If this is the new policy/structure - good. Thank you. I am just saying I've definitely played multiple days of 2/5 on the right side of the room with other games being randomly put in the middle and left side of the room with 1/3 games in-between.

1) This thread is for suggestions. I'm giving them. You call it "whinge".

2) 1/3 and 2/5 stack depths are very similar right now it's hard to tell at first glance.

3) To see a placard you have to lean in intrusively over other players - and that's assuming the dealer's elbow isn't already covering up the placard (which it usually is).

I agree that the button straddle is only +EV some of the time for the straddler. I think it is basically always severely -EV for the blinds. The button may pick up some of that EV depending on how well players repond, but much of the rest of that EV is gained by non-blind players in the field.

I feel like button straddles are equivalent to something like a rule that says that seat 2 has the "option" to force seat 3 to given $10 off his stack to seat 4. If 2 exercises the option, that seems unfair to seat 3. Just because seat 3 may later have the option for force seat 4 to give money to seat 5 doesn't make it fair to seat 3. It would only be fair to seat 3 if seat 1 happens to exercise his option to force seat 2 to pay seat 3, something that seat 3 has no control over absent overt collusion.

And FWIW, trying to convince another player to straddle strikes me as a violation of OPTAH.

This comment brings me much joy!

Have been out of town so I've not been by yet. Are lots of folks buying in for the full 500 in 1/3?

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

I don't think it was ill-placed at all . And I am with Nick and most others on this. Don't think MS are good for the game. And I am also not a nit or passive player. While it would benefit me in the short term (I would MS in games that allow it), I think it would hurt in the long term, for reasons stated by others.

Saw mostly $300 buy ins. Very few full 500$ stacks and a few 100$ initial buy ins too.

Johnny,

Can you please clarify how table change works? Do we ask the brush or a floor person? Are you trying to discourage table changes?

Nothing to do with chasing the fish for me - it's a comfort & preference thing.

Thanks.

@JohnnyGroomsTD I must say the poker room was impressive, as I went there on a whim, I didnt stay to play as I will be coming back this coming weekend to play while meeting a friend.

Quick question, I have casino LoC and am I able to come to the poker room to take a marker out ? Just curious. I know obviously for slots you have to goto the main cage to get it, compared to table games you can goto the table. I dont like carrying alot of cash with me and this is why I pose the question.

Other than that great stuff on the board !
Cheers

Ask the supervisor. They will relay to the brush up front (who is also a supervisor, BTW). They will put you on the transfer list.

You cant get a marker for poker play, only for tables and slots.

God bless you Johnny. You're a resilient man.

LOL

Trip Report...Flight landed at 1:00 on Friday at Reagan from Nashville, sitting at the table seeing cards by right around 3:00 at a 2/5 NL game waiting on a 5/10 seat to open up.

DAY #1 (Friday)
Session Length
16 Hours playing mostly 2/5 and a little 5/10 No Limit
Finished plus $3,500

Good:
*2/5 games were filled with action and players buying in for 1k
*IMO 1K is a perfect buy in for 2/5, would love to see a table stakes option but i understand the idea of 1K max for the rec. players not wanting to sit with someone playing 5K deep right off the bat. Why not have a 2/5 game with no cap like the Beau Rivage as an option? You end up getting some crazy action with people walking in from the pits sitting with 5K/10K at a 2/5 super deep stack.
*Floor was friendly and handled the massive crowd for the most part, controlled chaos
*Security and LEOs, felt really safe carrying my cash around the Casino

Bad:
*Door to the outside, i was actually sitting in the 7 seat right by the door and had to leave a good game because of the cold. The floor and players quickly took care of this design flaw for the most part.
*$500 dollar chips blend on the sides with the $25.00 dollar chips, saw the same lady angle twice and called her out the second time on a river bet with $500.00 on the bottom.
*Parking was impossible, wish there a little better plan for the overflow to the back parking like more shuttles or uber pick up location. I completely understand with all the hype but seemed a little under prepared.

DAY #2 (Saturday)
Session length
18 hours playing all 2/5 same excellent game with a little 5/10 late night with a decent line up
Finished plus $3,000

Good:
*Excellent action again, i think a lot of the Maryland Live guys were a little confused playing a 2/5 with 1K cap in place of the $600.00 cap. Stacking off much lighter than I would expect for some spots.
*Flopped/turned/rivered sets along with getting paid all day, pretty easy to play decent running like this....
*Majority of people were really Friendly, I talk because i get bored in these long sessions and most people put up with me.
*Food was really good but will be much better when the runners start serving at the table.

Bad:
*$500 chips led to some additional angles, most of the regs started to color them out from the rec players as a service. I made sure to have additional chips in my pocket to help people rebuy to keep them in the game and moving along.
*Ginders/"Pro", some of the grinders really need to work on their attitudes towards the fish. I heard way too much coaching and complaining. I am sure most people posting in this thread realize you need to make sure the customer has fun.

DAY #3 (Sunday)
Session Length
7 hours mainly playing 5/10 NL
Finished plus $4500.00

Good:
*FINALLY found a decent 5/10 game without Ipad Regs sitting. Table was in the back left of the room and had a great mix of aggressive Asians, couple solid regs, and some decent recs.
*Floor was really starting to get things down and making sure players were in the games that they wanted for the most part. I didn't see the empty seats with 40 on the wait list on Sunday.

BAD/Odd:
Two items to address IMO..
"Running it twice", decided to sit shallow because the solid reg/loose Chinese players were directly to my left and i feel like 150 BBs is tougher to play against in their seat with 3 betting/4 betting.

HH
($1400.00ish)Hero open to $45.00 with 99 3 off the button
(Covers)Player B flats $45.00 1 off the button (solid reg, that was three betting me a good amount)
(Covers)Player C raises to $185ish on the button (laggy Chinese player)

Flop K93 (two spades)
Hero Checks
Player B Checks
Player C Checks (WTF, how does he not fire that board lol)

Turn 10 (non-spade)
Hero bets $300.00
Player B raises to $1200.00ish
Player C folds

Hero shoves, figured i let QJ get there but too much in the pot to fold and almost impossible for him to have 1010 and for sure no KK based on the preflop action. Figure K10/Combo/Set/QJ all in his range but never bluffing. We both agree to run the river twice without showing the hand, Dealer informs us we can't run it twice because there was a 3rd player in the pot. We call the floor and he agrees we have the option to run it twice, which is correct imo because no pot is ever really "heads up" all the way. Player B had 33 for the set over set cooler so running it twice was kinda irrelevant but in the long run the rule needs to be clear with the dealers, some players might not have pushed the dealer to call the floor. The floor was excellent and actually came back to give us confirmation his ruling was correct which was great for the table.

Mississippi Straddle, my take.

I have played a ton at the Beau and Tunica, I have some mixed emotions on the MS. IMO the MS is great in deeper games like the 2/5 and 1/3 uncapped at the Beau, you get a lot of players to play the 2/5/10 uncapped MS that would never play a regular capped 5/10 game. I don't really like having the MS in a 1K/$2500 capped games. Basically makes the max buy in 100 BBs if the table is doing the MS straddle and kills the money in the small and big. I don't think having a capped and uncapped game with different straddle rules would be too confusing for anyone that is playing those games. 1/3 $500 cap, I would leave the MS out for sure.

Suggestions for good actions games with this player pool...

GAME #1 5/5 w/ a $10.00 Rock, you would get a ton of 2/5 recs to play for the free $10.00 blind, make it a $2000/2500 cap. We play this game in Tunica and makes for some really good action with people trying to bluff for the rock and some fun spots preflop.

GAME #2 5/5 PLO 5/10 NL mix game with a $2500.00 cap, this type of game will get more Holdem players to play Omaha and create a fun mix.

Overall, Excellent Experience and will be back possibly for the new years madness weekend.

Floor/Dealers/Staff solid overall with the exception of some slow/clueless dealers that I am sure will self correct over the next few months.

Casino/Venue/Room EXCELLENT, design, lighting, chairs all great.

Plus 11K after massages, meals, drinks and tips. Still didn't get a $3.00 rake chip after asking about 20 dealers.

Gatorman

+1 Thanks for saying Hello as well, it was great to see you running a room again

Thanks for the quick reply !! Note taken !

Suggestion: Bring back the "Pink Chip" game (7.50/15 LHE)

Used to be very popular at the Trop even after NL fever swept over the cash poker world. It's gimmicky but might help establish Limit Hold em and be a gateway to the higher stakes.

Nostalgia is a bitch.

$500 chips are no longer permitted in the poker room. Apologies for any issues.

To answer a question posed earlier in the thread, comps expire after one year. Anything you earn on December 12, 2016 will expire on December 12, 2017. We will eventually move to a system that allows for tier credits etc and automatically loaded comps.

Good Call, over-sized $500s would be good for the games.

Everyone else has posted their thoughts, so I might as well post mine.

Overall: nice casino.

One dealer I had messed up a seat change from the small blind. I moved, and posted the blind from my new seat - but didn't get s hand! I pointed that out and suggested a misdeal or to call the floor, bug he didn't want to call the floor back over. Fine, I can take my blind back since the house didn't give me a hand, right? Yes. So I posted the blind the next hand. Got a hand, but the dealer wanted to treat my blind as dead. I objected - again because I offered to post the previous hand. He relented and I played my blind live. No biggie, and I'm sure he will improve.

I'm more concerned (and would really be upset if I was a shareholder) about other items I saw;

- Water leaking in restrooms
- Mechanical parts of doors inoperable
- One Floor person not making an immediate effort to remove broken glass from under a table (that's a safety hazard!). The second one understood the concern.

And in general, the mantra of give us time, we'll get it right.

I looked at the share prices for MGM, LVS, and WYNN. MGM is clearly the more expensive of the 3 with a P/E of about 56 and paying no dividend. I think it was LVS that has a much higher share price, a P/E of about 25 and paying a 4.5% dividend.

When I consider all of the data points I saw, and have seen articulated in this forum, it all kind of makes sense in that perspective.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Made my first trip to MGM today. A short session of 1/3 (about three hours) and I was impressed with the room, both the facility and the people.

I observed one hand where a guy said "all-in," throwing in a single chip, and the other guy said "call," also with a single chip. I expected the dealer to stop the action to make the pot "right" but nothing of the sort happened. I wasn't in the hand so I didn't speak up. Just mentioning it as another data point that there are some inconsistencies with what I've been reading itt.

Day 4 in the casino (I know, I know, it's just too close not to come watch the games)
Anyways, if someone didn't mention before, table side food orders are a go now.

Yeah. And word is, the food is really good. I gotta try a Pappas Crab cake Sandwich

Speaking of poker and food-- all of the featured chefs at MGMNH are straight grinders in life. Marcus Samuelsson is the man, and the Voltaggio brothers know their poop. I've had the pleasure of meeting the brothers, and Samuelsson put out a great autobio if anyone is looking for a solid read.