Great week of out of town poker for me ... Toledo & Motor City had great games to play in when I past through.

Toledo has 'mega' promotions going on. Read up on them if you are headed down that way to Cedar Point or for something else. I heard that they have 'combined' somehow with the Columbus, OH casino as well but didn't really dig into the details.

Motor City was as good as always. Young drunk guy told the floor that he was going to get him fired 'cuz he sees Mike Ilitch every week'. Interesting comment.

Stopped at Firekeepers as well on way back to GR and got roasted for the first time in quite a while down there. Opponents hit 3 sets when I made 2 pair on the Flop. Glad they were all short stacked and glad that it was 1-2!!

Always good to get out and play different opponents and see what they are 'up to' in poker.

Woody's 2-5 was a great game again this week. Although we didn't get filled up until about 8 or so the action was 'normal'. Still have quite a few regulars who aren't back into their weekly schedules so the game broke by Midnight. This should 'fix' itself again in late July or into August ... unless ...

Woody's has announced a change in their hours and format. Starting the week of June 27th (Monday) they will open at Noon and only run one charity per day through the 'normal' 1:40 AM. This 'will' effect the Monday night RxR game and possibly the Thursday 2-5 game since the 'day shift' will be taking chips out of the daily allowance of $15K. They plan on returning to their normal schedule in September or as the demand increases.

Charities are finding it difficult to fill worker slots and they aren't making as much in the split shift scenario when the games are starting late during the day and not lasting as long at night as they do in Fall, Winter and Spring.

Woody's will also be completely closed (day and night) the whole week of July 4th due to lack of a charity signing up for those slots in the schedule.

King's room was 'normal' last night as well ... tournament and 2 cash tables with pretty decent stacks going on both.

Might try to play Westgate cash tonight for the fist time in a long time. But I also may play the tournament at King's since I don't play a lot of tournaments and with the family still out of town that gives me an earlier night out!! GL

I visited the Muskegon room today and they have charity issues as well, but they can't tell me whether or when they will be open next week. They are a Thursday through Sunday room so we're only talking about a few days. It would be nice if they could make the call, not that anyone would know if they did.

I will check back with the Information Black Hole in Muskegon and let you know what, if anything, I can find out. No flyers or posters, no handouts, almost no information at all unless I beg for it. They act like they don't really want customers at all--which is weird, because it's not like the tournaments sell out on a regular basis.

1) You can always find out if someone has a license for those dates on the Millionaire Party Locator link at the State of Michigan site. The hours on the license don't necessarily match the hours the room is open, but at least it's a start to find out if a charity has put in for some time at the location.

2) Rooms are on a pretty short leash when it comes to flyers and 'advertising' due to the MGC, but I think some rooms 'get away' with more than others .. or some just know the rules better .. or some just put in more effort!! Not sure.

For those that know Dutchboy .. he almost cashed in a RxR WSOP event yesterday. Got caught up in a PLO hand when his straight was outdrawn by a set on the River.

Made it over to Westgate for the first time in quite a while Saturday afternoon. One table with plenty of action. Good result for me ... which is a rarity for that room the last 6 months on my docket.

King's was hoppin' on both Friday and Sunday nights. I actually played in a tournament Friday night and basically bubbled when the table negotiated an expanded pay chop from 6 to 8 or 9 I think. Cash games (3) were very good. On Friday they stopped taking in new cash players around 830 PM due to chip sales ... and it worked since one table made it all the way to closing. This room is trying to be as fair as they can in the balance between cash and tournament players. On Friday there were 2 cash tables going by 4:20 .. nice!! GL

Many rooms give out wallet size cards listing the tournaments or have other types of written information available. If information inside the room is considering "advertising" by the MGCB, then every poker room with a sign, designated parking spaces, a listed phone number, etc. could be in violation as well.

This is an absurd situation where the MGCB in effect tells the rooms, "We will give you a license, but don't tell anyone." This certainly raises constitutional questions of free speech and equal protection (allowing some licensed businesses to advertise but not others.)

I don't want to get into a tit for tat with you on this but there are a couple of key items to point out.

The license is with the charity. They may do all the advertising they want, at their expense. The MGC has no issue with this practice.

The state doesn't want the supplier or the location advertising for a licence they don't hold. This is where it gets sticky I'm sure for you and most of us. The supplier is not 'hosting', they are supplying. They may advertise 'supplying' equipment and staff, but not the specific details of what's going to happen under a specific licence. That is where they are getting 'around' free speech as you are calling it.

Technically any advertising done 'for' the licence must be done with the licence number shown on the advertising. Which means that someone would need to update the licence information on all forms of advertising each week or be in violation. That may be a task that some folks don't want to take on.

Why some rooms are more active or press the edge of what they can or can't do is not for us to decide. But we all have been through the 'it would be nice' conversations about these things before. GL

Interesting. I've always thought it was funny that anyone thinks that the charity is in charge of anything. Legally yes, practically no. They don't schedule tournaments or do much of anything else.

I've had many conversations with charity workers who have no concept of how a poker tournament works, the difference between tournaments and cash, or what an add-on or rebuy is. They often have no idea what their role is other than to pick up money for the charity. Unless they have worked in a charity room before, they usually just show up and ask someone what they are supposed to do.

You have hit the nail on the head ... And that is exactly how we have gotten to where we are now. Suppliers were taking advantage of charities (in most cases) which led the MGC to step in and wack them (suppliers) over the head. Which hurt all of charity poker in the long run.

The charities rely on the supplier to 'run' the games for them. But it is really (as you say) a case of "This is how we do things here" when the charity workers show up.

In reality if a certain charity wanted to charge $10 rake the supplier has no choice but to charge $10 that night. If the charity gets tired and want to go home, then the game gets shut down and the charity goes home. I don't know what is in the Supplier Agreement between the charity and supplier but I don't think that tournaments and rake are spelled out to any detail, if at all.

There was one case at Westgate a very long time ago when the charity wouldn't allow them to reduce rake for a short handed table. The players did keep playing, but that was a quiet night for a while.

Not to open scarred wounds, but TJ's took a lot of heat for not paying off the players when the room was robbed. I'm not saying TJ's couldn't have done that on their own, but it was really the charity that owed the players the money back. The charity could've gone to their insurance company, provided they have one, and filed a claim for the lost funds.

It's possible that TJ's could've filed a claim if they had insurance also, but they may not have been insured for theft, just injuries. Under the current system TJ's would've had to give up nearly 4 weeks of their annual income (not profit) to replace the stolen money out of their own pocket.

The players could've sued, but are you really going to sue a charity and TJ's as co-defendants?

3 things make up a 'Millionaire Party' ... A location, a supplier and a charity are the ingredients and no one person (or family) can be connected to anyone in any of the other 2 entities. GL

Just a reminder that Woody's is closed all week ... both day and night ...

Also remember that they are working off only one charity now and open at Noon, not 1000, until September or as demand increases.

The 2/5 game had plenty of chips last week on Thursday, so at least that day went better for the one charity running the game. GL

If you can handle the $400 ... Firekeepers will host their 5th Sunday tournament this month. I missed it on my calendar ...

Woody's should be back open the week .. 12 PM to 130 AM

Played a decent 'brief' session at Eastbrook last week. Seems to have a better vibe than the last time I was there ... good for them.

Kings was full again last night (Sunday) .. 7 tournament tables plus 3 cash later on. Spun my wheels in a longer than normal session but hit the BINGO in the last hand of the night!! 5-way allin, $1000 pot scooped with a Flopped pair of 2s good against 2 Rivers!! You can read about it in the Detroit thread. I felt pretty good since a pp of 2s won a $1000 pot on another table less than 45 minutes before this one ... Yes, this is bad poker and why we all suck!!

A dealer from Motor City Casino won the Ladies Event at WSOP. She is a super person and was previously 0-5 in this event. Can't wait to see her again ... assuming that she doesn't think $150K (before tax) is retirement cash!! GL

http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news...m-ladies-event

Woody's was strong during the day this week. Stopped in a couple of times and they got a 2nd table going one of those days and generally had 4-5 on list/waiting the whole time. I think they may still be struggling at night a little but the 2/5 list had 16 players on it last night so that's a good sign for that Thursday night game at 7:00.

Start planning for next Sunday at Firekeepers ... $400 5th Sunday tournament is back!! GL

Nice crowd at Woody's yesterday, Wednesday. Never quite enough for a 2nd table but just enough to keep the main table 'feeling the heat'. May have caused a couple 'cash-n-dashes' but that's hard to prevent.

Night game has been drying up before 100 AM but ... it's Summer!!

2/5 tonight .. call to get on the list .. starts at 700.

Firekeepers $400 BI on Sunday at Noon ... 25K chips, 30 min levels, $10K+ up top 'for sure' ... probably 150 or more entries. (I think you are allowed 1 re-entry) GL

I found this with the Millionaire Party Locator. Given the hours (starting at 1000) I'm guessing that it's a cash game as part of a casino night fund-raiser.

A charity game in a small city (population 2,000) in Ottawa County (no poker room) is probably going to be full of fish. Here's the info:

ST JOSEPH CHURCH
18760 8TH AVE
CONKLIN, MI 49544
Sunday
August 14, 2016
10:00am - 6:00pm

2/5 at Woody's was solid last night. Full table right away with 2-3 waiting until around 1130 but stayed at least 5-6 handed until closing. Probably 14-15 players total.

I think it was a more passive table than normal with a few decent sized pots but there was a lot of poker being played. Largest hand of night was 3-way all-in on the Flop ... Pretty hard not to expect action here ...

56 v 56 v 9T

Flop ... 478
Turn ... 2
River ... 7 for the straight flush

Really not too many crazy hands the rest of the night but a good game to sit at for sure ... get in on the list next week!! GL


PS ... How many of you noticed that it was a double guttered straight flush draw on the Turn?

Great turnout at Firekeepers' $400 Sunday ... Over 220 with $20K to first. I had both the winner and 5th place finisher at my starting table. Although not winning a hand past Level 4 I somehow made it to Level 9 before busting ATs v AQo.

This will be a very exciting tournament on October 30th since they will have even more tables available once their ongoing renovations are complete.

2/5 cash afterwards was pretty good .. stayed until 3AM!! GL

Some notes for the week at hand ...

1) Soaring Eagle has a $300 BI tournament this weekend .. 2 Day 1s on Friday and Saturday with Day 2 on Sunday. I think the last 2 had $28K and $40K winners.

2) Soaring Eagle is having an $1100 BI tournament the following week as well with $240 qualifiers leading up to it. This is the MPC event since they aren't hosting a HPT event this year.

Not sure how either of these events will go, but anytime you have a multi-day schedule you should be able to get some decent play out of your stack.

3) Firekeepers renovations are moving along. They also have had a more regular 2/5 table going the last couple of months. Check out the Bravo app. They told me it was going from Friday afternoon through Monday's early hours plus there's usually a decent list or it's running various days during the week.

4) Woody's will probably resume a 2 charity per day schedule on Sept 12th. The reduced day time Summer action hasn't really effected the 'big' games but things still seem to quiet down in the middle of the afternoon.

Plenty of tournament opportunities with the charities, SE and Fkeep (even Toledo if you want to go that far) if you are a weekend player. GL

Since this is West Michigan poker, what about Indiana casinos that are close to our side of the Michigan border like Majestic Star and Blue Chip. Does anyone play there?

https://www.worldcasinodirectory.com/indiana/map

No one in my circle talks about Majestic Star but there are a few who will play Blue Chip's 1/3 NL cash. No talk of how the tournaments play out at either of these locations. GL

Apparently Woody's is closed this week .. There is a day game if you know how to find it!! They will be back open next week at Noon each day. Dual charities is supposed to start on Sept 12th.

Not sure how SEagle $300 went over the weekend ... They are holding a 2 day $1100 this coming weekend called the Michigan Poker Open. $240 qualifiers all week at 6:30PM with 2 on Thursday. Both Day 1s start at 3:00PM on Friday and Saturday with Day 2 on Sunday at 100PM. GL

In what is apparently a very well kept secret .. There is supposed to be a room opening in Holland tomorrow. I believe that it's opening in the same location as the previous Holland room, but don't hold me to any of this since the horse's mouth didn't give me the details.

It will be operated by the same owner of Woody's from Thursday to Sunday. Open at 4:00 on Thursday and Friday and 'earlier' on Saturday and Sunday.

Per the Millionaire Party Locator there is a license pulled for West Olive at the All in One Banquet Hall. This would be north of Holland and south of Grand Haven. That is the only one in Ottawa County and there are none pulled for Allegan County.

I hope to garner some better exact details but it may not be for awhile since I may be spending all weekend at Soaring Eagle .. not sure yet. GL

Wow Mr. 20 you really keep the info flowing on this thread...good job. I wish the Detroit thread was as informative....I dont play much anymore due to RLI so I dont have the info to post except about our rooms, maybe you should move east!

Any updates? It seems like someone in Ottawa County should have read your post and checked it out by now.

I've been asking around about possible new charity rooms, and I almost wish I didn't. Everyone seems to have a favorite rumor, but no hard information.

Among other things, I was told:

There will soon be a room in Holland.
A room sometime this year on Leonard St. in Grand Rapids
In the coming year there will be a total of six new rooms in Kent, Allegan and Ottawa counties.


Bottom line: The rumor mill is active, but no hard information.