Playing 1/3 now. Was a new game. Took probably 10 mins to get going but other then that the game is good the dealers are good I really have no complaints. Great room so far

So went to the casino last night (shockingly).

As previously discussed, I wasn't able to call in to 5 / 10 because of a combination of switchboard overload, and poker room overload. It's weird that there's no option on the voicemail tree for the poker room so you have to go through the operator, but that might be temporary.

Got there right around 5 pm, at which point the garages appeared to be largely full according to the signs, so I left the car at valet which was quick and painless, as it should be.

The place is huge, which is a plus and seems fairly spacious but given how packed it was it made it a little confusing to navigate because every space that was supposed to be a traffic hub became a default gathering / standing / waiting area. Meant a lot of cutting along rows of slot machines to make it through.

Outside of the poker room, the interactions with staff were hit or miss as some were clearly a little frazzled and were letting it show, where others had their game faces on. This wasn't an issue in the poker room though.

Ended up going on multiple lists and sat and played 1/3 because that's the list that came up first. Kudos to the brush for really working to run the lists as fast a humanly possible, that's always been a gripe at MDL and CT.

Sadly I didn't get a seat before losing a fair bit at a $50 BJ table (I imagine the min bets will come down eventually, but things are pretty crazy right now).

General Impressions of the room and staff:
1) The room itself is beautiful, lots of room, lots of tvs, a ton of space. I imagine that they might scale up the room later but if they do there should still be a ton of space available.

2) Getting chips at the table seems really nice at first. It was slowing the game down considerably however. Didn't see any of the rumored chip carts. Ended up loaning people chips several times just so that we wouldn't have to keep track of how much various people were owed. The fills did get faster but it's hard to tell if that was just the room thinning out a bit.

3) Lots of great dealers that I've seen at other places, but a smattering of new ones as well. Some of the new ones need a little help. There were probably about a half-dozen that had some issue or another. One was painfully deliberate and slow, but she was being careful to not make mistakes, so that's a trade-off. One dealer lost track of the dealer button twice, and in one case dealt the hand (and had blinds posted) as if seat 5 was the dealer, and when it was pointed out seat 4 was the dealer just moved the button and shifted the blinds. The worst was a case where we had 4 misdeals in 6 hands. Two because a player who was waiting for the blind was dealt cards and two because the dealer dealt a hand to a spectator who was sitting next to / behind their partner.

My only other dealer gripe is several dealers, while a player was waiting on chips or playing with cash behind, discouraging players from posting so they could join the hand. Not sure if that was just so they didn't have to keep track of chip debt or what.

4) Generally your floor guys are great. One in particular stood out and was particularly helpful / kind, even lending me their usb cable so I could recharge my phone after my cable disappeared.

5) The other side of that though is inconsistent messaging. There were a couple of dealers who apparently aren't clear on the one chip rule, we had one floor say that you weren't able to get Mlife cards in the poker room, when Patrick was going around doing them, there was also some confusion about whether food was deliverable or not (it isn't).

Most of these issues will go away as the casino matures, which will just leave the generally great service and a great room. Congrats.

It's possible that the dealer(s) who told me this were incorrect, but several players discussed it as well so it wasn't news to them. Handily I think Johnny is willing to listen to player feedback on these things.

Simply stating that a lot of poker players carry backpacks. Not sure I needed to explain this to anyone but you (:

So it appears that the smoking section by the poker room is at least temporary closed. You gotta go over by the felt bar. From asking floor if it's gonna be open in the future "hopefully not"

This could be interesting... the TVs and Bravo display have just frozen.


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Yeah they did that last night apparently. Only downside was it took the smokers forever to get back.

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Bravo shows over 20 folks waiting for 1/3 & 2/5 with 37 tables.

Are the lists moving at all? Or are they planning to open the last 2 tables?

Answering questions about who raised is imparting information the player has the responsibility to track. The dealer might inadvertently influence the hand's action by passing that info along as well.

Not telling the bet amount is standard around here - if the action isn't on you, you have zero questions to ask or be answered.

I've been in 3 different games since I've been here. Each list moved quickly imo. Plo proly the slowest of the bunch

Currently, Any comps you earn in poker will not show up in Mlife. The bravo system doesn't interface with the Mlife system.

Backpacks are allowed, but owner must consent to search.

Did you mean:
"Any comps you earn in poker will not show up in MLife. The Bravo system doesn't interface with the MLife system."

Silly autocorrect...

I'm assuming so and I edited his post.

So does this mean that I did earn comp dollars and just can't see them on M Life?

How long do the comp dollars last before expiring?

Also, I ate at Marcus and the receipt said I'd earn MLife tier points for the meal. I gave them my card upon paying, but there are 0 points on my MLife account and that was around 12:30 am Saturday.

Now=not.... my bad

You did earn $$$. To redeem, see a poker supervisor and they can print a comp for you.

Went over the weekend and had a great time. One major issue needs to be addressed: The combination of:

(1) No food allowed in the casino.
(2) Only 30 minutes allowed to "walk around." If you decide to get a meal, you have to count your chips and most likely lose your seat at your table (but get put on the top of the wait list for your given limit).

Losing your seat at the right table is a huge issue. Getting up, ordering food, and getting it eaten in 30 minutes is almost impossible given wait times. So ... either (1) or (2) will need to get modified.

Are there plans in place to address this?

Isn't throwing one chip out after another player bets generally considered a call? How do other casinos handle this "one chip rule"?

seems problematic...

Won't players angle by throwing one chip, wait for reaction, then make a decision? Many players unaware may expose their hand after being "called" by one chip.


am I missing something here?

The actual policy presents that. The one chip IS a binding call, but action does not proceed until the pot has been made right.

We initially thought that the scenario you laid out was the case, but Johnny explained. The problem is that two dealers last night did go with your interpretation which is not correct and is open to angle shooting.

Hence my mentioning it.

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(1) I was allowed to bring my food back to the poker room with no problem and I did that twice on Friday.

(2) If you need more time for food etc..You can ask for a 90 minutes dinner break and they will count your chip stack.

Johnny,

How do I keep track with my comp $$$ in the long run if I play on a weekly basis? Do I ask for a total print out every time and how does one keep track with it?

Thanks.

On the point of small rules things, I had a dealer -- who I think is a new dealer rather than a dealer from MDL or some other property -- in a 1/3 game tell me that $1 chips don't play in an all-in. My recollection from the hype thread is that in a 1/3 game, $1 chips *do* play in an all-in bet, but that the same is not true for 2/5 and above. It didn't end up mattering, as the other players (wisely) did not call my bet, but it still might be worth straightening this issue out over time. Obviously it is not as important as the other issues flagged above.

(2) is a great policy. If MGM is strictly enforcing picking people up after 30 minutes, I applaud them.

If you need an hour for dinner, go on the dinner list and quit wasting a seat when others who have been waiting could be playing. This has always just seemed like basic human courtesy to me.

I don't like that the dealers are not allowed to announce how much the bet is. This slows the game down so much, because every bet, a player waits, then eventually points at the bet, or asks the dealer how much? What is the reason behind not letting them announce the bet?