Someone in the AC/Borg thread said 2/5 here is 9 handed. Pokeratlas has it at 10. Which is correct?

It’s 9 handed


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Great 6-max tournament yesterday - despite the low registration (Superbowl Sunday and all that). Really liked the structure. Hope we see more 6-max tourneys in the future!

I was playing at ML yesterday and chatting at the table about this. I said that I may not go for my Platinum card again, without the Streak Bonus. Someone said that I should, since even without the Streak bonus, the random Platinum bonuses you get throughout the year will be a lot better than the Gold ones.

I played 50 hours in January, so even though it is early, I'm on pace to get my 500 hours in 2018 and maintain Platinum. I always have to push to get to 500 hours, but I've made Platinum every year. Once I saw that announcement of the Streak bonus ending, I was actually a bit relieved, and sort of looking forward to less poker this year, maybe branching out to a few other hobbies. If I knew there was a Streak Bonus next year, even if it remained flat at $2K of free slot play, I'd definitely go for Platinum again. I'm not going to quit poker, I do still enjoy it, but it would be much easier for me to play 300 hours instead of 500.

What do you all think? If the Streak Bonus is going away, what benefit is there for poker players to remain Platinum card members? I don't go on cruises, so my primary benefit of Platinum has been the Streak bonus.

On one hand, the perks and comps MD Live provides for me are great. On the other hand I just spent 10 hours playing in some of the worst 2/5 games ever lol. We had a 35 min stretch where it was never more than heads up and you're lucky to have seen a flop. Jeebus it was bad 4 tables and I tried each one lol. I can't play here with games like this. It's not profitable for me or live.

Either way great job from the staff and service was great.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Zinburger, a high-end burger venue in the Food Court at Arundel Mills, accepts Maryland LIVE comp dollars. The first email notice I received stated the ratio would be $2 comps per $1 Zin, similar to Bobby's Burgers and The Cheesecake Factory. However, a week or so ago, I got a second message stating the ratio was now 1 to 1. Thus, I decided to try it out yesterday afternoon during the Happy Hours (3 to 5pm weekdays) when prices were reduced. First, I printed out a $15 voucher at the kiosk.

I started out with a 20 oz Blue Point Mosaic Session IPA draft beer that cost $3 during Happy Hour. Then I ordered the "plain and simple burger" that was a $5 Happy Hour special. I was expecting a scaled back burger but received a huge one complete with lettuce, tomato and mayo on a brioche bun. I ordered it medium and it was cooked perfectly. This was definitely the very best $5 burger I have ever enjoyed.

Since sides were half-priced during Happy Hour, I had to order two to fill out my $15 voucher. The hand-cut fries were good, not as good as Five Guys or Boardwalk, but much better than average. I also order the zucchini fries which arrived covered in parmesan cheese with a "Cowboy Ranch" dip that was outstanding.

Since Zinburger is the first restaurant on the left when you walk out the front door and cross the street into the mall, it is actually slightly closer than walking down to the Phillips/buffet/Morty's area, and a much better eating option.

Thanks for the Zinburger TR! Sounds like I'll be headed there during my next visit.

Zinburger is the nuts

Not sure if true but I heard from multiple dealers yesterday that automated shufflers are going away. Something about the contract?

What will I use as an excuse for my own bad play then??? B/c its ALWAYS the shuffler is rigged

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

So lower rake since they no longer have to pay $20k/month rental fee EACH?

Where in the world did you come up with this number? Or am I missing some kind of joke/meme in your post

I have heard rumors of a range of rental rates for the Deck Mate Shufflemasters, from around $5k/month up to $20k/month or more, but I've never been able to confirm the price. I looked it up and Wikipedia has an entry for Deck Mate where they claim (and cite sources) that it is $500 a month rental and $16k to buy one.

Not having to hand shuffle probably saves 10 seconds per hand. If you get 30 hands per hour (to keep the math simple), that 300 seconds you'd be saving each hour, or 5 minutes per hour wasted shuffling. In a full day (24 hours), that 120 minutes wasted shuffling (assuming the table is in use the entire time). That means with a Shufflemaster you could get an extra 60 hands per day from a table, and at $5 per hand rake going to the house, that's an extra $300 per day made by the house when using a Shufflemaster.

My numbers may be way off - I used a lot of estimates and guessing, but my points is that depending on the Shufflemaster rental rate, at some point it becomes a business decision to use them or not.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deck_Mate

Yep. Way off

🧐


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Part of the equation are players who are sooooo used to the speed of using the shufflers, they will no longer come here if the shufflers are gone.

Mike, can you confirm or deny whether automated shufflers are going away, even if only for certain sets of games?

eBay is sporting what looks like an older model for $8500 with the buy it now option.

It would be much more helpful if you corrected him or offered some sort of information regarding the status of shuffling machines @ MDL.

I had heard that DECKMATE II shufflers are not for sale. You can only lease them for $2000 per month. Since the room is not full all the time I can see them getting rid of half of the machines.

For sure to have them for tournaments is a losing proposition as there is no extra money generated.

But it's a lot more fun to keep them guessing

So we'll be changing to deckmate 1s as soon as they get approved, hopefully by end of March. Anyone who plays regularly here, knows what a pain these deckmate 2s have been. They chew up cards, they break down constantly, and lease for $585 per month. And here are the hard cold facts: They don't help fast dealers, other than to give them a break in shuffling. A fast dealer will shuffle and cut in 7-9 seconds. I can do it and I'm much older than most. It takes at least that long for a dealer to push the button, put the cards in, take the cards out, and push the button to start the shuffle. Dealers that aren't so fast, this does help. Contrary to popular belief, no place gets max rake every hand. So when you guys do your math and continuously think we make $150-$165 per hour on games, I have to chuckle and I'm sure Johnny does as well. I keep pretty good records and I've never had a raked game that drops anywhere close to that

It took threatening to take the 2s out, and we would have, to get 1s approved. So we'll have the slower, better shufflers soon and we'll keep these until then,

Thanks


Mike

Yeah with an experienced dealer I wouldn't be surprised if they get more hands out hand shuffling than with the deckmate II's given how often they're dealing with the machine jamming, needing to be reset and needing to be removed. It's not necessarily every down but it's not rare. And I've had a session where at on table the machine is replaced multiple times.

I rarely post in this thread... but to think that any percentage rake game with a $5 max can drop anywhere close to those numbers is ludicrous...

Thanks for the more informative response! I appreciate it.

Seconded - thanks.

The assumptions of max rake and 24 hour activity were to show that under very wide assumptions, a $20K/month rental rate couldn’t possibly be true.

Going back to Deckmate 1s seems like a nice improvement to the room.

Live! 350, 50k

Can anyone give me info on this tournament that went for the first time 2 weeks ago?

I'm interested in knowing what time the money was reached and what time did it end. Also, was there a chop?

Thanks!