jersey looking guy in a Dallas Cowboys jersey asks me for directions to Hollywood Casino. Rather than give him the very simple directions I say 'just follow me!'
Maybe 3 miles down the road I hear a weird noise as I push in my clutch pedal. My car always had made some odd noises so I don't think much of it. A mile or so later I attempt to downshift to pass a slower moving car and *pop* my clutch pedal goes to the floor and doesn't come back up. I limp the car off the road into a parking lot and the misplaced Cowboy's fan keeps driving past me. Thanks for asking if I was ok, pal.

I was only about a half mile from my job at this point so I called them and had someone come pick me up in the rollback. I guess today wasn't the day to start my Hollywood Casino poker career.

One of the dealers today said there are plans to possibly move the poker room to the 2nd or 3rd floor, to some sort of conference room or convention center or whatever is up there.

And apparently they would have enough room for a few more tables. He said it would be a temporary fix until the eventual expansion.

Has anyone else heard about this? Even if it's not 100% guaranteed to happen, is this an idea they're seriously considering?

I was told similar thing a couple of days ago by a dealer and a player at the table confirmed hearing it as well from another dealer. Still a rumor at this point I think.

What else could you expect from a Cowgirls "fan"?

Tough first trip report. Hopefully the next one's better for you... and pays off the repairs.

That was exactly my point, without actually saying it.

I ended up catching a ride with a poker friend to a home game and finished 2nd in a 15 person $20 tourney which should cover the repair.

One of the Dealers told me the same thing on Saturday, they will double the room size and it will happen before Christmas. Also, the poker room might become a high stakes BlackJack area after the move.

God, I hope that happens. I don't think they can wait until the (eventual) building expansion. They're probably already losing poker customers who are getting scared off by the long waits and lack of game variety.

If anyone from the casino is reading this -- assuming such a plan is in the works, you should put up signs or something (once the plan becomes official). Even if it's months away, give those casual players a sense of hope, so they don't just walk away and say "To hell with this place!"

So you'd change the wording on their "We Care" buttons?

I live about 30 min away. I've been waiting for the initial rush to die down.

Made my first trip Sat night. Arrived about 9:30PM. Was about 40th on
the list for 1/2; 10th for 2/5. I got called for 1/2 about 10:30. I
was still 8th on the list for 2/5.

Waiting list moved fast when one of
the floor staff ran it. For 20-30 min, she went on break and the person I assume was the manager ran the list. He paid no attention to people not showing up when
their names flash. Apparently they use an intercom call process now but
it was out of service.

Game was good and got very good about 1:00 when a guy that had a good
night in the casino sat down to gamboool. I left at 4AM.

They now seem to have a "no flop, no drop" policy. Dealer was good. It was Matt who I think has been named earlier in the thread as one of the better dealers. The sub that was rotating to give breaks was Bill, and he was good too. Jennifer replaced Matt around 3:00AM and she was ok, a bit slower and tentative. The sub that gave Jennifer the break was bad - very slow and would often point to someone to act out of turn. Maybe a trainee learning on the night shift.

They're getting there. IMO the softness of the game way overrides the administrative issues they're still working through. I'll start going back on a regular basis.

Usually if they advertise a big "We Care" campaign, it means that it is an issue that they are trying to change. People must have complained that they casino staff didn't seem to care so they made it a big selling point.

Honestly, the only thing they care about is r*ping your wallet.

Stopped by there (Monday 8/9) because I was in the area.

2:20 p.m.- one $3/6 (4-deep list), five $1/2 (just turned to open seating as I walked up), one $2/5 (1-deep), and five empty tables.

I wasn't feeling well enough to wait, so I left.

Larry,
You were feeling well enough to park/valet, walk to the back of casino to the poker room, check the list well enough to leave a trip report, but could not wait the 10 minutes to wade through the massive lists of 1-5 people????? I hope you live close and can afford running back and forth attempting to find the list at open seating when you arrive. Maybe you grabbed a hamburger from the food shoppe next door and that was pushing you over the edge, I can understand that, but I pray that the next time I show up the list will be that small.