Per poker atlas, players must use 'both whole cards' for high hand. Nitty, yes, but that just looks foolish.

Definitely won't be going back. I pointed out there was a flyer on the front door advertising the $2 + $3 rake and manager shrugged it off, 3 hours later the sign was still there when I left. Oh and both the house and promo rake is going into the same drop, no marker to indicate how much goes to promo pool. Puck/managers claim they make it work with math in the backroom. Lots of reasons not to go there, just wrote a lengthy review on Atlas, but the thing that tilted me and got me to leave immediately was when one dealer started trashing other rooms/owners, reciting Puck's old broken-record government conspiracy theories. Got up and told them I won't be back.

I'm not an expert on promos (hate "lotteries") but I know at Foxwoods and Chasers the high hand requires using both hole cards, they just don't require pocket pairs for quads to qualify (unlike the bad beat).

27 saw a misspelling, and couldn't let the pitch go by.

Lol Puck just called someone on poker atlas a scammer just for questioning his shady raking, then finished it with a threat that if the guy has any more questions to stop by the room and visit him.

Never change, Puck.

It's almost like Puck doesn't care if the room succeeds... He is definitely his own enemy.

I'm interested to see who buys the room when it eventually closes. You can't continue to misrepresent terms to your customers and actually believe they will continue to patronize your business. I'm not surprised at any of this based on his track record here and elsewhere online, but it's just sad, because I wish I had the opportunity to run my own room.

For reference.......

Face palm.

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hahahaha. Anyways, it looks like from the numbers most rooms see a spike during a promo in 1/2 games and then is otherwise slow. Chasers seems to be the sole room running regular 2/4 with Hampton Falls getting a few tables at points. Most of the action and player base is going to be at Chasers for No Limit otherwise. I won't speak on PLO or MTTs.

I don't like this many promos. No only are we paying for it, the mundane conversation at these tables is a bit frustrating and its clear there are a bunch of promos players who run from room to room. Its not killing the action and games are still good but I do notice more than a few $60 stacks who aren't playing poker just chasing a jackpot which hurts the poker scene overall. I'd much rather see less promos and a regular economy develop but that is going to happen Summer 2019 when the gimics won't really matter.

The drop was clearly posted on Facebook as 3+2 as well. I've heard some say he's a good guy in person which I cannot comment on however he clearly is lacking in both business and people skills. Poker and casinos have a bad enough reputation we don't need people incapable of operating rooms in this industry. Freakin terrible! How do you advertise 3+2 on FB AND on your front freakin door......then charge 5+2? #headhurts

Yup, and how do you leave the false advertising on your front door 3 hours later after someone points it out if you aren't trying to swindle novice players?

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Technically that's the Sunday flyer, so you can't hold anything they put on there to other days. But that's the thing... If you go on their Facebook you'll see they put a flyer out nearly every day, which states the 2+3 rake on it, but conveniently the flyer for Monday doesn't show the rake, so that day's 2+5 rake doesn't get advertised anywhere. That's a shady business practice.

Lol. I am naive. So the 5+2 is reverse? I played at cheers for 9 hours yesterday. The $5 is promo and $2 is rake???

Anyways I had a good time yesterday. Game was good. Dealers were decent. (Never heard a dealer even mention another room or local politics). I really think yesterday was their opening night.

Puck was there and stayed out of the way for most of day. There was one weird part of the day where he started passing out flyers about something. (Was actually so annoyed with his process that I never read the flyer). Picture this: dealer is about to start dealing hand and a 70 year old tall guy in a yellow shirt starts throwing flyers on the table. Starts at 3 seat and starts putting copy paper fliers (yes spelt both ways since I’m too lazy to check which is correct) in front of each player. Goes 3,2,1 9 then gets called away. Never says a word to the table about why he is doing it. Never even says hi. I ask why he is doing it (as he walks away) and the 5 seat says “because he owns the place”. So there are several sheets of paper on the table in the way of the dealer pitching. Do we throw them on the floor if we read them? Did he think we would take them home?

Puck is socially inept. That said it is a good room if they get new chairs. Dealers and floor good. Auto shufflers was great. Food was good with great prices. They could have used more waitresses, but I can see how going from 0-2 tables a day to over 10 (with tourneys) can be hard to predict.

Promo generated action. Floor actually made mistake on promo early and paid two people.

I will go back. (Please please buy new chairs!)

I would have chalked it up to simply forgetting to swap the flyer, but I took that photo 3 hours after I showed them (literally had to point to the $3 before manager comprehended). If they weren't trying to slip the $5 promo rake under the radar they would have replaced the sign immediately or at least removed it, right?

Also, he clearly was gambling his entire promo account on this day as there is no announcement about the next high hand and all the other rooms that increase rake on high hand days only up it $1, he upped it $2. Not to mention I find it hard to believe he got $13k into that account legitimately with their limited action they've had before yesterday. I just hope whatever he's doing doesn't get the gaming commission to do something that hurts action at all the rooms.

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I can only surmise they left the normal flier up. This was this 1st special High Hand that they funded! The state took the reins off and let them after 1.5 months of no traffic.

I'm a player that plays all around and want all the rooms to succeed.

People are telling, Cheers, what they don't like and they don't want to listen to the customer base.

New Seating is a must! Get 5 tables worth and slowly add on if the cost is an issue.

30+ tables (No demand for that many..losing proposition)

Stream table, nice idea..but 2? no needed

We as players only want action...all rooms in high hand days collect $7 however you slice it. Don't play if it is a factor.

Chasers has all the 2/4 action, it's not a debate.

Cheers-needs to stop hating on other rooms. it sucks for them, we get it. they are getting crushed. Shuffles, make sure all work before installing. Get new seating....get high hack computer chairs for live stream table. make it an attraction. We as a community want it to succeed to give everyone options to play but listen to your target market!

In general, I think all NH rooms, target market is 1/2 players....

PLO
Big O

Seem like Niche games in NH...hit or miss. I'm sure they are regular staples in Full casinos (I know PLO is).

Tournaments, regardless of room in NH, only 1 or 2 a month have any draw. Currently It appears, Hampton Falls for their holiday tournaments and the weekly 50/50/50 @ Manchester are tournament draws, but few and far between.


High hands are not a gimmick in my opinion but are what people want everywhere down the east coast. Foxwoods, Mohegan, All NH rooms. Parx, Maryland Live, MGM National Harbor etc...


Twin River does none of it and still gets people, why? the action & demand....



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I did ask a dealer why they don’t separate promo from rake. She says they do it by percentage. I guess that makes sense if you treat every pot as Max Rake.

I should have paid attention more. Fortunately game was good enough where I didn’t.

I also got at a very soft table, maybe one of the easiest 1-2 games I’ve played at in years.


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I was confused at first too, but yes, 5 of the 7 dollars goes toward promos.


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I'm biting my tongue here.

Actually at a $5 promo drop yesterday paid for itself and then some.

And they did announce new promos yesterday.

You seem like you walked in wanting for things to go wrong.

I'm not hating on the 2+5 rake itself. They can charge whatever they want, and the 13k has to come from somewhere. But when the rake has been advertised as 2+3 every single day, until there is an advertisement stating otherwise, it's reasonable to assume people will think the rake is 2+3 that day. It feels like a giant bait and switch. Maybe shady business practice isn't the right term... disingenuous/misleading advertising maybe? Poor customer service for certain. If it turns out the 2+3 was just a promotion leading up to the grand opening, and 2+5 is the norm going forward, then I'll admit I'm wrong about the whole thing.

Not the case at all, I'd been there 4 other nights since the beginning of January before I decided to comment on it on here, Atlas, or anywhere. But between what I had read here over the last couple months and on the Facebook groups, I knew to be careful. I've played in enough crooked house games to know poker isn't always sunshine and rainbows. Trust and respect are earned, they're not assumed.

I think you're right that $5 promo drop could potentially pay off $13k in one day. $1100/hour payouts would need 220 max raked hands per hour. If you have 10 tables going then all you need is 22 hands/hour which, even with slow dealers should be doable. However, it wasn't until I got there at 3pm they opened their 10th table. Eight 1-2 NL and one 2-4 NL and one 2-4 Limit. They opened one more 1-2 and a PLO game before I left. From what I'm hearing they didn't get much more going throughout the night. The problem is that 90% of the pots at my table were under $40, and they were dropping straight 10% so a $39 pot was raked $3, not $3 + $1 like most rooms. I saw less than 5 pots in 3 hours go to max rake. I'm sure the 2-4 Limit game didn't see many max raked pots. So maybe they recovered it, maybe they didn't.

One of my complaints was they don't have a PA system so it's entirely possible I missed an announcement about scheduled high hands. But I haven't seen anything in any of the Facebook forums or the Cheers page where Puck usually posts constantly about what they have going.

However, I think you misread the post you quoted. I'm wondering how he got the promo account to $13k before Monday. Given that the promo rake was $1 from the end of December when they opened until last week of January when it went up to $3 and they hardly ever had more than one table going (if any)...the games would had to have had crazy action.

I actually have rooted for Cheers to do well when talking to players at the table in other rooms. When it was explained to me that promos have to be paid for 100% by separate rakes I realized how difficult it would be for them with a competitor down the street already running promos. I believe competition is necessary to keep things attractive for players both novice and experienced. But I'm not in favor of sacrificing integrity of the game simply because one is having a tough time getting going. And I absolutely despise people who make excuses or blame others for their own failure. I went to Cheers because I thought maybe that was just Puck's keyboard warrior persona, but given that his dealer was making the same statements it is clear he's infected his staff with this mentality as well. Thus, I won't be back and I would advise anyone that chooses to play there to keep a watchful eye.

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I agree. I honestly would have driven to Foxwoods to play the 6pm and cash games there if I had known my trip would go like it did at Cheers.

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I read your Poker Atlas review. It was very critical but also quite fair. You even gave some feedback on how to improve things (focus on strong points, etc). 5 stars.

Thanks. I actually got tilted writing it because it was late at night and there's no character counter so my first go at it was over the limit by more than 3,000 characters. Maybe being forced to whittle it down was a good thing.

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From what the dealers were saying, it seems like 2 plus 5 will be the rake going forward, at least for a while.


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