Any update on the waiting list for 1-2 nl?? Thinking about going up, or down to Chester. Thanks

Any info on the waiting list for 1/2 right now?

I'm there now. 100 people on the list, 4-5 hours guaranteed

4-5 hours is insane! Must be because it is a Sunday? Has it been this crazy during the week? I'm 20 minutes away and I haven't been there yet because of the ridiculous long wait.

LOL... 4-5 hour wait. Why wouldn't those people just drive to Chester, Delaware Park, or AC. 5 hours to play 1-2 or 2-5 is insane. People are seriously waiting there for 5 hours?

These waits are just crazyyy. I live five mins from the casino but won't even bother heading down for a few weeks, just nuts. Knock out the damn lounge chairs and add a few more tables. Why have lounge chairs that can accomodate like 5-10 people MAX when we can squeeze in a few more tables and get the money flowing. Or we can convert all those unused blackjack tables ya guys got just sitting there and put them to good use

LP, I'm staying close the sands too, u playing weeknights this week?

I might go tomorrow afternoon and play a few hours, might be best shot if I get up early, only day off. I work tues/wed afternoon so maybe late. We'll see how it goes.

Can I contact u tomorrow to put me on the list in the afternoon before it gets crazy long?

Hey,

First time poster here, play at Sands in PA pretty often and plan on being a regular unless things don't get a little better with how it is run. Best time to get there to dodge waitlist is before 11AM to everyone concerned about long wait, get there in morning, you will get right on table. My main complaint about place is with dealer handlings. Was in hand today, had AA on a 1/2NL, player makes it ten to go, other player raises to 46. I rereraise to all in with AA to 176. First guy thinks a long time and calls with about 100 in stack or so, second guy is sitting thinking about it for awhile. As he is thinking rest of table is talking about the hand, one player is telling him he is priced in to call, which he was not. Other player is telling him to just go for it because it is a big pot. What really pissed me off is the all in player tells the guy I probably do not have aces because "he has an ace himself". This is all going on during the course of the hand as this guy is contemplating what to do because i have him covered by just a bit in chips. The dealer is saying nothing as everyone discusses the hand loudly as this guy is deciding what to do. Believe it or not, I did not want the three way action holding AA. So finally with hesitation, the guy calls showing QQ. Q is door card, I lose. Told dealer how poorly he handled table, he said he did nothing wrong as basically laughed at me. Young dealer named [name removed], do not know where he was trained, but was worst thing at casino I have ever seen in 13 years of playing actively. What are your guys thoughts on matter? I did not call floor, and looking back, I wish i would of. I understand this casino's dealers got to learn the trade, but come on now.

Yea PM me

No one should be talking about a live hand regardless if its $5 bucks in the pot or $50,000. The dealer should know to instantly shut those other players up if they are not in the hand. Also the players should know not to be talking about a live hand. I hate when **** like that happens, and it should be avoided. Unfortunately we have dealers who don't have the balls/brain to do anything about it, and we have idiotic players who feel the need to talk out of place.

F that! I waited for 5 mins on Saturday night. I might get flamed for this but this was my plan from the get go after hearing about the long waits. Buy your chips, don't announce yourself to the floor guy, wait for a couple names to get called and then take the seat! If he says "CA 1-2NL" like three times, then "CA" is not there anymore so take his seat. You are now "CA". The floor guy sees so many people he won't remember what "CA" looks like. Or you could wait for 5 hours, up to you.

So you don't see anything wrong with the fact that the people who actually put their names on the list get screwed over? What happens when 20 or 30 people all decide to try your strategy at the same time?

I made my first trip to the Bethlehem Sands on Saturday morning. Overall, the Bethlehem Sands casino is a very nice place. I think they did an excellent job of integrating a casino into an area that was widely known as a home to the United States steel industry. The casino has tall ceilings, brick walls and a generally nice decor.

To a large degree, the casino's shape and design is essentially a large box (or rectangle) with a lot of slots and the new table games.

My friend and I arrived at the Sands early, at about 10:15 am. I had read about the long wait-lists, so we figured the earlier the better. As it turned out, our timing was pretty good. There was 2-5 seating available, so my friend sat down there. I wanted to play 1-2 NL. There were 8 people on the waiting list and three open tables. I knew that they would open a new table, and they did in about 20 minutes.

The wait list was reasonable until about noon, when all tables were open (including a 1-5 stud game).

General Observations: The poker room itself is in a pretty good location, right near the food court. The poker cashier is also closeby, which is also fairly handy. One downside is that while the bathrooms are not terribly far, they are not close either (like at the Borgata or Showboat).

Cocktail Service: There was pretty regular cocktail service throughout the day. At one point, players asked a dealer if they could get someone for drinks, and the floor man actually got someone, which I thought was nice. However, the service was sporadic. The waitresses would come around pretty often for a while, and then you might go 45 minutes to an hour without seeing anybody. There is food service as well, but I did not see anyone using it.

Tables/Chairs: The tables and chairs are pretty comfortable. It was nice playing at new tables for a change. The foot rails are definitely too high to actually use as a foot rail. I am not exactly sure what they were thinking when they were installed. The lack of cup holders built into the table is a negative.

Dealers: Overall, I actually was impressed by the dealers considering how many of them are new. There was one dealer in particular who was absolutely awful. She was an extremely nice person, but she could not follow the action around the table. Our 1-2 NL table was a good group of people who helped her out, but I could definitely see more grumpy players having a problem with her. While she made a few slip-ups, the dealers were overall pretty good. There were a couple of instances of where a dealer put the next card down (usually a turn or river card) before all action had stopped. Obviously, those are big problems, but I think they'll disappear with time.

Floor: There were a lot of floor people around. One of them is a former floor person from the Showboat in Atlantic City.

Players: When my 1-2 NL game started, the game was excessively tight with tiny stacks. However, the game grew over time and became pretty loose with some people who donated a lot of money. I had a bad session, but I think it was a profitable table. My friend who played 2-5 NL found the players at that level to be pretty fishy, as well.

Problems: As many people have indicated, one of the most stupid rules (set by the PA gaming authority, according to the dealers) is that you cannot buy chips off the dealer, even if you bust out. This is extremely inconvenient and makes little sense. Additionally, there is one poker cashier window where you can buy chips. Additionally, they only had 1 and 5 dollar chips. That wasn't a big deal for me, but people at 2-5 had ridiculously large stacks of red chips. There were chip runners (usually dealers not dealing) available and they were pretty fast.

Overall, seating of new players was quick and efficient, though my friend playing 2-5 NL said that his table often had an empty seat for a while, even though the wait list was huge.

The dealers have a system where they push buttons on the table to indicate empty seats and who is using their player card. When people get up from the table, the dealers push a button so that you don't get comps (which some people may see as cheap). Dealers swept player cards at the table. It didn't slow things down all that much.

For some reason, they also have the dealers using $4 and $2 chips for the rake. This might make sense, but when you have new dealers who are a little slow, having them make all that change isn't terribly fast.

Overall, it was a good experience. However, I am not sure I would return until the wait lists are more manageable. I am about 40 minutes closer to the Sands than Atlantic City, but if I have to leave my house at 8:30 am to avoid waits, it sort of defeats the purpose.

As many people have indicated, one of the most stupid rules (set by the PA gaming authority, according to the dealers) is that you cannot buy chips off the dealer, even if you bust out.


I do not think this is true.

I've seen people re-load at the table at Mt. Airy since it opened. It might be casino specific.

Nice write-up... How long were you there for on Saturday? Was 5-10 NL spread at all? If it was, did they have to use 1 dollar and 5 dollar chips too?

The dealers at the Sands told me that it was a state rule that prevented them from selling chips out of their tray. However, if people at Mt. Airy are reloading that way, I am guessing it's probably just a Sands rule.

I was there from about 10:00 to around 6 pm.

I was not there while any 5-10 was spread. Someone on 2+2 said that a game started around 6 pm, which was right after I left. They would have had to break one of the existing tables to do that, since all tables were in use. I have no idea what they would do for that game with chips.

There were a few $25 chips here and there on tables, but literally only a few. I think some people had gotten them from blackjack tables and brought them over to poker. There was a guy at 2-5 who had about $2300 in red chips. It was a crazy stack.

Anything floor is uncertain about in any PA casino right now is "state won't let us" it's just an easy answer to give players.

$2 and $4 chips? really?

if your are speaking of the massive stack of 2-5 from Sunday afternoon that was mine. I am the IVAN DRAGO of sands live poker with all of those soviet red chips... I will break you... although I m short white and chubby I still own everyone. every session. live and online. gg

they wouldn't let me color up out of the rack.

Some game news for informational purproses, since I know some posters on here are interested in bigger NLHE games: There was a 5/10 NLHE game running on Sunday night. I arrived at the casino around 9:00 p.m., foolishly thinking the wait lists might actually be reasonable at that hour on a Sunday night. The 1/2 NLHE list was over 90-deep. The 3/6 LHE and 2/5 NLHE lists were each about 30 strong.

I was still kinda surprised to see a 5/10 NLHE game running on a Sunday night.

Was there a list for 5-10?

There were, I believe, three names on the list for 5/10 NLHE, and I did hear the floor calling people for the game over the course of a couple hours. I walked around the casino for a while, because I knew it would be some time before I got on a table. When I looked at the board around midnight on Sunday night, I noticed the game was no longer running. I have no idea how long the game was running, but it surprised me to see that game going on a Sunday night.

I really wish this place would have realized how crowded it was going to get. Im a very patient person, but when it comes to waiting hour after hour for a seat, that's not something im willing to do.