how was your trip malachi 9

Good. Staff were very helpful and friendly. The players were very nice also. Decent amount of food choices. Saw one weird floor ruling but it didn't hurt anything.

a lot of fish up there

Recently the Par-A-Dice barred a former dealer who plays here regularly for abusing a dealer. It has been a long time coming. He has been barred before, but, unfortunately, management changed their minds and allowed him to return. I plead that management does not do this again. The room is a much more pleasant place to play now that he is gone.

There were only two tables going last night - a Saturday. Sometimes winning here is very uneven since some players will chase and chase and invariably hit their card on the river. I saw some absolutely brutal beats last night -- like a guy calling an all in for over $200 to chase a four-high flush draw, which he hit on the river. Amazing!

The night ended well for several as a few people were determined to give their money away, including one guy who had too much to drink.

The bad beat jackpot is approaching $50,000. Minimum losing hand is Aces full of Kings.

Played here last two weekends, and I have to say that the 1/2 NL Game was the absolute fishiest I had ever seen. Literally guys just donating money. There were a two or three good guys talking strategy and a lady that was definitely solid, but everybody else was perfectly content stacking with MPGK. Saw a lot of 3-4 people all-in pots, and bad beats were flowing like crazy. (I was lucky enough to avoid them). I'm not sure if I just caught the room at good times, but I left with the mindset of coming back home "to visit my parents" back in Peoria much more often.

im thinking about making a trip up tomorrow for the sunday $125 tourny but i cant find a structure sheet.

is there anyone here that would know or have the structure sheet for said tourny

Don't have a structure sheet but I can tell you, like most small buy-in daily tournies, it's pretty fast.

Usually pays 4 spots and at the final table of ten the average stack is usually less than 10-15 BB's.

As the discussion begins about closing this poker room, I wonder if anyone (the dealers included) think that the reason they have so little play in the room is because nearly EVERY dealer in the room hosts a home game one night a week?

Well frick frick frick this blows.

I was talking to one of the floor men and he told me that, for now at least, he's been told by management that there are no plans to close the room.

That having been said, the player pool has been slowly shrinking. Part of it is that this is the slowest part of the season traditionally, part of it is that they have lost dealers recently making for some longer wait lists which frustrates players (especially recreational players), part of it is that some players go broke and quit playing, and home games. Coincidentally, if you think the player pool is small now, imagine how small it would be when it is splintered among a dozen underground home games.

You'll never stop the home games, and I don't think you would want to stop them entirely, however the room should be looking at ways to lure those games back to the boat. I'm not sure exactly how to do that.

As a regular player, I want the same things as the house; a healthy, vibrant player pool, people coming in, spending money, having a good time, a safe game (not guaranteed at home games), a game with integrity (no collusion, cheating, etc. also not guaranteed at home games), and staff who are friendly, competent, and who show up for shifts consistently.

As players, what can we do to keep our home room open? How can we bring people in, make them feel welcomed, keep them entertained? I don't pretend to have the answers, but I suspect I want the same thing as you; to not have to drive over an hour to the next closest poker room.

Home games in themselves is not the biggest issue. It is the dealers running them themselves and activity recruiting players in the room to play in their games instead.

Well, that is a real problem. I didn't realize that was happening.

Has anyone reported that to a floor man or a manager there? That seems like something management would want to stop immediately. Or, is that why they lost some dealers recently? It wouldn't surprise me.

Par-A-Dice is the only room (if you can call it that) within an hour of me. I have not played there before but I am getting the itch to play live again as opposed to just online. I have vacation days coming up so it's good timing.

Thanks for the heads up.

The floor man I spoke to is aware of this thread.

I have no idea which floor man you spoke to, but, are you sure he is not one of the employees who is currently running or has ran in the past one of the home games?

I played here last week on Sunday (Oct 25) in the afternoon. The Sunday tournament was going on and only one $1/2 cash game -- but it was good. Apparently the tournament played that evening was going to be the final Sunday night tournament for the year.

Another Sunday afternoon with only one cash table going during/after tournament. Friendly game. Next trip there might be Friday night or Saturday next weekend.

Do you ever play in the Sunday afternoon tournament? Or just cash games. With the size of that place I'd imagine it can't be much more than 20 people. Just wondering how many people they typically have and what they pay to 1st/2nd place. There is no info on the Par-A-Dice website.

Last I saw payouts were 40-30-20-10 regardless of entrants. Max entries is 40 except when they run the bounty 1 every 3 months and will allow all 5 tables to be used (at least that's how it used to be....it may have changed since I last looked into it).

Not sure how many runners they've been getting lately, but for awhile it was 30-40.

I went to one in early October, I think they had 37 to start.

I'll be playing here either this Friday or Saturday. Probably just playing at a 1/2 table. Any recommendations on what times to show up/feel of the room? Played there once about a year ago but haven't been back since.

Is there still a 2/5 game on Friday nights? Been awhile since at this pace..

My only recommendation is CALL AHEAD FOR A SEAT. Otherwise I doubt anything major has changed since you were there last.

Calling ahead for a seat is important as the lack of action might mean a long wait if there are a few people ahead of you on the list.

There are some solid regs who play, but also many people who virtually give money away. Bad players sometimes mean bad beats there, though. Some people will play and/or chase any crap hand and sting you when they luck out on the turn or river.