Bravo!

Thanks, Johnny. I'm glad to have it cleared up. Looking forward to the 9-handed switch whenever it's feasible business-wise.

I played from noon until 4:00pm today, and I thought things went pretty well considering it was opening day. There were unfortunately no Hi/Lo Omaha tables, but I'm never surprised when that's the case. I played 1-3 NLH.

Chips were very slow coming when they opened the table. We sat there for more than 15 minutes waiting for chips so we could begin the first hand. One time later on, the dealer sent all his folding money with a runner to exchange for chips (a "pill") and the runner took so long to return that in the meantime the dealer ran out of white chips to rake with. I'm sure stuff like this will improve in coming days.

Most of the dealers were good. We had one (I think he said he lived in Virginia and was new to dealing) who was quite slow, but otherwise good. Another dealer was slow and also made several mistakes, such as forgetting to give change to players who were due it. More than once the loudspeakers announced that the dealers should count down their banks, and for some reason this always took a long time, like several minutes. One player said he was keeping track and we were playing 18 hands per hour. Again, I'm sure this will improve.

One dealer said that if we kept our drivers licenses out that someone would come around and obtain M-Life Rewards cards for us, so most of us did put our licenses out. Then later a different dealer said it wasn't going to happen. I never did get an M-Life card, because the line to get one was too darn long. So I guess I cost myself a small amount of comps.

edit: I forgot to mention that their weren't enough clear lammers in the dealer's bank. Most dealers were instead using missed-blind lammers and such to separate their stacks of 20. This wasn't a problem, but I thought it was unusual.

Are you talking bicycles or motorcycles? I noticed a flotilla of what appeared to be bicycle racks on level P1. The were to my left just before I exited the garage on that level.

Ouch, I walked around and saw many $50 tables and a single $25 table but I failed to notice that they paid 6:5, so thanks for the heads-up. This choice of theirs will end up saving me money, because I will not play 6:5 blackjack.

Chips and fills were also really slow at my table (7). At one point our dealer's rack was so low and the wait for a fill so long that I went out to the craps table and bought $500 in whites and reds to replenish the rack (in exchange for the rack's green chips).

I also agree that the # of hands per hour was quite low and it took longer than usual for most dealers to count down their racks. Nevertheless, the action was excellent and more than made up for the slowness. My game was about as good as Borgata at its peak (2005 or so), if that gives any indication. Also, I played for 6.5 hours and during that whole time there was only one pre-flop chop at the table.

I played for most of the day. I really like the room. It looks great and is pretty spacious. The room was def buzzing today and lots of fun players were splashing around.


Observations / Suggestions:

-USB ports at every seat are a nice touch

-Chairs are really nice

-Seats were open for very long times at many tables. I played 2/5 and switched around a few of them. Despite there being huge lists for games, more than half of the tables had 1-2 empty seats at any given time. I felt like telling people in line waiting to just go pick a seat and sit down.
This should be the first priority for the room imo.

-Dealers are good. Recognized a ton of them from Charles Town and MDLive and Home Games

-Drink service needs work. I had 2 drinks that never arrived and had to re-order an hour later when waitress came back. I'm sure it will get better. Room was packed today.

-Spread more different channels across the TVs. Seemed like it was the same 2 channels across like 20 TVs

Overall was a good experience. I expect the action to be good for a while. I'll be back tomorrow.

Didn't see any comments about the temperature of the water in the bathrooms being scorching hot. Not directly poker related, but something that needs to be worked out.

As others said - be sure to bring layers. The door to the outside by table 25 will continue being an issue come January - March. Def seems like a weird design flaw.

I also don't like the rule about having to leave your table if you are getting a bite to eat. 30 minutes wasn't enough and I hate leaving my table if I don't have to. I understand that given the current demand this might be the way to go, but as things normalize, I hope this rule gets addressed.

Overall, I saw the staff doing their best to navigate lots of chaotic situations. Kudos!

Is it too late to get bigger chip racks on the tables? We are having an insane amount of fills on my 2/5 game. Also, I'm not sure if the $3 chips speed up anything at that stake. Dropping reds for rake and white for the BB kinda defeated having them and getting rid of them could make room for more whites or reds

Edit: I guess the blues make sense for when short handed, but is it too late to get a bigger rack?


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Am I seeing correctly on bravo that that the only limit is 4/8 or extreme nosebleed? Any attempts to get something like 6/12 or 8/16 going?

Will be down to check it out Thursday before Christmas, got 1 vacation day left thats not family committed.

I've been surprised no 15-30 or 20-40? Hope thatscoming but seems like not a lot of demand outside one day a week at live. Or even the 10/20 Omaha with half kill would be good. Can't wait to check out the room in either case.

ya you can't even wash your hands for very long LOL

Does any one know anything about the tier status for playing poker?

How do you get an Mlife gold card?

And is there higher tier you can get from playing poker?

Too late to edit my other post, but I had one dealer who dropped the blue chips into the BB and that helped to keep the rack from going empty. I think they are good to have in the rack now, as long as the dealers are actually issuing them


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You can get gold from getting Borgata black card matched. I don't think you can get plat from poker alone

Met a guy yesterday that is interested in a regular 15/30 20/40 game. Said they have a list of about 50/60 that play regularly. We will host a game 2-3 nights per week, alkng with a 40/80 or 60-120.

Need to develop something in the 6/12 to 8/16 range to supplement growth in the LHE base in the area if possible.

Should be coloring up the BBJ to red, and dropping as much red as possible for the rake.

Staff and I are working on a solution. The volume in the food outlets makes this a challenge.

We are all on the same page now.

Was actually full spread at around 2pm

So true! The sink water was ridiculously hot.

I was not aware there was a rule about this. Two players at may table left to go get pizza. They were gone for more than half an hour (because the pizza line was so long). They returned with their slices and ate them back at the table. The slices did look tasty.

I didn't eat anything myself, but I did ask if menus were available. The answer was no menus, but the dealer told me that I could go to the brush and place a food order, which would be delivered to my table. I'm not sure I believe this unless someone confirms.

They don't deliver at least a basic menu of food to the table??

Quick write up of my experience last night

I arrived around 3:30 pm. The property is stunning. Just magnitudes nicer and classier than anything else in this area. Really makes MDL look like a dump in comparison.

Got to the poker room and had to wait on line for 15 minutes to put my name on the board for 1/3 and 2/5. The person at the desk told me to come back in an hour. There were about 60 people ahead of me for 1/3 and 80 for 2/5

Walked around the property a little bit including the outdoor area by the fountain. It is breathtaking out there and I imagine that area will be the place to be in the summer. Views from there are spectacular especially at night.

30 minutes after putting my name on the list I walked by the poker room and saw I was already at the top of the list for 1/3. I hung around for a few minutes and got a seat.

No one seemed to have an answer of if I could buy in at the table or had to go to the cage. There was a huge line at the cage so I just went to the table and the dealer was able to give me chips.

Game was really good. Much better action and bigger stakes than 1/2 at MDL. I only saw one person buy in for $100 all night, where as at MDL about 50% of players buy in for $100.

The tables are really nice and much larger than the tables at MDL. You have plenty of space and aren't constantly banging knees with your neighbor. Having a USB port at every seat is a really nice and appreciated touch. There is also considerably more room between tables than any other poker room I play at.

For the most part the dealers were solid. I had a couple I recognized from other casinos. One dealer seemed brand new but competent. He was a little slow counting the bank and reloading but seemed to have good control over the game. He will probably be a solid dealer in a week or two. I had one truly awful dealer though. We literally played 9 hands during his rotation. He miscalculated pots at least twice and gave the wrong change or forgot to give change a number of times in the 9 hands.

The other biggest issue I had was at the cashier. They have 5 windows, but only one cashier dedicated to players. Not exaggerating, I had to wait 25 minutes to get cashed out. I just don't understand how you can only have one cashier for your opening weekend? This is probably going to be your busiest weekend ever. There is literally no reason to build 5 windows and then only have one cashier last night. Just seems like some kind of massive oversight.

Drink service was inconsistent. Had issues where I would order a drink, not get it and order again 90 minutes after the first. Then 5 minutes later both drinks would show up.

Overall I think its an excellent poker room and casino. I think the issues I experienced are things that will get smoothed out in the coming weeks. I will definitely be back very soon.

We will, but are experiencing significant issues with our technology. It will be sorted out this afternoon. When complete, we will have the ability to order any item from the food market menus.

Introduction of the chip carts to the floor will help. Many chip purchases will be able to go through the carts. Apologies for the delays. We will fix them.

I played for a couple of hours this morning and have to say that I didn't enjoy it at all and won't be coming back for a while. Everything can be fixed and I'm sure it will over time, but for the next few months I plan to steer clear from this poker room.

Getting There:
Getting there was easy, but I got there around 5am so traffic was nearly non-existent. Everything is well marked and easy to get to from the beltway.

Parking:
Obviously the parking decks were nowhere near full, so no issues there either. They had staff instructing where to park and it was a very short walk to the elevators.

mLife Card:
I had already got an mLife number online, so I went to the mLife desk and spoke to someone to get a card. They had kiosks which I didn't use, I think you may be able to print a card from there yourself and perhaps even join mLife. Not sure.

Locating Poker Room:
I came in through what I assume is the main entrance and the poker room was easy to find.

Getting a Seat:
At 5am, there was no wait for 1/3NL but this is where things start to go down hill. The tables are not clearly marked, perhaps not at all. Someone showed me to the table so I had no problems but if they had simply told me "go to table 17", it would have been a PITA to locate.

Game Play:
I was told I could get chips at the table, but as many have pointed out -- good luck with that. I bought chips from someone who was leaving.

The first dealer was an absolute disaster. We were playing 3-4 hands an hour, she made a lot of mistakes and did not had control of the game at all. In one instance when she prematurely exposed the turn card the floor was called, he gave very clear instructions and she was unable to follow them. The floor had to basically complete the hand for her.

Within the first 30 minutes, I was tempted to get up and go to MDL but decided to give it a chance.

The dealer constantly ran out of chips any time someone needed to re-buy and we never played more than two hands without some incident that paused the game. They apparently don't have "missed blind" buttons so they were using the number buttons that they normally use as place holders when they are getting chips for cash.

Getting drinks was near impossible. The waitresses didn't really stop at each table but rather wandered around and you had to yell or waive to get their attention -- in all fairness, that's how it is at CT and MDL also. They would fairly consistently forget to bring drinks, bring the wrong thing or take 45 minutes to an hour to come with a drink.

The best drink service was when players would get up to go get their own and offer if anyone else wanted something. So, either stick with water (what they carry with them) or get your own. At this point you should not expect to have drink service or be dissapointed that you don't get it.

I had no issues with the room temperature but saw the doors (I was away from them) to the outside and understand how this can be a problem for people close to the doors. I don't know why they need to cater to smokers, but then again I don't smoke. This may be one of the issues that can't be fixed.

Eventually we got a very good dealer (i.e. what you would expect at MDL), his name was Ken or Kenneth I believe. Action sped up a bit but issues with running out of chips, etc. were beyond his control.

Action:
The action was pretty loose, minimal limping and the norm were ~$100 pots with "8-2s" vs "K-5o" kind of hands clashing. There were a couple of larger (~$1,000) pots with less than premium hands as well. But remember, very few hands an hour.

Ambiance:
I feel that MGM is closer to the Vegas casinos than MDL or CT, which feel more like Indian casinos. It feels upscale and is super bright with loud music. The music made it hard to hear at the poker room, further degrading the experience.

Maybe it was the time of the day (early morning on a Saturday) but there were more obnoxious drunks than I normally encounter at other places -- as far as those already there. Most players who came after me were "normal", so I definitely blame this on time of the day.

Getting Out:
It was very easy to get out of the garage and back on the beltway. I did notice a large number (~20-30) of people in yellow coats waiting at the elevators. I assume they were workers but they were just hanging out there so no issues getting an elevator. I assume that there are stairs as well somewhere.

Conclusion:
To me, it's simple. I didn't enjoy my time there and was happy -- if dissapointed -- to leave. No need for me to go back for a while.