That's a bit of a contradiction...if it's in upstate NY it won't be near NYC. Monticello is the closest you're going to get to NYC for awhile.

there were 3 proposals, Caesars and Live! proposed to build a casino near Woodbury Commons, and there was another big plan for Sterling Forest.

The state decided upstate towns needed help with jobs and revenue more than downstate towns, but there was also mention that it would hurt the NYC Racinos. So ultimately I believe the only reason the state gaming commission turned them down was to keep Yonkers and Resorts World revenues up.

I grew up in Rockland County and everyone from the City or the Island believes that is Upstate.

Everyone to the North of us believes that we are in the City.

When I commuted to Manhattan for work, I was always referred to as living "upstate" but I had a shorter commute than most people coming from Brooklyn or Queens.

how long is the commute

They just started running tournaments on April 10th. Right now they're only running Monday thru Thursday at 9:30 am and Monday evenings at 6:30 pm. All tournaments are capped at 50 players with alternates coming in for the first 4 (15 minute) levels.

The underground games in this area did have an influx of good players , with a few clowns like anywhere else.

Really hoping this room moves or adds 5 more tables

Plenty of changes they need to make. Like adding on chips at the table. They give you a marker and it's not even in play. Ridiculous. Sometimes it takes 5 min for them to run chips back to you, so you just sit out or play With less behind


Waitresses seem to be non existent. Dealers are pretty bad... some are decent and a phew good ones.

Cage counting chips is beyond slow and they make many errors.

Tables are horrible in terms of leg room. Can't even stretch your legs. Probably my biggest complaint, other than....

THE AIR!!! If your in the middle rows you're blasted with 60 degree cold air all day. The worst. Colder than the RIO in Vegas. The people there cannot seem to fix it, very sad.

Other than that... decent room w good action.

Agreed with Carl Troopers analysis of room.

I believe management needs to start weeding out the dealers. There are a couple that just shouldn't be dealing.

Disappointed in the tournament schedule and I don't even play weekly tournaments.
9:30am start times?

I think most of the dealers are new and you have to give them time...

The waitresses, on the other hand, really need to be trained better. They come around very infrequently and then they do they sometimes forget to come back with your order. I have heard a LOT of people grumbling about this.

Larry

Im a big fan of the capital region classic they have posted at end of may. 260 buy in with 100k gtn. I don't like how people can buy in final day for 1k but I guess it's ok bc they only start day with 35-40 bbs. Also it's odd they start at 75-150 25 but I like it. Get rid of pre ante which is boring anyways and pots mean little.

It's nice to get a solid gtn. Don't have to travel to turning stone for half the gtn. Keep it up rivers. I'm hoping they can string some solid mtt events together.

Definitely a super interesting setup they have for this one. i feel like it will absolutely blow the guarantee out of the water with 4 different starting days. my fear is that day 2 could end up running for like 20 hours right? only 12 levels played on day 1 so a ton of people should make it through with all of those starting flights, and the likely huge field. definitely think it will get a TON of players with it being the first major tournament in the area. i'm super pumped for it through, probably will hop in the Friday night, or Saturday morning flights since those figure to be the biggest/softest

I'm guessing the changes were in the works already since it usually takes a while to get new tournies approved, but your new poker room manager Dave Grubb was one of the tournament directors at Parx who helped run our Big Stax tournaments every few months, so I'm sure he'll know what works and what doesn't, and he'll be able to adapt some great tournaments for your room.

Dave is great, and I'm sorry to see him leave my home room. But our loss is your gain. Good luck Dave!

What happened to Bruce?

I was wondering the same thing ...

Thoughts on how their first multi day event is going?

Crushing the GTD as I said it would. Few issues though.
1) they only have 15 tables for the tourney.. and they are averaging close to 30 people advancing per flight. 4 flights left with Saturday going to be much bigger. Assuming 210-250 people advance... they will have to use their own cash tables for the tourney.
2) some of the dealers are still atrocious. I mean aboustely horrible. 30 min levels is quick for live play... so having dealers that take 2-3 min to shuffle is unacceptable. Atleast do not end with these dealers in the nights as the blinds get higher

Other than that, fine as expected Already hit the GTD and we have 4 flights left

I agree some of the dealers were horrible. A lot of them were slow dealing and a few had trouble counting chips in spots.

I hope they can run events like this consistently like maybe every other month or something. I would like it if they could try to replicate big stax at parx and maybe offer a few different price points for different players. This series was pretty awesome..... great turnout and insanely better than what turning stone offers.

Also the structure was pretty great. I like no pre-ante play. Only thing I would say is maybe add 100-200 25 but I liked the structure and was fine it. Also maybe start the 2nd flight earlier than 7 pm. It's kinda lame if you have a full time job and have to play till 1:30-2. A 5 or 6 pm start would be way better.

I live 8 mins away and drive past 3+hrs to Foxwoods now simply because it's appears the rooms management has shown no reaction to the dealers who CLEARLY need it. It is not the players responsibility to run the game, help enforce rules and keep helping a few incompetent dealers do there jobs.

Example one - BB in seat 3 leads flop has two calls and before I act on the BTN the dealer just randomly grabs and mucks BB's hand. I call. Dealer then counts out chips from the pot and gives them back to BB. A player not in the hand says "you can't give him his money back"
Dealer replies "that's the rule...you don't know what your talking about"

Ex2 early position player bets middle position player holds a stack of nickels clearly over the Line looks at 3rd player starts to monologue trying to get a reaction from the player last to act. Player last to act says to dealer "he can't do that. Those chips have to stay in the pot". Player pulls chips back then kicks his hand.
Dealer just freezes doesn't say a word, doesn't do anything just stares as if saying I'm not going to enforce the rule and waits for player in position to act. Other players had to yell for the floor.

Ex3 player mucks his hand at show down other player tables his. Player who mucks says "wait" dealer retrieved his cards and tables them. Like really?

I dont want to complain too much but today the following scenario took place at 2-5 and I feel all players should be aware of it:

There was one 2-5 table going and early in the afternoon they called a second one which started going but never completely filled up (for some strange reason they do not have a must move system in place which would eliminate the problem that occurred)...

After a while our game (the first one) got short and we were 5 handed. The second game was also 5 handed. A player in our game asked the other table if they wanted to combine tables and they all agreed and 1 guy at the second table said he was racking up anyway. We then called floor to ask permission to combine tables...

A floor came over and we explained what we wanted to do..

He said we could only combine tables if the 5 players from the first game racked up and went to the second table. This is despite the fact that we were the first game and the 4 players at table 2 were already racking up to come over to our game...

His explanation was that WE (the first game) had requested to combine so we were basically getting penalized and were forced to move. When we started complaining he stated "The players dont make the decision, I do"....

At this point the players from table 2 were already joining our game and one of them said "that guy has no idea what he is doing"...

At this point, the floor walked away and another floor person came over and said "Is everything ok now"? We all nodded in agreement that it was and he said "ok good" and walked away shaking his head...

His statement "The players dont make the decision, I do" really upset everyone (and they were all regs except for me). So much for trying to keep the players happy.

Larry

[dinesh: removed personally identifying info.]

Usually when players wanna break their table, it's their table that gets broken and those player go to other available seats if they're open, or they draw for seats if there's not enough for everyone. It's definitely standard to do it that way.

What's not usually standard is the supervisor's customer service skills, but I've seen supervisors act in a similar way if players are continuing to argue with them, so there's a side to every story.

That's dumb, why would the floor care who moves to what table? Seems like it would be to their advantage to combine the tables anyways as there is a better chance the game runs longer equaling more rake

This is not always true. Sometimes you are better off letting them play two games. Especially if you think you could be getting some more players (it is always harder to start a second game then it is to keep a game going.) And often times when you break a game players who might have stayed decide to leave because once they are racking up and leaving their seat they may as well just keep going.

No poker room wants players walking around trying to break games..... If they feel it is better to break a game they will do it on their own.

Was hoping to play some 3/6 LHE during the July 4 High Hand promotion today at Rivers. I arrived at the poker room around 10:30/10:45 a.m. (promotion started at 11 a.m.) to find one 3/6 table and the others 1/2 NLHE and 2/5 NLHE. Now, I get that NLHE, especially 1/2, is popular, but the way the poker room managers ran things was not up to my expectations:

1) Even when the LHE list was longer than the 1/2 list, they opened a 1/2 table. I checked in at 10:45 a.m. at the latest. I FINALLY received a text stating that a 3/6 seat was available at 4:53 p.m. By that time, I was in line for an early dinner at Saratoga Casino.
- If the "powers that be" were not going to open another 3/6 table, they should have said so. I get it, I am one person, especially playing 3/6, if I don't come back, not a big loss for Rivers. But it's the principle!

2) A couple of suggestions if they decide to do future promotions with a high prize (today's was $525 every half-hour): Have as many tables as possible ready to go by the start of the promotion. Don't allow table changes within the same limit. Have one person whose SOLE job is to track the high hand. Don't allow jackasses to talk their way into a higher spot on the list because "they did not hear their name called." And, if you give them a warning about continuing the argument, and they continue the argument, follow through, call security, and kick them out.

I want to give Rivers another chance, as it is "only" a two-hour drive for me, while Mohegan and Foxwoods are 3.5-4 hours away. But if this continues, that chance won't happen.

To make a long story short...I went to Rivers Saturday also. Was 13th on the 3/6 list (called in). Left and went to Turning Stone. Hit quad Aces for a high hand too, woohoo. Think I've given up on Rivers cash games. Might try a tourney.

list of things that have happened to me or others in my presence
Dealer mucks all in players hand on final table because dealer is too busy talking it up with a bystander despite all in player taking every step to protect his hand short of assaulting the dealer he is automatically eliminated.

While at the desk waiting to go on 1/2 list I'm passed over by the staff at the desk for the next 5 people who walk through the door over a 15 minute period (why 15 minutes) because after each one she hopped right back on the phone and ignored me.

Had a dealer refuse to move the flop from directly in front of the 1-3 to closer to the middle because coupled with their extremely wide box lead to inability to see cards from 789 as well as chip and muck issues because of the positioning.

Lose 1k pot on river after player who was loud abrasive and had repeatedly changed seats and elbowed me multiple times pulls this move on the river https://youtu.be/GyyNMoTv0p0?t=40 leading to me holding the blocker to the 2nd nuts to bluff on a guy who has the 3rd nuts after telling the floor they had zero reaction and walked away.