Got my first Covid shot yesterday. Maybe things will brighten soon. With that in mind I saw on the news that Hard Rock will open, I believe, May 14. Does anyone know if it will have a poker room, and if it does what will be the safety procedures? Also, when Horseshoe reopens, presuming it does, what does it have in mind for safety?

This article mentions a poker room for the Hard Rock, but no idea if covid has delayed that.

Yeah I'm a no-car person who lives on the red line, so Hammond (by way of Chinatown shuttles) has always been my only option. I COULD do Rivers if it gets a poker room, but switching from red to blue in the loop won't be significantly shorter than my Indiana trip.

There was some chatter from the Four Winds (SB, IN) Dealers that came from Hammond that they were very excited for the opportunity at Hard Rock. Hard Rock could very well take the whole market away from Horseshoe if it takes the approach they have in Florida. Then it all comes down to contracts with WSOPc and HPT (if they are still around, or other) to wrestle away from 'Shoe for control of the 'east side' poker world. GL

Historically I've got the shuttle but the last one back to the North side is at like 12:20 or something (can't remember exactly it's been a while), so if you want to stay later you have to get the one to Chinatown and then Uber from there which is annoying, $25 Uber from Lakeview to Rosemont fine with me if I decided I can't be arsed to get the blue line + Belmont bus

Answer20, I have never play poker in Florida. Could you please explain what the Hard Rock approach to poker is down there. Thanks. That said it does seems likely that Horseshoe is about to lose its Indiana/Illinois poker crown. From where I live in Chicago Hard Rock will add about 14 miles to my trip. But it's all expressway/tollway driving so time to the poker room probably wouldn't be that much different.

In general Hard Rock just takes care of it's Players. Want to spread a game? They figure out how to do it. High Hands basically all the time. Dealers using Bravo to enter high hands instead of waiting for a Floor to come over. Just last week I saw 4-5 different cases when the Dealer hit the 'call' button and the Floor was there in less than 20 seconds .. wonderful! Higher stake games on time, not rake.

It certainly takes 'staff' to pull this off and we all know that 'Shoe probably put some Dealers out on the floor that weren't ready or shouldn't have been there in the first place.

The easiest way to say it is that Hard Rock 'wants' poker, whereas in lots of other rooms Players are treated as an ongoing migraine. GL

There's gonna be more dealers out there who aren't ready. The Horseshoe has billboards up advertising a $2k signing bonus for dealers. They don't say they're for poker, but I suspect they are. I also suspect the reason the room isn't open yet is they couldn't rehire enough dealers that they laid off.

There's nothing wrong with baby steps. The room doesn't 'have' to be open 24/7 unless that's part of the internal numbers battle. Unlikely, but possible, that they have some contractual commitments to WSOPc (and who knows where the HPT stands at the moment) that would force them to host tournaments if they have the poker room open. It's 'very' unlikely a factor since MSPT seems to be the only 'big' tournament entity that's active right now, and it's mainly Iowa and Vegas.

Build it and they will come so to speak .. start with 3PM to 3AM until you can show Dealers that there's viable income to earn and grow from there. GL

This is interesting. Are you suggesting that the pre-Covid dealers from the Shoe, which I always thought were excellent, are planning to move to Hard Rock? If that's the case the Shoe is in real trouble.

i have spent a little time doing google searches and looking at Hard Rock's facebook page etc. trying to get definitive confirmation that HR in Gary IN will have a poker room but don't see anything. Can anyone confirm? Any details? what about the Shoe do they plan to reopen? living in the western suburbs of chicago I think HR will be 15-20 mins faster drive at 75-80 mph on I 294 to I94 and the casino right off 94.

i have certain loyalty to the Shoe and for many years have told players that the shoe was the only real option for poker in Chicagoland and that the other Chicagoland poker rooms all compared poorly to the shoe. I am surprised that the Shoe does not value its former position and reputation as the "go to poker room" enough to communicate its reopening plans and intentions to the poker community. WTF?

And... I am super excited about the idea of the hotel as part of Hard Rock. That could be a huge game changer.

This post might be the most info I have seen about the shoes poker room reopening but it still leaves me with this question: Is the shoe's poker room open?

i recently read this article about the shoe but - again it leaves many questions:

"Effectively Alienating Your Client Base Using Facebook"

The article leads off with the Shoe as a textbook example of how to use FB to alienate all your clients.

"The Shoe created a real buzz with its loyal customers by posting on its Horseshoe Hammond Poker Room fb group on January 22nd, 2021 that it was '...taking preliminary steps to bring back poker activities during the first quarter of 2021.' This post elicited 88 likes 36 shares and 64 comments all positive feedback showing real excitement about the room reopening. To date there has been no follow up whatsoever to the original 1/22/21 post.

We reached out to the Shoe for comment and an anonymous source relayed the following feedback about the 1/22/21 fb post: "Oh man that **** was a riot, makes us laugh so hard we fall off our new poker chairs everyday. We got all those rounder degens so hyped up on 1/22/21 that half of them went into cardiac arrest. Then we just effing ghosted them. The best was when April Fools day came and we just posted on fb some generic **** about the WSOP in Vegas later this year. We laughed so hard and everyone agreed it was their best April Fools prank ever"

I'm not the person you're replying to, but I think you're making a big leap. You're going to have a lot of staff turnover when the poker room has been closed as long as it has. Some of the dealers probably just found other jobs, either as a dealer or in a different field.


Hard Rock has said they won't have a poker room at opening, but haven't commented on future plans. I personally believe they'll eventually have one, but it'll be at least several months after opening. Horseshoe poker room isn't open, btw.

Please, check your Bravo!

For what? Their Bravo site hasn't been updated in a year.

Horseshoe Hammond poker room updated Bravo early today with one 1/2 table up - update got deleted / pulled (don't know what time, but update is gone). Maybe, instructing....

I looked at the press release. This is a start. But unless I missed something a few issues were not addressed. Most importantly, is the Shoe returning to phone in reservations? If spectating will not be allowed, I can't imagine players will walk up to the desk, sign in, and wait. Wait where? Also, no word on how many players at each table. Anyone have more info? Thanks.

Thank me later...

https://www.caesars.com/content/dam/...r_04.14.21.pdf

Having looked a bit closer:

"Initially, poker will be available from Monday (10 a.m.) through Friday (5 a.m.)."

Does that mean they close the poker room at 5am on Friday because they have capacity limits and are only opening poker when the entire casino is not busy, but won't have it when the place is more crowded on the weekend?

Where is this article? I would love to read it. If these things are true then it is another reason why they need to move on to new management in this room.

Is Windy City Poker Championship worth checking out on Saturday? Never been or heard of it. My husband is heading to Des Plains tomorrow to see his son who wants to play some poker, but Hammond doesn't open until Monday. (I found Windy city in this thread -- its thread is like six years old )