Ugh. Just a reminder that this a low-content thread. Pretend this was the RC subforum and not PV. I mostly meant to keep an eye on affikiate violations. But OK. Til Sunday! Eagles need all the help they can get

I shall not allow any affikiate violations. Also, covfefe.

This probably isn't true - likely my being very slow on getting Puck verified as a rep was the issue, and Lattimer's just being a good guy. My apologies to all.

This.

Given what thread I'm in, I won't say anything about the football game as you don't want to know who I'm cheering for, but I hope it's a good game regardless.

The folks in Vancouver are probably still bitter about the Stanley Cup loss and so want all Boston teams to bite the big one. That was my impression when I went to Vancouver last summer.

Wow.. so Hampton is $5+$2 6 days a week permanently? Do they have a high hand promo all 6 of those days or if you play some of those days are you paying a $2 bonus drop with 0% chance of getting any of it back and are just funding the promos for other days of the week? The times I have been to Hampton there hasn't been a ton of money on the $1-$2 tables so raking $7 per hand is slowly going to bust the whole table!!!

While I know I'm in the minority I say just rake $5 and f#*k all the silly promos!!! I can't believe that poker has come to this where rooms feel that the only way to draw customers is to have these carnival type promotions!!! When did all this nonsense become MANDATORY to get games running? Also, the fact that these promos actually make more players go play (if this is so) then it just shows how stupid players are that they would flock somewhere so they can give a $2 bonus drop for a proposition that is -EV !!!

I have an idea for room owners: In addition to having all of these $2 drop tables running have a $5+$0 table running for people that just want to play poker without the hokey nonsense of a $2 carnival drop that essentially sucks an additional $60 per hour off the table on top of the $5 per hand that's already taken.

I have to admit that I thought the opening of the two new rooms in Salem would be good for the players by creating more competition among the rooms thus creating a better situation for the players which to thrive under but imho it has done quite the opposite by turning room owners loose by trying to out do each other with nonsense promos. The funniest part of this whole thing is the rooms are running all these promos to draw traffic and it costs them nothing... the knuckleheads that are running to these rooms are going there just to try and win their own money back that the house sucks off the table $2 at a time

I get it these things allegedly draw people in to play but do they really? Show of hands: How many of you were not planning on playing poker on any particular day but decided to actually go play because there was a high hand promo going that day? I also get that if they do draw players that normally wouldn't go there then its a great deal for room owners who fill their rooms with advertising/promos that cost them nothing... how much more of a better deal is there in business than filling your business with customers by using advertising that's paid for by somebody else!!

While I am quite certain I am in the minority I for one will be 100% boycotting any room that is taking $2 bonus drop on a day that I plan on playing. I refuse to give a room my business that's taking $2 per hand to essentially pay their advertising budget while making the game nearly unbeatable.

My total take on this whole thing is the NH poker rooms have all gotten to big for their britches and have lost sight of what they really are. I guess we could name it the "Borgata North Syndrome" and in my opinion has ruined the NH poker landscape. Maybe it's the NH Lotteries fault for licensing so many rooms and saturating the market and thinning out their customer base (there are only so many customers to go around among the rooms) thus forcing these rooms to do desperate things to steal each others customers.

In any event thanks to whomever is at fault here it has taken the bloom of the rose for me and I will likely save my poker time/money for places other than NH. I realize that I may be in the minority here and it's just my opinion but my opinion decides where I spend my poker money. No worries, I'm sure someone will justify why taking $60 per hour off the table for a -EV proposition is good for me. I just hope I don't have to be subjected to the "higher rake is better for the game" theory!!!

I'm guessing this will only be an issue for the next 18mos or so until Wynn opens and the NH Lottery/poker scene will be dealt a gut punch. It will be interesting to see how many rooms will actually thrive or even survive after Mr Wynn sets up shop locally.

Is Vancouver even rebuilt yet? I thought they burnt it to the ground after the Cup loss of '11?

I’m with you. I go to a poker room to play cards and I’ve literally never even thought about anything like a high hand, a bad beat jackpot, or whatever goofy promo the room is running that day.

However, I think this does attract a lot of people. I played at Chasers with a friend a week or so ago and half the table was talking about the promos they were running for the better part of a few hours.

My buddy and I were getting so aggravated by this incessant talk, but it really seems to draw people.



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ATM, I’ll give one example exception to your otherwise good rant: BigO @ Manchester. The high hand promo there on Wednesday’s increases the attention to Omaha and players in the game. But the difference is that players come for the promotion because you know there are hold’em players there playing for the HH, whereas, as you point out, no additional players seem to be brought in for the hold’em HHs. They are more likely coming over from different rooms

Bump. This interests me too.

Have you ever been at Foxwoods for one of their Madness Mondays?

High Hand promos absolutely work. And people play so loosely pre-flop that if you just play your regular game, your winrate goes way up, not even considering the EV of randomly hitting a high hand.

I made a mistake in my original rant. 5+2 is Tuesday through Saturday, so it's 5 days a week.

There are certain hours Tue-Sat that have high hands, but on the non high-hand hours they're dropping 5+2 and offering nothing other than a 10K bad beat.

The problem is that the NH rooms are all running high hands, often concurrently, and the people who chase the high hand promos are all playing at Chasers because they have the largest jackpot pools. Furthermore, with a high drop in the Hampton area rooms, more people lose which hurts traffic long-run.

I agree with you that some players play looser to hit a high hand, but with something like a progressive high hand that is always in play the rooms can A) have a unique promo, B) don't have to worry about losing games outside the promo window, C) won't need to increase the drop to fund "competitive" high hand promo periods, and D) loose players can still chase promo hands.

Since you've asked for a show of hands, I personally have driven down to Foxwoods twice this year for their high hand promos on Monday, but I haven't even paid attention to any of the promos going on in the NH rooms. I choose which room to play in simply by the amount of games running. But I do agree it's getting redic with all these promos. I'd be happy if they all just went away.

I have played at both Cheers and Chasers now. Chasers have more going for them especially the chairs. I would love to see either of these places get to good tourneys like Hampton Falls

While that could still be the case for some, it doesn't take any bitterness for people to cheer against an area that has won WAAAAAY more than "their share" of championships over the last 10-15 years. What's the longest NFL/MLB/NBA/NHL drought now for Boston - 10 years for the Celtics? I doubt there's a city in North America whose longest drought is shorter. Probably no one even close. So it doesn't take any personal bitterness to root against a Boston team - the natural "enough already" sentiment combined with the tendency of many to cheer for the underdog means that most people not from the area are going to be rooting against your teams for quite some time to come. It just means your teams are doing it right, so deal with it.

FWIW, I cheered for the Red Sox until they finally ended their drought.

I'll try to make this the last I say about it, before a thread reg tells us to take this off to Sporting Events.

Is there any action at The River in Nashua or does BBCC have it all locked up? They don't seem to be on Poker Atlas or Bravo but their website shows various tournaments and promotions. Anyone? Bueler?

You aren't showing yourself to look very smart with this post. You recognize that "stupid players" would flock to a HH promo yet you'd prefer to not have these same "stupid players" in your game in exchange for keeping $60 on the table each hour? This post could be the sticky for the "Penny Wise, Dollar Foolish" thread.

Sharps want promos to drive traffic in the form of "stupid players" and the additional rake is the tax that pay for this wonderful privilege. These players make the games better, period.



This has been the industry trend nationally over the past half decade as the HH has replaced the BBJ as an effective promotional tool for a room. I'm also confused.....as to why you are upset that your room is gifting you these "knuckleheads" in your game.

No, I don't really think you do understand. You don't need a show of hands, you simply need the Bravo app to see that when Foxwoods runs a $500 HH promo during the week they get 35-45 games running opposed to barely cracking 20 on weekdays they don't. When they have their once-a-month $1000 HH promos on a Monday every one of there 94 tables are filled. When Mohegan runs their HH the numbers are slightly smaller however the ratio to tables are similar when compared to the non-HH days. The HH has replaced the BBJ on a national scale as the "poker room promo" of choice for the simple reason that it works!! It draws players to the room if marketed properly......there is plenty of evidence of this.

I'm originally from Florida and still travel their frequently for business. There are around 30 rooms with reasonable action and every single one of them has a $5+2 rake drop. The games are the most profitable around as they are filled with all of those "stupid players" and "knuckleheads" that you don't like in your game.

Well I didn't want to disappoint you but you are dead wrong about having these players in your game being a -EV proposition. You are taking $60 per hour of rake off the table while adding, using a 2/4NL example, 3 "knuckleheads" with $500 of dead money to the game without factoring in any additional bullets they may be concealing. Consider the $60 an hourly tax for the opportunity to capture these additional funds that wouldn't otherwise be available without that HH promo.

This is FAR different than Puck's earlier rake comments. When all else is equal of course the lower the rake the better. However, when that promo brings 2-3 "knucklehead" players into the game it is +EV for the most skilled players in that game by quite a large margin.....despite the $60 an hour drop.

This part I agree with simply because we don't know what their rake and promo drops will look like at this time. Wynn's room in Vegas is one of only a handful who do NOT have a jackpot drop, only the $5 rake, but that is a much different landscape with so much tourism business. Promos don't work as well in Vegas as nobody is planning a Vegas trip around a poker promo.

Hey Lattimer,

I saw you have the first post for this Thread, do you think you can add the rakes for each of the rooms there? That may be a nice spot to have all the information?

Lol pathetic

If you gather the info and send it to him via PM, I'm sure he'd be happy to put it in there. That's how all FAQs are maintained -- a community member gathers the info, sends it via PM to a mod, and the mod puts it in the OP of the appropriate thread.

Yup. I just wish I could get rid of the poll.

I just learned that Seabrook's move to a $2 jackpot drop is permanent.

In other news, at Hampton Falls on Sunday night at 9:30PM of a 3 day weekend they only had 3 tables going, none of them full. Not surprisingly, there was no high hand promo, and poker players don't like paying jackpot rake for a promo they can't hit, even on a day of the year when the room should be packed.

So am visiting and staying near Fenway later in the week and over the weekend. Any poker that would be accessible to me and easy enough to get to on a weeknight? Thanks for any insight on the rooms / games. I scanned the thread including the OP but am looking for any addition al details you can provide.

Hf

About a 40 minute drive to the rooms in Salem, NH or to Twin River in Lincoln, RI.

Thanks. Any detail on the rooms and what games are likely to be like on week days?