Anyone know the status of live dealers and poker at the nearby casinos now that the law passed?


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I haven’t been to Indiana Grand recently and I’ve tried to look this same question up. I assume it’s live dealers and not E tables but not really sure.

The KofC game is 5-10 mins from the crib so I’m gonna check it out.

From what I hear, the live poker room at Indiana Grand hasn't opened yet. They keep saying it's coming soon, but it hasn't yet.

It looks like the Speedway American Legion is set to open July 7. Anyone know about any other games?

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Greetings!

My name is Chris Pavelchik, I've recently been brought on to work at Indiana Grand to manage the new poker room. I am extremely excited about starting a brand new poker room and would appreciate the community's input about what you would like to see. Please reply with suggestions about any games, policies, or promotions you would be interested in seeing. I will do my best to make it happen!



Indiana Grand is being rebranded as Horseshoe Indianapolis and the accompanying renovation will include construction of a poker room. It will have 20 tables and we will, eventually, be hosting multiple WSOP Circuit stops each year. We will also offer daily and weekend poker tournaments, and low, medium, and high limit cash games.



Right now its just me, but eventually the department will be about 70 people. We are hiring experienced supervisors and dealers. We will be running a new dealer academy (starting October) that anyone can apply to. I am looking for friendly people that are willing to learn a new skill. Poker dealers are paid a base wage of $5.00/hr plus tips. Most dealers have no problem averaging $20.00/hr in tips. If you are interested in joining the team please see the casino's https://recruiting.ultipro.com/HOO10...postedDateDesc recruiting site. Relocation bonuses are available.



Please let me know any questions you have about the room and I will do my best to answer!

Welcome and good luck getting the room up and running.

I think the biggest challenge in any poker room is making the Players feel a welcome part of the whole casino family. While it's impossible to create the perfect poker room since Players 'have' to have something to complain about I think that drink service and comps are two of the most chatted about items.

I think your location is something that will have to be 'over come' since IMO it's just a little too far away from Indy to fully take advantage of what could be an outstanding 'Reg' population. So you will have to get somewhat creative to make the 'constant' drive worth while .. especially for the higher stake Players who (IMO) are along the northern part of 465.

From what I've read in the pre-CV Indy 'charity' poker posts there's no lacking for high action NL games even at the 1/2 level. Hopefully some of those posters come back and make contact with you.

My personal opinion is that any promo drop should be 'quickly' reintroduced back into the poker room. I'm not a huge fan of quad v quad BBJ pots that have the 'lottery' type of feel to them. I realize there's a healthy discussion on both sides of that and I'm not sure why marketing seems to win out at a lot of locations. You've certainly heard that 'It's the Player's money' and IMO I think the Players would like to win smaller more often than have such a large sum just hanging there that would be very unlikely to make it back into the poker community so to speak once it was awarded.

Should you be lucky enough to get a PLO player pool going, then try to keep the promos separate and make them feel attached to 'their money' (common theme). If you aren't able to do that then the typical HH promo has the PLO Player eligible, but they must Flop the hand while NL players have until the River to establish a HH.

Although I left Indy long ago, I've wished many a time that I had poker in my life back then as I think that area is/was open to creating a strong poker community. GL

What's the status of things over there right now? Are the electronic tables still in use? Any poker crowd? I haven't been to a casino since CV. Is there an ETA on the new room?

I personally enjoy a good splashed pot promo. Makes things interesting.

Do you have an ETA on when the new room will open? Please offer PLO. There are enough players in central Indiana to support 1/2/5, 5/5, and 5/10. People will drive from all over if you can ever get 25/50 and up going on the weekends.

Chris, my hope is that you make a real effort to promote and encourage limit hold em games. Obviously you'll spread whatever the player pool demands, and LHE is not popular anymore, but I contend that there is a sizeable player base who would frequent the room regularly if they knew a LHE game would run, and conversely will never come if if there are not any. I also contend that having a regular LHE game is healthy for the room and the poker economy in general. Anything from 4/8 to 20/40 would be nice to have. Please consider what it might take to promote such games in the new room. Thanks!

Couple of contrasting, yet connected posts there IMO.

PLO is growing for sure .. and is probably growing faster in the Midwest a little quicker than other areas. During CV the NL home games dried up pretty quickly when the majority of the Players were flocking to the PLO games. You couldn't even get RxR going after a few months.

PLO is a BR breaker and the last thing a room wants is Player BRs depleting. When we first started PLO there were a few 5/10 games, mainly Fri/Sat and a few 5/5 games during the week. But the 'real' Player pool is 1/2/5 PLO, perhaps with a $500 cap. This is an action game and a rake producer, whereas a 5/10 leans towards a time game due to the tanking and 'real' poker going on almost every hand.

Getting a 25/50 would be a bit of a coup. The Detroit game took quite a bit to get going and only runs for 4-5 weeks (Fri/Sat) and then goes away for a time and then picks back up again. I've seen/heard about $70k pots. This type of game is very hard to sustain but if it was on a schedule .. like 2nd/4th Saturdays of month or similar .. then you definitely might draw in 'talent' from Chi, StL, Det, Col, Cincy, Lou. Big problem I see is no attached hotel (unless I'm wrong on that account).

Limit poker will take some work but certainly could work. I think both Chicago and Milwaukee had a decent limit pool. Detroit has a larger 'day' limit game once a week that can run anywhere from 4-10 hours depending on who shows up. 3/6 and 4/8 kill games are actually more exciting than Players think, but Limit has the stigma of old comp-chasing promo-stealing grouchy Players that don't really welcome Players into their fold 'because they don't play the right way'.

I had no issues with sitting down to play limit while waiting for other games, but it was always met with sideway looks and rolled eyes 'another NL guy' .. and oh my, forbid you win a few hands and rack up when your name is called to move.

Wayne you seem to be realistic at where Limit stands in the poker world and I really do hope that this room can offer enough of a piece to keep some games going .. but it will be more on the Player pool than the room to do so IMO. GL

@answer 20 Yes I'm realistic enough to understand the challenges in getting people to play LHE in 2021, but I think it's possible. I'm from Indy, and used to play regularly in the 20/40 game up at Resorts and HS Hammond back 15 years ago. I've been in Arizona the last 7 years and there is a thriving LHE scene here, with 3/6, 4/8, 8/16 and 20/40 available daily without question. Although here, as you probably know, there are no no-limit games by law, but the spread limit games play very similar to a low no- limit hold em game and there is plenty of LHE nonetheless.
So I know Arizona where LHE is very popular is a vastly different market than Indiana. But since I'll likely be moving back to Indiana in the next year or two, I'm hopeful there may be some some LHE presence in the new room.
And LHE, unlike PLO and to some extent no limit hold em, is not a bankroll killer, which is what I was referring to in saying is healthier for the poker economy to have LHE games.

Yep, had a buddy live in AZ for a bit and the Vlogger 'Ashfacepoker' explains the AZ scene pretty well.

I lived in Indy (Clermont Hts, near IRP) and loved it .. and to a certain degree wish I hadn't moved but such is life. I've been looking for a change and I'm sure I could find something in that area for sure, it's just so diverse for both work and play .. with longer 'seasons' in Spring and Fall.

If they can come up with some hotel connections there's plenty to do in Indy especially on the sports scene where national events occur. And lo and behold there's actually water in Indiana too, for those that like to do those types of things. GL

Loved Indy while I was there. I would recommend that the Horseshoe has to offer something that the charity games don't, if they want people to make the drive. 1-3NL is everywhere, and 2-5NL and PLO are really easy to find up north.

Of course, those game will likely run at Horseshoe too, as they are the biggest market and some people prefer the casino environment to the charity games. But to draw folks down, you may need something else. The easiest answer to that, I think, is tournaments. Come for the donkament, stay for the cash.

The tournament idea seems the most logical .. and yet I don't think it holds much water based on what I've seen at other locations. Hold an alphabet soup tournament series, yes your cash numbers will be up. But 'daily' tournaments don't really add up to increased cash play from what I've experienced.

Back from a quick Vegas trip and after meeting a few from IN, and even OH, this poker room probably can't open fast enough. Two people from Cincy said it will really hurt their Player pool if the IN guys have an option closer to home. And even the OH guys will leave Cincy due to how that room is run .. at least for a bit.

It was amazing to see how much more talented the Player pool is from the Midwest than other parts of the country .. at least from what I ran into in Vegas in 4 days. (But I don't get out much either) If there was a tough Player at the table they were generally from MI, OH, PA, CA or FL .. other places, not so tough. (Small sample I know). GL

Mississippi straddles
Call ins for wait list
Bomb pots
No BBJ, spread the money to other promos like high hands, splash the pot, etc
Monthly and yearly tournament leaderboard

So I am in Fortville Indiana and last time I was here I drove to Indiana Live but this time they said the poker room is closed. I called a casino in Anderson, Indiana but they said they don't have poker.

Are there any options available for poker near Indianapolis? I'm sitting in my car in a parking lot and would really like to play poker for the first time since COVID but it isn't looking good at the moment.

The knights of Columbus on certain days off of Keystone, believe their site has the times and days. Hopefully Live will get their room done soon, anyone have any updates?

Calling it “Live” may confuse many. I thought it’s name changed about a decade ago?

I have not found an easy way to find 'charity' poker in IN as of yet .. much easier in MI.

I'm surprised that we haven't heard more from 'Chris' about the conversion from Grand to Horseshoe and/or opening up poker but it's possible that it's taking longer to implement than expected. GL

He posted last week in a reddit thread:

I'll post a full update first week of December. Don't have any pictures of the room yet, in it's current state it's not yet a poker room. Cables and piping is installed, about half the drywall is done. It just looks like a building under construction lol.

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Chris did post on Reddit that the construction did hit a little bit of a delay recently, but that he still does expect a Jan opening. Still feel like I may not hold my breath about a January opening

Hey all just to give an update here as I live in Indy and a regular at the charity games. The casino poker room opened today and is on the bravo poker app. Had a great turnout!

Also if you’re not from Indy and you’re curious about when the charity games run. Lookup the “Indianapolis poker games” group on Facebook.

There are typically multiple games running each day of the week that start at Noon- Midnight

Monday- knight of Columbus

Tuesday- Carmel VFW, Speedway American Legion

Wednesday- knights of Columbus

Thursday- American legion Post 34, Noblesville Moose

Friday- Carmel VFW, Fishers American legion (starts at 6pm)

Saturday - noblesville moose, speedway American legion

Sunday- Carmel VFW

I randomly looked at Bravo today and noticed Indy had like 16 tables going!

Great news .. 9 tables running right now including a 5/5 PLO

Hopefully the charity games still go well with them mostly being on the north end of the loop. But I can't imagine the interest down there in the next 3 months with poker being so close and it being tax season. GL

Going there tomorrow to check out the new room. Looking forward to playing there!