Since I spend most of the year living in Mount Pleasant, I thought I'd make a Soaring Eagle thread. Surely most Michigan players have played here before.

The casino hosts many concerts, comedians, etc. It has also hosted HPT events in the past.

http://www.soaringeaglecasino.com/

6800 Soaring Eagle Boulevard
Mount Pleasant, MI 48858
(888) 732-4537

So does anyone play here regularly? They have a monthly deepstack that sells out every month which is pretty solid. Over 10k to first.

was thinking of taking the trip. a friend told me you have to arrive fri night to get a seat for the monthly deepstack. Any good hotels around that are cheap? Also how are the cash games?

I added a link to the casino's website in the OP.

The deepstack typically sells out by Friday night, so I'd try to reg by Friday afternoon if I were you. It's also good to reg early just because you get an extra 2,000 chips.

As far as hotels go, I've never personally stayed in one so I'm not sure on the rates. I know the Mount Pleasant Inn, (I think that's its name, it used to be a Microtell) has a $58 rate during the week, and probably jumps up to $70ish for the weekend. That might be the best value because it's within a mile of the casino as well. I know my friend's dad always stays at the Super 8 on Mission St., so that might be a good nice bet as well. If you're looking for cheapest possible and don't care about how nice the room is, I'd go with Chippewa Motel. I've never been there, but it has got to be the cheapest in town from the looks of it.

In the future, I would register for it after you bust or ship the previous deepstack to avoid hotel rates.

Cash games are pretty decent, better than most Detroit casinos imo. Max buy-in for 1/2 is 300, so people are usually a bit deeper and it creates for a looser game.

Thank you I was in class when I made this thread so I didn't want to seem like a total degen looking at a casino website during lecture.

Do you play in the monthly deepstack every month? It's a really great tournament. How often does it sell out though? I went there once and it was sold out, the other time they only had about 140 people in it.

usually sells out sometime Friday evening. i've seen it sell out at 7 pm Friday, another time around 11 pm Friday...

thanks for the info. i live 20 min south of detroit so i play at motor city alot just looking to check out soaring eagle ive heard good things. it's a one day tourny right?

yes, one day. i must live right near you. i'm in brownstown.

What is the demographic in the tourny? College kids?

Live in brownstown too where you normally play?

electric stick in westland. every now and then at woodhaven lanes or momo's. used to play at taylor lanes. i'm a tournament player.. do you post in the detroit thread? that's where all the action is...

im newer here but did see that thread thanks i play at queen of hearts alot but have been hitting up motor city alot more. Play mostly cash but wanna play some bigger tournies

I've only played in it once. In general I would say tourneys are about 15% college kids, 40% middle-aged men, 35% seniors, 10% women.


I've never heard of it not selling out, but I'm sure there's been exceptions. Considering playing it this week, not the slightest bit rolled for it though.

I'm from downriver as well. Play mostly at Woodhaven.

The main regs here are old and retired or college kids. Mostly the older group. Not all rocks like most old regs either (although there are plenty of those). Watch out for the guy with the little glass turtle card protector.

Probably one of the weakest 1/2 games I've ever played. Only see 2/5 get off the ground on the weekends here.

Unless this has been changed since October the max bi for all games is 200bb (so 400 at 1/2).

I used to play at SE a ton back in 2008-2010 when I was under 21 and I'd play that monthly deep stack just about every month. The staff is about 90% people who were there when I first started going in 2008 and nearly all of them are horrific at their jobs. The floors are especially awful.

I've played poker in a lot of places in North America and I'd say this is one of if not the worst run rooms on the entire continent

You're probably right about the max buy in. I just knew they allowed deeper than 100 bigs.

A bit harsh on the staff I think though. I think the dealers are better than most Detroit dealers and I've never had a problem with the floors. Have any stories?

You play cash or tournies there?

Deep in the 185 one time a middle age handlebar mustache guy called me a "****ing idiot ******" after I made a joke asking him for change. The TD comes over, asks what the deal is, says verbatim "This ****ing idiot keeps talking to me and I don't ****ing want him to". TD says "ok, can we just drop it?" I say ok I didn't do anything just was asking for change but sure. Later the guy asks what the blind levels are, I answer then say "oh, I'm not sure if I'm allowed to speak though." TD comes over says verbatim "That's out of line. One thing we don't allow in this room is speech intended to annoy people. If I hear another word out of you you'll be on an hour penalty." (The average stack was about 14 big blinds at this point with like 30 people left so such a penalty would have been a disqualification). I lose 2 flips and bust right after.

One time the Thursday before Heartland the cash lists are all about 70-100 people deep. There were maybe 7 tables open, with 11 not in use. Floor says they can't start games because there aren't dealers. Ok, I mean you ****ing know huge crowds show up for HPT and can call dealers in but fine. Then we had an open seat at our table (remember the list is 70 or more people long) and they don't seat anyone for over 45 minutes after I go over to the podium and tell them about it something like 4-5 times.

You don't have to post to play in cash games, they have the buy the button rule, yet you are not allowed to buy the button unless you are a new player to the table. So a crime against logic there.

When I was there for their attempt at replacing the HPT they lost in October, they were training new dealers by having the dealers who couldn't even riffle decks sit in the box while being watched/scolded when they did something wrong by a standing dealer. Literally their busiest/most profitable weekend of the year, and half the tables had dealers that got maybe 10 hands an hour. One of these new dealers would say "muck" every time someone folded, but would never say anything when someone raised or called. I informed him this was the reverse of actions that are supposed to be announced by the dealer. He snapped back that I had no idea what I was talking about and this was how he was trained. Head asplode.

When they run tournaments, they keep infinite chips in the well so "change can be made." When 10k chips are introduced each rack has about 1.5x as many chips in play in the entire tournament. When I told floor about 3 years ago that this was a horrible way to run tournaments and made chip security impossible, he said "we trust our dealers around here." Maybe a year later in the deepstack I see someone take a pink 5k chip out of their pocket as we come back from break. I tell the floor, she says she'll call surveillance, she comes over later and says they didn't see anything on the cameras. Things that make you go hmm.

I might have some more later.

Just make sure not to identify specific employees, especially by name (I removed the TD's name from your story above).

in my experience playing the monthly deepstack, the dealers are indeed terrible. the worst thing was the fact that they did not know the chip denominations, and the fact that they found that funny every time they messed up because of it.

Ok my bad sorry.

I have nothing against most of the dealers there for the most part they are nice people/good at their jobs but the ones that aren't and the majority of the floors are just atrocious and make me want to never play poker again

Thanks for the thread. Took the trip from chicago to gamble with friends there a few times between 18-21. Had a great time. Cool to hear whats going on

A little bit of both, more tourneys than cash though.

I suppose I'm just blessed or don't play there enough. Although most of your stories happened during bigger events. I'd expect some inadequacies from most rooms in Michigan around that time since they rarely have to deal with the traffic.

I talked to someone in upper management prior to that Michigan Poker Classic and it sounded pretty horrible. Not surprised it was a dud. Also a pretty silly move to train dealers during such a big event.