I'm pretty sure the fragrance you are smelling is Febreze on the chairs. I have a "casino jacket" I wear that smells from this, but considering the alternative, it's OK with me.

It seems a bunch of folks come straight to the poker room after working all day at physically intensive jobs. I'm also pretty sure this is also the reason the poker room is kept at around 65 degrees.

I don't think so. When entering the casino from the parking garage, when you open the door to the elevators it hits you like a blast. I guess it is super concentrated there because it is a small enclosed space, but it is still noticeable, though to a much lesser extent, throughout the casino. I guess inside it is much more dispersed in a much greater cubic footage of air, but I do smell it on my clothes when I get home.

Anyway, small quibbles, and probably a battle I can never win.

I have to say, one certainly can not complain about the quality of games at MDL. I played for several hours this afternoon and was maybe in the best NLHE game I have ever played. A little worried that with MGM opening soon it will dilute the player pool somewhat. HSB is run so poorly, that it was never really much of a threat, but feel MGM will probably draw a significant piece of the player pool away. Hopefully the area has enough demand and expendable income to keep both rooms healthy.

I am a little concerned about what I've been hearing/reading here about cheating incidents/chip thievery, etc., being handled in any way other than permabans/charges pressed, but as I am in the area only 5 or 6 weeks a year, I haven't seen any of this personally. I would hope that management at MDL would take these issues very seriously.

I do feel that the majority of the dealers do a very good job. The cage situation has a lot of room for improvement, and often in my times at MDL it does seem like the floors(sorry, Supervisors) are more interested in hanging out and BS'ing at the podium in the corner by the stairs than doing anything else, but I find the folks at the registration desk to be very efficient.

Come to think of it...does not address all thievery or cheating, but couldn't there be a bunch of play over boxes available that we can use to cover our chips during bathroom/take a walk/short meal breaks?

I think it will look ridiculous if covering up a few hundred $$$ worth of chips.
its like a guy wearing a hoodie and sunglasses at a $1/2 table.

besides, those clear plastic covers are meant for the nose bleed limits with $10k+ stacks and for allowing another player to play thru while you're taking a dinner break

The regular dealers were pretty worn down last night. The few new folks were ok, just a bit inexperienced.

Lots of players and not enough dealers at lunch time. Hopefully, the staffing issues will straighten out in the next couple of weeks.

Anybody know how many runners the lil monthly bankroll builder usually gets? Any speculation if there will be more/less for this Sunday due to the holiday?

I played overnight a couple days ago....got there at 12:30 Monday morning and and played til the sun came up. The dealers on this shift were really inexperienced and had a lot of trouble with basic things. Really irritating.

Played it a couple of times earlier this year. It usually gets a good showing. I think around 200-300 runners.

Not sure on if the holidays will affect the number of runners, but I'd say it will probably be slightly more runners.

I advise getting there at least 15 to 20 minutes early to register. By the time the tournament starts, there will be a huge line and you will end waiting a level or two just to get a seat.

I play pretty regularly with the late shift folks and with very few exceptions, they are solid. Of course, a handful of them are headed "for the new place."

Playing 2/2 PLO at Maryland Live with $1100 in front in 1 seat. Flop set of 10s on JhTh3d board in position. First to act in 8 seat bets $50 into $100 pot. Tight rock regular in 9 seat with bigger stack than me calls $50. I raise to $250. 8 seat snaps all in for $500. Rock tanks, 8 seat actually calls time, 9 seat he folds. I reluctantly call and say "if you've got jacks you're good [turn comes 9d as I'm saying it] or a straight." I roll over TT4h5h. Dealer looks at my hand and shoves TJ9 forward on board to indicate my best 3 cards. Villain knocks his chips over and says, "I can't win a f-ing hand here!" Then he takes two jacks, puts them face up, and launches them into the muck with two kickers face down. Dealer turns to me and says, "This guy just threw the best hand in the muck, what do I do?" I say, "He mucked them. Ship it over here." Villain then realizes that he had me beat. He says, "You said you had a straight!" Guy next to me says, "No he said OR the straight when he saw the 9 come out. You gotta look at what the other guy has before you muck." Dealer calls floor who rules that since he exposed the winning cards, he's awarded the pot. I got ruling from shift supervisor who agreed that since the cards that were exposed revealed the winning hand the pot would go to 8 seat. He then instructed the dealer two turn over two other cards in the muck, best guess for kickers. So he rolls over two cards that probably aren't the kickers and shoves the pot to 8.

I had the same thing happen in NL holdem at MD Live. Player didn't realize that board pair counterfeited my kicker. Other player exposed Ace and threw down kicker and ace in muck. Pot was chopped after shift supervisor overturned floor ruling.

At that casino the dealer isn't allowed to push you the pot until you expose both or 4 of your cards. "Two to win" is a thing that is said. I feel like the edge good players have in poker is bad players making mistakes. Mucking the best hand is one of those mistakes. If the rule is you only have to show two cards to win, you shouldn't be able to take a pot down when you throw half your hand in the muck. Would love to hear others thoughts on this topic.

I assumed you would win the pot. I'm very surprised by that ruling, I believe it is incorrect.

I think that ruling is incorrect. He needs to table the entire hand to claim the pot at showdown.l, right?

He showed you his hand but he thought he lost. He should of tabled his whole hand, but he tabled a better one. He should win the pot.

I know in hold'em during a live hand and you discard one of your cards in the muck, you can still play the other card. IF it ends up winning, you can win the pot with 1 card.

Probably same thing in omaha. You can discard 2 cards and just play your winner, but this is a little different. Still I think he should win. He had a better hand than you.

I just deleted a couple of posts that contained some rumors regarding cheating and theft in the room. If you have hard evidence of such a situation and you'd like to identify yourself and come forward with that evidence, we'd appreciate hearing from you. Otherwise, allegations/accusations aren't productive so we won't be entertaining them.

Thank you for your cooperation. If you have any questions or comments about this issue, please post in the Moderation Discussion Thread.

I think this would be a bad rule because theoretically you could have a situation where there's a fouled deck and someone who is cheating could take a freeroll by mucking one of the cards.

For example, let's say you're dealt two aces of spades. You end up pairing an ace on the board and one ace is the winner. You could muck one ace and then table the other and win the hand under your rule.

The better rule is to have to table a valid and complete hand in order to win a contested pot.

You could also just refuse to show your kicker whenever your pair is sufficient to win the pot.

Ok. In that case, I will say that the floor folks needs to move around more. Be more responsive to dealer requests, be available to provide customer service and so forth.

Again Live has many good dealers and their brush/registration desk folks are excellent. The Floor suits are the ones who need to step up their game.

I play there all the time and I also have allergies and a pretty good sense of smell. I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about here. I have never smelled anything of the sort. I believe you are just smelling what cleans air smells like, due to oxygen being pumped into the casino.

So you are upset that you lost to the best hand? I am fine with the best hand taking down the pot if it is crystal clear that he had the better hand. Yes, all 4 cards should be tabled, but imo you still award the pot to him and then give a warning that his hand would be declared dead the next time if he does not table all 4 cards.

Imagine if you were on the other side of it........

I used surface parking instead of the garage yesterday and didn't have a problem. The elevator areas on the far side of the casino, that bring you down by the coat check/Prime Rib entrance are lousy with it. Maybe it just sprays in there for some reason. Will just avoid the parking area elevators from now on. I'll just take the stairs when parking in the garage. No biggie, but it is there, or maybe I'm just crazy.

ML does possibly have the best games anywhere.

FWIW, I've seen people show their best card(s) and muck the rest of the hand and have the floor rule that it doesn't get the pot not only here at Maryland Live, but at Horseshoe Baltimore, and at other casinos in other states as well.

What if the guy was dealt an extra card? A player needs to table his entire hand to prove it's not foul. A ruling to the contrary is absurd in my opinion and unfortunately I've seen it ruled both ways at Maryland Live before. It all depends on who the floor is and their mood that day. I've seen different rulings on forward motion as well and I wish the rules were clearer and stricter here. It leads to confusion, angle shooting, and players feeling cheated when the ruling goes against them.

Edit: Hilariously, this happened a few weeks ago to me here. Raises and reraises preflop. I have position on the guy heads up. On the flop, he takes his singular tall stack of chips and slides it forward from the rail and nearly fully extends his arm with it towards the middle. This is obviously an all-in, right? As I reach to call, he slides his chips back and says check. It was all one continuous motion and he never let go of his chips, but it was mind-boggling to seem him try and get away with that. The floor gets called and rules that since he never made a verbal announcement, since there's no betting line, and since he never let go of his chips, it was "unclear what his intention was" and therefore was only obligated to make a minimum bet of the big blind. LMAO. I bet 1/3 of his stack after the ruling and he instafolded. Good stuff. Thanks floor.

Unless I read it incorrectly, the poster you quoted willingly conceded the pot despite his opponent not having a valid hand. So I don't think he was too upset about losing to the best (invalid) hand.

It was the correct call. At showdown, please understand, I am only referring to showdown, we believe the best hand should win. In this situation, we should explain to the guest he should table all his cards in the future, because other card rooms may not feel the same as we do and kill his hand. The argument about duplicate cards and all is nice, but the shufflers we currently have would tell us that along with too many or too few cards.

Sorry, but this is the correct floor call.


Thanks

Mike

Sorry but you are hard of smelling. They definitely pump fragrance throughout the casino. Other places do it too although I don't know if any of the other local casinos do.

Mike - in most casinos, four cards are needed face up for a valid hand at showdown in PLO. Is it different at Live? I've seen this a few times where there is a bet and call on the river and the player shows the two cards he is using and not the other two. Then the other player mucks. When I (a player at the table) have asked to see the other two cards, I've been told that if the other player mucks he doesn't have to show them. This is a showdown. Does he not have to turn over all four cards in that situation or was the dealer incorrect.

When I am beat at showdown and people pull this two card bs, I don't release my hand until all four cards are shown because I would like to (and have the right to) see the entire hand at showdown (as is required anywhere else). I would like to see a requirement that someone show four cards face up at showdown to be awarded any part of the pot on all hands. Can you provide any clarification here?

Appreciate your participation in the thread and running a great room -- particularly PLO where your dealers are much more skilled than in most places. Thanks.