We still play the 5/10 NL, last couple of weeks there have been a couple vip players who like PLO more so that has taken preference. The action has slowed and NL will be the main game unless that changes again.

I went recently and the games had some really good players but two bad players in particular. I followed these 2 kids to play 3 handed at higher stakes and they were horrible. I think Matt was one name and Calvin was the other . I cleaned out Calvin in poker and Matt with all prop bets. Next time we play 3 handed I'll probably pay their rake to make it fair.

Glad to hear there's always some easy action floating around!

Any rumors regarding the igaming bill in terms of online poker offered by Ballys? I see slots and live dealer casino games but no mention of poker. Anyone got the scoop?

Twin River was a **** show last night.

They were so short on dealers, the lists for every game were very long. The 1-2 list was over 40 people at one point, around when I noticed that the amount of people hanging out in the room waiting to be called was larger than the amount of people actually playing.

Then it got worse, and they actually closed down live tables to send dealers home.

The dealer shortage seems to be caused by a number of factors:

1 - Twin River is on a hiring freeze for poker dealers - which is completely insane
2 - When Twin hired all the new poker dealers when they reopened the room after covid, they promised them all they'd only tax them on their base rate ($15ish/hr), not their tips. Once they hired all the dealers they needed, they changed their tune and now tax them on that rate + their tips.
3 - There's a cascading effect where dealers quit because of this, so the remaining dealers get asked to work more, then they feel overworked and start calling out, then the ones not calling out get even more overworked, then they start calling out too. Basically, every single day there's call outs. And because they're not hiring, that just means the room is perpetually understaffed for demand.

Basically you can't play here any more unless you are willing to wait an hour+ to get on a table, for the most part, until Twin River gets their **** together.

sad. it has so much potential but I'm seeing some of those dealer issues and can kind of tell the good staff there isn't being given the help they need to succeed and with the poker player crowd its tough as there are so many very particular personalities that can't understand that and make it harder. the system also blows and is outdated so lots of energy is wasted that could be much more efficient.

obviously there is the rumor that Maverick Gaming comes in and changes the game. there was talked about openly in the room according to some regs.

last week on the only friends podcast they were interviewing Wayne Chiang who did Live at the Bike and now just launched Ballys Live at Commerce. it was an offhanded comment but in that interview he mentioned what Bally's was going overall and putting effort into building out there poker brand he mentioned Bally's in Vegas at the Trop, what he was doing at Commerce and also mentioned Erik Perrson opening up a new room and doing a stream in Rhode Island. so that is in the works for sure although actually making that happen might be too much given the situation. that is our only hope in New England for having any decent poker option that ,might even come close to pre pandemic.

It's bonkers how different Twin is on a busy Saturday night post-covid compared to pre-covid.

Pre-covid on a busy Saturday night, every one of the 24 (28?) tables in the room would be full, with 4 or 5 of those being $2/$5 and 2 or 3 being $5/$10. Now on a Saturday night if we're lucky there's 8 tables in play, with two of them being $2/$5 and one $5/10 (with a list that would make an amazing must-move if they had a dealer to launch it)

Also I think the Omaha experiment is completely dead, I haven't seen it running any time I've been there in a month or so

Saturday night was a nice return to form for the room, a total reversal over the Thursday **** show.

They had 16 tables running, including four $2-$5s and two $5-$10s. Action was great

i dont know, that poker is dark and cramped and bad, they only good thing is rake is ok