Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg (FossilMan)
Chris, best wishes and good luck with the room. As a new account here on 2+2, you can't send or receive direct messages. Please contact me through my website, fossilmanpoker.com.
Thanks, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)
Hello Greg, I'm not sure if any of these inexperienced Dealers or Players would even remember or know of you & Moneymaker going back & forth nearly 20 years ago...
Those sure were the days correct?
My wife & I met you a few times & you always seemed like a great ambassador for the game.
They need serious help at this Poker Room right now in its early stage.
Here's what happened to us this last Saturday night...
Very long Review but thorough
Horseshoe Indianapolis
Poker Room REVIEW
Respectfully...
This is a Brand New Poker Room & this Review is from our visit on Saturday, Feb 19th. We've been to every serious Poker Room in a 3-4hr radius of here over the last 2 decades. Let me give you a little background locally first. The Indy/East Central Indiana area had their Poker Boom 20 years ago so this is a VERY experienced area overall. There are dozens of Charity Poker Games that range from Highly Experienced & better ran than a lot of Casino Poker to games that more resemble a Home Poker Game with little knowledge of Rules or Etiquette. Unfortunately at this early point of the Poker Rooms existence it is somewhere in between a decent Casino Poker Room & at times a barely playable Home Game. I/we played a handful of hours on this Saturday night with no expectations & an experienced open mind along with just wanting to get out & play Poker a few hours...
Heres what ensued...
After walking into the Casino we realized again that this is a very PRO Smoking Casino with more smokers gathered together than I'd seen since the mid 80's. I am writing this Review battling one of those headaches you get after being around heavy smoke for a few hours. No biggie I'm fine thanks for asking. Of course Casinos put the Poker Room at the farthest point from the front door so you can Quarter/Dollar yourself to death on the way to the Poker Room unless you're very disciplined. Now that's fine but this Casino has every Ticket Redemption/Player Card machine pointed to the main aisle which causes a line in the middle of where everyone is walking on a busy Saturday night. After making it to the Poker Room with only a couple extra bruises I realize the Poker Room opening is being guarded by a 40'x40' Bar for drinks. Seems fine but then after walking around it to get in the Poker Room I realize it is really too darn close to the room. The area is tight to get in & out of the Poker Room at times & I can only imagine when they get a WSOP Circuit Event here it will be a total mess. NOW after all that, the Poker Room is really nice with appealing colors & etc. The initial Hello to Leo & the list process was easy thanks to BravoPokerLive. Unfortunately this is where the appeal ended. Upon sitting down on 1/2PLO which was the 2nd biggest game running my wife had to brush away a ton of Turkey, bread & food crumbs to be able to set her chips down without them being in that trash. MOST Casinos don't allow players to eat at the table & that should def be the same here. It didn't take long to realize that the dealers were so inexperienced that even the most common Poker Rules were not burned in their brains from experience. Most of the Dealers acknowledged that they have NEVER played Hold'em let alone Omaha before��! There were a few local experienced good dealers that are good there but they were even talking to players at the table about how bad the other dealers were lol. Most were very nice & trying their best which unfortunately isn't good enough with so many Poker choices & the other really great Dealers in Indy/East Central Indiana areas. Experienced players are having to teach the dealers themselves while playing & stopping them from mistakes & misdeals constantly. They have a lot of 1/3NL Hold'em action going & I'm sure those had to run smoother than PL Omaha. They're talking about doing Tournaments soon but at this point I think that would be a really bad idea.
Heres what should've been done... Horseshoe should've flown in a dozen or two dozen very experienced dealers that are wanting to get away from their properties that are slow right now. Mix in those "Real" Dealers from other Properties to show these "Green" Dealers the ropes & how it is really done. That would've been a smoother transition with the bad Dealers learning a lot watching the Pro Dealers in action. I've been to new Poker Rooms before & I've never had ALL this happen to us in my life let alone in just this small 4hr session. You'd think with the Bar guarding the Poker Room that maybe a waitress would come by & get drink orders. Nope we had 1 waitress come by my table in 4+hrs. If you have to go & get your own drink, do not tip for zero customer service...
TIPS = (To Insure Proper Service)
So if you visit here in the next few months "Keep your Expectations Low & You'll Never be Disappointed"
I'm sure this room will get better with more experience & overall Poker Room knowledge & Room etiquette.
Here's some examples of what happened to us & other players. At least the ones I can remember.
1. The Floor let a well known local player who's been kicked out of every local Poker Room to be loud, disruptive & verbally abuse the dealers & players for hours at the poker table to the left of the front desk. Why do you think all the other places don't allow him to play?
2. Local "Legendary" Player turned Dealer calls misdeal while trying to back up the cards after having half the cards out just because his friend he showed Bias towards was walking back 20ft away & wanted in that hand. Wasting what seemed like an eternity redealing a hand that was already out.
3. Dealers are not always understanding how to properly calculate a pot size bet in Omaha. They don't seem to know the difference between 1/2 PLO & 5/5 PLO on what players are able to bet/raise. Not all players like to have to keep track of the action like they're dealing as well.
4. Dealers are not announcing the Straddle at all so the players are having to announce it to the table to keep the action straight.
5. Dealers do not understand or are misunderstanding the "1 Chip Rule" or even that anything a player says during the hand is "Binding"
6. Dealers are not keeping track of the button, one dealer moved it backwards during the hand totally messing up the action & betting turns then another dealer moving it twice & with action already happening it could not be fixed. This happens occasionally even at good games but it was every dealer that came in all night except 2.
7. Dealers not knowing how to let a player properly "Buy the Button" instead of waiting 2 hands to play. It's simple they pay both blinds & the small is dead in the middle. Button moves to them next & yeah that player to their left gets out of paying his BB occasionally.
8. Dealers not knowing or policing the buyin ranges for each different game. This goes with the experience of just being able to glance at a players chip stack & knowing what's there.
9. Dealers picking & choosing when to keep players off their phone while they're in a current hand. Another simple one that's based on kinda recent Mike Postle cheating scandal. If you're in the Hand you can't be on the phone period! You can't text your Bro, you can't play an App poker game & you can't text your dude Brad across the table what Hand you have.
10. Dealers not "Clearing the Board" before moving onto giving change or dealing with a chip runner, house, etc. So most of the time after the hand the playing area is a mess with the Dealer having to separate cards & chips for them just to push normal size pots.
11. Dealers messing with Bravo on their table instead of dealing the hand out & then fixing the small issue on Bravo of a player not being signed in. Slows the game down considerably & is not efficient at all.
MAJOR FLOOR ISSUE
Follow with me here...Somehow the 2nd PLO table breaks with 5 waiting on the list! THEN the Floor guy Leo says the 2 players that were actively playing on that table for hours that somehow broke had to go to THE BOTTOM of the list! These players on this table that's played for hours should've been put ahead of the players that just got on the list! Leo then got rude after he realized he was being questioned & said they'd have to take it up with the manager.
SO he ruled that if you're in a game that somehow the floor can't keep full even though there's 5 on the list... Then if all but 2 players leave the table because the floor didn't keep it full then the Floor will put the players that are left at the BOTTOM of the list...Pretty unbelievable!
POKER ROOM CASH CAGE
You can buy chips here BUT they will let a handful of people stand in line waiting to Cash Out but then guess what...
You CAN'T Cash Out here, you can only buy chips... How about a SIGN or someone actively letting people know they can't Cash Out there. It doesn't take much to recognize or realize when a player is standing there with racks of chips that they're wanting to cash out. If you make it to the Cash Cage with Racks & don't know you can't Cash Out there what will happen instead is they will just chip you up so you don't have to carry as many. Just close the Cage until you are able to do all the duties of a Cash Cage.
BONUS [HAND UPDATE] from
2/5NL Hold'em "ACTION"on
Monday 2/21/22:
There's a $10 Straddle & a player Verbally announces RAISE & throws in 1 Black Chip with 2 callers & then things get weird... Next player questions what the Raise was & BOTH the Dealer & Floor (Ester) RULED that the Verbal $100 One Chip Raise is a MIN RAISE to $20!?!?
Thank you & we all await your future Poker Room that's more on top of its game!
