Fewer and fewer people do, it seems. I was up there all day yesterday, and the constant subject of conversation was how little action there has been in the room. I don't like to be negative, but I'll say that I'm not at all surprised by this, and I don't expect it to get better unless policies and procedures there change significantly.

All my best,

--Nate

can you elaborate and which specific policies and procedures should be changed?

+1 I'd be interested to know what you mean by this.

The BB"J" and "poker club" procedures breed a lot of ill will among the players. It can be very hard to get a consistent ruling on anything--so, for example, you might ask one floorman if you can be away from the table for X minutes to make a phone call, and come back X minutes later to find you've been picked up.

In one day of playing, I saw:

(1) A dealer shuffle chips in the pot idly during a hand.
(2) A dealer twirl a chip from the pot in his right hand during a hand.
(3) A dealer give an extra $5 out of the rack to a player in what should have been an $8 pot.
(4) A dealer count down the stub in such a way that I could see all the cards as they were being counted. This was during a fairly large pot--I was facing a $120 bet on the river into roughly a $300 pot. (Yes, I said something about it while the action was still on me.)
(5) A dealer deal the turn card by sliding a card off the deck with his left thumb and rotating his left hand.
(6) A dealer seem to grimace at receiving "only" a $4 tip.

In none of these cases was the behavior corrected; I've seen even worse happen on other days. The floormen spend a lot of time back behind the back desk, not seeming to do much of anything, even when there are issues needing to be addressed. The floormen also have given me a lot of attitude and spoken to me as if I'm a problem. (I've played in dozens of cardrooms for thousands of hours, and have consistently gotten along very well with all the staff.) It's routine to walk into the room and go to the board to put your name on a list, only to be ignored by the staff there. More than once I've been grimaced at just for saying "excuse me" to someone (who didn't appear to be doing anything productive) in an attempt to get my name on a list or get seated in a game. This is a very bad way for players to be greeted.

So, I'm not surprised that new players--casual or experienced--are not attracted to the room, and I'm also not surprised that existing players aren't coming back.

FWIW, these observations come after roughly 125 hours of play in the cardroom--so, enough that I'm confident forming judgments, but not enough that I'm infallible. And, for whatever it's worth, I'm generally disposed to like cardrooms and their management.

All my best,

--Nate

Wow this is alot if you have anything else don't hestitate to inform me nogmicks@aol.com anything like this will be passed on to the director

Mike

Mike--

Thanks for this kind reply. Although I think some aspects of the room are badly broken, I do enjoy playing there.

Given your job, I trust that you know something about game security. Surely you understand how scary it is, in particular, to see $5 go from the rack into a regular's stack.

All my best,

--Nate

^^^Agree. This drives me crazy.

What are comps like? Look for a place to grind full time this summer.

Last week I went down to Pocono Downs. It's a longer drive, but after last week I wanted to try a room other than Turning Stone. Amusingly enough, I got there, sat down in a game, and found a bunch of Turning Stone players complaining about Turning Stone.

Thanks for the reply, as always.

I can't really justify making the trip unless I can be confident that a 2-5 game (or a limit game of comparable size) will be running. But I imagine that during the tournament series, games like that figure to run.

It's not clear that either of us can be satisfied here: you're probably going to think that what I want is unrealistic and a product of paranoia; I'm probably going to think that you don't take procedural concerns seriously enough. But I'd still like to meet--hopefully I'm wrong! There are some basic things that could be improved that would allow players to be more confident that (i) they are gambling in a secure environment and (ii) they are welcome in the room. I'd love to report improvements to the disgruntled crowd that's moved its play down to Pennsylvania.

All my best,

--Nate

I live in the Syracuse area, how far away is Pocono Downs from TS?

Google Maps says it's 2.5 hours from Syracuse to Pocono Downs. (In my case the drive is only ~30 minutes longer.)

All my best,

--Nate

I don't pretend to be an expert on floor behavior, but of the four or five casinos I play in mostly (thats Conn. AC Philly's Parq and TS, I find the floor and the dealers here most helpful and most considerate. Look it isn't a very busy room most time of day compared to say Foxwoods or Mohegan or Borgata. When it gets crowded the crowd can be quite a handful, I have seen these guys truly try to hook people up quickly.

Another thing, it is in UPSTATE NY, folks there are different. Things aren't as they are in Conn. AC or Philly. Things move more slowly and people are more polite. If you come up there with a big city attitude, I am afraid that isn't going to bring a lot of friendly faces.

I have seen people get huffy with staff, in fact down right abusive, and these folks take it in and remain polite but yea they are rightfully offended.

I spent a lot of time at TS last summer ('10) and I watched how people from NY and Philly acted compared to the regulars from upstate NY or from Canada. I am a downstater myself. I may be used to it but a lot of folks don't like it.

I found the staff friendly, if I was friendly. I found them polite but standoffish if the person they dealt with acted like an ass. I am not sure what more you want. The room runs in my opinion far better than FW and the desk people know what they are doing. You can hear yourself think in this room (compared to FW). While anyone can improve, I'd say this place is well run and the staff pretty above average to the staffs in the places I have played and those I usually play.

I was thinking of stopping in on Sunday for one of the football games. What games can I expect to find running?

5/10 Omaha High Low has been going, Several 1/2 200 Max N/L games and A few 2/5 500 Max N/L Games... Sometimes 20/40 Limit games carries over from previous night and runs all day

i do really enjoy that o8 game, you guys have been keeping it running regularly on the weekends now?

Originally Posted by Nate. View Post
It's routine to walk into the room and go to the board to put your name on a list, only to be ignored by the staff there. More than once I've been grimaced at just for saying "excuse me" to someone (who didn't appear to be doing anything productive) in an attempt to get my name on a list or get seated in a game. This is a very bad way for players to be greeted.

^^^Agree. This drives me crazy.

i still love turning stone but i agree, I have dealt with the same...

Anyone know how the first two days of the Winter series is going?? I will be there for Friday and Saturday. Anybody got a bead on the weather for the weekend??

I read the entire thread to be sure my question's haven't been asked before.

I live 2 1/2 hours East of TS and I'm trying to plan a trip out to play $2/$4 LHE and I have a few questions I'm hoping some of you can answer.

1. Is the game mentioned above busy around 8 am on a Friday or Sat? I'd prefer to get there early but don't want to find out there aren't any tables at this time.

2. How does the rake work for this game?

I apologize for silly questions but my only live B&M poker experience lasted 45 min. and it happened 5+/- years ago at Mohegan Sun. I can honestly say I can not remember how the rake worked then.

That day consisted of me and a buddy taking an hour and a half to get on a $2/$4 LHE table. Only to have my buddy decided 45 min into our games that he was hungry. So we left our seats not realizing we should have said something about going to get something to eat. Anyways after waiting another hour and a half to eat we came back to find our seats taken. Embarrassing having to go and get your chips back while they basically tell you that you are a moron... which we were. What I do remember is that I was up $65 in those 45 min. I realize this was 5 years ago but would any of you say the players are way better now than they were then? Knowing what I know now about poker I don't understand how I was able to be up that much on a 2/4 LHE table. I did win 3 hands with 2 of them being nice pots. Can I expect more of the same or will I be in for a rude awakening?

Hope this wasn't TL/DR and I thank you in advance for any help.

Jae

I think I'm qualified enough since i play these stakes a lot now haha

2/4 is almost always running , especially since there is a series goign on right now, there will be a couple of tables .

IF i remember correctly and unless this changed( which it likely could have since it was a while since i have asked about rake) they were 10% to $4+$1 BBJ.

TY MNOWAX. I assumed they would be running but I thought I would ask. I'd hate to drive 2 1/2 hours early in the morning and sit around waiting for people to show up.

Rake sounds fine I guess... not sure if that is rape or not but I've read about worse.

On a personal note, how do you do at these tables? I understand every hand is different but if you were to throw an amount out there... what would you say is the average pot take down?

I guess I just need to go and find out for myself and stop asking all kinds of questions. I just have a feeling it's going to be a bit different than what I'm expecting.

I really only have online poker (err use to have) experience at ring games.

If I'm not mistaken your a PLO8 fan? I might be getting you mixed up with someone else here. Love that game.

Again TY

Today their was not a 2/4 game til noon. If you can, try to play 1/2NL when I saw a 2/4 game average stack was about 30 bucks and average age was prob 70

Came back. Signed up. Smiled big. Got a snide, dismissive comment from staff first thing.

Stop going plain and simple... I mean seriously all you do is complain about everything here. Why do you still go? All I here is positives about tournaments and promotions if you have such a problem with the greeters talk to Mike or Jason personally tell him who is giving the attitude. This place staffs 2 floors to do everything I know they are at the desk alot.. Yeah its cause the phone rings every 2 seconds the phone annoys me the most.


What exactly was the comment say it here let us decide how bad it was and who said it.

It's the annoying newbie but was wondering how often the 3/6 LHE tables run... if ever. Promise my next post here will be something other than a dumb @ss question.

Thanks.