While its admittedly not much, md live has more lhe action than any other casino that's opened in prolly the last 10 years, with the possible exception of parx.

For a while 15 or 25 went most every day. Now 25 or 50 are going most every day.

Well to be fair, I didn't definitively say MDL operates the same as CT or Borg, I just thought they might if it was a Federal IRS thing. If DP and MDL facilitate and allow chops for less than scheduled payout and backs that up with the paperwork, then this is good to know when I get in this situation (hopefully often!!). I always refused to take 1st (on paper) for less money because of the paperwork nuisance.

Speaking of which, 50/100 will likely be starting tonight around 7:30 if anyone wants to come out and play.

Mike,
Re: Dec tourn schedule. Can you increase the stack size of the Thurs. night bounty tourn from 6K? Rather small, especially compared to all of your other tournaments. I know you were once quoted saying you wanted the working players to get home before 2 AM, but with the small stack, I notice a lot of players are home now by 8:30! Several of your regulars don't even bother playing this one because it turns into a shove match by the third round.
8K, 10K, or 12K starting would be dandy. Thanks for your consideration.

As strictly a tournament player, I would like to see all the tournament structures upgraded to bigger stacks. At least offer one cheap deep-stack tournament a week.

I live in DC and have found myself passing Maryland Live for the better structures offered in DE.

This weekend for example, Delaware Park is offering a deep-stack tournament with 30,000 starting chips and 25-minute levels. Would love to see ML offer something even remotely comparable to this.

I don't see the business sense in that. On Saturdays the place is a mob scene and on Sundays it seems like people don't want to play in a 14-hr tournament because they have to work the next day.

As a tournament player, you're doing the right thing by going to DP. If I cared at all about tournaments, that's where I'd go too. I think Live is too busy these days to worry about bringing in tournament-only players on weekends.

I find nothing to complain about in the structure of the Sunday $330 and haven't played the others that often but remember the structure being at least reasonable when I did.

Not implying that anyone's saying this, but just because there's no 450-900 after 400-800 doesn't mean it's not still better than 90% of other casinos' daily tournament structures

The Sunday is the only legit deepstack offered but at $330, it's cost prohibitive. Play day in and day out and trust me, you'll hear people begging for longer levels and more starting chips. People have been especially upset that the 7pm levels have been shortened.

mike,

Any chance of a hyper turbo short stack tourney?
have 2 per night?

For all the deepstackers that want to play marathon single day tournaments or multi-day tournaments, I would say continue to go to the Borg, DP, etc. Those tournaments most likely won't happen at MDL! until they add additional space. According to an article a few days ago, Cordish has said the the hotel and conference center additions are going to happen and that its in the planning phase now. Hopefully Mike can lobby for either a dedicated or on demand additional space in the hotel to host larger tournaments and handle cash overflow as needed.

Simply put, MDL didn't really understand the overwhelming demand for poker in this area and they built what they thought would be a sufficient facility to host large cash games and tournaments at the same time. IMO, for this area, you would need a dedicated facility with several hundred tables to accommodate the sheer demand for poker in this area. There is no other place in the country that has the most densely populated, DEEP pocket demographic than the Wash, DC Metro area.

Nobody said anything about "marathon". Right now if you lose one or two medium size pots, you're basically short-stacked. The structure as it is now encourages re-entries and it very much feels and plays that way.

I think things will get drastically better for tournament players when Baltimore opens.

Mike,

Waiting to get on 2-5 right now and there's no end in sight to the wait. They just announced two names at the top of the list and they have them blinking for a solid 10 minutes before the desk called the next two names. The Borgata gives people maybe 3 minutes and that's generous. It's pretty much if you're not there then they're moving on. I asked the guy at the podium what the policy was and he said 5 minutes. I asked if there was an alarm or something that beeped to tell him when the blinking names 5 minutes are up and he said no we just continuously check it. Being an engineer, any system that relies on a human response is flawed. My guess is that these people get pulled into phone calls/conversations/ other work functions and when this happens the blinking names just blink for 10 minutes as I just witnessed. Hopefully you can come up with a more efficient system.

I'm afraid I'm confused We have no list for 2/5. All the names have been called


Thanks



Mike

All the MDL tournaments are re-entry. It states that on the Bravo page and I believe on every printed tournament structure sheet in the poker room. Not sure why you would be looking for something structured as a non re-entry when the house rules have been clearly defined.

Reason behind the re-entry is because most of the tournaments are guarantees so to prevent big overlays (basically giving away money) they allow the re-entries so they can recoop the money they put of for the prize pool.

I looked up the tournament you mentioned that's 30,000 chips and 25 min level. Tourney is $150. If I'm not mistaken, it doesn't look to be a guarantee prize pool. Also not sure if its a re-entry but I will assume its not based on your comment about the tournaments at MDL playing like re-entries (which they are!) and I take it you don't prefer that style, which would be another reason you don't play in them.

Not sure about you but I play poker to make money. Yes, there is an entertainment factor but I want to maximize on the time and money I spend on poker.

Its going to take me 1.5 to 2 hours to get to DP. I have to pay gas and tolls to get there. Tourney starts at noon and since I have a huge starting stack and levels are 25 min and lets assume we get at least 100 players, tourney is going to run well into the night.

Assume that $100 of the $150 is going to prize pool and we do get at least 100 players, we now have a prize pool of $10,000. Payout structure for prizes is going to put the money for the prizes pretty low where a good number of players would equate it to not be worth the time and effort and additional expense (travel related) to play the tournament. Oh, I forgot to mention that since I played in this deepstack tourney and it ran until 12:00 midnight to the bubble and I was the bubble boy and no one wanted to put in for side pot for bubble boy, I have a 2 hour drive ahead of me and I'm tired. Or maybe I'll check into one of the hotels in the area and spend another $150+ to get some rest and travel back the next day. However, I would assume it would have a great entertainment value for some who just enjoy playing tournaments.

Compare this to a $20K guarantee that is hosted at a poker room that is 20 minutes from my house, which usually draws on average 150+ runners each week with actual players and re-entries combined. Prize pool is well over $40K with first place is at least $13K (more that the entire prize pool at the deepstack DP tourney with that AWESOME structure) each week. Yes, I only get 15,000 starting stack but I got 30/40 min levels and a chance to take down or chop a huge prize. At the end of the night, I have a 20 min drive home.

I guess each person does what makes sense to them.

Yeah I wrote that then waited like 15 minutes then they opened a new game and I hit submit while sitting. Wasn't expecting you to answer within minutes haha

Sometimes I'm on the ball

Need more info on what you're looking for


Thanks



Mike

CashEddie, I'm not going to go back and forth on this with you but you make some incorrect assumptions. I obviously know ML tournies have re-entries as I play them several times a week. It's one thing to offer re-entries, it's another thing to offer a structure that by it's nature ensures many re-entries. There's more than enough players at ML that they could cover a guarantee very easily without resorting to a "gimmick" structure that maximize re-entries per tournament.

Everything I stated has been echoed by others I've played along side with at ML and at local charity tournaments where I play with the same exact people. So yeah, you could say I have a pretty good ear for the local tournament scene. Just passing along the common sentiment. Like you Eddie, I also play for money and am well up at ML, thanks.

Also btw, DP does offer re-entries. They just don't try and affect things to the point where they are a neccesary factor in the game.

Can we use comps at Cheesecake Factory? (I know they don't deliver it)

Nope

Hi all,

I have a few basic questions about ML. I typically play at Borgata but the long distance means I only get up there a couple times a year and am looking to play more regularly. I read the op and skimmed the thread, sorry if all my questions have been answered a million times.

-I play almost exclusively limit. Do the 8/16 and 15/30 games run regularly? How tough are they relative to the Borgata 10 and 20 games (better enough to offset the extra $1 drop)?
-Are the tables really 11 handed?
-Is there a place where players typically stay overnight (maybe even with comps)? Driving back 2+ hours after an all night session is not ideal.

Thanks

- No. 8-16 hold em goes sporadically and 15-30 rarely. 25-50 or 50-100 run almost all the times on weekend and during the week occasionally. 8-16 hold em has gone last couple weekends and I believe is going now, so hopefully it becomes more regular. 8-16 Omaha with half kill on weekends is common, some weekends but less likely. 4-8 goes virtually 24 hours, There was a 15-30 omaha8 last Saturday, would be nice to see that become more regular. The good thing is md live wants to spread the limit games so they have a diverse lineup, so if players show and are proactive we will have the games.

- No.

- there are may hotels nearby, but you can't use comps and no deals as far as I'm aware. I don't know specifics as I live close enough to drive home, but it's discussed throughout the thread.

Jeff,

Fwiw, 25 or 50 has gone almost every night during the for the past 2.5 weeks or so. Game doesn't start until late sometimes though.

Sounds like the mega just hit upstairs, straight flush over straight flush - obviously while I'm sitting in a tourney and not playing cash