A legend of the poker world responds to one of my posts!

But then he warns everyone that I'm probably full of ****!

jk Greg. It is a pretty unusual policy that I had never heard of anywhere before either.

I worded this poorly. I mostly meant they should carefully check anywhere else they might go. Even if this is correct for SHRT, it is not going to be true most other places. Sorry about my poor wording, wasn't try to dis you.

Yeah it's pretty gross. They tried putting the 5/10 PLO with a $25 rock into the glass room and the players told them they wanted to be out on the floor to pay the $8/half hr instead of the $10

As far as the 1/2 PLO goes, way too many players are agreeing to run it twice and get themselves double-raked (not surprising given the skill level of players in that game, they don't pay attention to such matters)

I still refuse to be double-raked and only run it once because of the new policy, although it doesn't affect the time-rake games at least so you can run it twice there without being charged extra for it.

No worries, Greg. I knew what you meant. I was just joking. I've always appreciated that you're willing to come into our forum and share your experiences.

On average, about how many runners do they get for the Monday night mixed NLHE/PLO tournament?

I asked the tourney director and he said 18-48 entries.

Just a headsup, Monday is when TGT/Luckys has a crazy 1/2 PLO game with mandatory $5 button straddle and unlimited restraddles. Usually have five games going so that tends to draw in a good chunk of the crowd interested in PLO because there are some massive pots played.

Did they get rid of the stupid plexiglass yet? Derby went mask optional this week, hopefully the hard rock follows suit soon and I’ll come back and spew some money.

Unfortunately not. They still have plexiglass, require masks, temp checks at entry, hand sanitizer everytime you sit down, if someone leaves a seat you have to wait for staff to wipe the seat and railing down before they'll call a new player, etc.

It's crazy because the people who would want these measures are too frightened to actually visit the property. And the people who do visit don't want all these extra measures, so they're catering to people who aren't even giving them business.

Plus the CDC walked back the concern over surface contamination ages ago, yet they continue to waste time wiping down seats and railings, holding up filling open seats and sometimes causing tables to break because they can be really slow and inefficient.

Last week playing PLO we had a seat that was cleaned and open for 30 minutes, with a nice long list, no one was called to fill it. Then they called a brand new PLO table of the same limit, so players start flooding the new table, while two more players at our table get up and leave, giving us three open seats (with a list of 5 still waiting for seats)

I see a floor person at the next able over cleaning a seat so I approach and let him know our table just had two seats open that need to be cleaned also and there's a list.

He gives me a stupid look and says "oh yeah, uh, ok" in a condescending voice and then.............walks off and doesn't clean any seats.

You're supposed to be able to call ahead to get on a seating list, but everytime I call no one picks up either. If you're lucky they'll pickup when you're 5 minutes away from the property and the waiting list has gone from 2 players to 12.

They're understaffed and they know we're going to play there anyway so they have zero incentive to provide quality customer service.

I really wish the Seminoles didn't have our State Government in their pockets and we could get some competition down here to improve the situation for the players.

They also recently held a tournament where they altered the structure to go from starting with 300bb's to only 100bb's and tried to pass it off as good for the players.

I don’t care about the masks as much as the plexiglass. Tear those things down. Nobody can understand anything anyone is saying. Causes so many issues between the dealer and the action. Someone flicks in a chip and says raise and the dealer assumes it’s a call happens so often.

Agree with Kn1sh about the open seating problems. They’ve had to break tables because no one wants to play 3 or 4 handed and then you look up and there’s a list. I was at a table where a player kept asking the dealer and the brush about filling the empty seats and they just kept ignoring him. Went on long enough that he asked 3 different dealers all while there was a list.

Most of the floor managers seem nice. But there are a couple that give players attitude for no reason. Maybe they have history with that player but it comes off as rude.

Agreed the plexiglass is terrible, reduces socialization and communication significantly.

There is one floor person in particular who also deals that I've witnessed has an extremely short fuse and exacerbates situations rather than calming them with players.

When he was dealing a hand I was involved in he ****ed up and it cost me money, and you could see he KNEW on his face he ****ed up. But when the floor came over he described the situation in a way to cover his own ass, and the floor didn't want to take my description of what happened and sided with him.

So now when that floor person deals, I'm not tipping him because he cost me money and didn't protect me, but instead protected himself.

Any inside info about when masks and plexiglass go away at hardrock?

All the other local rooms appear to be going mask-less, while Tampa Hard Rock has maintained all of their protocols still

I sent a message to my contact to see if they have anything they can share and will report back here what I hear.

My impression is that Indian casinos across the country are going to be slower to give up mask requirements, probably because Natives have been hit hard by COVID.

I inquired if there was any indication when Covid protocols at the Seminole properties would change and was told "not at this time"

Plexiglass being removed at the time of this post. Masks are now optional.


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Can confirm I have multiple friends who were there yesterday and said they were taking down the plexiglass and masks were now optional.

With the WPT series coming up in June it's perfect timing (and about time!). Going to be much more enjoyable to play now.

Woohoo!!! Finally

postcovidgasm.gif

I played the past couple of days, the atmosphere in the room has changed for the better. With the plexi down and masks optional folks are smiling, laughing and talking a ton. The social aspect that was missing has returned.

For some stupid reason they are still wasting time waiting for seats and railings to be wiped down before they'll fill seats though.

It's a pandemic miracle-- people have forgotten that they're supposed to be miserable at the poker table! I give it a week...

Seriously though, it's great to hear. Going to play there today for the first time since '19, looking forward to it.

Nice to see it down. Much better.

I'm going to agree with you on that, I'm sure it won't take long before the return to a normal level of miserable returns lol

When they yanked down the plexi and removed the mask requirement they also had stopped with sanitizing hands as well.

So they're still wasting time wiping down seats and railings before filling seats, and forcing you to sanitize every time you sit again.

With the CDC having stated that surface contamination isn't really a concern, it's pretty baffling they continue to bother with this nonsense. The only thing that I can think of is they spent all that money on sanitizer and they intend to get their moneys worth!

Then again, they don't always make decisions that make much sense either. They had 212 entries into their Memorial Day 30K guaranteed tournament, and decided not to staff the poker snack bar. So players had 15 minutes to try and dash somewhere to grab a bite to eat on breaks, and the closest food option (Hard Rock Cafe) doesn't take phone orders so you had to go and wait for someone at the bar, order your takeout and then rush back to the poker room.

Always be prepared for poker. I take snacks/food/water every day I go to play poker. Healthier options too.

The 10 and 15 min breaks in that tournament are really just for hitting the bathroom and finding your friends to enthrall them with a bad beat story. There was a longer 30 min dinner break in the middle of the structure.