Each player has to pay $7 every half hour (on the dealer change) unless they are new to the table. Players will commonly run $30 bomb pots and have the time taken out of that. A new player takes a seat on the bomb pot hand and wants to play it. Should they pay $23 or $30?

Aren't you collecting the time for the next 30 minutes?

So their first hand just happens to be the BP? I don't think we change the rules for a special case.

If they want to play the BP, then they have to pay full price. If they want to wait a hand, then they get into the game for free (I guess) on the next hand.

Seems like a perfect angle spot .. play 29 minutes without paying the $7 if you can time your first hand with the Dealer change. GL


PS .. And typically in our room a Player can get right into a BP even if they have Missed Blind Buttons (from any position). We view BP as an 'Ante Game' that's separate from the NL game.

Happened to me at the Bellagio. I paid the full $30 then a Reg pointed out I should have not paid time as a new player with no list. Floor was called and said that I didn't have to pay. Since the hand had already played out, I wouldn't have to pay time the next half hour. Next bomb pot I only paid $23.

In Vegas new players don't have to pay time. Other places often do charge time for players who join a table, sometimes the rule is if they join in the first half of the time period then they pay.

You could just run around Vegas jumping into lots of 1/3 and 2/5 tables, coming in after the button, and leaving before your big blind, collecting 10 minutes of comps at every table and never paying any blinds while getting 5-6 hand at every table.

At Rivers in Chicago/Rosemont they were opening a new 5/5 table and we were all asked for $7. Not knowing it was a time rake table I asked why .. and was calmly told it was 10-after and it was $7 for the rest of the down. So it was $22 per hour ($198/hour off the table) and the Players didn't seem to care. I actually declined the seat and took one at 1/2 where the action was just as good with probably only $100-120 coming off the table. GL

A guy at a casino I used to live near did something similar to this. He would sit down play a round or 2, go play craps or whatever for a couple orbits, come back after the button passed, play a few hands, and repeat the process all night.

And this casino had a rule where you could come in with a live straddle from any position, instead of paying sb and bb in dead money. They got rid of that straddle rule specifically bc of him, but I dont think they have stopped him from double dipping on rewards points at the poker table while playing craps or slots or whatever he was playing. In 5 hours "at the table" he might have actually been getting 1 hr of hands in, 2hrs tops.

It's not free to come in to time-raked games in my room. Players have to post a big blind to get a hand or wait for their natural big blind. The bomb pot hand is kind of like a side-hand separate from the main game for the purposes of collecting the time. When the hand is over, the button won't move to the next player.