Good for you Clif ... other than the $250 fee it must be a relief to get this process to a completion.

On a side note ... GLake has discontinued their Mon-Wed 'day time' tournaments for now. Just not enough traffic at that time of day combined with the 'hours' challenge in the first quarter.

As I've said before ... Players aren't going to drive that much further for a low $$ tournament. And that will be the saving grace for charity rooms in GR if they can find a way to pay the staff enough to keep operating. LOTS of these players aren't interested in cash very much ... and usually get eaten alive at a cash table anyway since they can't change gears into a cash mode.

PLO at GLake has been steady at getting going by 1100 each day. There have been a couple of new players to keep things interesting for sure. GL

As far as the MSPT at firekeepers next week, will I be able to show up on Saturday and direct but in and be immediately seated? Or will there likely be an alternate list?

It is hard to tell. Best thing is to call in Friday at 8 pm and see how many seats are sold for Sat and the amount of tables in use. GL

If you roll in at 1145am-145pm I would guess youll be an alternate.

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Gun Lake has a 'Straight Flush - Royal' promo going this week. Both NL and PLO Players who can show these hands will earn an instant promo prize .. no waiting!!

Gun Lake has shifted their tournaments around a bit and started up a Monday ($25 w $20 rebuy) and Tuesday ($50 with re-entry) night 7 PM tournaments. Last night they had around 30 Players .. not sure how many rebuys went through.

Gun Lake is holding their Black Chip Bounty this Sunday for those of you who don't want to drive to Hammond (HPT) or FKeepers ($240). This has been an end of the month tournament but moved up to avoid knocking boots with the FK 5th Sunday tournaments.

On a personal note ... 'finally' made Black Card at GLake. Not a huge accomplishment but it does come with some deeper discounts and special parking options (that I probably wont use). As has been previously chronicled, it will be very difficult to stay a Black Card past the end of the year with the reduced tier credit system put in place for poker hours. I had quite a few tier credits rolled over from last year otherwise I would never even sniff that kind of status. I don't think that the Players who became Black Cards before the end of the year received the 'rollover' credits that I did, so they may lose their status and drop down to Gold on July 1st without lots of pit play.

Looks like Eastbrook charity poker is no more. I don't see any dates on the Millionaire Party site. So in order to stay in GR Mon-Wed you need to seek out West Gate Bowling.

Not sure how Lincoln stays open, but it appears that there will be 2 weekend options for charity poker for the time being.

I've seen a pretty sharp drop off since Spring Break in the cash games. GLake didn't have any 'carry over' tables Sunday morning when I got up, which is the first time I think I've ever seen that. The day time PLO game was barely full and it's surviving partly because of a couple of new very loose Players. There was no night PLO, but the 2/5 was running full.

Summer season ... there's even a little chatter from a couple of GLake Dealers that may not be able to ride out the slow season. GL

Well done FK!! Around 500 golden tickets were won via the qualifying tournaments. That's almost more than the total number of entries HPT had for all 4 of their Day 1s this past weekend at AmeriStar.

Unfortunately they didn't know how many of those are delegated to Thursday when I called ... and only 44 Players had actually registered as of 7AM this morning. On the flip side, the person I talked to thought that their largest Thursday was 'only' 299 and with 36 tables available (Dealers?) everyone should be able to sit down fairly quickly. The 299 includes re-entries so it's just a matter of when you want to start and how much you are willing to risk a long wait in line to register. GL

GL NL BBJ hit last Friday during the day. There were a few 'well known' regs at the table. 'Winner' of the hand buys in for $50 and slow plays AA first hand. Flop is AA7 and it runs out J? and 7. Don't know when the $$ went in (Flop I assume) but the 'Losing' Player hesitated and moaned a bit about losing with 'this hand' before laying it down and thus completing the BBJ requirements. They chopped up a little over $80K .. 32K (7777 losing) .. 16K (AAAA winning) ... and $6400 table share to 5 other Players.

Not sure what will carry over to June, but GL had both their 'straight flush' and HH promos going over the holiday weekend. I haven't seen Tom very much so not sure what's in the hopper going forward. The NL BBJ did go up more than $5K over the weekend, so there must have been plenty of action over the 3 day weekend.

PLO BBJ is over $40K, which is pretty high from what I've heard from Floors and Dealers that have worked other rooms. With less tables running and hands that take longer to complete ... AND players that are playing the whole deck ... it doesn't surprise me that much that it could drag on. (Just take a look at whose been taking down the NL BBJs ... slow playing tight Players!!) GL

Stopped at WGate yesterday afternoon. The cash session got going by 430? and was lively enough for the 90 or so minutes I played. I guess they had a very good game going on Monday with a player or two dropping 900 or so into the mix.

They pretty steadily have 3 tournament tables right at 600 with maybe 1-3 on the wait list.

GL did have over 30 in their Monday PM tournament as well, which I thought was pretty good with the holiday coming to a close. Their Monday 2-5 didn't run, which was not a surprise. GL

As already posted, I was able to withdraw from Juicy Stakes Poker. I'm waiting for my second check now. It turns out that I had a lot more sitting on Juicy Stakes than I thought. I don't know how I made that mistake, but it's certainly good news. The site is still a mess, but at least they didn't charge me $250 to do it this time.

With what's going on with the WPN update, I'll give JSP some credit--they never crash and they almost never lag. I've played about a thousand MTTs on that site, they have never crashed, and the very few times that they lagged, that could have been a Comcast problem on my evd.

In the Detroit thread they were talking about the closure of the casino poker room in Traverse City. I posted the following, which certainly belongs in this thread as well:

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I haven't checked every county, but I think that the Traverse City room closure leaves Muskegon (Northway Lanes) as the only poker room of any kind in a county bordering Michigan's eastern shore--unless you count Four Winds Casino, which is barely in Michigan. I live in Muskegon Township, 17 miles from Northway Lanes, but even so I'm really discouraged that are no other lakeshore rooms.

Grand Haven tried to get a room going a while ago but that lasted about a week. Holland has had so many rooms open and then quickly fold that I lost track.

Welcome to the Lakeshore, Michigan's poker wasteland.

Pokercliff first of all is some old guy behind a keyboard always complaining about things that doesn't matter. If you are a serious poker player and important in the poker community in West Michigan, you wouldn't be complaining about the things you say.
West Michigan has some of the best players around. You wouldn't know because you don't always get on the felt.

NK .. interesting first post .. Pick your adjective, but IMO PC's point is more personally related frustration than 'complaining'. (Which could be seen as the same thing, sure.) Most of his posts are fact based, but I don't think we want to discourage any poster from giving their personal point of view even if it doesn't apply to our own set of circumstances.

So for someone on the lake shore who may have limited time or funds poker is very lacking and IMO that's the general point he's trying to make.

The fact that PC has actually spread his wings and hit up a GR charity room and GLake in the last few months may have actually increased his level of frustration to your very point ... there is both 'a lot' and 'good' poker being played in WM but it's just not as convenient for him to participate at the level he would like to.

This thread is about as thin as it gets for threads ... I don't think we should discourage anyone from posting their point of view so I can at least pick and choose what portion of their perspective applies to my circumstance.

On the flip side ... welcome and I hope you choose to continue to add posts as you see fit!! GL

As answer said, you have a right to your opinion. I have run for office at the city and county level several times (more losses than wins.) If you can't take the heat, don't do it--it's kind of like poker in that way. I spent most of my first few months on these forums having people tell me some version of, "you're doing it wrong,", and it took me a while to figure out that the criticism was usually right.

I see where you're coming from, but some of what you say about me is an assumption rather than fact.

1. Yes, some of the things I have complained about, for example, incorrect display stats, are perhaps not that big a deal. I am very process-oriented, I studied business in college and I have worked many types of jobs. I've found that a business that can't do the little things correctly usually messes up the big things as well.

Example: I was in a buffet restaurant and one food bin was mislabeled. Maybe not a big deal, as there is always at least one thing that is mislabeled--but in this case my wife was allergic to what was actually in that mislabeled bin.

ACR didn't become a bot-infested, crash-prone site overnight. A lot of small errors, or not dealing with issues, built up over time. Now it's a huge mess.

I don't like giving my money to a business that can't get it's information and numbers right. It the display is wrong, correct it or take it down.

2. I care very much about the poker community. I attended a hearing about a new casino that might be coming to Muskegon Township. I spoke about how important it was to a lot of potential customers that they have a poker room. I was promised that it would happen.

I communicated with the Poker Players Alliance about several US income tax rules that are unfair to poker players. For example, most people are allowed to own several schedule C business. Poker players usually are not, because if you file as a Schedule C (professional) player, poker is supposed to be at least 50% of your income and/or 50% of your work hours.

I also talked to the Muskegon room about reaching out to neighboring counties where players might not know that we have a poker room. They weren't interested.

3. I have never doubted that we have some very good poker players in West Michigan. I know some of them. There is a woman who lives about 20 miles from me who had a coach for a while. Part of her training was to play HU with that coach every day for a year.

Anyone been to Gun Lake lately.. how's the action been on the weekdays?

Gun Lake hasn't seen the full 'recovery' post-MSPT that I thought it might. I don't think folks are still running to FK either. There is a normal slow down during Summer and it doesn't help that Summer is 'late' either. I've also heard that King's and Westgate are doing 'well' enough. Not sure what that means but WGate is also offering reduced rake before the tournament starts to try and generate some earlier action (3pm). If you review my posts, I've long stated that just that little bit of an extra drive would start to wear on some Players if the charity rooms could figure out a way to stay active during the week. PLO at GLake has been able to get going (1030-1130ish), but with a shallower list most days and it struggles from 4-6 PM also if the 'night shift' is late arriving. There is still plenty of action and there's the residual effect of new Players sitting down at PLO while they wait for NL due to a seat being open.

It will be interesting to see how patient GLake is overall. The Dealers definitely will feel the slow down eventually ... can they make it to September financially? With the cage now available I can see some 'evaluating' taking place with the Floor staff as well. I'm more concerned about 'way' upper management not realizing that poker needs to be seen as a 12 month window and all is not solved with the standard marketing ideas that work out on the main gaming floor to maintain a steady stream of business.

I know GLake wants to develop another 'challenge' so we'll see what they can come up with. I think there is also still some angst about the Player Card system at GLake as well. It rolls over on July 1st and there may be some who lose their black card that will have a sour taste for a couple months. As I've stated before as well, I think the bad press on their Tier Credits adjustment far out weighs the real dollar financial 'burden' that they will ultimately see, or not see, depending on how you look at it. GL

I play at Westgate. A typical night is one cash table and an MTT with three or four tables.

If Gun Lake is having trouble, I wonder what will happen if Muskegon Township gets their casino. Muskegon would be a lot different than Gun Lake. The Muskegon plan is to do the whole casino and resort thing, covering 60 acres.

https://500nations.com/casinos/miLakeshoreCasino.asp

Let's not call it 'trouble' ... it's a matter of expectations IMO. Staff that is scrambling on weekends Oct-Nov during football is underwhelmed in June and July. Upper management needs to realize the ebb and flow and not make decisions solely based on one or the other.

A casino with poker in Muskegon would create even more saturation of poker, but I think it would have a greater impact on Gun Lake's pit business than it's poker. Yes, those M-boys who show up 4-5 per car have been fun to have around at GLake. But I don't think they want to play against themselves at the same table. So there has to be a draw. The draw is easy when a place opens ... it's new, shiny and everyone wants to see what it's all about. But then business will eventually settle and that's where it's important for a room to maintain it's level of service.

Most know I'm north of GR ... last I checked the drive from I96-I196 would be about the same to GLake or Muskegon. AND both have weather concerns during the winter months. So now it comes down to 'other' factors ... GL

I've been driving from Muskegon County to Comstock Park (Westgate) to play live and I love that drive. M-46 east to M-37 south (Beltline.) No heavy Grand Rapids traffic. I just have to make sure that I don't get sent in the wrong direction by the roundabout near Casnovia.

GLake Thursday night tournament had 35 entries and finished in a 4-way equal chop ... except the $35 that they spent almost 30 minutes playing for at the 'end'!! (delayed chop)

PLO survived an afternoon slow down 5-handed and was pretty much full without a serious list past Midnight.

No word on whether or not Westgate is having success getting the cash game going earlier with the ongoing reduced rake. Obviously the charity has to agree to this as well, so it could change from week to week.

Clif ... You are on Alpine (after 9 mile). M-37 jogs along I-96 East south of Westgate and then it hooks up with the East Beltline in order to continue south towards Hastings. GL

My wife always says I would do well as a cabby or Uber driver. She barely recognizes where we are ... and then we arrive where we wanted to go in Kent County. Thing is (to Clif's credit) I rarely know the name of the streets I'm on, but I know how to use them to get to my goal, which is more important.

Thanks for the geographical clarification. I'm always open to being corrected or learning something new. I know that when I cross 6-mile road I'm close to Westgate Bowling, but I don't pay much attention to the other mile signs.

Very familiar face from the Friday Night 5-10-20 PLO game playing for the 10K PLO Championship bracelett on PokerGo right now

I saw that. gg and Huge scoop for him.

Michigan has had a very good showing in the higher stakes PLO (even the RxR event as well). Always good to know you are playing against some of the best … but it that really a good thing long term? GL

Looks like 20-ish Michigan Players made the money in the WSOP ME (1286 paid). I think I only saw one of the Sterling Heights 'crew' that seems to have had a decent series. The freeroll qualifier from Gun Lake made it through with 300K in his stack for today. Good for him since technically he loses money (and time) if he had busted and the runner up in the freeroll got like $4K day of ... so well done!

There are at least two other decent stacks from WMich as well, both have above average tournament experience with one taking down a FKeeper $500 before. Obviously super tough to follow anyone unless you are in their text/instagram loop or they get a post from the live reporting. The excitement continues ... GL

My return to poker after probably one of my largest breaks ever went well at GLake. (I've been told to stop teaching so no details!!) ... I can't resist, just keep telling Players you folded huge hands and they will keep betting into you, OK? Maybe that was it, maybe it wasn't ...

They had a great showing in the $25 rebuy last night with over 50 Players and 20-30 rebuys on top of that. That showing coming off a long weekend I think was a surprise. I think the day games are still a little slow and will continue that way until late August. The late start to our good weather will probably continue to have an affect. It will be very interesting to see how the Player pool for PLO looks in a couple of months. There were a couple of new faces there today and some of the 'night shift' showed up early, perhaps in an effort to keep the table running into the evening? GL

PS .. I will probably wander down to Westgate to see how they're doing soon as well.