Be generous. Post even if you are second one to post.

just giving poker players who smoke a heads up. with new location right next to boardwalk, boat's new room will make it easy for smokers to run outside.

Ugh, more disgusting smells at the table for the rest of us.

new room has more TVs, but only 28 tables right now. Had heard there would be more

I'm not sure where you heard that but I heard from numerous people that they were adding 5 tables. Seeing that they had 23 in the old room they were right.

The old room had plenty of smokers that would just use the men's room and still smell up the tables.

Anyways....Anyone have any news of what the new room is like yet? I will be going down on Sunday and will have to definitely check it out.

Pics?

Pics woulds be nice.
How about comments on the amount of players during different times of day.
Does it appear to be getting casual passer-by?

Haha yes, but I don't know if it's the right kind. There are a bunch of large windows viewing the boardwalk, but they are mirrored from the outside. So a few times people walking by stopped to fix their hair or makeup, while the folks at the poker tables pointed and laughed and made faces back at them.

Other than that I would say it has kind of an MGM feel now that it is on the floor. I wasn't there at night, but I would guess it would get pretty loud and busy once the house of blues opened. But during the day on Sat they did have several tables each of 1/2, 2/5NL and 2/4 and 3/6 (I think) limit. There probably wasn't all that much increased foot traffic yet because it still is on the very far end of the casino.

I worked fri sat and today. Traffic is increasing, no so much for the tourneys more so for cash. We are getting a lot of people I have never seen before (not normal for the room). We spread a 5/5NL which is standard but there were a lot of new faces in the game. We had a few 2/5 games. The big difference is we are getting people coming in and asking for bigger games like 5/10 and 10/20 NL just not enough to spread yet. I like the new room, 28 tables large windows which when its too sunny the shades are used. a lot of TV's although some tables they are poorly placed for. The cage is not in the room...you have to walk like 15 secs out of the way, people were whining about it, but they could use the workout.

I went down to the Showboat on Friday night. I give the new room a big thumbs up.

First, the room is much improved over its former location upstairs. It is much more spacious and so much easier to get to your seats. Also, the lighting is 100x better. There were spots in the old room where you felt like you were playing in shadows. This is not a problem anywhere in the new room.

The new room also has a nice, vibrant vibe to it. Located near the House of Blues, the decor carries over and has the same feel as the nightclub. It has a funky ceiling with decorative shoes plastered to it, and there are stone/brick columns throughout the room. I know this sounds sort of weird, but it gives the room a really "hip" look. As a result, the room seems interesting and inviting, and I think it will encourage new players to come sit down.

The central feature of the new room is the windows. The room is located at the end of the casino floor and fronts the Boardwalk. The designers put windows in, and there will be natural lighting in the room during the day and a view of the ocean. At night, the Boardwalk is lit up, and so I suspect there will be some decent people-watching as the summer weather moves in.

The room is also located near a casino floor bar. As a result, I noticed a fair number of rail birds coming over to watch the action. I think that the room will see many more casual players wandering in than the upstairs location ever attracted.

I thought that the room's location might make it very noisy; however, I don't think it was. If you are familiar with the MGM Grand poker room in Las Vegas, the Showboat room has a similar open-feel to it because of its location, but it is not nearly as noisy as the MGM room, where music blasts in from the Centrifuge Bar.

The cocktail service was the same as always. I didn't notice any difference in this regard from the old room. Service took the same amount time as far as I noticed, and the servers were ... well, let's just say that you'll notice difference in apearance from the Borgata's waitresses.

The biggest negative about the room is a slight one and has to do with the location of the cage. It is not located in the poker room, but instead, is out on the casino floor. It is not a long walk to the cage, but it's not right in the room like it used to be or like you'll find at the Borgata.

One other slight negative has to do with TVs. There probably aren't enough of them in the room and they are a good distance from any tables located in the center of the floor depending upon your seat. Several players at my table commented about this.

On Friday night, the action was surprisingly slow. Between it being opening night for the room, a weekend, and some of the nicest weather we've had in this area all year, I expected the room to be hopping. It wasn't. In fact, it was the slowest that I had ever seen the Showboat poker room. My particular 1/2 NL game was very tight and passive. Few pots got past $30 in total or went beyond the flop (unless they were checked all the way to river!). After 3 hours, I left for greener pastures at the Borgata.

I think the slow action at the Showboat was an anomaly. I would expect this room to do well and to be a solid improvement over the old room. I definitely recommend giving it a try. I think you will like it very much.

Very good review, mxp2004. You covered everything I was going to say about it. I was there Saturday night. I especially like the larger space, better lighting, the House of Blues-style decor, and the fact that it's next to the main casino. It reminded me very much of MGM in LV as well, even though the style is entirely different. It has the same vibe as being part of the casino. I also agree that the tv situation isn't the greatest, but it looks like they could hang some more tv's up if they want to.

As far as the room itself goes, it is now my 2nd favorite in AC. If the games improve, which I think they have a chance now, I can see myself playing there a lot. If only the waitresses were up to Borgata standards. I also noticed that the personalities of many of the Showboat regulars rub me the wrong way -- loud, annoying, over-the-top sense of humor, like to see people they know and be seen. Several of them said they like the old room better, which makes sense, since they were attracted to it in the first place. My amateur psychoanalysis is that they like to be heard, like to be known, and the small, quiet room upstairs suited them better. They don't stand out as much in the bigger, noisier room. Maybe the people who liked the old room will go to Caesars or somewhere like that.

I was able to snap a couple pictures on my phone before the security guard told me I wasn't allowed to do that. They don't do the room justice at all, but here they are for what it's worth. I encourage everyone to check out the room.

Nice reviews guys. I think I'll check it out soon. I especially like the idea of windows facing the ocean. Seems like a nice touch, although maybe I'm imagining them to be a lot better than they actually are.

I am in the bottom pic lol. I think Mx's review is great he really sums up what the room is. The room was very busy sat compared to fri. I also agree if we can get some games the room is going to be the 2nd best by a large margin in the city. It is hard to compete with the purple building, but I think we are making our best effort with the new room. I think the goal is to get some people sick and tired of the Taj to take the short walk over as the new room is located seconds from the Taj-SB cross over. Come check it out and give me a what up and tell me what you think when you see me there.

IMHO, the new Showboat poker room is MUCH nicer than the Taj. I know that the Taj has a lot of devotees, but I have always found it to be a depressing place. The tables show their wear, you need to wear rubber gloves to handle the chips safely, and the poker room itself is pretty bland.

The Taj does spread a lot more games than the Showboat and has some history to it. But the new Showboat room is so much more upscale and inviting, and I think that the place has some of the friendliest dealers in AC. Thus, the new room definitely has the potential to be a good alternative to the Borgata, at least for the low-stakes hold'em games that the Showboat spreads.

+1

Also, in my limited experience, they're not overly friendly such that their chatter slows them down. It's more of a reserved politeness than a boisterous friendly, which is perfect IMO.

I also agree with the comment on the dealers. Friendly but professional. The atmosphere is so good and so unique in the new room that I think they've got a great chance to take a lot of the crowd from the Taj. The first time I played poker at the Taj, I remember thinking how depressing it is to be a poker player. The first (and only) time I played in the Showboat's new room, I thought about how great it is to be in a poker room -- similar to the feeling I got from the Borgata's new room, but the decor in the SB is just so much more funky and interesting. It has a fun feel to it. It should draw plenty of people in off the general casino floor. There was almost no chance of that in the room upstairs.

One other note (don't know if it may have been mentioned in another thread). Parking at SB is no longer free with a Total Rewards card. It's now $5 like most other places in AC. I asked the guy if it was just for that night, and he said, no, it's a new policy.

All depends on how your ranking the rooms and what you like... When I do play live, I loved the old showboat room. In terms of size it is probably 4-5th biggest. But when talking about action, dealers, drinks, etc... the boat show is up there, I gotta check out the new room and get off of pokerstars next weekend.

I was down in AC last weekend and briefly checked out the new Showboat poker room prior to going to the Borgata. I am a 5/10 NL player at the Borgata but I really liked what I saw. Therefore, I am heading down to try the 5/5 NL game Friday. The location is great, you get a view - have some noise but not too much which will allow the action to keep up through the night.

The old Showboat room was nice but its location was a problem. I think the foot traffic will really pick up. I am not sure if that will help the larger games but maybe it will.

One suggestion to the poster that works at the Boat - If you guys are going to spread 5/10 NL, have a 500 min and 2,000 max like the Borgata. due to the 5/5 game there is no point to have a 1,000 cap as you had in the past.

Also, if you someday get to spread 10/20 NL - do a $1,000 min. with no cap. You may get some whales to donk off some money, who knows!

Showboat is fourth biggest now I think, but not by much. Taj, Borgata, and Trop are all bigger and all the other Harrah's properties have around 23 tables.

I love the new room. It's a great atmosphere and much more spread out. I can't imagine anyone liking the older room better.

I obviously have no say as to the mins, but I will see if I can ask. Also ask some of the 5/5 regulars they are willing to play higher from what I heard. I expressed that a few people wanted to play 5/10 and their eyes lit up because they get to play a bigger game.

People (smokers?) were setting off the emergency exit alarm a couple of times every hour and it was pretty damn annoying. The sun coming up and shining through was a new poker experience for me. Seeing the early morning people exercising made me question playing long sessions as I knew I would be sleeping through much of what looked to be a beautiful day.

One other note (don't know if it may have been mentioned in another thread). Parking at SB is no longer free with a Total Rewards card. It's now $5 like most other places in AC. I asked the guy if it was just for that night, and he said, no, it's a new policy.[/QUOTE]

parking is still free with a platinum or diamond card. and with a gold card, if you earn points on the slots (and its not that many) , you can go to a "cash and comp" machine, get a "free parking" voucher and go to cage where they will give you $5.

So to the average poker player, it now costs $5 to park at Showboat.