So they nerfed (and may be eliminating) the bad beat, are eliminating royal bonuses, aren't even doing the $3/hr WPT money...and we STILL can't get any good promotions? Wonder how much money their making in interest by sitting on our bad beat drop money. But wait...there is new felt, so I guess it's all good.

The high hand gives out 200x20 hours a day which is 4k. 4kx30 is 120k. I think the bbj went up by about that much every month. It just doesnt seem like a ton of money when its 200 at a time.

Scott,

I know a number dealers who push a pot to the winning hand, and then will say to the winning player, "Nice hand." Twice a particular dealer has said "Good value bet" after pushing a pot. This is wrong and needs to stop. I know the dealers probably don't see anything wrong about this, but it can come off as favortism or like the dealer was rooting for that player to win the hand. Praising a player can also come across that they say it to invoke a tip. I always thought of poker dealers to be impartial judges of the game. I love a friendly, pleasant dealer, but I think it can be accomplished without congratulating a player when the win a hand. Can you please address this issue on the forum?

Thank you for your time,
BJballs

Just want to chime in to say, while this may seem like a minor issue, it goes a long way towards keeping a friendly and inviting atmosphere at the table. Praising the winner inherently disparages the loser of the hand, and in the long run, the losing players obviously lose more pots, so it's important to keep them happy, by taking attention AWAY from their bad plays, not emphasizing them (which is what praising the winning player's play amounts to).

Personally I can't really remember running into this behavior from any of the dealers in my recent sessions, but if this poster says it's happening, it should be addressed. This room already seems too buddy-buddy with regs to many outsiders.

I couldn't agree more... it's actually quite tilting as the dealer is there to facilitate the game not comment on how a hand plays out, who's got the biggest stack, etc... there are so many distracted dealers that can't facilitate the game efficiently.

Agreed. There are some dealers who will even specifically comment on how a player could have played the hand better (missed a bet, bet the wrong amount, could've won with a bluff, etc.).

As someone that came to Tampa from West Palm, and got started playing live mostly at PBKC, I can chime in a little on what makes the game so great.

When NL was first legalized in Florida, and the Kennel Club was still held to the restriction of having a $100 buyin cap on games, all of the racetrack degenerates absolutely LOVED the 5/10, $100 max game. As soon as a table opened, it was a shovefest for the first two hours or so, so that people would get reasonable stacks to play a normal game with (or at least as normal as you could get sitting with 1k at a table with 4 seats having $100).

The degenerate love for this game remained even after buyins were raised, and you still got mostly the same crowd. The game was great for the room, as the tables were typically right up front (or by the cashier), so they got lots of attention from the casual players that didn't mind losing a couple hundred in hopes of hitting a big score. You'd get people from 2/5 that were having a good night, as well as anyone that was winning at the races, with some good 5/10 regs mixed in.

That said, I don't think it'd work as well at THR for a few reasons:

1) Higher stakes are sent to the back and have minimal to no rail at all.
2) There's no racing degens
3) The 2/5 game, as is, functions in a similar way as 5/10 short would. A ratholer can sit down for $200 vs. people with $1k stacks and hope to get lucky.... although they'll still have to play postflop to win.

Just my two cents .

This would be how you do good promotions. From Derby.. On tuesdays and Thursdays.

1/3 & 2/5 N/L Holdem (or higher): Receives Complimentary Draft Beers
2/5 N/L Holdem (or higher): Receives Complimentary Menu Item
2/5 N/L Holdem (or higher): Win $500* for any eligible high hand
1/3 N/L Holdem: Win $300 for any eligible high hand
1/1 & $2 Straight: Win $100 for any eligible high hand

Yes, you can carry over.

Any chance of a response to the message I sent you?

Thanks for the message. The above post relates directly to your concerns. The hours can carry over from one week to the next.

The good news is (on balance) I heard last night THR is going to do gas cards next month 30 hours anytime across the whole month for a $100 gas card, with no limit on how many gas cards you can get.

Are gas card hours earned daily or just Monday-Thursday? As others have mentioned before it would be a good idea to post monthly promos on the website or in the poker room or somewhere a week or so before they take effect. In other words promote the promos.

What's the PLO schedule looking like these days? Daily?

PLO goes daily. Usually starts by noon or 1:00. Generally enough for the must move game by late afternoon/early evening as well.

Has anyone been able to confirm that this will include Friday and Saturday play?

This has been said so many times it gets old but it would be a great idea to post the promo details on the website well in advance of the upcoming month, why is this so challenging?

Unfortunately, this applies to the majority of poker rooms. It's like they must wait until the last day to post the promos for next month.

Derby has a promo up that says "beginning in February". It's Friday and Saturdays, starting at 9am, the high hand each half hour gets 500; and the promo goes until 15k is given away each day. So that's at least until midnight if there is a high hand each half hour.

They realize that Feb 1 is a saturday, so if they expect anyone to know about that great promo in time to plan to come in Sat morning, they can't wait until Feb 1 to start advertising it. I wish the THR would realize the same thing.

The latest flyer for the high hand promo says "$200 for each 'high hand'" - and basically nothing else. It doesn't define as much as what a high hand is, if you need two cards, etc. It says "see brush stand for compete details". How hard is it to spell out some simple rules on a flyer? So I have to question management. Aside from the fact that the web site is poorly designed, they make a promotion flyer that is so bare bones as to be useless. Compare Derby which posts "how to win" and "qualifications" for their promos on line - no need to go see the brush.

All good creative ideas - which is what they need to start doing - be more creative. In Feb I am playing at derby Fridays and Saturdays - not because I want to try and win $500 every half hour - but because the room will be packed with players who are there for that reason only.

That's okay. THR will be packed just because it's Friday and Saturday.

Sunday through Thursday

Which is exactly why they don't need to run promos on these days.

While Fridays & Saturdays are busy,they could be busier.They have 50 tables,but almost always have several open tables.They have more open on Saturday night,due to the tournament Friday night.The one point THR is missing is that there are many rec players who play weekends only and would play more hours and days if the promo applied to them. It would make sure the room was full,assuming they schedule enough dealers on the weekends.If you are not running the gas card promo during the weekends because it is already busy,then why do you run the high hands?

If the room was consistently full with waits on Friday & Saturday night i would agree with this statement,but it is not.If there are waits,its because they lack the staff not tables.