Will depend on demand. I will play anything HORSE if it is consistent

Thanks for the reports, Playbig2k and Dr. Fells...I'm looking forward to taking a trip up this spring but I'm definitely going to temper my expectations.

Poker Room now slated to open beginning of March. Exact date and time will be updated as soon I receive the information.

Davey

Any idea what approximately "beginning of March" is? Is it definitely not March 1 or within 1-2 days of that?

Asking because I already booked a non-refundable hotel for 3 nights, March 1 - 4 at the Ramada specifically for poker room opening. Would not go if there will be no poker on those days.. (and would be trying to sell them at a big discount ASAP - PM if someone is interested)

I'm starting to get concerned that it might be later than we hoped. Wording has changed from March 1st...to the beginning of March. Hopefully Davey will give clarity in the next day or 2. My guess is this will turn into March 9th weekend. We will see...

I'm also concerned that other than 2+ 2 members following this thread, everyone is in an unknown state. ( I guess we are in an unknown state too...but at least we are getting a thread to follow). Casino patrons looking for the poker room just see a roped off area, and no signs for clarity. No casino employees have any idea, etc

I think picking a date and announcing it.. and putting up signage would be very beneficial to the health of the poker room opening. If not...people are just going to keep planning poker trips elsewhere for the month of March. RWC needs to realize that their clientele shouldn't just be the locals..and the non-locals who plan trips and need to book hotel stays need to do so a couple to several weeks in advance.

I'm heading over there today to see the place. Heard lots of mixed reviews, but I expected that after the soft opening - a lot of kinks to work out. I play in a lot of local tourneys in Westchester and Dutchess. I play with a lot of folks that are really looking forward to this poker room so my gut tells me that the demand will be there but there is always the chance that the decision makers will screw it up. I agree with Dr Fells - they need to pick a date and focus on this market. Lots of hoopla about catering to the asians - great, they come in by the busload. Put this poker room on the map in a big way and you will have a loyal customer base that will keep this room - and the tourneys - full. Local poker players from the Hudson Valley area + northern NJ + some in NYC that can flip a coin and choose between RWC and Foxwoods will show up - its up to the casino to deliver and keep them coming and grow the room. I hope (and expect) that we break their system and oversubscribe the tourneys. We will do our part to get this place off the ground - RWC needs to deliver.

I have a 12 day non refundable air bnb booked starting March 1st because thats when the opening was listed for! Please some clarity on the opening, no idea what I'm going to do at this point anyways if it's not opening up on the 1st, gonna be a waste of money....

OK fwiw here is my impression. Place is nice and a much better attempt at a regional casino than Rivers Schenectady. Plenty of parking, nice bars in the gaming area, no clouds of smoke inside the casino. From what I saw the dealers are all on-the-job-training, which is fine they will improve with time. If I had one critique about the look of the place it would be the very pedestrian main entrance - reminds me of a hospital, not very impressive at all. I was surprised by that. Coming in the front door of this place is nothing like walking into Borgata or the Grand Pequot tower at Foxwoods. Overall I think that it will serve the poker playing public well once the room is in full gear and there are plenty of weekly and special series tournaments offered.

No chance to sneak a peek at the Poker room

Sorry everybody. I can’t give a definite date and time as of yet.
I can say the tables are felted and the dealers are training.
My best answer for now is the range of March 3-6 for an opening. I will update as soon as I get the word.

Davey

Hi all. I plan to come for poker (wife playing too), but I must bring my 6 year old and my in-laws so I can call it family vacation! What is to do for the family around the area? I live in Queens have no idea about this area. Suggestion please.

Is there a Hyatt or Holiday inn nearby? (I have free rooms)

As best I can, I'm monitoring the situation about the Poker opening. Past experience is usually a good predictor, so I'd urge anyone optimistically hoping Poker will open by next week to abandon ship & cancel their reservations before it's too late to do so. The toll free number rep told me weeks ago that this was the target weekend, but a few days ago told me they were looking towards the following weekend. Don't much care about mid-week opening as I don't want to take time off from business; prefer to share the drive and tolls/gas with another; and want to see what kind & size of crowd the weekend generates.
And I wouldn't make reservations yet for March 9-10, as the room's inability to confirm a start date is a cautionary message.
It was unclear to me whether all or part of the room would have auto shufflers right away. Can the room Rep enlighten us?
Do they intend to play 9 or 10-handed? What is the range or buyins on various tables? I am a bit worried that none of this information is public knowledge yet, as I like to give my LI poker pals as much insight as possible, as the choice between Borgata, Parx, Mohegan and Catskills will be a close call for a huge number or regular traveler/recreational players like myself.
The other bit of information I gleaned is of interest to Tournament players - they may be trying to get up a tournament of some king in early May. I assume they have to see how the room runs first & the demand for tourneys.
I assume they have to run tourneys in the poker room on the existing tables, which kind of limits the size of the tourney, and implies they will only run on weekdays, if the room is successful. WHICH I MOST CERTAINLY HOPE FOR!!

Barring any unforeseen setbacks and regulatory issues,
The Poker room will be open Monday March 5th at 10am.
Full available fact sheet to be posted here tomorrow.

Davey

Davey, this is great news thank you. We look forward to the details.

I might check it out Monday for the opening...

Dave I hope you are planning on running the great game of POT LIMIT OMAHA

I know the ny crowd loves plo... My two cents is to spread games like parx does

Offer a 2-2 plo 100-500 and a 5-5 plo 500-2000 and possibly even a 2-5 plo 200-1000 (like Foxwoods) that would give u a small medium and high stakes

Eventually you can be running 5-10 1000-4000 and 10-25 uncapped

PLO is the future of poker and you have a chance to capture a lot of plo players and the market. The city games usually run a lot of plo and plo is where the money is going to be... obviously spread your standard 1-2 and 2-5nl to attract people but I would make sure you emphasize plo

Thanks Davey great news I'm looking forward to the fact sheet. What time can I sign up for games on Monday? Will the podium be open before 10?

Personally..I'm going for NL Hold em. I'm hoping 2/5nl and 5/10nl run during the week....and 5/10nl and sometimes 10/25nl (sporadically) run on the weekends. IDK if games will be running that high..but I hope they will be.

WEBSITES:

Main -- www.rwcatskills.com
Bravo Poker Live -- https://www.bravopokerlive.com

DIRECTIONS:

Address: 888 Resorts World Drive Monticello NY 12701

FROM NEW YORK CITY:
I-87 North to Exit 16 (Harriman) to Route 17 West
Take Exit 106 and Follow Signs for Resorts World Catskills

FROM BINGHAMTON:
Route 17 East to Exit 106
Take Exit 106 and Follow Signs for Resorts World Catskills

FROM CONNECTICUT:
I-84 West to Exit 4W for Route 17 West
Take Exit 106 and Follow Signs for Resorts World Catskills

FROM SCRANTON:
I-84 East to Exit 34 for PA-739 N.
Get On NY-17E from PA- 434N
Follow NY 17E to Exit 106 and Follow Signs for Resorts World Catskills

FROM ALBANY:
I-87 South to Exit 17 for I-84 West
Take Exit 4W for 17 West
Take Exit 106 and Follow Signs for Resorts World Catskills

PARKING:

Self park (garage) - take the customer elevator in the middle of the garage and select Poker Room on the elevator. Make a left off the elevator and you are there.

Self-park (outside) - From the valet entrance keep to your left and take the escalator up directly to the poker room on the second floor.

Valet: "Valet parking will be available 24-hours per day. Rate is currently $8.
From the valet entrance keep to your left and take the escalator up directly to the poker room on the second floor.

THE POKER ROOM
--------------

POKER DIRECTOR: David Urie (daveygravy)

POKER ROOM PHONE NUMBER: not available yet
*** Poker room is currently NOT accepting call-ins for game wait lists, may be implemented after the opening.

19 TABLES

GAMES- Holdem, Omaha, and Stud Variants.

BUY-INS

1/2 NL: $60-$300
2/5 NL: $200-$800
5/10 NL: $500-$2500
10/25 NL: $2,000-$10,000
25/50 NL: $5,000 min (no max)


2/2 PLO: $100-$500
5/5 PLO: $500-$1,500
10/10 PLO: $1,000-$10,000


RAKE:

10% to $5 max with time rake exceptions below

$7 per half hour on 5/10 NL and higher, 10/10 PLO and higher, 20/40 Limit games and higher

No flop, no drop.

Reduced rake in effect when there are 5 players or less.

BAD BEAT JACKPOT:

$2 jackpot drop ($1 @ $20, $1 @ $50) on jackpot-eligible games.
Quad 5s beaten, pot >=$20, both cards must play in both the winning and losing hands
Split is 40%-20%-40% with a player share for anyone dealt into the jackpot hand.

MISCELLANEOUS

Cash games are 9 handed, tournament games (beginning in May) are 10 handed

There is no betting line; the racetrack line is a courtesy line.

Players in the hand may not talk about the hand when heads up, and no cards may be revealed.

UTG straddles are allowed in Holdem games only. Double the big blind.

New players do no post.

No Buying the Button

Players with a live hand may request to see other hands at showdown, but any hands shown in this manner are live.

The poker room will use Gemaco cards.

PLAYER BOXES: Coming but not available at the open.

COMPS: approx $1 hr all games

FOOD: Small menu will be in the poker room directly. Any food in house may be eaten. Food carts available

Free WiFi is available. Players will be allowed to use electronic devices unless their use slows down the game.

Restrooms and a cage in the room.

Smoking 45-90 second walk depending on route.

Davey

Thanks for putting this out Davey, see you in mid-March after most of the kinks are worked out. Will you have auto shufflers?

looking fwd to it!

BS-

Awesome. Yes we have auto shufflers on every table

Davey

Thank you Davey!

As far as comps...I would ask, and recommend that you consider an incremental system. $1 an hour comp is fine...but for people that put in more than XXX hours a month, they should earn additional comps per hour. ( the way Foxwoods does it for example). This will encourage people to play more, and at the same time give them incentive not to divide their play between RWC and other regional poker rooms that are equidistant for them. ( Borgata/ Sands/Parx, etc)

good lord - 5/5 plo raked and no straddles? hope this will get changed at some point

You'll be lucky to get 2-5 off during the week. The weekends should have at least a 2-5 game going. There's no base for anything higher during the week. It's going to be 2-3 tables of 1-2 if you're lucky.

Sheesh. I hope that's not the case. What do you think the other 16 or 17 tables are going to be running?. Or just a dead and empty room?

You'll have some weekend action in the beginning for sure but Monticello is a severely depressed area. Girlfriends and wives will have NOTHING to do there while the guys play. Same for kids. There's zero shopping or outside entertainment. The nearby motels look like crack houses. My family had a house up there since the 60's. We sold it 4 years ago. But hey, I could be wrong and I hope I will be wrong.

I admit to not having much of a feel of what will be running on a given day but I'm slightly more optimistic than this.

Monticello may be dead but there's a fair number of people 90 minutes away or less that will add to the base. I'll be making the 80 minute drive from central westchester once a week and I'm sure I won't be alone.

I understand that the guy running the room knows what he's doing and that's a big thing. He wouldn't have come unless RWC was committed to setting up a good room.

We will see.