I think you are all missing the point by a longshot ...................IN Atlantic City (RIGHT NOW) Poker cash games are 8 handed due to COVID but Timed Rake Games are 9 Handed and Tournaments are 10 Handed (NL Hold-Em)
You all don't see a problem with this. You all should be contacting the gaming commission and screaming about the Ridiculousness of this.

That's absurd. Raked should be 9-handed and timed should be 8 or even 7.

what is the "Ridiculousness"? Casinos are certainly within their rights to decide how many to seat in a game. Maybe there are rules (likely notification only) the gaming commisions could enforce. But I don't see any reason casinos can't seat as many or as few as they want (so long as the deck supports it). Heck IMO, they could change it up/down as they see fit from day to day for their own reasons. As long as they are open to what 'it' is it is their decision.

Are you upset that the stated reason is COVID? I see absolutely no problem with the casino setting up its games as it sees fit. Do you complain because High stakes BJ tables seat fewer? Why do you feel you should decide the 'right' number to sit?

Minor derail...concerning tilting.

What tilted me recently was when we were 5 handed, one person asked to break the game (there were enough seats) but the other four (all four surprisingly) said no. Floor said, keep the game going so the "breaker" takes a walk. The 4 remaining were happy to keep playing 4 handed (heck 3 of us were fine playing 3 way or even HU should it happen).

Then miracle of miracles, <5 min later floor comes over and says she has to break our table because otherwise a dealer goes on OT. Note AFAIK, this room has no practice of breaking games except at players request. Additionally, she was choosing to break a table of 5 players that had literally just 'voted' to not break when there was another table of 5 players. Her 'excuse' was we were only4 players and they were 5 (even though she would have to and did) move the chips of our 5th (they walker).

Tilted the crap out of me. If she knew of the dealer hitting time, she could have shared it. If you are going to have to do it anyway, just tell us. If she did not know the dealer time limit was coming, seems to speak poorly on her mgmt skills.

Not sure about games outside of borgata in Ac but you are correct they switched time games to 9 handed and left rake games 8 handed. although the 8 handed games isn't a covid thing anymore obviously. I don't think this would be a gaming violation though. In fact I'm pretty sure Harrah's is the only other poker room running and they don't run time games.

Pre Covid Borgata had been going downhill for years. Everything Borgata has done since covid has been horrendous for poker players. They don't even have a poker cage after 10 or 11 pm and don't take call ins. If you go to cash out on a busy night you have to go to the main cage where there might be 2 cashiers working and half the people online are getting cash advances. There are no chip runners. So when the cage is closed you have to buy in at the table. Which means the floor has to be called to verify anything over 300 (maybe 500?) If you've never played there you need to understand the floor is mostly useless. That means the floor gets called and a minute or two later they might show up angry you interrupted the basketball game they were watching.

When the room reopened everything was 7 handed with plexiglass. Some time games like 5/10 nl raised the time from 6/half to 7/half. others like 2/5 nl and 5/5 plo switched from time to rake. this made it a lot harder to get plo games going since there is a much smaller player pool than NL and regs don't wanna get fisted on rake trying to fill a game up.A lot of people even asked them to switch it back to time but raise the time like they did with 5/10 nl but management said no.
For a while everything became 8 handed when the plexiglass came down. Then one weekend time games became 9 handed while rake games stayed 8 handed.

Borgata had a several month jump on Parx reopening after covid. They ran the room in a way that might have made sense if the casino was closing in a few months- just get as much as you can while you can. Once Parx reopened a ton of the players just went to Parx. Borgata has an 85 table poker room in a beautiful casino are are getting 30-35 tables on friday and saturday nights.

They're having a little 6 day series in January which I'm sure will be an absolute **** show of gross incompetence.

In AC Prior to Covid we had 10 handed games ( NL Hold-Em.) After Covid, we now have 8 handed games and the blame is COVID when the actual reason is its a money grab.... 8 Handed Games= More tables = More Rake = More Income for the Casino. It's bad for players and games........ I'm sorry you disagree. I'm sure you don't see the ridiculousness but you're in the minority. And comparing Blackjack to Poker is laughable.
Fore do you own a Casino ?

Again Covid on NL Raked Games is 8 players
But Timed Games have 9 Players
and Tournament is 10 Players
Soooo beware you can catch Covid on Raked games in Atlantic City but its more unlikely to catch Covid on Timed Games or Tournaments...SMH

Of course it's a money grab
They haven't denied that and I haven't ever heard covid as an excuse for 8 handed in ac


Were lower nl games really still 10 handed pre covid? I know plo and 5/10 nl + was 9 handed.

They were ALL 10 Handed except the selected games at the B and (Stud, Obviously, 8 Handed)
Harrah's and the Trop were all 10 Handed

I think you are missing the point by a LONGSHOT…..Borgata can set the seating by game, stakes, type, rake as they see fit for any or no reason.

If you see a problem with this you should be finding elsewhere to play and/or contacting someone for counseling. Maybe they can help with your ridiculous screaming.

plenty of Borgata players have in fact found other places to play for lots of reasons.

Oh - No, I see the point ..Just don't understand why you would like, agree or understand what area poker rooms are doing with the current state of Poker in Atlantic City. Gaming Commissions are made to ensure Casinos and Patrons and employees have a "fair" gaming experience within the City. This is 100% a gaming issue.
Now on to the "ridiculous screaming" comment, I don't think trying to improve the poker landscape is "ridiculous screaming" Facts are games are shorthanded all the time now because max table cap is 8 with (Rake) games. If that became the norm in the US Casino industry, Live poker would be very different, and not as profitable for the average poker player.
Here's an example from my Hometown Boston Encore. Encore opened one of the best Poker Rooms in the area prior to Covid in 2019 with 60ish tables 9 handed games Rake was 5+2 (Promotions) and huge jackpot high hand days. Really, it was one of the best places to play. Then Covid hit. The room and the Casino closed. When they reopened they didn't bring back poker, like a lot of other casinos. However because of many complaints in late 20221 or 2022 Encore brought back poker only 10 Tables with a $10 Rake Nothing going to promos, 9 handed games and the poker room hours were (I kid you not) Monday - Thursday from 9am 6pm. Investigation found that Encore never wanted to bring poker back. They found that is was much more profitable to have no poker (which it is) However the State Gaming Commission disagreed and said the gaming license which was granted to the casino was being violated, they were intentionally withholding Tax on poker table games and the personal it takes to run the room not just dealers but servers cage personal, security, cleaners and so on were not being hired. They used Covid to try and kill poker for profit, and were called out by upset patrons. Atlantic City is no different, don't ever put it past these big Casino company's to exploit Covid for Profit and screw over live poker players.

literally nobody is disagreeing with you that borgata is 8 handed for rake games and 9 handed for time to make more money. It is one of many reasons they're losing business. But it's not a gaming issue.

I tracked 220 hands in over 7.5 hours at an 8-handed room and this was the breakdown of active players. Less than 36% of the time was the game full at 8-handed!
The average was 7.1. The most common was 7 at 43%. So the poll for this thread is misleading since 8-handed really means 7-handed due to walkers. The poll should have been "do you prefer 7, 8 or 9?." Then whichever choice wins, add one to reflect the true number of active players. So if 8 is the most popular, then make the games 9-handed which will result in an average of 8 to 8.1 players at the table.

I think it is well understood that when someone is describing playing "9-handed" or "6-handed" or whatever, they are describing the maximum number of available seats at a table, and the possibility of people being away from their seat throughout the day is already factored in.

Commerce also does 8 handed drop games, 9 handed time. I play drop games and much prefer 8 handed, but It's a hilariously transparent way to squeeze more money out of the players. They only get 1 or 2 timed games going at peak hours AFAIK, so the difference is marginal, but they're absolutely shameless and don't care about the optics at all.