What was the commission's response?

There are several reasons.

1. I believe this is the most important. Bobby Baldwin basically ran the game via JRB. He was Aria CEO until recently. Aria belongs to MGM which has the most properties in Vegas. It would be reasonable to assume that Baldwin and MGM are very well-connected with people at NGCB and that may strongly bias NGCB to put it mildly. It seems that there has been a number of complaints that went nowhere. Now that Baldwin's gone this dynamics may have changed.

2. Many people are ignorant of NGCB, lazy, scared of being 86d by all MGM properties in retaliation or some combination of these.

Or strongly biased in favor of MGM.

Aria Private Games have private eyes that are watching you.

I am surprised by the line that poker is supposed to be a true meritocracy. That seems like the opposite of poker. Game selection is a huge part of poker as to be successful in cash games it doesn't matter if you are the best player in the world or the 1000th as long as you play with the right people. Game selection isn't just deciding what games to play in but also getting invited to play in the right games as well as be able to take someone's money, have them leave with a smile, and want to play with you again. You can't force people to play with you in a cash game.

The game selection part is clearly for high stakes players but I think online poker has really hurt live poker in casinos as it isn't as social or fun for amateurs. I really think if want another poker boom that people need to make poker more of a social, fun thing again.

This is the correct answer. JRB was a beard/frontman for Bobby Baldwin.

Well, your opinion is greatly appreciated but the crux of the matter is now more in the legal and regulatory spheres as some people want to play and are apparently illegally prevented from doing so. The more relevant questions are now - is what's being done truly illegal? And secondly, if so, is it enforceable in the current NGCB regulatory environment?

If enough people complain to the Nevada Gaming Board, something will get done.

good one

I would think it is illegal, unless the licensee has jumped through the hoops to set up a gaming salon for the game.

NRS 463.01595 Gaming Salon

See, Reg 5.200 et seq.

https://gaming.nv.gov/modules/showdo...ocumentid=2945

https://gaming.nv.gov/modules/showdo...cumentid=13425

A salon can require someone to show $300K on hand, but that person can bring in guests who can play, with no minimum bet on table games.

Whether a licensee can deny admission to a salon or participation in games to someone showing the required funds may still be an open question, but the players themselves can always refuse to play with someone for any or no reason

I wonder how many people have tried just actually working hard on networking here. Give floors some $200 tips, maybe get in contact with JRB be patient and ask vs telling him how you can work to getting in the game, work on your people/fun at the table skills. Heaven forbid even giving up 20% so that instead of $500/1k you're playing $400/800 in the best game in the world. The 'job' of getting into a game like that could potentially be worth several million dollars a year, people in the real world work really ****ing hard and go way out of their comfort zones to work for opportunities at jobs like that, why should poker be any different? Somehow I'm not surprised that being completely short sighted and self consumed has contributed on multiple levels to a lot of people being left on the outside looking in.

While I agree there's levels of shadiness in the core topic I'm curious about answers to where the ethical line is draw as well. I'm definitely not feeling bad as a $2/5 $5/10 player slipping a floor $10 to help me find and move to the best games in a crowded room.
fwiw if I'm an MGM employee and Bobby Baldwin tells me that I need to run a game in an MGM poker room a certain way there's 0% that it isn't done that way. People don't have careers in casinos telling executives and high rollers to go **** themselves.

But the whole point is that you shouldn't have to do any of this.

If you have the cash in your pocket, you should be able to walk up to a game an either sit down straight away or put your name on the list and expect to be seated first when you're first on the list, or seated third when you're third on the list.

It should be that simple. The stakes should make absolutely no difference.

If that were the case, the games would just move off-site and people would have no chance to get in. At least with the semi private games they have a shot.

Welcome to the real world internet players. Networking matters in life and poker.

I think its somewhat telling that through 39 posts no one, including TC, has been able to explain what regulation the rooms are violating by offering a private game. I'm not familiar with the Nevada regs and am not aware of any other state having any reg/rule/law prohibiting licensees from offering private parties their own table. Not saying it doesn't exist, but I think it speaks pretty loudly that TC didn't even try to cite to anything and instead relied on a subjective argument about a nonexistent meritocracy.

Did you skip post 35 ?

Nevada gaming floors are open to the public. That has been a gaming policy for as long as I can recall in 25 years here.

A licensee can offer services to a private event, it happens all the time. However a poker room cannot selectively exclude people from open seats at general public tables just because a player wants to exclude competition.

I gave you both the Nevada statute and some regs that might be relevant. The closest I saw were salon regulations.

If you want this actually researched, I'll give you a bitcoin address to which you can make a donation.

That is fine. they could do that and then deal with the issues of security, illegality, game integrity, financing and others on their own outside of the established infrastructure of a leading licensed gaming operator. I.e. another Molly's Game with all of the headaches that come with it.

No, you. In the real world, there are people to whom money is not everything and principles matter a lot. Many pros (with or without amazing social skills) have chosen not to "network" their way into an illegal game that should be open to the public anyways. I understand money is everything to some people but not everyone is like you, frankly.

BTW, is the game still private now that JRB and Baldwin are gone?

I haven’t been keeping tabs on the poker world the last few years, where did they go?

yea this is a load of hot garbage. these pros would all get into these amazing private games if they could. and if they were in they would not want other pros in the game.so either they don't have the networking skills to get in the games,aren't wanted in the games or know they can't get funding to get in these games so they don't try.literally nobody is choosing not to play in these games on moral grounds who could get in them.nobody in their right mind says " no i won't play in this amazing private game where i could make in a year what it will take me 20 years to make in my currents games bc other pros can't get in the game."

poker pros have destroyed online poker through short term greed over peanuts, but yea they don't play in private games at aria with mega whales by choice. get real.

the bolded is especially funny considering this is the poker world.

legally in nevada you're right but honestly at some point you should have to.the mega whales are so rare that can afford to dump in these games they either play in games with people they enjoy playing with or they simply don't play.

there are far too many parasites in poker. they take money out of the poker economy and provide zero value to those they take it from. they ruin games bc they live in their own little world and don't understand where money in poker comes from or why losing players play.

so yes legally they have the right to play in good games (and i'm not just talking at aria now or nosebleeds) there is absolutely NOTHING remotely fair about some parasite who does nothing to cultivate good games, sucks the fun out of the games, pisses of fish, seat hops, tanks etc having the same access to games that people fish enjoy playing with, who make it a point to make games fun to play in do. yet it happens all of the time in casinos. these people have a legal right to play in the game, ruin it then wonder why more and more the good games are all going private. they cause the problem then cry about the problem. it's a joke.

If they allow anyone to play, not as many whales will play (they will find somewhere else) and no one will even want to play in those games anymore ,

The only reason everyone wants in these games bc guys like jrb keep all the non fun players out so the whales want to keep playing

No. I read post 35. In it you say that you "think it is illegal" without providing any citation and then provide an exception to your unsubstantiated claim. I don't care enough either way to do the research myself or continuing a back and forth about an issue that continuously comes up. Just wanted to explain my original post.

Some of these games seem to have moved to the Wynn. 100-200+ plo runs with some frequency with fake lists that never change while seats are open. I only point this out as it would seem that another poker room has seen fit to enable this behavior.

While this will probably never even come close to being a problem for me directly I do think this must have a negative effect on all 10-20+ games in Vegas. The hoarding of high stakes fish probably effects a larger player pool than this thread seems to generally think.