What is the rake on the 2-5?

They need to open up more tables for 1/2 and 2/5. 12 Poker tables is clearly not enough. The Lehigh Valley is loaded with poker players who will keep coming. 40 Blackjack tables is way too many. Take away 10 Blackjack tables and add 10 more poker tables damn it!

Couldn't make it for the opening early this morning as I planned, any chance you can call ahead to be put on the wait list? Couldn't even get through to the poker room when I called earlier.

I heard they are not accepting any over the phone wait lists at the moment. Supposedly there is over 100 people on the 1/2 NL wait list from what I hear. They need to figure out how to open up more tables even it means closing those BJ tables.

A little under 90 minutes from downtown Manhattan. I-78.

Davey -

Congrats and an A+ on today's opening!
Nice to see some familiar faces from the Showboat.

P.S. Thank you poker gods for the quad Ks

Any comp? Do they sign you and sign out?? How much comp do they give per hour?

It was a mad house there this afternoon. I arrived around 2:30 or so, went and got some chips and headed over to the poker area. When I saw the list was at 110 names for 1-2NL, I cashed back out and went home.

Sure it was opening day, but even if you cut back the crowd by 2/3 you're still looking at a big waiting list. I expect they will have to add more tables in the near future. There were a bunch of blackjack and other tables not being used and some others as well. Every open table for the other games was full (except in the high limit area) so I'm wondering if it was a staffing issue--they didn't have enough trained dealers for all the other tables.

The new dealers clearly will need some breaking in. I saw a BJ dealer call the floor after he deal out a hand where two people hit BJ and then he did too... he didn't seem to know what to do. I also saw a dealer take a Pai Gow hand from a player and not pay her when she won--he called for the floor too. I didn't get to far into the poker area to watch those dealers but it was packed in there so I'm sure they had their hands full.

Oh well. I'll try to get there on something like a Tuesday or Thursday night in the next few weeks and see if it's a bit calmer.

Anyone know what the waitlist is looking like now?

Just called, 2-4 hours.

Is it true - they only have 12 tables?

Yup

Can we get an update of what's being spread right now?

how's the comp over there?? Is there a food service at the table?

Any Stud actions?

Sorry if this is a stupid question. Can I use my Venetian Club Grazie card there since the Venetian is a Sands property? There's even a Venetian link on the PA Sands website.

Can somebody call Sands and find out what game is going on there right now?

1-877-Sands77

I am at work right now, and I can't make any outbound calls.. I am hoping to drive to Sands when my shift is over..

Thanks for anybody with info

Played from 3:30 -11 got there at at 1 70+ on 1/2 list took 2.5 hours to get a seat. After I was on the list for 1/2 grew to 120+. Didn't look at list before I left sorry! I will try to answer some questions that people have asked.

1. It will probably be difficult to call and get on list or find much info they are pretty overwhelmed with turn out. Doing their best
2. They had two 2/5nl tables a couple 3/6 limit (approx 3-4 tables) and the rest 1/2nl (approx 6-7 tables) sorry the numbers on 3/6 and 1/2 aren't exact.
3. Only played 1/2 comps are $1 an hour.
4.Yes there is food service at the table
5. No stud or anything else besides games listed above and they were filled all day.
6. Not sure about Venetian Card

A couple of things different there if you are used to AC casinos
1.The dealer swipes your card in at the table. Kinda cool the dealer track each seat from table which relays to front desk so they know when seats are open.
2.You currently cannot buy chips at the table. So get them from cashier when you are 5-6 away from being called. This also means you cannot rebuy at the table they send a chip runner to get your chips from cashier. They give you voucher chips for the amount you are buying. But these voucher chips do not play you have to wait for your chips to actually get to the table. (some PA law right now). You can save the seat and get the chips yourself because of the mass numbers today it took a while some times for the chips to get to the table, but they were doing their best.
3. If the dealer accidentally exposes a card during the deal it is NOT the burn card it goes into the muck and they still burn a card.
This info is just what i picked up from being there today. Just thought it would help staff is probably too busy to respond.

Waiting to her into a game. Observation so far: when using the facilities make sure there is toilet paper first....

Trip Report.

I arrived there at 2:15. Took me an hour and fifteen minutes from Union County, NJ, to get there, for comparison AC takes me an hour and fifteen minutes. I proceed to go get my player's card. Turns out they don't care that I am a black card Borgata holder. They will only upgrade my card if I am Titanium. They give me $5 slot play because I gave them my e-mail address.

I put myself on the 1/2 and 2/5 list. There are long lists for both, so I
go eat at Emeril Lagasse's hamburger place. They proceed to give my burger to someone else, so they made me another one. After eating, I go back and see I still have a long wait to play, so I go play video blackjack for awhile. I end up cashing out fifty dollars ahead.

At 6:00 my name finally gets called for 1/2. It was a typical 1/2 game, nothing to write home about. At around 8:00 my seat for the 2/5 was called. The two absurd rules were mentioned before in this thread, no rebuying at table and burning a card when dealer flashes a card. I talked to one of the floors, and he said the rule for asking to see people's hands when mucked is only people who have called the river can ask to see them. The bad beat jackpot rules are similar if not exactly the same as the Borgata's rules, 50/25/25, quad 2s minimum, need pocket pair if you have four of a kind.

I found the dealers to be ok, they will get better. I found the Bravo system a bit distracting to the dealers. Sometimes when they tried to swipe in a player it didn't work. I felt the staff was running the room very well for the massive amounts of people. They all seemed to be former staff at other poker rooms. The sense I got was there were many locals playing. I was disappointed they had so many 1/2 games and only two 2/5 games running, but I predicted months ago it would be a 2/4 limit 1/2 no limit palace (I was wrong about 2/4, it was 3/6 limit).

You cannot use your Venetian card here. The mySands card is only good at this casino it says on the back, but it does mention the Venetican and Pallazzo being their properties in Vegas.

I hit traffic going home on 78 West because of construction.

I don't know if Sands will replace my going to AC. If the wait times are still very long it won't. They said no calling in ahead of time, but they are working on text messaging you when your table is ready.


If anyone has more questions, please ask and I will try my best to answer.

Gah! They use jumbo cards

I meant to say AC takes me 1:45 to get to.

I hope they are at least KEM jumbo cards!

I heard good things, but what is up with the not being allowed to rebuy from the dealers, and whats up with no playing behind?

The no rebuy from dealers they said is a PA law/regulation. They hope to have this changed in a month.