Before this place opened, the place to play around here was the Hollywood in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. I'd say the best way to gauge the turnout for the WSOPCE is to see what kind of numbers Hollywood got for their past tournament series. I looked up the numbers for their August 2011 tournaments series. Their opening $345 deepstack event got 1627 runners. The $1600 main event got 240. By comparison Hammond got 3001 for their opening $350 event and 1615 for their $1650 main event. So I think you'll probably see about half of what Hammond gets for the smaller $300 or $500 events, with a comparatively smaller field for the main. The fact is there just aren't that many local or even regional players looking to play tournaments with $1000+ buy-ins. At Hollywood, even though they called it the "main event", the initial deepstack had much more buzz and hype surrounding - it was the "big" tournament everyone wanted to play and win.

At any rate, I'm certainly looking forward to it. The room's off to a great start and already has a good reputation throughout the region. They have a very experienced floor staff, many of whom actually came from Hammond, so I expect things to run pretty smoothly even though it's the rooms first tournament series.

It's slowed down a little lately mainly due to a lot of regs being out in Vegas. We've been getting one 5/10 table on Wednesdays and Fridays with 2 or 3 1/2 or 5/5's. The rest of the week there's usually one 1/2 or 5/5. The action in all games ranges from pretty good to runaway freight train. If you want a game with 1-2k average stacks you're probably looking at the 5/5 game, although the 1/2 can get really deep at times, especially when the bigger games aren't running.

By the way, if you're wondering why I pulled the numbers from 2011 and not 2012, it's because a lot happened at Hollywood in 2012 that adversely affected their turnout. They reduced their poker room from 41 to 19 tables, laid off a bunch of dealers, and lost their WPT affiliation. They also reduced the guarantees and ran far fewer satellites. The pre-2012 tournament numbers paint a much more accurate picture of the local and regional demand and what I think you can expect for the WSOPCE.

I think Tom is pretty close on the 1st weekend $365s, probably 1200+ runners. I think the rest of the series & the Main event will do much better than Hollywood's Main ever did for several reasons.

• You've got all the players that travel the WSOPC series, they didn't come to Hollywood.

• There will be many more satellites running during and before the series.
  Hollywood only ran mega sattys, but every Circuit event I have played in has run single table SnGs pretty much all day long, as well as megas just for the ME, this has to boost the overall numbers.

• The Circuit events have better structures.

• And even though Hollywood is only 35 minutes from downtown Cincinnati, an event right in the heart of the city just has to draw better. You have many more hotel options within 10 minutes. The downtown area offers many more things besides poker to do. The Bengals are at home vs the Packers the 1st Sunday of the series, and the Reds are at home the rest of the series.

Really looking forward to this one.

I agree with all of this. I was just posting Hollywood's numbers as a rough estimate/baseline. I'd expect the WSOPCE to beat Hollywood's numbers for comparable events.

Thanks, Tom, the games sound awesome.

I just hope they get the WSOPC event off in Cincy. Cleveland was on the schedule and that didn't work out so well. The OCCC didn't approve their venue.

Any new word on their daily tournamnt schedule? It's summer now (officially, as of Friday) and all along they've said that tournaments will start in the summer. I think they need to give their dealers some experience before the WSOPC Event (so they don't struggle like the Hollywood Columbus dealers did when they first started). I meant to ask while I was at Horseshoe today, but it slipped my mind...

That's because Cleveland wanted to use an off site venue. Cincy has a nice big ballroom inside the casino which will be perfectly suitable.

I haven't heard anything new. At one point July first was being floated around as a potential start date but I imagine we'd have heard more by now if that were going to happen.

Cleveland was trying to hold the events outside of the casino, down the street. Cincy has a ballroom/meeting space upstairs, I assume that's where the WSOPC will be held. If you have been there, similar setup as Gold Strike (Tunica) for their big events.

WSOPC will bring in their own dealers in for the events. Horseshoe dealers will only be dealing cash games.

They are doing the WSOPC in the ballroom upstairs.

Was so glad to hear this the other day...still so many dealer mistakes after 3 months.

Hopefully Cincy has the same surveillance in their ballroom as the poker room. That could be the stopper.

Apologies for the newb questions, but how are the dining options in this casino? Could I use Horseshoe Cleveland comps towards them?

The steakhouse is very nice but it's pricey as you'd expect. The buffet is good too, better than what you'd expect for a local casino. It has lots of options and the food quality is pretty high. If you've ever eaten at the buffet at Hollywood in Lawrenceburg, this place is better. The burger place is good if you're in the mood for a burger. There's an Italian cafe with pizza and sandwiches - it's pretty meh. The sandwiches are kinda weird imo and the pizza's decent but nothing special. Last, and least, is Margaritaville. I've eaten there four times and have yet to like anything I've had. It's bland, low quality food that's way overpriced. You can go to Applebee's and get a better meal for 2/3 the price.

There's also a Starbuck's, they have breakfast sandwiches and pastries. It's open 24 hours and is the only place open between 3 am and 11 am.

You can use comps earned at Cleveland here unless they've expired. If you go more than six months without playing at a Harrah's owned casino you lose them.

If they use their house dealers in the card room while big special events are running, and outside dealers for the tournaments, that means no long waiting lists for the cash games like our friends over at Hollywood inflicted on the players many times. Another very smart move!

Tom, thanks very much. Looking forward to checking it out this week -- options sound pretty decent overall.

I was told last night that tournaments will start July 1st from another player who said they talked to the floor meant to ask before I left but forgot

If you like a nice gourmet burger, Bobby's Burger Palace is pretty good. About $7-8 for a burger WITHOUT fries but it's worth it IMO.

Bobby Flay knows what he's doing with the flavor combinations. I had the Dallas (spicy seasoned, cheddar, BBQ sauce, cole slaw, pickle), my mom had the Napa Valley (goat cheese, watercress, lemon honey mustard). Both looked and tasted delicious. My mom said she didn't like the goat cheese or the watercress on their own, but all together the burger was a winner.

Also, they charge the same amount, $4.50, for all beers. So I got a Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale for the same price as a Bud Light!

BBP also cause rungood as I ran $100 to $355 in 25 minutes right after this. I was with my mom who's always ready to go anyway so I hit and ran.

Napa Valley


Dallas

I did end up going this week and thought that the burger (I got the Philadelphia: cheesesteak style burger) was delicious! Fries + spicy mayo were also excellent. Thanks for the rec!

What did you think of the games?

Loved 'em. Great action.

Also, big time kudos to this room. Floor was very attentive and seemed to go out of their way to be accommodating. Dealers were overall pretty good and friendly. Visually the room looks awesome and is a very pleasant place to play.

Just talked to the floor date for tournaments has not been confirmed