As lovely as this discussion is, casino threads aren't low content chit-chat threads. Enough about the ankle bracelets.

Did 5/10 NL run at all the first weekend? Is it confirmed uncapped?

Wait, so you always have to put in the entire stack to call? So annoying....

Yes, I played the first day. It was 9 handed and uncapped. One player bought in for 10K, some for 3 to 5 K, most others for about 1 to 2 K.

Yeah this sounds off. Is verbal not binding there? If I say all in or call your all in why would it matter how many chips signify that action? If verbal is binding you should be able to call an all in with one chip.

- Magic Man

All the dealers who I have heard answer the question of "why" have stated that the MA law requires them to show the full bet and call for the cameras.

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I noticed a couple experienced dealers not following this rule. Which is good. It slows the game down.

Waaaaaaaa, so much effort, you might wear your fingers to the bone.

This is a good rule. Have you guys never read the many threads here about people picking up their chips and leaving after saying all in or call? Verbal is binding, but unenforceable in most jurisdictions.

Second weekend and room has been packed again! Plo goes daily with lists! Hopefully it remains popular!

How's the parking today? Was thinking of heading there tonight but I got reminded of the parking especially being saturday night and got turned off.

Never mind. I've already decided not to bother.

I've heard that other than opening night, parking has been smooth!

Maybe my horror story was from that night, not sure. I'm at foxwoods, and hitting MGM from here "on the way home" saves me about 1.5 hrs driving overall. But if I have to park down the road and take a shuttle, meh.

Verbal or throwing in a chip is binding, they just bring in all the chips before resolving the hand.

The Stevie Wonder concert last night was so annoying, congestion wise. I was within a mile of the casino for about 30 minutes trying to escape the gridlock and find a place to park. Then, the lists were 30-40 long each. MGM Springfield is a popular place, and I don’t know if I can recommend peak times yet.

You're complaining because a poker room is TOO busy? I was at Foxwoods at 11pm the other night with only one 2/5 running. Why not HIGHLY recommend it during peak times with the caveat to be sure to arrive by 6pm?

Seems to me it’s off to a great start. Really looking forward to seeing it tomorrow.

Here is a review of my visit yesterday if anybody cares.

I went to check out the casino yesterday from NH with my parents. It was pretty easy to get to and the parking was plentiful at 2:30PM in the self parking garage. Overall the casino is nice, but smaller than what I was expecting. Everything was slow, especially the lines in the food court. That's probably because they are new and will get better and more efficient over time, but still most places had 1 register open for long lines. I guess they haven't hired enough people yet.

The poker room is nice. You have a little foyer type of area where you can sign up for games, but your name will be called inside the poker room. So if you sit in the foyer area on the couch you can barely hear them call your name as there is no speaker in that area. It seems like you should have the guy in the foyer area calling people for games with a speaker in the area along with the room itself.

The table numbers were weird as a first timer. They would say go to table 17, but the table is numbered as "PK-917" so it wasn't obvious if you were just looking for "17" until you realize the naming pattern of "PK-9XX" and just looked for the last 2 numbers.

I got on the list at 3PM for a 2/5 game and I was the 5th person on the list. I got a seat by 3:30PM so the wait wasn't terrible. The dealer made me get my own chips, saying only rebuys at the table. I had no problems with that as I was going to get my own chips anyway since I like them a particular way (7 green / 3 red).

The game itself was pretty soft with lots of button straddling and limping pre-flop. The chairs were comfy and there were USB ports for each chair. Easy access coffee/tea and soda was nice. This type of beverage station was also in the casino so it's not just a poker room perk. Dedicated bathroom in the poker room was nice, but there is also one right outside of the room.

The chip tray on each table needed to be filled 2 times in my 2.5 hour session which was shouldn't be tolerated. They really need a stack of blacks in there as there was more than enough reds on the table for people to sell stacks. Stack of Black, stack of Greens, 5 stacks of whites and 2 stack of Red, so $2800 in the rack sounds more reasonable.

Dealer tips are not shared from what I can tell since they would bring a tip bucket with them from tablet to tablet. So that incentivizes them to get efficient. I had some good and bad dealers over the 2.5 hour. Many didn't really run the game though. When waiting for people to act they would stair into space instead of watching the game and had to be told it has been checked around and to deal.

The cage was slow when cashing out. I had 1925 in chips in 2 racks. 1 was a rack of red and the 2nd rack was basically 3 in green. So it should have been 15 seconds to count, but they had to break down each stack in the cage. Then they had to have a supervisor recount the chips. Then they had to count the cash, have the supervisor recount the cash then count it for me. So everything is tripled check and they waste a lot of time.

Overall it was a fine experience for a new casino and the game I was in was pretty good. Though once Encore opens up in Boston next summer, I'll probably never go to the MGM.

The blinds have gone up in a lot of places; my local MGM's lowest limits are 4/8 for limit games and 1/3 for no-limit games. Compare that to ten years ago when AC was the closest legal poker and the lowest limits were 2/4 and 1/2, respectively.

I expect that in 50 years the lowest limits available might be 5/10 and 2/5. The rake also will have increased.

Casinos will charge whatever they think they can get away with in rake; the best solution if you think the rake is too high is to not play, whether that be taking your business to a competitor or simply spending your time on something else. If players stop playing, then the casino can make a business decision to lower the rake or replace the space dedicated to poker to something more profitable depending on what their metrics say.

Solid review. I especially appreciate the humble brag. 😜

Does plo run often?

Yes

Yes, every day so far. Enough local player interest to get it going each day.

Check ahead this week. Construction detours on i-91.