It doesn't. Search the thread for "text" to see the discussion about this including Johnny's reasoning why.

Well that's really strange then. I checked in a half hour ago and he offered to take my phone number including asking the provider. If the system doesn't work someone should tell the guys taking check ins lol.

As of last week they were texting for 5/10nl and above.

I guess that explains why I didn't get a text after they took my phone number and service provider a week ago. What a waste of time.

Yeah I don't care either way but I can save both of us the time if me giving you that isn't actually doing anything.

Also interesting there are two call ins on the 1-2 PLO list right now. Looks like they are also on the 5-5 list?

I don't agree. A week and a half ago Bravo said they had a list of 142. I arrived at the casino two hours later to find open seating. The 1-3 customers here seem very transient and the list moves surprisingly fast at times, you may find it's not too bad even if the list is 100 deep when you get there.

BTW the texting system absolutely works, at least it did today.

I was just going by what Johnny said earlier in the thread. I shall bow out now

Do comps work at every restaurant?

Johnny posted earlier that all restaurants except Starbucks and Shake Shack now accept comps

Shake Shack now accepts comps..

We will be making some operational changes over the next couple of weeks as our business assumes normal flow. Call ins for 2/5, permanent use of the text system, and adjusted dinner policies are a few tweaks we are looking at... possibilities not definite.

Don't know if there's anything you can do to fix this issue but there are currently three people waiting to get into their boxes because a chip runner has taken over half an hour to put together a cart.

Edit: Make that four people

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Nothing immediate, but we can adjust where we stock the cart in the future.

FWIW the first thing I noted tonight was "Floors getting player chips waiting in line". I was at table 30 for 6 hours, saw every single floor wait in line. Can we lay that to rest now?

Dealers are getting better by the week, I about jinxed myself and said we had no misdeals but then the last dealer I had we had a misdeal and a "only dealt two cards" pause. Not bad for 6 hours though. Most were really great about tracking pot size too.

Dealers dont seem interested in enforcing the English only rule though. We had one dealer who was really militant about it but that was it. The 3 guys that were playing together over a couple tables, I mean they were really nice and I'd played with one of them last week. But there's a reason its a rule. I'm sure they're just talking about the last hand but again, I dont know.

The most tilting thing had to be the older guy - that every dealer knew - who was acting out of turn on every...single...hand. And he just laughed at them, he absolutely did not care. And he wasnt just acting one player out of turn, I mean he would raise in front of three players that hadnt acted - and he didnt care. Raising, folding, calling - everything way out of turn. Every single dealer knew him though which makes me wonder - why hasnt someone talked to this guy? He was tilting the whole table. I wondered if he worked at MGM because he had an ID badge clipped on backwards on his jacket but as the night went on that became the thing I was least worried about. Every time it was his turn he had to be reminded and once I think he fell asleep.

Drink service improving by leaps and bounds, awesome job.

Sound in the back was way better, didnt hear one announcement that crackled like last week.

Finally had a Pappas crabcake sandwich, not bad at all. $20 for a big sandwich and fries, not bad casino prices. Took comps, couldnt have been easier.

Really looking forward to this weekend if the weather doesnt crap out on Saturday.

This is truly awesome!

I've played poker at MGMNH about 15 times so far. Have to admit at first it was a bit of a disaster. During the first week I waited for 30 minutes in line just to get my name on the waiting list. The guy up front was just totally lost. Ordered a drink 5 times and never saw it, I thought to myself, wow these guys really need to get it together. But things have improved in that area. Staff is nice and friendly with a few exceptions.

As far as the poker room itself I'm kinda meh about it. I don't think MGM put a lot of thought into it. The layout stinks, especially around the waiting area. Any thought to getting more than one screen up front that has the 1-2 and 2-5 NL list permanently displayed?

What bums me still is waiting for 2-3 hours on Fri and Sat nights to play. And then seeing all those empty Baccarat tables...wish that area could be filled w/ more poker tables. Any plans to expand?

Another thing I noticed is that it still takes forever to fill seats. I see a waiting list of 40 people deep for 1-3 and there are two empty seats at our table for more than 20min. That shouldn't be happening. I don't know how MD Live does it but it seems they have a system that alerts the front desk when there is an empty seat and they know exactly where it is...at this place you have to wait for floor to come by and collect empty seat cards.

Can comps be used towards alcohol at the restaurants? Specifically asking for the sports bar.

No. Comps are for food only.

Johnny, we were just told by a floor that run it twice is no longer allowed in time raked NL games and that it's only available in PLO. Is this really the policy here?

Yes. The policy was supposed to be In place 2 weeks ago.

Hey Johnny,

I wanted to mention a bit of a employee cultural issue that I've noticed during my time at MGM so far. It seems that both floor employees and dealers default to a CYA (cover your ass) attitude over common sense and relationship building. A few examples of this:

• At the 10/25 game, the table frequently pre-tips the dealer $25 for the down. One of the dealers was a little confused about it and accidentally dropped it as rake. I wasn't there at the time - the dealer told me about it later on in the same day. I talked to a floorman about it (actually two that were standing next to each other), and he said "haha, bad beat, nothing that can be done."
• A 10/25 recreational player ordered and paid for a drink, and it never came. He said it's not the first time it happened. I encouraged him to talk to the floor about it - floorperson said "ummm, talk to me later if they still haven't come back and maybe I can give you some money in food comps." Food comps aren't the same as cash, and can't even be used for alcohol.
• This happened a few days ago, and I believe you actually came by and remedied the situation (and I thought you handled it perfectly, for what it's worth) - in the 10/25 mixed game, one player openly sat out during a game he didn't want to play. We complained to the floor that it shouldn't be allowed, and the floor's response was basically "well, if he's still paying the time rake, then it doesn't really matter to me/I can't do anything." Granted, it's a tough call if the floor has never encountered that kind of situation, but that was a horrible response.
• A handful of dealers concerned about following rules over common sense and logic for fear of being written up/fired (one dealer cited his probationary period as a reason). Tends to come up a lot with straddles - e.g. in the 5/5 game, where everyone is straddling, a new dealer might stop a straddle just because it wasn't out before the cards were dealt. I'm not concerned about that, specifically, it's really just the CYA attitude.

These are all relatively small things and I hope they will go away with time, I'm just concerned that it may be indicative of a deeper cultural issue that's ingrained.

FWIW, overall I've had very positive experiences in each of my visits (other than the games kind of sucking), and it seems to be getting better all the time. The cage waiting times are the worst, but even that has improved greatly since I started.

By the way, I don't expect you to respond to each of these issues - I just wanted to bring to your attention the trend I've been seeing.

More than anything, those are training issues. We struggled with our beverage service initially, but is has improved significantly since opening. The first 2 situations you mentioned were not handled in the best manner they could be handled.

Went to MGM National Harbor yesterday, played 1/3 NL for about 9 hours. I read this entire thread (been a lurker on 2+2 forever) before going as I had a lot of free time while sick and out of work. As such I got $900 in reds and was ready to fire 3 buyins at 1/3 without having to wait to get chips and have to deal with any chip runners. My first orbit I made 2 sets and top 2 pair, and manged to lose about $500 when they made flushes. Without going to my third bullet, I ran the last $100 up in a rollercoaster throughout the day and cashed out with $1802 this evening plus another $300 that I had exchanged with someone who came to the table in the evening for the chips that were in my bag. I didn't think to take a picture until I racked up.

Regarding some of the comments I've read earlier in the thread:
1. Parking - Jesus Christ. Got there at around 2 or 3pm, the doors to the elevators were locked, and the signs are completely useless. Got the poker room after about 15 minutes of confusion.
2. Dealers - I had no issues with them. Had one that you could definitely tell was new and was slow at seeing who had the best hand at showdown, but was methodical and made no errors.
3. Food/Drink Service - The service was good during the day. In the evening I waited about 60-90 minutes for a mixed drink. The stromboli I ordered was... palatable... at least it got there fast?

Wow, that's surprising. In my experience at time raked NL games, lots of players like to run it twice and the dealers had all gotten used to the "Run it 1.4 times" policy of one flop and two turns/rivers and it was running smoothly. What prompted the change in policy? Thanks, Johnny.