Every now and then I still hear rumors about a Holland room by Railhouse. Any credibility to those?

What’s the verdict, Kings or Westgate? Feel safe at both? Fun/Comfortable atmosphere? Play level? Cash can tourneys?

Sounds like lately dealers have been better at westgate?

As cold weather approaches it’s time to get back in the rooms.

1) No rumblings on Holland that I've heard. With GLake showing no interest in poker right now that would lend itself to other charity location possibilities.

2) I don't think I've ever worried about Player safety at either location. While it may make some nervous at both locations walking to a vehicle just due to it being pretty dark, you can always try to move it closer as the night moves on for a shorter walk.

Both locations pretty much attract the same Players, with King's having a slightly larger pool just because they are open weekends. Cash has been incredible at both locations and tournaments tend to be 40-60% larger at King's due to location and days of operation.

3) Yes, Westgate has a lot of former GLake Dealers so I lean towards them for sure and it's rarely been an issue waiting on a Dealer to open a table there since they seem to have 2-4 on site before large numbers of Players typically show up. I think the pay structure/rotation is different.

4) Yes, typically poker picks up into Fall/Winter .. and one would have to assume that lots of Players have been patiently waiting to get back to the table for one reason or another. GL

Wow, thanks as always answer20! This is super great stuff. I don’t comment much but always appreciate your updates and advice.

I’ve played at Kings a few times in years past and of course GL but never tried Westgate. I think I will.

King's is starting two charities per day this Thursday. Break is 530 to 6 pm .. not sure exactly when they open but license shows 8 am is possible. GL

Two excellent cash tables at Westgate last night. I got the last seat at the first table around 3PM, so Players are showing up earlier each week.

I'm probably too harsh on this, but there is some incidence of table/seat changing and/or dashing after winning (or losing) big pots. I realize people have schedules, but to see someone sit there for 'many' orbits and then cash out within an orbit of doubling up can bother some folks. Some Players go into the tournament and locker chips, that's no big deal. But if I see a pattern of dashing I just wont give that Player action .. or I'll make sure action is well within my favor at the time. Our game went from awesome to 4-handed in a matter of 15 minutes. I had to leave myself at that time .. probably just a matter of timing for everyone involved.

I'll try to find out what's going on at King's and post it here. There may be a text chain, but I haven't been included as of yet and the Facebook page hasn't been updated in quite some time. They haven't changed the 'voicemail' message as of yet. GL

Adding to @answer20 - Westgate is having consistently great games. Lots of action players.

Example from Monday:
UTG raise 10
UTG+1 raise to 35
HJ calls
Dealer (action player) calls
UTG all in for 70
UTG+1 all in for 250
HJ folds
Dealer calls with 74hh flops flush

Looks like King's is aiming for an 11 AM opening today. Hopefully this catches on and become a mainstay for the daytime Players. As long as the charities feel there's value they will continue to pull licenses for these 'events'. GL

Pretty good first showing at King's .. two tables were running by 130? Never got a PLO table going but they will try again today.

If you are on site you can probably sign up for a seat at 1030, otherwise they will start to answer the phone at 1100.

Last hands at 510 so the charity can be 'long gone' by 530 and then the new charity can start at 600.

FKeepers had a really good 2/5 RxR going on Wed well into the evening.

No word out of SEagle, but they had been trying to get poker back going in Oct, actually Sept, but have had staffing issues as the poker Dealers are stuck in the pits until they can hire and train new pit Dealers (and retain them for more than a week). GL

Looks like FKeepers is getting back to 'normal' .. via the FK thread .. GL

Tournaments are back at FK starting Nov 1.

Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday at 1pm & 6pm
$40 NL holdem - 20 minute levels - 10k starting stack

Thursday 1pm
$40 NL holdem - 20 minute levels - 10k starting stack

Thursday 6pm
$60 RxR PLO+NL holdem - 20 minute levels - 12k starting stack

Sunday 6pm
$60 Pineapple poker - 20 minute levels - 10k starting stack
(Player is dealt three cards but must discard one preflop)

PSA of sorts .. Put in quite a few charity hours as of late and while I've dealt with this type of behavior in the past it just bothered me more so last week. Hopefully I'm not trending towards OMC!!

Please be aware of angle shooters at your table and don't be afraid to call them out immediately in front of the table. There's some Players who may not even know when an angle has been attempted and/or they've fallen victim to one.

There's one specific Player who is causing misdeals, showing cards, giving off physical tells (both false and true), talking during hands (OPTAH) and acting out of turn in an attempt to change pending action.

Granted I fully admit that I'm more fired up about this due to the angles 'working' but none the less I figured I'd at least put it out here for the 10 people who still come looking.

Poker is coming back more and more each week as Players feel more comfortable coming out in public and as the weather changes here in the Fall. So if you are going to play I hope you can enjoy yourself and get whatever you aim to from coming out .. but please pay attention and don't be afraid to hold your ground and/or speak your mind.

Now, there's a nice way and an 'elevated' way to go about this. I would suggest you aim your comments at the Dealer and not the person (sorry Dealers) .. and ask questions, not make pointed 'accusations'. "Can he do that?" or "Is that allowed?" are much better than just calling someone out (which you trying to do anyway).

Ramble, ramble .. GL

We have a local Player who is pretty deep in the RxR event at the WSOP (event 50), having survived a very long Day 1 and is deep into the money with about 70 to go out of 1600-ish.

The word from a few out there is that cash games are so good that there are not as many tournament entries as you might expect. GL

We have another local that is 'very' deep into the money in a tournament at the WSOP .. and low and behold PLO is involved! If you want to check out the listings for Event #71, PLO Bounty, you will see they are down to the final 15 Players going into Saturday play out in Vegas. Don't be fooled by the prize money involved as each bounty is worth $500, so it would be hard to imagine that all of the remaining Players don't have their BI (or 2) covered already via eliminating Players from the field. I don't think this tournament will be streamed as 'the' feature table on PokerGo, but there's always a chance they could make it to one of the secondary tables. More than likely they will play to a winner when play resumes today at 6pm 'our' time.

There were a few cashes in the $10k ME, but I haven't thoroughly checked to see what happened last night. There were lots of shorter stacks from all over Michigan going into the money bubble with a lot of them busting from 700-1000th place .. including one gas station owner from Muskegon who ran AK into AA to bust.

Charity rooms are still humming along 7 days a week with King's 'day shift' getting one table going right away and typically a 2nd 1-3 hours afterwards through the changeover at 5PM. GL

Firekeepers is holding a $350 Black Chip Bounty on 'black' Saturday, Nov 27. I believe it's 20k chips with 30 minute levels starting at 1PM. Yes, there's a big college football game that day, but it's their first 'big' tournament since before CV. GL

Remember that Westgate is opening at 2PM Mon-Thur .. tournaments daily with $100 BI on Thursdays

King's opens at 1030 with (usually) cards in the air by 11 Thur-Sun. Occasionally PLO will go during the day, but they wont run it at night due to chip availability.

FK got 301 entries in the black chip on Sat, very good turnout .. certainly more to come with that kind of turnout. GL

More tournaments!!

Looks like MCC has a monthly $300 that is drawing quite a bit of attention .. over 500 entries at the end of late registration this past Saturday. That's a prize pool well worth the drive .. and on a Saturday!

I believe Westgate is still holding a $100 tournament on Thursdays .. more like a SNG, but there was one week where it spilled over into 2 tables. GL

No live streaming, but Brek S from our area has made it through Day 3 of the WPT 5-Diamond at Bellagio in Vegas.

This was a $10k buy-in and he's locked up almost 40k by making the final 29 of over 700 entries. Not sure if he entered more than once, but it's possible.

This will end up on Bally's TV (Fox Sports Detroit) on cable eventually. Day 4 is ongoing and should play down to 6 or 8 .. what ever they are putting on TV these days.

Brek already won the largest WPT event ever (as far as entries) down in Florida and after a rough WSOP he's seem to be finding his tournament stride again. Hopefully he can make some more hay before all these Pros find out (from TV) that he 's very aggressive. His FL win is 'currently' on Bally's so there's some film out there on him. GL

Brek didn't fair too well early on Saturday taking an early hit against a K7 'boat on the River' cashing over 45k.

Undeterred (and having a plane that wasn't leaving until Monday I assume), He jumped in another large tournament Sat at the Wynn and jetted up the leaderboard ultimately cashing 20-something in that one as well.

Good weekend for a local.

With the holidays being Saturdays I'm anticipating a healthy poker opportunity .. HOWEVER

King's did sell out by 915 on Saturday night due to a healthy tournament and 3 'very strong' cash tables.

Also, there's no licenses for King's Day game this weekend .. except for Sunday the 26th. That can change on a daily basis and I'll try to monitor it (no promises)

Westgate does look like they're open for normal hours, with Mondays being the best from what I've heard.

I've also heard good things about Muskegon tournaments as well, but with cash still being hit or miss. GL

Just a little bit of Sunday news .. I've been told that King's is holding a $250 tournament Sunday the 26th during the day. I'm not sure how you confirm when it starts but just assume that you need to be there between 11-noon to enter.

They also have a night charity for what may be 'normal' Sunday operations. Remember that all the scheduled licenses can be found when you search for Millionaire Party Locator in the State of Michigan .. just enter the desired city or county. The times shown may not exactly match hours of operations, but do indicated the maximum allowed window to operate.

Westgate continues to thrive with 1-2 tables at 2pm daily M-Th .. even PLO this past Monday, which caused an early sellout of chips. They may be considering a reduction in max buy-in, but this is a very Player friendly location so things are always open for discussion, but not necessarily 're-discussion' so to speak!

Firekeepers announced a return of their 'full' slate of tournaments. Check out Bravo for full details. They also have a tournament this Sunday .. Green Chip $125 that starts at 1 PM (late reg 4pm). So if you bust out of King's, you can go to FK to enter another one. BBJ is at 167k and climbing (room share) and they also have a Royal bonus in play.

South Bend BBJ just hit on the 19th (430K to 5 Players), but their newest BBJ is over $200k already .. I believe that is a Quad v Quad room. They also have some promos that you can see on Bravo. GL

I'm still a little hazy on the King's 'big' tournament .. As of today I believe it's going to be once a month, but may only be $200, not $250. Definitely call or stop in there to get the correct details if you are interested in a tournament of this size.

Firekeepers has popped up on MSPT's 2022 schedule for May .. very good news if CV doesn't interfere! No guarantee as of yet and I assume that FK will be hosting a 'normal' slate of qualifiers and satellites along the way.

Westgate action has been very good, with two tables by 4 PM most days. They did drop the max BI to $300 to stretch the chips. GL

PLO is becoming more consistent at King's .. ran Thur, Fri and Sat with chips selling out around 4PM or so (which is 'fine' when they shut down at 5PM anyway) Just remember that it would take some crazy circumstances for PLO to run at night with 'big' 1/2 cash games and the nightly tournaments eating up most of the sales. I was told that chips sold out as early at 1015 one night.

Monday's have been huge at Westgate, with two tables running by 3PM. Tue and Wed are just fine as well.

172K BBJ hit at FKeepers Friday, reset is 134K - so not much of a drop off. Room Share was around 450 as Quad 7s 'lost' and 'won' just under 70K at the 2/5 MM table.

A few crumbs of conversation about another room opening up .. even one in MT Pleasant perhaps. GL

Games are still going very well at both Westgate and King's .. The 'mad' rush to get to King's by 1030 seems to have lessoned on Thur/Fri, but I would still plan to be there by 1015 on Saturday if you want first table status.

This may not apply to a lot, but the news from Horseshoe Hammond is getting worse, not better. Word that 'lots' of Dealers quit after a recent change in scheduling with probably more to follow. The HH thread on this site says they have large numbers 'on the list' when they open each day and yet only 4-6 Dealers to cover until 3PM. And no plan in sight of offering poker on weekends.

A LOT FARTHER drive, but another Horseshoe property has opened southeast of Indy. This is a poker starved area with a huge support of the charity rooms along the northern loop that run large games. But the 1/2 crowd is going to feast on this room very quickly with it being maybe 15-20 minutes SE of the Indy 465 loop on the way to Cincy. I've heard that 'a lot' of the Cincy crowd is frustrated with both rooms down that way and will be making the trip to check out the new room with almost assuredly fish galore.

Registration for the 5th Sunday $500 is open at FKeepers. What could be better than poker with championship NFL on the TVs? You tell me .. GL

I'm located in Mount Pleasant. A room here would be absolutely wonderful.

I've just gotten back into poker recently. Heartbroken to see Soaring Eagle's room had been closed. I used to deal and play there regularly.

Happy to hear King's is doing well. I was there daily in Spring of 2017.

FireKeepers is quite the drive for me. Looking at heading to "The Event Spot" in Lansing for some NL.

Do you have any experience or knowledge of the charity rooms in Lansing? Or even the rough area around MP? Thank you

Edit: Could you update me on what happened with Gun Lake poker room as well? Thank you!

The best way to find charity poker is via the Millionaire Party Locator on the MGCB website. You can search via city or county. This will show you the approved licenses and locations for charity poker. I always warn that the hours on the license may differ from the actual poker. Just search Millionaire Party, Michigan and it will come up for you.

Lansing charity poker has always been pretty good. They've had a hard time holding a location but I've never heard that it's not 'run' well.

The issue with MP is finding skilled Dealers that don't hold a Gaming License. It's really too bad that Dealers can't work their skill on an off day, but my understanding is that they could/would lose their ability to work in the casino (and maybe anywhere else in MI gaming) if they were spotted at a charity room. IMO it should be pretty easy to find 4-5 people to work together and run a room 4 days a week with 2-3 cash tables. Finding charities may be a task, but I wouldn't think so.

The Gun Lake room was scheduled to open back up in Sept/Oct 2021 but then the Tribal Council didn't approve it. It was said at the time that they were being overly cautious of CV and the increased staff and patrons that comes with poker. The battle at GL has always thought to have been the Table Games Manager 'not liking' poker but (supposedly) he had approved it's reopening to the point that Dealers were emailed notices (prior to the Council meeting). It's certainly possible that he approved it and then backdoored it by telling Council to vote it down so he could look good/save face. (Certainly speculation on my part)

With CV still around I don't see poker coming back anytime soon, but at the earliest it would be Sept 2022 since Summer is fairly slow and then it could also correspond with the completion of the latest addition at GL which includes over 200 hotel rooms/suites and possibly more gaming space which would allow for some maneuvering of games and open the old (2nd) poker room back up.

With Firekeepers getting closer and closer to where they were before you can only assume that eventually poker will return to GL but in the mean time the charity rooms will prosper. There is continued work in the Michigan legislature that may allow for even more expansion of the Millionaire Party operational boundaries. GL

Here's an almost mid-week update ..

FKeepers could be starting with up to 22 tables at NOON on Sunday for the $500 with late registration ending after Level 8 break (approximately 430). Starting stack is 40K with Level 8 being 1k-2k-2k (so 20bb max late reg). There are less than 30 signed up right now but that will change as the week goes on. GL