People just love the promos. Will duration of promos go up or will the $ amount go up? It is obvious that no pot raked game will be worth playing during non-optimal promo times. That has already been the case for a while. $5+3 is just vomit-inducing to see. However, I think the average rec doesn't care. They'll see the hh being $1500 or whatever and play for 10 hours.

There was speculation that poker will be over as we know it when it went from $4+0 to $4+1 to $5+1 to $5+2 (and Balt HS at $6+2). Will $5+3 be the straw that breaks the camel's back?

There's never not a promotion running at live


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I understand, but I don't really count the overnight hh.

This is very jurisdiction specific. There isn’t a usually. There are plenty of places no management fee is taken because they are bot allowed.

Imo other issue is MD rooms and player pool have chosen to make it a promo chase environment.

There might be a niche for the shoe to drop all promotions and become a promo free room.
The best promo I can think of is having an extra 3$ in every pot I win!!!!

Yes, but this is a myopic view that misses the big picture.

Promos are run because they attract players. There are players who decide on one room or another, who decide to play poker instead of table games or slots, or who play more hours than they otherwise would because of those promotions. Otherwise then casinos would not run them - they make either no money for doing it or a tiny percentage and whatever they may take pays for the administration of the funds - accurate accounting, making sure dealers are trained for when and how they run, dissemination of funds.

If we magically remove the promotions from a room you are a reg at, sure, you will now be getting a couple bucks more when you drag a pot. But in the grand scheme you also are not playing against promo hunters who are not as skilled and/or they play suboptimal poker for winning hands in the hopes they are increasing their chances of winning promotions. And a skilled player can exploit them.

And there are more people to play. You won't drag any pots if you're sitting on a list waiting for a game to open instead of jumping into a game that is filled with people chasing a high hand or bad beat.

It's hard to quantify these things but it's not as simple as "no promotional drop means more money for me" and that's not even including the chance that you also may win something from the promotional funds yourself.

Rake $7 per down at plo now, up from $6. :/

Good post but I think there is a limit. What if a casino decided to make the promo drop 5 plus 10. Sure they would be making no additional revenue and could do five times the promotions. So theoretically it wouldn’t cost you anything. But we don’t live in a theoretical world and in my mind you need to just consider the jackpot drop as rake and be happy if you are lucky enough to hit a high hand. I think if you tracked the jackpot drop you pay if you play a lot of hours compared to what you get back in high hands, drawings, hot seats, etc almost everyone will be in the red except for the outliers that happen to hit a lot of them. At the very least it adds a ton of variance to your results and I would guess almost everyone is in the negative from it (though from a business perspective I get where they are coming from and it does attract people). Another factor is who it attracts…if people play crazy to hit them that’s good. But will the extra dollar make them play worse than they already are at 2 dollars? Bottom line when you pay a three dollar jackpot rake on a hand you win if you didn’t get a high hand right there you were forced to make a three dollar bet and you lost. It is what it is, Live didn’t start the trend and they are doing what they believe the market demands (and they are probably right). It is a good room I enjoy playing at but I wish we could go back to 4 plus 0 days or 4 plus 1 or even 5 plus 1. But it won’t happen. Game selection as always will continue to be more and more paramount, as will playing higher or time games if you can afford it.

That is less surprising — it was a great deal given how big that game can play and the level of action. For people who buy in short that can hurt but again the pots are frequently hundreds or thousands so plenty of bang for the buck.

I agree with most of this. The problem with the jackpots is you need to be there when the high hand promotions are the most generous and you would need to play a strategy that maximize your high hand equity. Checking down sets and straight flush draws. This is what high hand promr chasers do and they almost certainly get a bigger share of the promo money then someone who is just playing poker.

The other major problem is the limit v no limit advantage in high hand chasing. The limit 3/6 players show up in droves for the aggressive high hand promos and they go with the explicit intent of trying to hit a high hand. They have a clear advantage because you can always see a flop or river.
In fact most every hand at 3/6 goes to the river.

A winning poker strategy is going to look a lot different from a strategy that is trying to maximize jackpot equity. And it's a lot of money.

Not lately, the growing consensus among regs is that the game is dying and action drying up. This move will only further kill the game here.

Your first two sentences describe me to a T!!!!

Does anyone know if there is a link to the structures for the MD Poker Championship series next month? I can find the schedule of events, but nothing about their structure. Trying to decide if it's worth the ride down. Thanks

The structures are exceptional. You don't need a sheet. Trust me.

PSA: player got pistol whipped in the outside parking lot across from the hotel today around 6pm. Assailants didn’t leave with anything of value. Be careful!

Any description of the assailants? Did the victim run away and file a police report?

Details are second hand and scarce but from what I heard there was a brief back and forth, they asked the victim to get in his car with them (he wisely refused), then they hit him and left. I assume he's cooperating with the police, or at least I hope so.

I know most people prefer surface lots to parking garage, but I always use the garage parking at live. There's typically at least one security person on each level. Also I rarely go straight from the poker room to my car. I'll usually walk the casino a while to make sure nobody is following me. Sucks that you have to think that way but its better safe than sorry. Stay safe everyone.

2023 Maryland State Poker Championship

August 9-21
19 Events
$5300/$1M Main Event

Hey Mike, I know the main has sattys, wondering when satty/s for the $1650 PLO will run. Thanks!
And looking forward to it on 10th anniv of the room.


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Would love to network with some 2plus2 members in the area, please shoot me a message. It seems like a lot of people are upset with the new rake structure, myself included. Would love to hear from folks who play elsewhere, such as the shoe in Bmore or MGM. I do like the Live! room and think it's ran well, but am thinking about broadening my horizons.

Chris is working on those. He should have something soon

Thanks

Mike

I'm in Maryland for a few weeks and thought of adding some dead money to the plo games at Live!
How is the action?

Better on weekends. Can be slow during the week and hit or miss on action.

Thank you, kind sir. I will give it a go this evening and hopefully games are soft and wraps keep hitting on unpaired boards. Excelsior!