Hi teach2121. To answer your questions:

1. When they added the second promo dollar, it was dropped late in the pot. Then they started dropping both early. Since there's a lot of short-handed play with walkers, and no rake break until 5 handed, you'll often see 5+2 in a 4 or 5 handed game. It has an effect. BTW, I see my post was ambiguous; it's the promo drop schedule that changed. To me, it's all rake.

2. It's hard to describe the comp situation, because the floor couldn't (or wouldn't) explain it. It used to be $1/hr added to your account. But they changed it to something like "there's not really a balance, but just come by and play, and we'll take care of you when you want something." Seriously. That's not good to hear when you think you've got a hundred bucks sitting there. They also removed restaurant choices.

3. Tournaments - They started taking an extra 5% from the prize pool for all tournaments, and it's not clearly disclosed. Don't know whether tournament admin fees have also increased, but add-ons have doubled. Starting chips have been reduced along with unfavorable level and blind schedule changes, all to make structures faster. So tournament value has decreased all around.

I learned about the extra 5% one night when a young guy said that the prize pool didn't look right based on the number of entrants. The dealer said that it was a Bravo thing, and that it would settle down later when it was finalized. But an older gentleman (a tournament regular) knew better, and he stepped in and explained that there really was 5% taken (and then all the other structure stuff that I mentioned, and probably some stuff I've forgotten). He was not a happy camper.

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Maybe this is all old news, not really sure because I'm out of touch. Please update with any new info.

There were plenty of other steps backward for the room and casino under Pinnacle that I didn't mention, but there's no point. They're obvious, and the front-line employees have surely heard it all. I'm only interested in hearing about how new ownership recovers and rebuilds.

Once again, if anyone reading this plays at the Meadows, or becomes aware of improvements, please update this thread.

was told by poker room management (grudgingly) that yes 5% is taken out of all tournament prize pools now, it is to pay for the heartland tourney seats that are given away to the tournament leaderboard winners (top 6) at the end of january and february. but considering that $2000-$3000 at least was been taken from this past weeks $200 tourney alone (300-400 entries at $175 a pop)...god only knows where the rest of the 5% will end up going.

HPT is in under four weeks & there still is no schedule online. Are there paper schedules in the poker room? If so, could someone place an image of it here?

the schedule appeared online yesterday finally

I emailed Meadows over a week ago, but have not heard back yet. I am banned from all Penn National Gaming facilities, will that translate to Meadows now? I'd like to play the HPT series, but don't wanna make the drive if I can't.

Hopefully some staff member monitors this and can answer my question.

https://www.hptpoker.com/event/meadows-casino

I'll be there for at least 3 events. Excited! How many runners did they have last year for the main? I will also probably play the 25K guarantee and a couple of the smaller ones. Anyone know an average number of runners per tournament??

I don't remember numbers exactly, but they had a phenomenal turnout for all events. They run so many satellites, too. Wish I would be home for it this time around.

Sorry for the delayed response. I don't check in here as often as I should. I'm the marketing manager for HPT. I hope you were able to come play. The Main Event had 422 entries last weekend. Great turnouts all week. We're working on dates for another series in the fall.

For the record, The Meadows is still a Pinnacle property. It won't become a Penn National casino until the merger takes effect (expected Sept/Oct/Nov 2018).

If there are any other HPT-related questions I can help out with, feel free to email me any time at korey@hptpoker.com. Good luck on the felt!

korey did you see dana the manager, and if you did does he have any plans to turn around the room? Thanks

Someone messaged me saying he's dana the poker manager and gave me a phone number to call. Not sure if real or troll but I think troll.

once it is no longer a pinnacle property, does that mean HPT will not be welcomed there or wont go there anymore?

Dana messaged me and relayed the info. I sent an email through the website initially, but go no response. I called and spoke to someone and they gave me the info I needed finally before I heard from Dana.

Sent from my LG-H820 using Tapatalk

I have DM many of you on this forum because I would genuinely like to speak with you about how we could better improve your poker room. Unfortunately, many of you thought I was trolling you. I was not and am not. After reading this forum front to back I have realized we need to improve and I need to do a better job of communicating changes made to the poker room. In this first post, I am going to answer some of the most recent posts.

1. When Penn bought PNK they bought everything including the HPT, I have already booked the dates for 2019. The HPT is here to stay.

2. We do not have an aggressive rake schedule, in fact, we may have the best rake structure in the state. We rake 10% of the pot up to $4 and we take up to $3 for the promotion fund/Bad Beat. 55% percent of that money is used for the only Bad Beat in western PA, and the other 45% percent is used for the daily promotions we run, High hands, Hot Seats etc..

3. I will admit that the comp situation was a bit of a mess for a period but we have ironed out the kinks, players still receive $1 an hour. We apologize for the miscommunication.

4. At this time we are no longer taking the 5% of the prize pool to fund the tournament leaderboard all of that money was used to pay for the leaderboard, and I should have done a better job of communicating where that 5% was going. Again at this time, we are not withholding 5% percent. Admin fees for the tournaments have not increased at all. I doubled the admin fee from $5 to $10 and I also put guarantees on many tournaments and made significate changes to the special event tournaments we run like the $25,000 guarantee and the $50,000 guarantee. I challenge anyone to find a better value tournament. The blind structures in the tournaments have not been shortened at all. We use the same structure on all of our daily tournaments and all special event tournaments like the guarantees have 30 min levels. Tournament value has increased, not decreased.

I happy to speak with any of you at any time, if any of you have any suggestions or would like to see certain changes made to the poker room, promotions, tournaments, etc..

Also if there is something I can do to get you folks that live near The Meadows that drive past us to go to the rivers or wheeling or mountaineer. Please let me know. By the way, the screen name was made when I ran a different room.

My office number is 724.503.1239
My cell is 601.415.5249
Thank you for your time.

Thanks for the information! I live much closer to Meadows, so I prefer playing there over Rivers (to save on driving further), but I do wish Meadows got more folks on a regular basis. I don't play every day or even every week, but I see the same regs all the time at Meadows. I've played at Rivers too, and see some regs there too, but they are normally a little busier room wise, so you aren't stuck playing at the same table with the same regs like you are at Meadows.

I don't know if there is anything to be done to change that, as I think that's a geographic issue (Pittsburgh and Rivers being the center of the city). But let's hope that Meadows turns around in terms of getting more tables going on a regular basis.

playing the $150 2 day event with 3 day ones...whoever did this is a jackass, ruined a really nice tourney. blinds went from 8000-16000-2k ante to 10000-20000 WITH A 5000 ANTE. never ever in a good room is the ante a QUARTER of the bb. 1/8 or 1/6 at most. all players at final table complaining about the stupidity and floor is a dual and says its over his head. all this to get rid of the 1k chips. NICE JOB NEW MANAGER. good lord.

Thanks for the feedback. I have changed all of our special event structures to reflect the following. Have a great day, and I hope to see you at this months $50,000 guarantee.



Level 18 8,000-16,000-2,000
Level 19 10,000-20,000-3,000
Level 20 15,000-30,000-4,000
Level 21 20,000-40,000-5,000

I'm still new to live poker but two of the three times I've been here have had some kind of negative experience. Dealers that don't care seem to be the main problem. First time playing here one player asked if the pot was right and the response he got was "i don't know and I don't care"

The HPT is coming back to The Meadows September 24th thru the 30th. This will be a one-week event with a 100k Guaranteed tournament, 10K Guaranteed, Seniors event, Tag Team and a 6 max. The full schedule of events is posted on the HPT website.

We are running Satellites for the 100K every Sunday, Tuesday, and Saturday night in the poker room during the month of August.

Likely to have a 2/5 game going tonight?

Taking a trip from Illinois to Cooperstown and the MLB Hall Of Fame in mid April. Planning to stop on my way home at Meadows casino in Washington, PA outside Pittsburgh for a few days.

How's the poker room doing lately?

why not go to Rivers where there is some game selection?

I have to echo SF's post:
As a tourist who goes XC at least 3x yearly, I'd advise going to Rivers as well.

Meadows does have a lot of things I like, and if I have my wife with me, we actually prefer Meadows. But if its just poker, Rivers is a better venue. More games, more players, more everything.

Meadows: harness racing , food choices, slots/casino/ nice hotel attached (sort of). Easy Interstate Hwy access.

Thanks for the replies. Appreciated.

Of a high priority for me is staying at the venue itself. I use an electric mobility scooter that is a bit of a pain to load and unload from my trunk so I like to only do it once during my stay. I see a hotel is coming to Rivers in the future but no onsite hotel right now.

Originally planned the trip for baseball only but was able to get a room at The Meadows for a decent price, so I decided to extend my trip and stop there for awhile.

Not overly concerned about game selection, just wanting to find that there will be a game to join throughout my trip. I'll be there on a Tuesday thru Saturday.

How would you rate the skill level of the typical Meadows player?

How would you rate the skill level of the typical Meadows player?..............

Average. Truly.

Style wise I'd say they have a a mix of Loose-Aggro coupled with Passive/OMC. Play one orbit and you will know. Position is paramount depending on their style and who has the button.

How about the skill level of dealers & floor?