Good to know, thanks. Can I add my ph# and provider to my card at any kiosk, or do I need to go to the service desk to do that?

I know the Wynn does -- http://wynnpoker.com/winners.cfm -- but I can't think of anyone else.

You have to do it at the poker registration counter. You can swipe your card to get your information in the system and then spend time waiting in line at the counter to add your cell. That way you are at least moving up in the line while waiting in the line. Once added the first time, each time you swipe after will now have your cell for a text. It will verify the number and prompt you to go to the counter if you need to update it.

20% is standard for low buy-in tournaments. I heard there were a lot of $40 re-buys. Is there a fee on the re-buys?

Got there at 8:15 last night. Waited 5 minutes for 1-2. I got chips at the cage, but my buddy got them from a chip runner before he even got seated.

Very good experience even though I donkeyed off $140.

I didn't like the $2 chips so just have to be careful. It is only a matter of time before I accidentally bet $30 instead of $7.

Dealers were very fresh considering the crazy weekend, and they were fast and good. A few mistakes but nothing that was a big deal. They were also friendly. And a few I recognized from C-town.

Chip runners were quick as well. Same with waitresses, and it was a packed room.

A lot of unseasoned players, and many were drunk. A fair amount of string bets, and preparing bets in front of your cards. Floor was called once over an obvious string bet. Dealers weren't really enforcing anything. Tight table, but played at just one table.

Great experience for opening week. Excellent job by Mike and the staff.

At least one dealer made it pretty clear that the personnel manning the bravo desk up front were...shall we say...less than proficient at handling the software.

Sunday I was frequently letting floor supervisors know there were empty seats. Someone mentioned the idea of a "staging area" for players close to the top of the list. I approve of this.

But I'm not a fan of no betting line. It was quite common for a player to move an entire stack to arm's length and then drop a single chip. Angling like this is gonna be standard here.

Also, one dealer this weekend made a point of encouraging the table to make comments/requests on 2p2. Um. wat? Anyone else have any thoughts on dealers promoting 2p2 at the table?

Hi Mike,
Just wondering with all the disdain about the $2 chips,
Why are you so adamant about keeping them in play?
Nobody likes them, The color is a Horrible Choice!
No one noticed how very similar they are to the $25 Green chips,
before they were approved?

Otherwise,
Thanks for everything you are doing,
and hope the headaches go away soon!
Great Job!!
Ray

So what should you do if you want to learn to play Omaha and can't afford the bigger game? I think that's the point of the 2/2 - it's as low as the casino can effectively go and try to build a new base of players for the game and still make money on a rake. (New players usually aren't familiar with time either so that could scare away potentials..."what, I have to play to pay? Forget that." YES they pay less, but it doesn't seem it when it's not direct from their stack.)

Obviously, you shouldn't play any game you cannot afford, but having an option to lower one's variance while learning this highly-variant game is very friendly to new players, and to helping the casino build customers who will continue to come back. I'm new, and love the idea of a min-pot-size rule ($1k?) while I'm getting expensive lessons.

It will help keep more people playing and learning this interesting game. Otherwise, let's just put up 52 1/2 and 2/5 NL tables and be done with it like most rooms are apt to do. Kudos Mike for trying to cultivate something different. In the end, you've got to make money for the casino, and I bet this strategy is a winner for you (and the games) in the long run.

edit: oops, I see that Mike addressed this. Think it's a great idea!

Just a minor note....bravo currently says "2-2 PLO 500-2000". Should be 200-500 unless things have changed.

I love them

Pretty sure CTown posts their tourney results on Bravo every day

If the chip is for rake and rake alone, then I have seen other casinos using white chips until they get to 5 then convert to red and drop. I think this is a great idea and certainly allows for more space before changing boxes...how about doing it this way?

I was also able to find 2 Bravo TVs (one on one side and another on opposite) around the Rams head stage, so no reason to stay in front of the crowded room guys staring at only one TV there.

BTW girls are not just for poker room, they rotate and I see them serving drinks around casino, so if they are good or bad it's not a poker room fault. One girl hasn't asked ask for drink for 4 hours, as soon as next one comes we have great service.

Players' cost for tournaments have 3 components: Buy-In, Player Fee (which I'm assuming is a State of Maryland tax), and an Administrative Fee.

From the $60 Satellite, working from memory and giving approximations, the Buy-In was $49.80, the Player Fee was $2.49, and the Administrative Fee was $7.71.

For the $520 PPC Aruba Satellite $5k Package, the Buy-In is $476, the Player Fee $24, and the Administrative Fee $20.

The Player Fee looks like 5% of the Buy-In and that's why I'm guessing it's a State of Maryland tax.

I have no information on the rebuys.

This information is printed on every tournament receipt.

If you want to learn to play Omaha then you should probably grab a book. Most learning is self-study, not running nuclear experiments in your basement to learn physics.

$2-2 PLO plays like a 2-5 game, maybe slightly bigger. Hell, it's poker. Even $1-2 can be expensive for most people who are "trying to learn it". To play $2-2 PLO you generally need a $15k plus bankroll to reduce the variance, but the truth is that most people who play $2-2 PLO are under-rolled. To play $2-5 NLHE you generally should probably have at least $10-12k, but how many people that play $2-5 have that roll? Exactly.

If you want to play underrolled then the risk of growing broke is on you. Sorry, but Poker is an expensive past time.

I don't think this is linked to having a betting line or not. I generally like a "courtesy" line. It gives a good indication of intent but doesn't have the magical properties of a betting line. Also prefer to be able to cut chips and return chips to my stack. It's easier/faster for me to grab 10-12 chips, cut out 8 and return the rest than to have to stage chips before I move forward. This is far from angling in my mind. I just wait for the guy to finish his betting before I react.

I'm kind of curious exactly what the rule is here. It doesn't seem to be forward motion or in front of cards if you can cut chips and return excess to your stack.

Its very interesting to see all this discussion around betting lines and forward motion. Its real simple guys, make your intentions known by saying "RAISE", then you can shuffle chips back and forth to complete your bet. Or state the amount by saying "RAISING it to a total of XXX".

To say that you need "$15k plus bankroll" is overly exaggerating not only for the 2/2 but also for the 5/5, and yet, 2/2 PLO dose not play like 2/5. Since most people buy-in between $ 300 to $ 500 max and all you need is two good hands you'll triple up your stack. It does not play like 2/5 because is not an unbeatable game even your starting hand is AAxx.

2/2 players don't get it all in preflop by 4 betting even thought they got repot after the first raise. They tend to call the 3 bets and see the flop and go from there which I have experienced during my plays. When you're 3 betting you're pretty much gave away your hand and people know that you're holding AAxx.

The average prefop which I have played for the last 2 days was about $50 because everyone straddle 5 and most players call so they don't have to make the change for the $ 2 limp in. 2/2 players are also tight because they don't just donk it all in unless you have the nut after the flop. After all, this is the nut game so you DO NOT need "$15k plus bankroll to reduce the variance" nor you need "at least $10-12k" for the 2/5 game.

You can sit and grind for 8 to 10 hrs in the 2/2 PLO or 2/5 NL game with a 3K bankroll and that should be more than sufficient.

Any gambling is expensive not just poker, sports betting, etc...Don’t Gamble Unless You Can Afford to Lose!!

Yeah, I wrote "betting line" but more referring to "courtesy line" that can be used as a reference point, not strictly enforced. I explicitly asked the dealer "so this is okay" as I (between hands obv) put out a stack at arm's length and dropped one chip. He said "yes."

The rule is no betting line. Period. (There was discussion of this in the hype thread.)

Mike,

Love the room so far, but still have some comments/questions/suggestions:

1. It's probably not even feasible at this point, but its pretty insane that there's no bathroom upstairs in a room where ~300 people (between players and staff) are typically seated.

2. I think the lowest PLO game in the room should definitely have a rake drop and not a time charge. I played a hand at a $2/$2 PLO game yesterday that no joke took over 15 minutes after everyone finished arguing about the proper way to calculate a pot-sized bet and figuring out the four side pots. You are always going to have inexperienced players at the lowest limit game in the room, and even though that particular hand was an anomaly, it's not uncommon to have five-minute hands. Paying time for a down where six hands are dealt could rub people the wrong way.

And I'm primarily a LHE player, so the rest of these pertain to that game specifically (and could also apply to limit Omaha, stud, and mixed games). I'm not sure how much of priority having a diverse room is right now since you seem to be doing just fine as is, but I think the following would be very good for the health of those games:

3. If a game is starting at say, 9:30, and the dealer change is coming at 9:45, it's crazy to charge the new players full time for those first 15 minutes.

4. I know you said this was in the works, but clustering the games would be great. It's nice when you walk into Borgata and you know which tables are spreading 10/20, 20/40, and 40/80 because they are in the same location every day. It's easy to see if a game is running, it's easy to switch games if you want, and it's good for the "community" of the game. Quite frankly, a lot of limit players have zero interest in $1/$2 NLHE.

5. Parx "features" some games each week, and as a result, has some of the best limit action in the country. Mondays at 6pm they advertise $50/$100 LHE, Tues/Wed at 3pm is $30/$60 LHE, and Fridays at noon is $75/$150 H.O.E. Players know when to show up for a game, and the game goes. Has Live! thought about doing anything like that to get some different games established (even if they're not quite so big initially)?

6. I was told there are no $10 chips in the poker room, and currently the software is not equipped to even start an interest list for $30/$60? Are there plans to get $10 chips for $30/$60 and/or $40/$80 games if there is the demand for these games? I know the area has the player pool - it's just a matter of getting them in the room.

Keep up the good work.

How many hours did it take? Since I have $13 comp dollars I guess I have 13 hrs in so far.

Sent from my HTCEVODesign4G using 2+2 Forums

It takes 20,000 points to reach gold. One hour = $1 or 600 points. So it would take 33.3 hours to reach gold. You can break that up over the course of how ever long you play per session. Some people that play 15 hour sessions can know this out in 2+ days. It can be achieved in 5 days if you play an average of 6.6 hours per day.

You're making an argument for why it should be time rake. Look I know from the player's perspective we want to pay as little as possible in rake but the room is a commercial business. If they're raking $30/down from that table then it doesn't make economic sense for them to run that game. If that turns into a $6/down time rake and they're now raking $60/down it might be viable. I'm not sure exactly where the line is but there has to be some sort of minimum take per hour that they're looking for from each table.

It's sort of the same thing you'll hear around a game like $2/4 LHE. With a $4 drop the game is probably unbeatable but if that's the take the casino needs then that's what it'll be and if you're concerned about beating the game you'll need to play bigger.

And Sands Beth, Foxwoods (foxwoodspoker.com), and The Venetian http://www.venetian.com/Las-Vegas-Ca...ament-Results/

I'm in the limit Omaha/mixed game community and would love to see the higher limit Omaha/limit HE and mixed games going as well. When I take a look at Bravo on most days, I see a lot of interest for the bigger limit games but I rarely see them spread. I assume this is due to not prioritizing these games and getting them tables assigned so I don't think the burden is on the players at this point because it appears they are showing up but not getting seated due to other games getting tables.

Mike,

Can you help out here in terms of carving out a few of these tables for the higher limit Omaha and mixed games and as UMTerp suggests to have them in a more fixed place? Thanks.