No developments. The Philly and Pittsburgh metro areas will wind up with the largest "concentrations" but nothing in walking distance.

Being from the Northeast, Mohegan will be nice (10 mins from me) if they can get any decent games going and the rake isn't horrible. I'm not holding my breath on that though.

As to the other comment about straddles, buying the button, etc, understand that PA has not gone anywhere near out on a limb with the regs already in place. I can imagine the rules mandated by the state are going to be very conservative and restrictive, but we shall see.

Oh there will never ever be that sort of development in PA. The Casinos that will eventually have table games/poker either exist now or are under construction/already planned. Out of the whole state, only Philadelphia Park really has to step up and compete with an established gambling epicenter. The people that bribed the state legislators/governor to get a precious slot license already did the dirty work, and now can sit back and count the money for decades to come.

This. I like AC and especially the Borgata, but sometimes, I still can't get over the room rates. While Las Vegas is discounting rooms like crazy, AC is still charging room rates as if the economy were humming along. Just this morning, I got an offer from MGM Grand to stay for 6 nights in a suite for $548. That won't pay for one weekend stay at the Borgata.

On another note, I thought one interesting part of the article in the OP was the plan for a central nightclub/entertainment area in the casino. This is usually good for poker players. It draws more people to the casino who want to give poker a shot while they are there. That's good for the game. It's one of the reasons that the Borgata (with its club, murmur, located just outside the poker room) is such a gold mine on weekend nights all year long.

Yes, but who the hell wants to go from NYC to Philly to play poker, at one room only?

I go from Philly to Vegas to play at one room only - Bellagio

Yeah, but if you do want to change your venue, at least you are at a place where that is posslble.

If I wanted to switch my poker room at Parx, I have to go to the track and bet horses...

Second that. I couldn't even find their address on their site.

I did a little goolging, did I find this place correctly? It's up in NE Philly past where the NE Airport is? Dang, that's closer to Trenton than downtown Philly.

Probably more to the point, Bensalem isn't Philly. Even if there were only one casino in mid-town Manhattan, you might still be enticed to go there because of all the things you can do to amuse yourself if you get tired of the poker room. You won't have that in Bensalem. Bensalem is to Philly what Yonkers is to New York.

Yeah, it's actually in Bensalem, just past the Philadelphia city limits.
I don't think traffic is going to be as bad as some are making it out to be. And last I heard, the owner was planning on paying the state to install a PA Turnpike exit right near the casino. Not sure if that is still the plan though.

And lol @ "one lane cow paths" in Philadelphia.

Plenty of NYC go to Mohegan, and its not any closer than AC is. Take an hour off commute and some bus comps and places in PA like this and Sands are going to take a lot of business from AC.

True... although I'll assume that the existing (and proposed) casino's along the delaware river, on Columbus Blvd. will have table games, too. Not as convenient as hopping around in Vegas and AC, but still only about 20 mins away.

My guess is folks will settle in their favorite room (much like we do now in AC) and play there 99% of the time.

Like I said in my PP, the casino's along the river are and/or will be ideally situated to take advantage of a short and safe walk into Old City (restaurants galore) and a brief cab to the theater district (plays, orchestra, etc.).

For the non-degen casino patrons, this will be a pretty nice option, especially in the warmer months.

I'm curious to see if they'll run a Borgata-type room; nicer atmosphere, cater to a younger clientele - i.e. lots of 1/2 & 2/5 NL games, lots of tournaments, etc...
OR
a Foxwoods/Taj-type 'card barn'; cater to regs, big variety of games/limits, so-so atmosphere, etc.

All I'm hoping for is a regular $6/12 or 8/16 HORSE game, is that too much to ask ?...

This is really not true at all. I play in AC very rarely and I have been sent comped room offers from Harrahs for all their properties, Trop, and Borgata. All with at least one free night per week sun-thurs and discounted rates everyday but Sat.

I drive to AC and only ever play at the Borgata. I've only done the drive to Philly from NYC once in the summer but the traffic was way better then beach traffic on the way to AC.

I could see myself playing there instead of AC if the room was able to be close to the Borgata's level of service (which could be hard).

This sounds horrible for AC.

I can't wait for da pokerz to hit PA, especially in the Philly area. As nice as a giant room at parx will be for all of us much closer to Bensalem than PA, any decent-sized room along the river in Philadelphia will likely be hard to beat for action. Just think of all the young clubbers and bachleor-party types, not to mention well-to-do professionals like lawyers and doctors, that will just be out for the night in Center City, Old City, the clubs along the river and on South Street that will just and will stop in the casino for a little poker.

So is poker currently legal in PA and are there currently any legal poker rooms already in existence in PA?

One of the reasons I planned on moving to Philadelphia was because of its proximity to AC. Then I heard about Foxwoods and Sugarhouse getting poker tables. Now parx is planning a behemoth of a poker room.

What would be the +EV place to live in Philadelphia to capitalize on all of the pokers?

I hope for the best with this news, but I am slightly concerned that the games in the area will be diluted, especially the higher stakes games. In Vegas at the beginning of the poker boom the poker action centered around a handful of large rooms. At the peak of the boom the action was spread out all over hell, which makes table selection more challenging.

I hope this plan for a 100 table poker room is successful, though, since Bensalem is closer to me than AC.

if they open the room with the right people it will be huge, and i agree with catering to the regulars and people around the area..this will hurt ac a lot. i think poker rooms like ballys, and tropicana will close...showboat and caesars need to step up bringing in more business in poker, borgata, and taj will be fine. table games will lose a lot of business as well. atlantic city needs a major change, and its gonna take a lot more than revel opening up

No

Bensalem eh? I went to high school in Bensalem, dam good thing there wasn't a poker room around then because I looked old for my age...

And btw, Benslaem (sorry if anyone lies there but it is what it is) is pretty much a ****hole, and most of the "towns" around it. Downtown Philly is only 30m drive down I95 without traffic. 20m north on I95 you have a lot of really nice places to live, albeit not cheap, in Newtown, Yardley, etc.

Wow, Google maps puts parx casino 35 minutes closer to Jersey City (at 1 hour 16 minutes) then the Borgata. That's a pretty big plus.

Of course the fact that parx isn't suppose to be capitalized is just freaking ******ed.

Read this article last night. Very very excited. Hmmmm, 25 minutes to Philly Park or 2 hours to Borgata. I know where I'll be playing poker from now on.

I'm actually planning to take a week's vacation from work the day poker begins. Anyone else wanna have a 2+2 get together?

Only downside is that the new poker room will supposedly be on the 3rd floor of the old racetrack building, not the new one.

i'm looking forward to this....there alot of people here from the burbs of philly?