It seems insane to me that if they were ready to go live this Thursday/Friday they wouldn't have announced by now....

They should do a soft opening with a free roll tournament for higher tier players.

I agree but I can see it from their side, They probably don't want to overload the floor on the first weekend and have a bad launch. With other rooms around Chicago having limited hours plus Poto closed in Milwaukee, I would expect Rivers to draw a huge crowd given it's location. If they are planning to open this weekend, I'll be there!

I can't make it this weekend as 2 of my closest friends are in town from the UK, but if you go please give us a report, I'll want to play a couple of nights next week for sure.

Hoping they have regular 2-5 (they def should) and even 5-10 as I look to step up, as well as 1-2 PLO etc.

I've heard this argument before, but its never made sense to me.
How many times have you had a flight, but before departing, or after arriving you went to a nearby casino for a few hours?
I'm very happy for Rivers to open since it gives another option and I live close by, but I just dont see the airport bringing in players
at least not in any significant way.

Unless all the PLO guys from the shoe make it to Rivers, there aint gonna be no PLO

160 people at the tables and another 100 on the lists Friday and Saturday night at GVC
and the best they could get was 5 names on a PLO interest list.

Best way to know in advance if there is going to be a PLO table running
is to ask those guys at the shoe if they are going to move their game to Rivers

I would never play PLO, I've looked into it, and it's still just bingo to me with far too much variance
But I am fascinated at how even at GVC's peak pre-covid when they had a regular, massive 5-10 group
who regularly had $40K on the table, they still refused to play PLO

It was the same 20 or so guys, and they'd always play mandatory straddle and yet still, those guys
would never make a PLO game for more action.

I just dont get PLO, those who play it swear it's the best game, but it's still pretty much a niche game
What percent of WSOP events are PLO? 10%

I even played it once at Joliet a few years ago and it was insane.
After each hand the winning player colored up with the dealer since they ran out of chips for all the re-buys
Every hand went 4+ ways all in pre, my jaw was just on the floor
there was no "play" or strategy, it was just push push push and pray you hit the flop

I get it, Im just not smart enough to understand it, but I tried, even bought a book on basic strategy to learn
but the edges on most every hand were minute at best and it seemed like you would need a massive bank roll
to stay alive over time.

I hope you get your PLO, I'll rail ya once in awhile since I find it fascinating to watch and figure out who
and why they would subject themselves to such a game

PLO runs at RCG a whole bunch fwiw. I mainly play 2-5 NL, but the occasional punt at PLO.

PLO is a fun game to gamble with if you understand even basic strategy, but it's super high variance obviously and even though you can have a REALLY big edge on the field (for PLO....) you're still going to be in huge spots where you're only a 60% favourite.

The lists at GVC have been insane recently yep, though I've always got seated in not too long (at 1-3, then had to wait for 2-5). Games are still stupidly good though. That said I got crushed last Friday and in 3 of my last 5 sessions there.

Looks like it’s opening soon

https://twitter.com/phil_hellmuth/st...fyEBTwA9Y3vtqA

The airport brings a lot of traffic to Rivers , just think about delays , cancellation and people in hotels nearby with nothing to do.
Also now with conventions back to full speed at convention center it will be a very busy room.

After all this mystery about opening the room I call the casino and they said it will open on Friday after 10am.

I think it has less to do with the airport and more to do with it being in the northern Suburbs of Chicago. They will basically capture the entire northern suburb which in general is more affluent than the south side (Hammond) and have more tables than GV in Elgin. Plus the entire City of Milwaukee does not have a poker room at the moment so it would bring in players from there as well.

The airport is an added bonus. Thinking optimistically, if Rivers was ever hosting a WSOP circuit or any other major poker event, it will be convenient for new players to come and check it out.

It isn't the airport per se, but because of where the airport is located and how expensive Chicago is, a lot of business travelers and convention-goers going to "Chicago" actually go to Rosemont which is right by the airport, and Des Plaines is right by Rosemont. I'm pretty sure a decent chunk of table games traffic at Rivers is already out-of-towners who flew in.

Why would rivers host a wsop c...caesars owns gvc..they would host the wsop c.

Hellmuth posted a quick video of the room today on Twitter. It looks pretty ****ing awesome!

Wow it looks like an actual proper, nice, poker room right here in Chicago.

LFG.

Have you somehow never noticed the vast amount of hotels, conference centers, restaurants, and office buildings/HQs around ORD?

https://twitter.com/PokerNews/status...91758296174592

https://twitter.com/phil_hellmuth/st...34580797595650

LFG

Looks very nice. For anybody who is going the first week, please provide a trip report.

Is the poker room officially open? Anyone have any updates on what games they were running on the first night? It doesn't look like games are showing up in bravo...

10am Friday is the reported opening time.

Have they said what games and buyins they are going to spread?

Bravo shows all the games. But it is lacking the rake amount.

Bravo says the 1/3 is $100-$500 buyin. If true, that is fantastic.

Looks like they were still updating Bravo. The $100-$500 buyin is gone for 1-3. 16 tables running. 106 waitlist for 1-3, 64 for 2-5. PLO running, as well as a 10-20 NL and 25-50 NL game...

Do they take call-ins?