I'm usually up there Saturday nights and have noticed that the LO8 game has been breaking up early. When I used to play in it, they would have two tables on a Saturday night and one would play until past midnight.

Not anymore, but they still have the same regs so if you get there early enough you should be able to get a decent session in. Just expect it to break up before 10pm.

BBJ hit today 230pm...same dealer as last time..........janelle. A few minutes later the table gets picked to receive the end of the month tourny seat, too. LOL

o/e for saturday's 500$ ?

I'll be up there Thurs - Sat for the first time.

Likely playing $1/2 on Thurs and eventually taking my first ever shot at $2/5 over the weekend nights.

What's the min/max buy-ins for both games?
Do you buy your chips at the cage or are there chip runners?
What do you tip chip runners if they are used?
If I buy chips at the cage for $2/5, and I get $500, should I get a rack of $5s or should I get some $25s to make big bets easier?
Is the parking garage safe?

How's the $2/5 games. Looks like from the Bravo app there's a good selection. I've been a winning $1/2 and $1/3 player in the two years I've been playing. My overall winrate sucks, but a lot of that was in learning the game. I've really taken off the last four months (hopefully its play good and not run good). But my bankroll is north of $10K so why not start taking shots. Seems like Hammond is a better place to start than STL because of game selection. I'm comfortable enough with poker that I can realize if I am outclassed and move back down.

60/200, 200/500
Cage for first buy in
Runners typically get 1 dolla
whatever you prefer
yes

Anyone know the numbers for Saturday's $500?

205

1st - 23k
(there was a chop but i'm not sure of the details)

Anyone know how many runners the 7pm tourney tonight gets?

Is what I'm seeing that there's 38 people waiting for 1-2 at 3:30 on a Thursday accurate? What is going on over there?

It's been bad since they got rid of call-ins.

Not true...call ins being 'taken away' have reduced wait times...this has been a topic many times in this very thread. The majority of regs were originally opposed to having no call ins, but once we all experienced it for bout 2 months or so, it is just fine.

Did you ever think that it is crappy outside, ridiculously hot, the day after a holiday (in which many ppl prolly took the day off) and the appeal of an ice cold poker room that is understaffed might have somethign to do with it?

This. Why they weren't prepared for a large turnout is terrible, it's been busy or very busy the last few Thursdays. Waiting upwards of 2 hours wasn't unusual at all before, now when it happens it sends people off the deep end. Diving in!

I completely disagreed with their choice to run that ridiculous 25 man tourney when they had such long lists of cash games. Plus they had FOUR floor men and none of them sat in to deal so they could open more tables. They even turned the Bravo off on the TV's by the entrance, which was absurd. One of them sat in to deal 2/5 but no new tables opened until they were sure they were going to get their normal 25 runners. They could have capped the tourney at 30 based on past numbers and got the cash games up or just cancelled the damn thing and let the Majestic players go back there.

There's a saying "Cash is king" for a reason.

I was wondering why none of the TVs had the Bravo on.

Probably so people wouldn't see the waiting list and walk away.

While I don't doubt that the average wait time averaged across all players has gone down, MY wait time has gone up significantly. With call ins I would never wait at all except for when the WSOP was in town. Now I regularly have to wait up to 30 mins for a seat at 2/5 on a saturday

i thought i was the only one! plo list is the worst to wait through when they only open 1 table

If there are the same number of people going and the same number of tables running, average wait time should be the same. But it will be much longer for those who used the call in, and much shorter for those who did not. Like you I also used the call in and my wait times have gone up.

Totally agree. I wish they'd run the must-move game much more often.

Most irritating is that a few of the PLO regs notoriously sit, play a few hands, then go grab meal and leave a vacant seat for an hour.

So in chatting with a dealer yesterday I found out that they now outsource the scheduling of the poker dealers. They didn't account for it being busier than normal on the holiday or day after, something that never would have happened with Jeremy. I guess the floor guys weren't to blame and their hands were tied to do anything.

Sorry about that.

I've done this a couple times, though it's rare. I usually plan to eat lunch before I start playing, so I stop at the desk to sign up and then eat. But in the rare circumstance where a game is running but there are empty seats available, they won't let me do this. Obviously I don't do this when there's a long list. Next time this happens, just ask the floor for a "playover".

When they eliminated call-ins, they promised they would be faster about opening tables and letting people play 6-7 handed and I think they have been.

Loved the room. Even with the wait on Thursday night.

Over the three day trip, played 15.5 hours of $1/2, lost $122. And Friday and Saturday nights I did play the $2/5 game for 8 total hours. Won $1898 at that limit on great run good. Wasn't intimidated at all by the move up to $2/5. Just made sure to focus harder on my A game. Played shorter sessions too when concentration started slipping, I'd bolt (can't ever get a decent nights sleep in hotels). Focused on position and aggression more.

I did find the $1/2 in my small sample size to be painful. I should have moved tables each day, but didn't. Disclaimer: my $1/2 sessions were Thursday night and Fri/Sat afternoons. But I found the game to be too shallow, too many short stacks. They should bump up the max to $300. Probably feel this way because I ran cold being card dead and missing all flops. Never could establish a winning image so c-betting was unsuccessful.

I just wished we had the variety of stakes in St. Louis. My bankroll is doing really well, but on a weekend night you are lucky to see two $2/5 games running amongst the four card rooms.

I go back and forth on this one, but I look at those guys as bad players and think of their chips as appetizers. Almost to a man they'll get $40 of their $50 into a pot and still fold then try to play their $10 stack in another hand. Same for the guys who play $100 stacks they play way too passively for their stack sizes. Adding those short stacks into your stack is a nice bump even if it is rather boring poker.

Your image, winning or otherwise has nothing to do with being able to c-bet successfully in those 1/2 games. Most of the players don't have a clue what your image is and the rest don't care. It's really on you to know who will fold to a CB and who won't and a big part of that is just getting to know the players. In general I just play text book and CB more at the $100+ stacks and bet for value at the shorties if I don't know a player. I rarely take into account my image because I think it has so little to do with anything at least on the flop.

I've been wanting for a while now for them to spread a deeper stacked 1/2 game. I think a $200 min - $500 max game would be terrific.

Glad you had a good trip and enjoyed the room.

The economy for the most part is to blame for the current state of the games. If you want deeper stacked play you need to bump up the min buy-in, not the max.

Increasing min buy-in will only make people stop playing.

Whats up guys & gals!

Finally registered. First time poster, long time creeper!

So, I just moved back to IL from KY. I played at the southern IN shoe for a couple years, enjoyed it, and wanted to play at Hammond Shoe. I've only done cash games–1/2 NL-3/6L–
and thinking about doing their 100BI tourney tomorrow @ noon. Has anyone played this?

Also, I like to take a small bag with water, headphones, batteries, hoodie, etc...is this allowed there? Any input would be helpful and greatly appreciated. Thanks ahead of time.

One last thing. Does it get cold in there? The s ind shoe was horribly cold, but it was a boat lol.