One dollar an hour for players comps once our system is up and running

Can I ask why your boss doesn't want the bet line? Not to be an ass, but your boss must like a 'powder-keg environment' - as I imagine this will become an issue once some players realize how easy it can be to angle shoot. An experienced player pulling out an entire stack, cutting it 1/4 down, then dropping the rest with it. If the player doesn't insta-muck you can easily be like - 'oh my bad! didn't mean to bet the entire stack, and only meant it at my first cut' or something similar. Hate to say it, but somebody is going to try it (I promise I won't cause if somebody did that to me, I'd be pissed).

Did you guys observe them during this time, and grade them or anything? I mean this guy was not at all ready to deal a live game, on opening day, during peak times. I'm not exaggerating when I say his pace was 15 hands an hour, in fact I am probably being generous. And as stated above, almost ending an all-in hand after the flop. Next time it may not be almost he may succeed. Enjoy explaining the resolution to the two players involved in the hand, especially the loser.

Mistakes happen, and nervousness can be expected. But I have to ask one more time, how could the players tell that this guy wasn't at all ready but none of the supervisors could?

thanks. great help be there early to start some fun games

HAHA dude I was in that Hand, with the Asian kid, I think it was 10s, VS the my AQd.... That was nuts.

Love this idea! Depending on starting stacks but Ceasars are run very well.

As for WSOP, no biggie there.

Thanks for the info!

first its nice to see pokeroom staff presence itt. Hi Garrett!

ya i brought this issue up earlier ITT but i think it was deleted by a mod bc it wasn't pertinent info about this room lol. not having a betting line is just going to create TONS of problems and unnecessary floor calls.

this will be an issue. i kept my cards out in front of me a few feet creating my own betting line and a few times pushed chips to a spot right BEHIND them and the dealer took them and threw them in the pot. i wasn't angle shooting, just testing the dealers and the rule. also a dealer swept the chip on top of my cards into the pot. i was in the 9seat but keeping my cards like that in the 5 or 6 would be totally confusing to all.

Overall tbh, the room is awesome w alot of competent staff and dealers- just first day jitters esp w the huuuuge crowd. i cant wait to go back.

mods if u delete this post plz ban me forever thx.

So are we not even allowed to cut out chips behind our cards?

Or is it just specifically having to do with 1 forward motion?

nah i think it was just dealer error. just alot of green dealers making alot of mistakes last night. i think i just ran bad that way last night as i recognized alot of good WV ones but never got one.

Just got back from the Rivers. The staff was great and I had no problems whatsoever. The room is pretty nice overall. I got there about 10 A.M. and just got on a 1/3 table to watch some old rich guy call off $150 with King high, obviously losing. Unfortunately, he left right after that hand. There was not too much loose play at my table, which I was fairly surprised at. I am hoping they start tournaments fairly soon. Overall, great first trip. Hope to see people there Sunday.

Yeah - we had the discussion that your cards are the bet line. However when the dealer rotated out and I had my cards out in front of me - with a chip on top, dealer did the same thing - asked me to bring my cards back (they were about 6 inches in front of my chips). When I asked this dealer about the bet line he told me to just verbalize everything. Annoying, but I"ll put up with it as it's minor. I'm just worried about future issues with others.

You'll stop worrying about it when you play someplace with a bet line and see the 99 different angle shots people can pull with a line.

I don't see why the bet line really matters. Everywhere in AC I was pretty much had a bet line but it didn't matter because it didn't play. If your chips are in front of your cards its a bet, always count behind your cards bet line or not.

alot of ppl keep their cards touching the rail and shuffle chips in front of their cards. thats why i moved my cards up a little to give myself room to count but i dont think it gonna work in a non-corner seat imo

ya i just a minor thing that is easily solved by verbalizing actions but it was very loud in there. there were a couple of times our corner of the table 8 9 10 couldnt hear players in the 2 3 4.

Great room though. A Pittsburgh Poker Paradise!

You can cut them behind your cards, restack them, then cut them again in front to make the bet. You cannot take a stack and cut them in front of you though, in that case first cut is your bet, unless you announce your amount. I dont think the one forward motion really applies, because you can put a stack in front of you but just cut off the bottom few if you want and pull the rest back. No betting line didnt seem to be an issue, 'traveling button' was a little weird, but i only saw it used once. Didnt catch exactly how it works, but the dealer button doesnt sit at an empty seat that just played their blinds, i think...

I played from 1a-4a last night, as for the concern over inexperienced dealers - i didnt personally come across any in the poker room. In fact, all but one seemed extremely efficient, and i recognized a lot of familiar dealers from mountaineer. I did see some scary things at the black jack tables though, it really looked like it was some of those ladies first times handling chips. Overall i liked the poker room a lot, the wait was terrible tho, when i got there at 11:30p there were 101 people on the wait list for 1/3nl.

How many tables were running after 1 am?

Just got home from the Rivers. I was really impressed by the building itself, the interior and everything is very very nice. I had never been there until they got the table games.

I get there around 10:30 pm after work and there's a line just to get on the waiting list which was huge. I did manage to get a seat after about 45 minutes somehow.

The dealers are TERRIBAD!!! The ones I had, over about the 3 hours I was there, were really truly awful. Dealers talking to players(!!!), people folding out of turn, taking forever and a day to count down chips, etc etc etc. One guy at our table spilled a drink and it took them literally 30 min+ to get a towel. The floor manager or someone in a suit actually had to go to the bathroom himself to get it. A drink runner tried to bring him a wet towel and made him clean it himself, very unprofessional and unacceptable. The pace of play, if you can call it that, was slow to non-existant. Each hand took 3+ minutes, no one knew who it was on, etc. Maybe it was just the table I was at. People were tipping huge like $20 on a $300 pot so it could have just been the idiots I was sitting with. This was 1/3 NL. I don't get the "no line" thing on the tables...they have a little circle for where the rake goes but no bet line. Gotcha.

And the whole "cash plays, but only $100 bills" is a DISASTER. The funny part is someone bets a $100 bill and then they have to change it into chips to push the pot. Lol. Also I saw a guy bust out, try to buy $200 in chips, the dealer's well was short, so he's yelling for a chip runner to no avail for about 4 minutes, so then they somehow decide he can buy $200 worth of chips from people on his left/right for $100 each...but he only has $20s. So now there are $20 bills in play, right after they told him he needs chips and only $100 bills play as cash. Finally a chip runner came over and changed out the $20s for chips but there were a few hands in between. At least the dealer knew enough to make the players keep the cash in play.

There was also huge confusion when I missed a blind how much I had to owe to sit back in. That reminds me, there should be a bathroom near or in the poker room area. Walking that far is a huge pain.

Overall I think the room gets a C+. It is a beautiful room, very roomy and comfy. I think it has a lot of room for improvement though, and am hopeful over the next month or so they fix some problems. Clarifying the rules and making sure the dealers know would be huge, because you don't want to have 2 different dealers make 2 different rulings obv. Maybe it will come with experience but if they went to school and don't get it, they may be hopeless. I have dealt in the underground games around Pittsburgh and in various home games, it's not easy at first but with practice you should not be fumbling cards every 2 seconds, and you should be much much smoother. The pace of the game sucks, chip runners/drink runners are nowhere to be found sometimes, and the wait list is a fiasco but whatever. I'll be back for sure.

smoking or no smoking in the poker room?

I don't smoke but my friend kept going out to smoke and complaining about not being able to in the poker room. He usually only missed a hand or two lol

I've been to the Rivers poker room three times so far. Here's my review:

The room is situated right by the parking garage elevators so it's one of the first things anyone getting off them sees as the enter the casino. The room layout is very nice with plenty of space to walk between tables. The seats are padded leather and very comfortable.

I played mostly 2/5 NL and a little 5/10 NL. All but one of the dealers I had were at least competent, and most were actually quite efficient. They were almost a little too friendly, chatting with the players quite a bit, but rarely to the point of slowing the game.

It's really easy to order food from to your table. The food servers are separate from the cocktail waitresses and are quite efficient so far.

Most of the floormen seem very good. Scotty and Garrett were particularly helpful to me when I wanted a table change.

I do have two suggestions:

The biggest problem is that there should be a better system to alert players on the waiting list when their seat is available. Currently there are often long waiting lists and lots of people just milling around the entrance waiting for their seats. Sending a text message to our cell phones would be ideal. But at least give us some couches to sit on in the room while we wait for our seats!

The poker room should have its own bathroom. It doesn't have to be huge, but on busy nights it would be nice to not have to leave the room and walk through over 500 feet of slot machines to take a wizz.

Overall I really like the Rivers poker room! It seems like they are really trying to do it right, and if they keep up the good work they should stay busy indefinitely. I know I can't wait to visit again!

A betting line allows more angle shots than no betting line.

I apologize if our dealers aren't up to your standard. This is my third opening of a casino and the dealers at The Rivers are the best group yet as a whole. Give it some time. Expect a low amount of hands per hour for the first month. We will have a HPR tracking system in place as soon as our BRAVO system is running and dealers will have a number that needs to be hit in order to stay employed.

Once our computers are working seating players will be much easier. The Bravo system has a text message feature that we also plan to use. Thanks for the patience and hope to see you again.

We would love for cash to play in the style we are familiar with. Unfortunately this is a PA gaming law that we cannot get around. As for rulings, if I am playing in a break in casino I am always calling the floor for any decision at the table to ensure a proper ruling.

I played between 12am and 6am Saturday. When I walked up to the desk to sign up the staff was pretty disorganized about taking people in order. After 10 minutes of having people signed in ahead of me I had to finally interrupt and get on the list. The Guy at the desk tried to convince me the Guy to my left was the line, but I had to point out that line didn't form until after I got there. No one complained.

I got on the 4/8 limit and 1-3 nl lists. Which were long. However after a few minutes of standing around, a floor Guy asked me what I was waiting for. He found me an open 4/8 seat. So much for the list? Also, the boards said there was only one 4-8 table when there were really at least two.

The opposition was pretty soft. I netted a $210 win playing mostly tight. Nothing spectacular. Plenty of terrible players. Plenty of extremely predictable ones.

After some point, our tables bank was like $40 short. Between each down the floor had to be called. Big pain.

Most of the dealers seemed a bit green, but there seemed to be a couple experienced ones. No one atrocious, though. They were also accommodating in getting the floor to give us a break on the take when we got 5 handed.

I ended up getting some food around 4am when they did last call for food. That came quickly. However, after that point cocktail service became terrible. Well, non-existent. I asked about 3 or 4 dealers if they could ask the floor to summon a cocktail server. None ever showed up. Come to think of it, I'm not sure if I ever saw any of them ask the floor. Cards get distracting. I'm still thirsty now. Needless to say, in my last two hours there I did not see a single cocktail girl come by. Rough.

I am looking forward to the comp system being instituted. Anyone know how to get to the two or three diamond levels of the players card? I saw a few people with them, but there is no literature on it on the website.

Anyway, I understand the kinks are the result of the room being new and have no reason not to believe things wont get smoothed out soon.

I work in downtown and stay up late anyway, so I imagine I will be back. A lot.