Respectfully...
This is a Brand New Poker Room & this Review is from our visit on Saturday, Feb 19th. We've been to every serious Poker Room in a 3-4hr radius of here over the last 2 decades. Let me give you a little background locally first. The Indy/East Central Indiana area had their Poker Boom 20 years ago so this is a VERY experienced area overall. There are dozens of Charity Poker Games that range from Highly Experienced & better ran than a lot of Casino Poker to games that more resemble a Home Poker Game with little knowledge of Rules or Etiquette. Unfortunately at this early point of the Poker Rooms existence it is somewhere in between a decent Casino Poker Room & at times a barely playable Home Game. I/we played a handful of hours on this Saturday night with no expectations & an experienced open mind along with just wanting to get out & play Poker a few hours...
Heres what ensued...

After walking into the Casino we realized again that this is a very PRO Smoking Casino with more smokers gathered together than I'd seen since the mid 80's. I am writing this Review battling one of those headaches you get after being around heavy smoke for a few hours. No biggie I'm fine thanks for asking. Of course Casinos put the Poker Room at the farthest point from the front door so you can Quarter/Dollar yourself to death on the way to the Poker Room unless you're very disciplined. Now that's fine but this Casino has every Ticket Redemption/Player Card machine pointed to the main aisle which causes a line in the middle of where everyone is walking on a busy Saturday night. After making it to the Poker Room with only a couple extra bruises I realize the Poker Room opening is being guarded by a 40'x40' Bar for drinks. Seems fine but then after walking around it to get in the Poker Room I realize it is really too darn close to the room. The area is tight to get in & out of the Poker Room at times & I can only imagine when they get a WSOP Circuit Event here it will be a total mess. NOW after all that, the Poker Room is really nice with appealing colors & etc. The initial Hello to Leo & the list process was easy thanks to BravoPokerLive. Unfortunately this is where the appeal ended. Upon sitting down on 1/2PLO which was the 2nd biggest game running my wife had to brush away a ton of Turkey, bread & food crumbs to be able to set her chips down without them being in that trash. MOST Casinos don't allow players to eat at the table & that should def be the same here. It didn't take long to realize that the dealers were so inexperienced that even the most common Poker Rules were not burned in their brains from experience. Most of the Dealers acknowledged that they have NEVER played Hold'em let alone Omaha before��! There were a few local experienced good dealers that are good there but they were even talking to players at the table about how bad the other dealers were lol. Most were very nice & trying their best which unfortunately isn't good enough with so many Poker choices & the other really great Dealers in Indy/East Central Indiana areas. Experienced players are having to teach the dealers themselves while playing & stopping them from mistakes & misdeals constantly. They have a lot of 1/3NL Hold'em action going & I'm sure those had to run smoother than PL Omaha. They're talking about doing Tournaments soon but at this point I think that would be a really bad idea.
Heres what should've been done... Horseshoe should've flown in a dozen or two dozen very experienced dealers that are wanting to get away from their properties that are slow right now. Mix in those "Real" Dealers from other Properties to show these "Green" Dealers the ropes & how it is really done. That would've been a smoother transition with the bad Dealers learning a lot watching the Pro Dealers in action. I've been to new Poker Rooms before & I've never had ALL this happen to us in my life let alone in just this small 4hr session. You'd think with the Bar guarding the Poker Room that maybe a waitress would come by & get drink orders. Nope we had 1 waitress come by my table in 4+hrs. If you have to go & get your own drink, do not tip for zero customer service...
TIPS = (To Insure Proper Service)
So if you visit here in the next few months "Keep your Expectations Low & You'll Never be Disappointed"
I'm sure this room will get better with more experience & overall Poker Room knowledge & Room etiquette.
Here's some examples of what happened to us & other players. At least the ones I can remember.

1. The Floor let a well known local player who's been kicked out of every local Poker Room to be loud, disruptive & verbally abuse the dealers & players for hours at the poker table to the left of the front desk. Why do you think all the other places don't allow him to play?

2. Local "Legendary" Player turned Dealer calls misdeal while trying to back up the cards after having half the cards out just because his friend he showed Bias towards was walking back 20ft away & wanted in that hand. Wasting what seemed like an eternity redealing a hand that was already out.

3. Dealers are not always understanding how to properly calculate a pot size bet in Omaha. They don't seem to know the difference between 1/2 PLO & 5/5 PLO on what players are able to bet/raise. Not all players like to have to keep track of the action like they're dealing as well.

4. Dealers are not announcing the Straddle at all so the players are having to announce it to the table to keep the action straight.

5. Dealers do not understand or are misunderstanding the "1 Chip Rule" or even that anything a player says during the hand is "Binding"

6. Dealers are not keeping track of the button, one dealer moved it backwards during the hand totally messing up the action & betting turns then another dealer moving it twice & with action already happening it could not be fixed. This happens occasionally even at good games but it was every dealer that came in all night except 2.

7. Dealers not knowing how to let a player properly "Buy the Button" instead of waiting 2 hands to play. It's simple they pay both blinds & the small is dead in the middle. Button moves to them next & yeah that player to their left gets out of paying his BB occasionally.

8. Dealers not knowing or policing the buyin ranges for each different game. This goes with the experience of just being able to glance at a players chip stack & knowing what's there.

9. Dealers picking & choosing when to keep players off their phone while they're in a current hand. Another simple one that's based on kinda recent Mike Postle cheating scandal. If you're in the Hand you can't be on the phone period! You can't text your Bro, you can't play an App poker game & you can't text your dude Brad across the table what Hand you have.

10. Dealers not "Clearing the Board" before moving onto giving change or dealing with a chip runner, house, etc. So most of the time after the hand the playing area is a mess with the Dealer having to separate cards & chips for them just to push normal size pots.

11. Dealers messing with Bravo on their table instead of dealing the hand out & then fixing the small issue on Bravo of a player not being signed in. Slows the game down considerably & is not efficient at all.

MAJOR FLOOR ISSUE
Follow with me here...Somehow the 2nd PLO table breaks with 5 waiting on the list! THEN the Floor guy Leo says the 2 players that were actively playing on that table for hours that somehow broke had to go to THE BOTTOM of the list! These players on this table that's played for hours should've been put ahead of the players that just got on the list! Leo then got rude after he realized he was being questioned & said they'd have to take it up with the manager.
SO he ruled that if you're in a game that somehow the floor can't keep full even though there's 5 on the list... Then if all but 2 players leave the table because the floor didn't keep it full then the Floor will put the players that are left at the BOTTOM of the list...Pretty unbelievable!

POKER ROOM CASH CAGE
You can buy chips here BUT they will let a handful of people stand in line waiting to Cash Out but then guess what...
You CAN'T Cash Out here, you can only buy chips... How about a SIGN or someone actively letting people know they can't Cash Out there. It doesn't take much to recognize or realize when a player is standing there with racks of chips that they're wanting to cash out. If you make it to the Cash Cage with Racks & don't know you can't Cash Out there what will happen instead is they will just chip you up so you don't have to carry as many. Just close the Cage until you are able to do all the duties of a Cash Cage.

BONUS [HAND UPDATE] from
2/5NL Hold'em "ACTION"on
Monday 2/21/22:
There's a $10 Straddle & a player Verbally announces RAISE & throws in 1 Black Chip with 2 callers & then things get weird... Next player questions what the Raise was & BOTH the Dealer & Floor (Ester) RULED that the Verbal $100 One Chip Raise is a MIN RAISE to $20!?!?

Thank you & we all await your future Poker Room that's more on top of its game!

Why are there so many words?

TY. Have not seen such extensive trip report in here, for quite some time. Caesars "Horseshoe" rebranding would be odd without a poker room. So, Caesars "stuck one" in the casino.

Because he could not get so many things he is certain wrong with fewer words.

Hint, no no one misses paying their big blind if someone buys the button. Btw, if you don’t btb, you only need miss one hand. (Reason I chose this one is because it was a twofer)

Thank you for your kind words...
If out of 10 pages of my way too long Real Review this is all you got at 1am then I did pretty well then...

Let me clarify just in case I'm wrong on this one thing then "Fore". If so it must be on a Casino by Casino basis because I've seen this happen for years.

In this case a player busted out of Seat 6 & now with the Button moving to Seat 5 that will make Seat 6 the Dead SB with Seat 7 being a BB only...
So immediately a new player wants to come into Seat 6 & pay both Blinds which is essentially BTB. In that instance Seat 6 pays both Blinds & gets the Button next hand. Seat 7 is now UTG & doesn't have to put anything in that hand. But the next hand now Seat 6 is the button, Seat 7 is now SB & Seat 8 the BB. In that situation Seat 7 didn't pay a BB but all Blinds were taken care of on each hand which should be the only concern in a Cash Game.

NOW if this is because BTB for some reason isn't allowed in the Dead SB of a Cash Game then I'd love to hear peoples thoughts & actual rulings on that situation.

Also "Fore" we knew what we were getting into hearing all the other local players complaints previously. Like i said in spite of what we heard we dealt with all that crap for 5hrs we were cordial, fun, nice, action packed & overtipped for the quality of Dealers provided. You obviously haven't played here be"Fore" & I wish it was better overall as well.

You can have the nicest local Golf Course but if you don't mow your Fairways then the serious players won't play there long...

Would you say, this room is better or worse than Horseshoe Hammond? Hammond used to be the place for Chicagoland casino poker, but is now just in shambles.

I saw Indy Horseshoe listed on Bravo a few weeks ago and was interested. Seemed like very big lists on the weekends though, did it take long to get a seat?

Good morning Shanghai,
We use to really enjoy going up to Hammond occasionally pre-2020! You are so correct that was the place to go for the Highest Stakes & Best Action for as long back as I can remember. I can't believe Hammond Poker Room is now closed on the weekends that is totally insane to think of!
At this point in Horseshoe Indy's early version of a Poker Room I would NOT recommend driving very far to get to this particular Room. I do not know what games or stakes you prefer or play but Saturday at 9pm there were 2 kinda weaker looking 2/5NL tables with open seats yet a small list that I did not play. There were two 1/2PLO tables & one 5/5PLO table both did not stay full but kept a small list as well. It did not take long at all to get a seat BUT the number of tables & length of the lists seem a little skewed after thinking about it. The Floor didn't keep the tables full & that kept the list going & longer. There were multiple players that were playing & yet on multiple or all the other table waiting lists as well. You can see by my example on 1st Post that the Floor didn't handle a table break properly after putting the current players playing for hours behind players that just got on the list. Definitely a lack of common sense there & general Poker list knowledge. Right now it seems like this Room is predominantly more of a 1/3NL Hold'em Mecca with only about half of those 1/3 tables worthy of more than a $200 Buyin to cover everyone else at the table. On a side note I grew up in a smoking household but it took me 48hrs to get rid of the headache from being around all that smoke at the Casino.
I'm not sure where you're closest too. I wasn't much of a fan of South Bend Poker after we checked that place out in late 2020 but it is better than Horseshoe Indy Poker. I've always wanted to go check out Rockford & Chicago Charity Games but we have not. I imagine those would be pretty darn good right now with Hammond dead & seemingly no real other choices locally. For you I would literally drive to the Detroit Poker Rooms or Firekeepers before coming to Indy for this Room right now.

Never heard of any market traders nor owners of (fifty properties) Caesars stock, express any concern about poker room "service", where in 2022 Caesars base dealer salary is $5 per hour. Caesars wants your money, any way they can get it.
NASDAQ: CZR 75.30

Very true, the big wigs truly don't care about Poker. They don't think it makes them enough money BUT it does! It gets people there that wouldn't have stepped foot into their Casino without a Poker Room. My problem is with the Fakeness of a promoting some TOP NOTCH Room as Premier when it's clearly Bottom Tier.

Welcome BPJ .. (I like PBJs) to the forums .. I assume the Mods will modify the name on this thread so it can be the base thread for this venue.

Tough reviews, starting up such a large room was going to be a task for Chris (?) and based on the intel it appears things aren't going very well either. I'm much more worried about having weak Floors in a room than Dealers who hopefully will learn with experience as long as they stick it out.

Were you able to connect with Chris or did all the Floors look as new as the Dealers? We can only speculate from afar what 'they' were allowed to or attempted to do before opening the room.

1) No Player should ever be able to skip paying a BB. In the case above the new Player needs to wait a hand otherwise it would turn into a perpetual BTB. Typically a Player is only allowed to BTB when the Player on their left has just paid the BB. There are a number of threads on BTB, including a pretty active one this month.

2) What are the differences between 1/2 and 5/5 PLO? In our area the only difference is the buy-in stakes. 1/2 still has a 5 bring-in. There is one casino that does have a 2 bring-in but that is a nightmare table since the math is more variable with $1 chips involved and 'funny' Players who will bet $88 just to make the Dealer sweat out the pot size. Both stakes have a $20 max straddle.

It's good to see some posts from Indy and hopefully they will improve from week to week. GL

I have just seen it as 2 BB with dead SB in the middle from player who BTB. Next hand new player has button and all resumes normal. But def. agree, BTB NEVER allows/causes someone to avoid their BB

Yes. They are a business. They are a business in a questionable industry too.

Since Hard Rock Cincinnati is about an hour away, curious if anyone has opinions on the better room?
Horseshoe would be easier since it has the hotel but is Hard Rock worth the drive?

There is a Cincy thread you can look at. My impression is that poker in Cincy could be much better than what it is/was. But they may have had some tied hands with two name changes in the last 'few' years.

I've personally never had any grips when playing in Cincy .. but I'm usually only there during holiday weekends when the crowd may be slightly larger?

I did play a session with Don Cheadle in Cincy ..

Not surprised that the Indy thread is a bit quiet since the 'regular' Indy thread barely had any traffic either. I haven't really paid attention to Indy on Bravo much either.

From history .. the action in a 'new' room is very good for 6-9 months for sure. Then some fish go bust or give up and the Regs start to esablish themselves. My assumption is that the charity rooms are still doing very well during the week since it will be shorter drives for the Regs but weekends should be hoppin' at the casino. GL