Hopefully Rivers opens back up soon... These drives are getting annoying!

Guys, I'm not sure how many times I can say this but we would love to hold larger events right now due to being the only card room open. With staffing levels the way they are that is huge challenge. What good would it do to have an event, get 500 guests and we could only put 350 through...thats just having guests travel here in bad faith when we know they are all not getting into play.
Why do you think we have not raised the $5K guarantee to $10K when we know its over $12K every time we have the event? The reason is a bigger guarantee will bring in more guests and we know we can only put 160 players max through so anyone over that traveled here for nothing...Again why would I do that and intentionally piss people off? To be honest, any poker room that would do that has no integrity and no right operating.
Its the same thing with larger events now with staffing levels. There are not enough dealers available to handle larger events, not sure if anyone's been watching what's going on put people don't want to work right now, they'd rather stay home and collect unemployment.
For the record, we did not phase out any tournaments, we reacted to the drop off in attendance for larger events due to the increased number of events in the area when other properties opened in this state and surrounding states . We also reacted to our guests telling us they felt priced out of the larger events at that time and once we hit a friendlier price point our tournaments were again very successful.
I shake my head when you all compare our events to 5 / 10 years ago, that was a different poker world then, there weren't even promotions then, this was the only room for hundreds of miles with 90 dealers on staff... With all the states that have poker now the number of events that were scheduled pre-covid ate into everyone's MTT schedule, not just ours. Say what you will but deep down most people don't want to travel when they don't have to and they don't have to when there is a closer casino holding events. In addition, most folks are limited into the number of events they can play in any given amount of time through out the year.
I agree 100% now that being the only room we could hold events and we are working on some things for down the line.
We and other casinos have been trying to hire staff... in all departments but especially dealers for months now... with little success. Until that happens, staffing will dictate tournament schedules and available cash games.
Again, I am limited to what I can get into here due to time constraints...if anyone wants to seriously discuss this or any other issues 1 on 1 where I can spend some time get into more detail and data please stop by or call the office at 315 361 7629. Many of the opinions that have been expressed here on 2+2 are simply not the case as stated.
Boss, Jk, anyone...I really would like the opportunity to discuss this to point out both sides of events not just the "if you have it we will come and there is definitely a need side". I keep offering but no one ever takes me up on the offer...they just keep saying the same things over and over with no clear facts, data or information. Why that is, I do not know... but I'm offering to discuss in person or on the phone. I understand the frustration, but there are 2 sides to everything and post covid...there are many more challenges than you may think of that go into holding the type of events you are talking about.
Hope to hear from you guys!!!

Like I said in my other post...no one likes to travel if they don't have to!

I'm guessing I'm not the only one who feels this way, but maybe I am. If I have a choice and the time commitment is the same, I'd rather drive 2-3 hours for a $1100 with a 200k guarantee over driving 20 minutes to play a $250. I'm of the belief that going smaller with the buyins continues to exacerbate with the localization of tournament fields. If the goal is entirely quantity of players, then when Frankie is doing for scheduling is correct. If the goal is to get people in to play a bit bigger, both in the casino and in the poker room, then a bigger event would help with that.

I love to hear Frankie's opinion on tournaments going almost exclusively multi-entry compared to say 10 years ago.

If I played in a tournament series years ago, there were rebuy events and freezeout events. I could choose accordingly.

Does the benefits of multi-entry to the casino outweigh the loss of people like me who would prefer freezeouts? Wondering if there were some sort of analysis of it.

Hi Snipers, I have never personally done one or heard of any particular analysis of the 2 but Poker does follow trends and what had been trending was the re-buy events as players liked having that ability/option. Splitting the two can lead to watered down fields in both styles of Tournaments.

Like you, I enjoyed the feezeout's as well when Tournaments were rolling years ago. It was more of a challenge, skill and testament to ones ability to remain in the tournament from beginning to end. But like promotions have caused players in cash games to alter their style of play to play for the promotional win, Tournament players enjoy the rebuy aspect as they can play a more aggressive style of game early knowing they can re-enter if busted out.

Re-buys also come in handy for any Casino/poker room when a less than expected turnout fields enough buy-ins through rebuys to meet a Guarantee. Hope that helps!

Hi Billy, totally agree with you about the localization of tournament fields affecting price points, solid analysis!

While I understand where you are coming from Frankie I with no stake in this one way or the other see a missed opportunity to run bigger but break it up into multiple starting days to stagger the field to a manageable level

Can someone at Turning Stone please fix the chargers at the poker tables. Its so annoying. How hard can it be? Its bad enough that none of the shuffle machines work any more and its freezing. Everyone complains to the staff and they all kind of laugh it off.
I cant wait for Rivers to reopen also.

Hi SS, i understand your frustration but I can assure you that no one laughs anything off. We are well aware of all you mentioned.
There are times during hot spells when the air exchange does not regulate quickly enough and it may take some time to reverse temperatures in the room after we notify facilities.
As far as the chargers go, we are looking to replace all the units shortly. The bulk of the damage comes from guests pulling out cords, snapping off the terminal or yes sticking gum into the USB port.
We are working on the shufflers, unlike the other properties that were not open to provide poker to their guests through the pandemic, our shufflers/equipment took a beating from constantly having pieces of latex from broken gloves the dealers had to wear clogging the machines. This can cause recurring problems. Hope that provides some insight to your comments. Thank you!

Hi Frankie,

Thanks for your response.

I guess I was just venting about poker rooms in general and you're the only one who listens. I've been going to Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods since getting vaccinated in late April and they have the same issues of controlling the temperature and the chargers not working. Rivers was the same when open.

Looking at problems from the outside and not considering all that's involved was pretty lame on my part.....sorry about that.

I was at Turning Stone for 14 hours on Saturday and had a great time.

Thanks again for responding to questions and comments on here.

-Steve

Hey no problem Steve, nothing to be sorry about...vent when needed...Ill always listen. I'm glad you had a great time while here at TS on Saturday and trust me, I completely understand and recognize the frustrations...its been that kind of year all the way around!!! Next time your here pull me aside and say hello, I always enjoy meeting you guys !!!

What has the waiting list situation been like the last couple of weekends for the $1/2 or $1/3 games?

Check the Bravo app

Hi Z, wait times eased last weekend for 1/2 and 1/3. We were able to open games quickly due to a small increase in staff. We had 18, 20 and 14 games respectively last Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Yesterday and today very little wait times for 1/2 and 1/3.

Also, we do offer guests coming from further away the option to call ahead and put their name on the list. Once you call, you have a 2 hour window to check-in before being removed from the list. You can also create an account on Bravo and sign up for the waiting list through the app. Hope that helps!

Hello all, I just checked the bravo app and saw that TS offers a 1/3 B.B.S game, would someone be so kind as to let me know what B.B.S stands for? Thanks in advance!!!

Hello Wiser...it stands for Buy to the Biggest Stack on the table. Only available for 1/3 games!

Hello all,

I’ll be visiting upstate New York the end of August and would love to see if we can get a big cash game going on a weekend. Preferably 10/25 or 25/50 NL or PLO. Let me know if anyone here is interested or how we could organize a game.

Spent a little time here recently for the first time in a long time. It's amazing they still have the same staff, very little turnover. They are also the most friendly poker room staff I have ever seen, well most of them.. The promotions are great. The bad beat day where the qualifications drop every hour is great. It fills the room and gets a full spread of games going.. I'd recommend playing here, check the promotions on the bravo app

Frankie,

Has the Friday night $5/$10 O8 with kill ever gotten back off the ground? I know most of the players were older and I hadn't really seen it back since the pandemic started.

Has there been any interest in stud ever?

I miss the days when there were more options than holdem =\

It's running right now... just check bravo bro

Thanks for the assist with the question Boss!!!
Snipers, unfortunately I haven't had anyone ask for stud in years!

Of course. Daughter's birthday so I was out of town after work lol.

Good to see it going again. Going to have to get down there again soon.

Thinking about my first trip to TS in about 18 months. Can anybody who’s been there recently let me know how the masking situation has been? I understand they’re not mandatory, just trying to get a feel for how much of the crowd is masking up at the tables.

2/8 people wearing a mask at the table