Quote:
Originally Posted by cadillacgreels
A few thoughts from my first visit there on Friday night:
4) dealers were fine, and one woman was especially friendly and competent. I only stayed for three dealers as this turned out to be a bit of a hit and run.
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7) summary: it's always better when you win, but this place exceeded my expectations after reading so many seemingly negative reviews on here. Players were reasonably friendly, tons of games going including 5-10NL. For a poker only trip, I will go here > Foxwoods/Mohegan to save the drive from now on.
I'm glad you liked TR; I enjoy the poker room so much better than Foxwoods. Mohegan is a good room too, and I will go there if I want good food or entertainment.
I agree about the dealers. With a few exceptions on each shift, the dealers are doing a fairly good job. Some of them are clearly new and it takes time for them to get better; it doesn't help that they have to deal other games and don't always get as much time in poker as they need. I have never been in any poker room where the players don't say "Gee, the dealers suck here"; you can look in threads about other poker rooms and see dealer complaints there, too. Most of the time (not all to be sure), people who complain have lost and that colors their perceptions.
The room does have some systematic problems. Many of the floor people have never dealt, and so it takes them a long time to become poker competent. In the rest of the universe, no one would ever be put in as a poker supervisor without having been a poker dealer for at least a year or so. That's not how TR does it - they want to put table games floor people in the poker room because they can't/won't hire experienced poker floor supervisors - mostly because those supervisors can't usually work in the rest of the casino.
The other big problem is, of course, the seating system. I'm not sure where they got this piece of junk, but they can't take call-ins, they can't swipe players in at the table, and they constantly seem to log out the wrong players. One of the floor managers told me its because the casino is simply too cheap to put the units on the table that would let the dealer swipe people in and out like is done at Foxwoods or Mohegan. If that's true, it's unfortunate - I wonder if they realize players' perception of the room would be vastly improved if they fix that problem.
The floor managers are another problem. These are essentially the shift managers you'd see in other poker rooms, but they are also in charge of the non-smoking table games. TR has a limited number of floor managers with poker experience, and TR insists on rotating the floor managers and they don't always schedule the good poker floor managers in poker. There is a really excellent one on swing shift. Day shift used to have a really good one, but she left and now they muddle along. Graveyard actually has a few competent floor managers, but they are all mean and it seems like they don't want to be there. When there isn't a competent floor manager in the room when something goes wrong, it's a problem. There has been more than a few times that the floor manager has to call some other floor manager to find out what to do. Not only does it look unprofessional, it delays the game unnecessarily and also encourages shot takers to cause trouble.
The floor manager problem relates to another higher-level problem: the room doesn't have coherent management; no one is really in charge. There is no poker room manager, everything is run out of the pit. No one single person hires, fires, and disciplines dealers and supervisors. No one person is the "final call" on rules. This leads to different interpretations on different shifts, as the floor managers and their bosses do what they want to do. I'm sure they all think they're doing what is best - but consistency is important, and this room doesn't always have it. It's a direct result of no one being in charge. There is in theory a director of table games, but it's obvious that he does not spend the time in the weeds necessary to straighten these things out - he probably isn't even aware of these problems.
The management problem leads to a related problem. The room is underutilized. Not on Friday or Saturday nights - the room fills up - but the rest of the time there are lots of empty tables and no plan to use them. They could have a complete tournament schedule Sunday through Thursday, and a morning schedule on Friday and Saturday. They are leaving a lot of money on the table, so to speak. If the room had a manager, that person would be taking care of this.
I have ranted too much, especially since I was agreeing with you that the room is actually pretty good. My wife passed away last year, and the last of my kids went off to college this week. I spend 10 hours a day in this room and I'll probably spend more now. Hopefully I'll see you around the tables.