...and they need to move to a sit-down charge and abandon their ridiculous hourly charge like Crown did a while back.

However.........

Star is always good late January (Aussie Millions time in Melbourne). A lot of the better players slip down there to chase their dreams.

lol at 'good players' at the star

They brought that crazy rule in just before I moved away some time in early 2012 and they claimed it was more a result of becoming fed up with smashed players on Fri/Sat evenings who were not paying attention to the action, my feeling though as well as alot of the other regulars was that it was more just a method to try and get more money into the rake, you gotta figure if it happens even 5 times a day there's a max rate 12$ rake they may not have otherwise gotten for that hand.

In 2 years of playing there the one thing I learned is that most of the players don't care about money, you have to be pretty well off to live in Sydney, at least within a reasonable distance of the casino to be there frequently, as a result most of the regulars who are bad players have quite a bit of cash to toss around. As a matter of fact, there were at least 2-3 regulars who would be regularly banned for 3-4 months at a time but never permanently banned because they lost so much gosh darn money in the place, not just in poker but they were generally good for losing a few K in baccarat each day...I'll never forget this one clown who is a part of the furniture in the 10-20 game going downstairs to pick up food for the rest of the table, coming back and saying he dropped 4K in baccarat as he waited for the order.

It will happen as soon as and if the other Sydney casino opens...or they could both just collude together to continue to eat the poker players alive.

More angles @ Star than an icosahedron. Shooters to match.

Barangaroo won't have poker machines; rumour is it won't have poker either. Everything targeted to the high-end Asian market it seems. (and casinos make a regular return from poker but it's not the easy zillions they crave).

But all it takes is a major Asian economic downturn and the Packer attitude might shift considerably. Time will tell.

I've become a bit of a 3/3 5/5 reg on the afternoon shift (7pm-3am thu, fri, sat) over the last few months and I can tell you that if you are beating uNL for anything over a decent sample you will crush it live at the star.

Assuming you have the BR and patience any half decent micro grinder should do well.

How many tables they have now?

Rake went up at 1/2 and 3/3 lol
$5 time charge and 10% capped at $10/ pot
Sigh

I've gone to the Star a few times now and now I'm wondering if the games have usually been better or worse during ANZPT? More players and longer queues to tables or what?

It's been that for years now, nothing gone up.

On a positive note, noticed the overall standard of dealers and floor has gone up over the past 6 - 12 months. You still see some stinkers once in a while (generally newish dealers, one of the more comical ones was a dealer insisting that a new player to the table post three lots of missed blinds because that's how much he had missed while he was waiting for chips from the cage) but generally rulings are overall fairly consistent and make sense which is a huuuuuge improvement from a year or two ago.

And massive thumbs up to the free coffee / tea / water!

Waitresses also massive improvement, some of then are fkn amazing....oh and
Brag- came third in opening event wooo

Some of the 1/2/3/3 regs need to re-consider your approach to playing. Try welcoming players and talking to other people rather than just between yourselves. How hard is it not to talk strategy at the table, and just be less of a dick in general?

I don't play often but when I do, more often than not it's either silent or littered with strat talk between regs. On 2 separate occasions recently I've had equally tilting experiences. The first was a reg talking **** about the entire table. When asked if he wanted 3/3, proceeded to tell the floor how bad everyone is and even went as far to point out a specific move somebody made earlier (whom he didn't know) and how bad it was. Floor says nothing. Fwiw he was clearly tilted but this is still not the environment you want rec players to experience when they make their way to the corner of the casino to play a game that is increasingly more dull and predatory.

On another table on a separate occasion there was minimal talk and so much tanking. Tank check, tank bet, next player tanks and folds, original checker tanks on top of that folds. Tank tank tank. All over a 15 fkn dollar bet on a dry flop. Not to mention the good old stack the chips up just to knock them over when placing them in the pot like a pro.

These are just a few examples and to be fair, I have had some great tables where the experience is an enjoyable one to both regs and recs. In saying that, they are becoming rarer and are certainty not in the majority. You don't have to go out of your way to entertain but at least try to be neutral. Show a card every once in a while, say nice hand, be gracious when you lose. It's not hard but it makes a big difference.

That is to be expected i guess, online > live, in level of competition, but it's quite startling to see how much difference it really is.

Has anyone played MTT's at The Star?

Schedule on the website has a $220 Turbo tourney on Monday nights.. interested to see what this is like.

I wish Crown Casino was in Syd

don't bother with the turbo one unless you want to gamble big time. average stack after a few 20 minute levels is 10bbs or under

will be in syd next week
what are the limits, rake and time charge?
are they still raping?

I have read though the thread and realised that in Star City, they have a Sitting Rake which is $5/h and a rake of 10% capped at $10 for the 1/2 game.

Is that correct?

I'm going to visit Sydney in June, in less than a month. I hope to get more information and understand their raking system before I sit down and play.

Yeah, they still charge $5/h per seat plus 10% $12 max per hand.

Some of the new dealers have been forgetting to collect time; esp. when a new player sits down. Big panic and a crackdown on time collection and their other bugbear - mobile phones.

Saw a rare event yesterday - regular Vince had a sizeable win on 1/3. A lot of the older brigade are shifting into "consistent contributor/wins are getting rare" category. And dementia, for some, draws closer by the day.

Only a matter of time before the rake increases slightly yet again, I hear.

thanks for the info

how about the maxi buy in for 1/2? is it 100bb?

Yep. Gone are the days of the fixed 40bb buy in!

1/2 @ Crown Melbourne used to be a fixed 30bb buy in!

1/2 has had some changes there, I'll probably get this wrong.

Was $60 flat for the longest time, then was $50-$150 (I think), then they got rid of it altogether, then brought it back with a $40-$80 buy-in.

Got rid of the cap on buy in?!? I'd practically live at the place if I could play an uncapped game against the 1/2 field!

As it keeps getting asked here is the current state of buy ins and rake at star:

1/2: $80 - $200 buy in. $5/hour + 10% capped at $10.
3/3: $200 - $300 buy in. $5/hour + 10% capped at $10.
5/5: $300 - $700 buy in. $10/hour + 10% capped at $10.

Thankfully the 5/5 40bb capped game is gone, to add to the obscenity I think it was some mind blowing $2.50 per player per hand rake as well. I'm still fuming to this day how the limit HE games were killed - we would always get the numbers to play but the floor refused to open a table.

for comparison:

How often does the 5/10 game run down there? Is it worth it or is it a nit / reg fest? Both 5/5 games don't look too shabby and the 3/3 in Syd and 2/4 in Melb seem OK but I'm horrified by the Melb 1/2 games. 20 rake in a 50 buy in game?!?!?!?!?!?! WTF?!?!?!?! They should offer prizes to anyone who can last more than an hour in that.