Last night was around 55

Have recently made about 4 or 5 visits while working in area to this place.

By far the worst service and worst dealers I've seen at any legitimate poker room I've visited (which is a fairly long list).

Last visit was last Wed night and they stuck a blackjack dealer in the room (at a 1/2NL table) during tourney who had dealt holdem once in her life. Poor lady was lost and thankfully the table was kind enough to help her out. However, for a $6 rake one might think they'd train the dealers before tossing em into the fray. Their best dealers are moderately slow and much of the time the errors and pace are a bit like watching paint dry as you tear your fingernails out.

So a huge rake, no comps, lousy dealers and saw some old bag floor supervisor who was berating customers for no apparent reason. Other that it's a great place LOL

Hollywood does have it's share of problems that need worked out. It's going to take a lot of time and another casino opening up close by in order to get them all solved. They are however, improving on a few things as time goes by. When they started it was even worse then it is now, which is hard to believe if you visited there for the first time recently.

The 1/2 buy max used to be $200/100bb's. The 2/5 games max buy in was $500/100bb's as well. They have changed the 1/2 max buy in to $300/150bb's which is pretty standard at most casino's and the 2/5 max buy in to $1000/200bb's, which isnt that 'standard' at many casino's, however is nice.

They have also allowed the 'straddle.' I do not know if this is particularly a good thing or an improvement but it does show they are willing to try different things.

Obviously the start of the tournies is new, however the structure is horrible. The blinds literally double every 20 min and you start with 6k after the $5 dealer tip which leaves you with 120bb's to start and quickly shrink as they double. Combine that with some dealers that are slow and a 30% rake (when you include the dealer tip) for the morning tournies and a 25% rake in the evening and it makes for a pretty horrible tournament. Run good in the shortest amount of time and you have a shot at taking it down. They are more organized then i thought they would be with the tournaments though. That does not mean they are totally organized, just more then i thought they would be.

Ps on the tourny note. I read a post on here where the "non-dealer" guy said you should tip 10% of what you made even after the $5 tip...Haha, that was funny...I would like to see someone turn a profit tipping 10% when they cash, pay the $5 tip each time along with the 30% rake...That should work out well, good luck with that...

Getting a seat and chips is getting smoother and quicker each time it seems for cash games.

The rules do seem to change whenever a new floor person steps on the floor. I've literally seen rules go one way one day, and the other way the next day, countless times.

The biggest problem with the hollywood casino poker room is, FLOOR PEOPLE! The floor people are also usually very rude. This is the only casino which i felt like i was treated poorly at, ever. They sort of treat it like a prison, or a school for misbehaved kids. Whenever an issue is brought up, they are usually in defense mode right away and tend to yell pretty often at the guests, and have no problem with throwing anyone out when they disagree with them. If you prove a point to them in anyway and try to show them that a ruling they said might be wrong, you will most likely be screamed at and told 'if you dont like it, go home, or dont play here.' Its very odd, however the fact that there are always games, and they are usually good, and the chance of getting robbed at gun point is low, keeps me and i believe a lot others going back.

They still do not offer comps, which i believe will change soon. They also do not have any promotions. I know delaware park does a 10k freeroll tourny to all players that play 40 hours plus a month. Thats awesome and probably has that room filled all day everyday.

We also do not have a bad beat JP. However, i dont know if that would be a good thing. We are already paying a $6 rake. Adding another dollar to that i believe is just to much. Plus, i personally wouldn't trust that all that money is going into the bb JP. Shady things happen in back rooms so i think that its a good thing for now we dont have one.

Chip runners have been added since they opened and that is a good thing. Makes it convenient and easy to reload whenever you bust playing cash.

You can now eat while you play which is nice as well. Soft drinks are free, but alcohol bev's cost, however i do know thats a state law issue they cant really change. Redbulls cost 5 bucks - thats ********. Hopefully that changes soon.

Also, the overall environment of the casino and poker room is nice. The seats are comfortable and the tables and chips are nice.

Dealers are kind of 50/50. Its new so a lot of them are learning. It is annoying at times though when you have one thats pretty bad.

Last but not least, the one thing i feel like they need to address the most is the lack of etiquette during cash games and tournies. People act of turn like its their job, people talk to each other while they are in pots, getting slow rolled happens at almost every table i've ever played at, yelling or berating other players happens pretty often, and ****ing celebrating after someone wins a pot happens every 5 minutes. Its obviously very emotional to play a game that involves money being shifted back and forth and sometimes that can bring out the worst in people, so i understand it, however i completely disagree with it. The floor never really does much about any of those things.

Soo, all in all..."The Wood" gets 2 stars out of 5 in my book for the overall look of the casino and the fact that they seem to want to change things for the better. Hopefully it can go up a little before another casino comes close or everyone will be running to the other casino..

Enjoyed the post looked like a pretty honest assessment of the room. Main issues I've seen are the rediculous rake which probably won't drop until the room is vacant and the lack of player compensation/benefits. As far as floor issues I've never had one but the pit bosses(mainly Nancy during daytime & Asa or Mitch at night) are very friendly and have always treated me well.

One thing from your post I disagree with is the ettiquite concerns. I don't really see how it is the casino staff's responsibility to educate players how to properly behave at a table. Acting out of turn is certainly a dealer's responsibility to control and I've seen a dealer warn a player about slowrolling, but celebrating/complaining and the like should be player controlled and some people are just rediculous and will never learn.

Here are the some of the reasons I go to Hollywood:
20 minutes closer 40 minutes round trip compared to the Sun or Sands.

More producers there at 1/2 then what I saw at the sun. With the poker room being so far from the other games, I think we see less of the "I'll try poker crowd." I don't have as much time at the Sands so I cannot comment.

Things I do not like:
Smoking. Can't Pee, Park, go to the Cage, Get to the Poker room with out a smoking section. It sucks getting a shower at 2 am because you have too.

Rake $6 is a bit much. Even if there is only 5 people in a hand but 7 stacks on the table its still full rake.

All of my other complaints are nitty.

This seems to be an urban myth that won't die. I understand Bethlehem Sands and Mt. Airy both serve free alcohol.

If there really is a state law concerning this I'd love to see a link to it.

@Gilligan - I do understand your argument about the etiquette issue. It is the players responsibility, i just feel like whenever its excessive, the floor should kindly explain to whoever is doing it that its unnecessary and obviously rude to do it, and hopefully they can to try to make it "not as accepted." I feel like some people see other players doing it and feel like its okay to do it whenever they are there playing as well. Its my personal opinion but i feel like its bad for the game.

@Tycho_bray - I have never been to Bethlehem Sands or Mt. Airy so i do not know if that is true. I do know some people with certain players cards get free drinks, however they are not considered free b/c someone is paying for them. This is what i have heard from a beverage manager (not at the casino but at a respected hotel in pa).

I would also like to know the exact law, b/c i have heard from a number of employees at the casino the "its the state law" excuse whenever someone new comes in and complains.

There is no law regarding free vs. non-free beverages to really discuss. Anyone who uses this excuse is simply making an excuse. They previously stated they do not offer the free drinks for two reasons:

1. It would cut into their low profit margin with the very high state tax - business reason.
2. With not having a hotel built into their property, it would be irresponsible to serve free drinks without providing rooms to stay in - the moral/covering own ass reason.

Bethlehem Sands originally offered the free drinks to try to pull people there over of the Philly area casinos. Not sure about the rest.

Nice TR.... makes me want to visit Hollywood when I'm in the area. I was staying away becase of the high rake. One thing.....it's actually a 25K freerooll for 40 hours play at Delaware Park.

This makes me want to cry....FML for playing at hollywood...

Is PLO8 going tonight? PLMK ASAP.
Thanks!

This is disappointing. I was there for a visit a while back, when they really WERE new. I would have expected better improvement by now- this reflects poorly on the floor/mgmt of the room, imo.

But, when I was there, I wasn't overly impressed with most of the floor/mgmt people that I saw operating in the room. Too bad.

Since the closest one you're possibly going to get is the Gettysburg area, will there really be that much of a player shift?

There are a lot of good dealers now. There are many so so dealers also. They seem to be adding new dealers all the time and/or adding dealers that normally deal other games. When you get one of these dealers that normally just deals blackjack or whatever, it can be frustrating. The dealers overall, are light years better than when the place opened. But, most of the dealers are still below average compared to dealers at an established place where dealers keep their own tips.
This concludeds my rambling "how many times can I write dealer/deal bet?" and is IMHO.

In a room where dealers tips are pooled with all the other table games, poker won't run nearly as well as it will in a room where dealers are keeping their tips. The fact that this happened at Penn is an unfortunate testament to a lack strength of management at the time policy was put into place. What is the motivation to get out many hands? The more hands dealt.... the more rake, the more tips, the more action, the happier the players

How, exactly, does the motivation change all that much in these areas, for a pooled room? More hands is still going to mean more tips, so whether those tips are pooled or not should have little effect on incentive.

Now, if the room is hiring STUPID dealers....

On paper socialism works well. But, do all the dealers in the entire casino work hard and try to get the most hands/dice games/roulette spins out? Face it, if they're being paid 22 bucks an hour toke rate, and they work their ass off during a shift, they might get 22.12 that shift because they're going to have to put it in the box and cut it with everyone working that day with a dealer license. If all the poker dealers worked to get the most out of their hands, they still have to split it with the rest of the casino. They know that individually or even as a poker room group (what? maybe 25% of the dealers in the casino), there's not much any person in a room can do to change the entire toke rate of the craps table, the BJ table and Roulette table during a shift. I think that's why almost every poker room that I know of lets dealers keep their personal tips. Also, if they were only pooling poker room dealer tips, it might help the poker dealers motivate. I just don't see how they expect to get the most out of their shift with a casino table game toke pool. But, you know, I may also tip a little less on a big pot if I knew that tips were not going to that dealer but to the entire casino. So, slower hands might equal more profit, but I'm a bigger tipper and am not married to a buck. I might be at Penn though.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I heard it's a pooled casino, not a pooled room.

It is a pooled casino not just poker room as told to me by a number of dealers. And the $22 I saw as an example is way off. Word is dealers are at $12-14 toke rate so obviously a lack of motivation is apparent. I doubt any reasonable poker dealer who keeps their own would do so poorly.

I can understand the lack of motivation I am a dealer in a poker room in Pa which I will not name in fairness to all, in my room we keep our tips Im a good dealer as far as running the game and about average in hands per hr {26-30} and my pay with my hourly rate is never under 35.00 and as high 40.00. There are those who make far more per hour because they are wicked fast 34 to 35 hpr they would not put up with pooled tips as they can make 90 to 100k a year.

I was told by a dual rate from Penn that the toke rate was averaging 20 bucks an hour. But, I could be wrong and she might have said the toke rate and meant the hourly plus the toke rate. In any event, it's no way to run an airline from a player, dealer or company perspective.

It makes you wonder who the advocate is for the poker room. If they don't have a strong room manager, they're just a ship adrift.

I played last night and a situation came up where the floor had to get involved and I feel like they were actually polite about it and made a good decision and even went farther then I thought they would to solve the problem.

Since I usually feel like they aren't the best, it's only fair I post something positive they did.

A hand came up where there were 3 men in the pot. It was a limped pot with an Indian guy, a young guy, and an old man in a wheel chair. Flop came out 10 8 4 rainbow. It checked around. Turn was a K, Indian guy chks, young guy chks, and old man bets 5 bucks. They both call. Riv brings another 8. Indian guy checked, the young guy looks at the old man and the old man starts to check and then old man flips his hand up - He had A4. The young guy then says, well i didnt act yet which the dealer agree's with and the young guy bets 20.

Now i noticed that the young guy noticed the old man was checking and then decided to bet, which i thought was a little grimey even though we are playing a game trying to exploit other people and take their money, it was still a little harsh against an old man in a wheel chair, but thats another argument. Now, the old man got really upset and stated that the dealer signaled him that the action was on him and thats why he flipped his hand up. The argument went on a little longer between the dealer and old man and the floor was called.

The floor heard both stories and told the man that he could still call, fold, or raise and the action was on him still and his hand was still live. He wanted the young guy to just take the bet back and let the hands get flipped. The young guy did not agree to that argument (which kinda proves a little more he had a qj or j9 type of airball and wanted to take down the free 21 bucks, smh) The indian guy didnt have much to say about it and i was quite sure he had the best hand. So after a bit more arguing i suggested why dont they just chop the pot up, even though i didnt think it was right what the young guy did and didnt feel he deserved any part of the pot. They asked all the players if that was okay, and the young guy said i'll chop it or the bet stays. They chopped it and i jokingly said, "you should chop the rake too," and they DID!!! I couldnt believe they would actually do that but the old man, as a customer, thought the dealer made the mistake, which I dont agree with, however since he did, they gave up the rake as well!

Well done hollywood and [name removed] the floor person on during that time. Like i said in my first post, they are making mistakes but it does seem like they are trying to better themselves and the room as a whole which is a good thing. Hopefully this continue's and we can have a great place to play in the near future..

Was told by numerous dealers their toke rate floats between 10-15 consistently. Obviously higher on weekends, lower weekdays.

From what I can tell this room has no set poker room manager. It floats around. The man/woman in charge one day is over supervising blackjack a few days later. Ship adrift, and has no captain.

@jjurkin: Good story and sign of promise. [name removed] seems to be real strong. Believe some one told me she came over from Borgata.

I must say though - young kid = prick the way it sounds. Hope karma smacks him on the river next time hes in a big hand.

anyone have a recent update on PLO there?

PLO hi/lo games run pretty reg. I'd say about 3-5 times a week. PLO high we had running 1 night. I don't know of any other times it got up and running. The game lasted about 40 minutes and broke b/c to many people busted...