The person who pays to rent the table. If it's a 9-max table, the renter pays 9 x time charge to the casino in advance for every half hour of play. Casino provides the dealer, renter decides the game and the players. Might be 9 handed NLHE, might be HU razz.

Not too different from getting bottle service at a club. You pay the table minimum for up to a certain number of guests and decide who can join your party. The club provides you with a waitress and bouncer to pour drinks and keep your party private.

The casino isn't just providing a table, it's providing a dealer and the floor, i.e. a fair playing environment and the authority to provide rulings to keep it fair. Most rooms can't spread any game you want, only the ones approved by the state gaming commission.

So if a room is licensed to provide poker games to public with a requirement they enforce fairness through explicit rules, it seems strange they can have private games that aren't open to the public and don't follow all the rules.

Private rooms in restaurants and clubs still have to follow liquor commission rules, for example.

Restaurants are not regulated by the state's gaming authority.

Casinos are.

It's maybe unfair - but what he is doing is just making sure that he will never be invited and that he will never enter this club who have access to the biggest games

Greg Merson is a bum-hunting hypocrite that doesn't understand why his own attitude handicaps him. I only played with Greg Merson once, why only once? Because he'll never give me action. I played in a short-handed game with him for about an hour and 30 minutes during the series once I showed him 3 bluffs in a row and called him a nit and he racked up and left saying he didn't need that **** from me and will never play now like 4 years later. If you want to act like a bigshot don't act like you're playing with your whole bankroll on the table every time you come into the game.

Greg "Give Me 3 Street Of Value With Top Top in 2016 Or I Go Home" Merson

What kind of argument is this?

Resaturants are regulated by the FDA. Cant have a private table?

This is a consenting transaction between two adults. They can do what they want with their money. You cannot force your way against their will.

Start your own game merson. Start a list for nosebleed stakes and attract your own whales. You won the wsop main, people will want to play with you.

The above post has to be a troll.

How you play is irrelevant.

Greg came on Top Two Poker Podcast today and shared his experience and thoughts on this subject. https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/...ks%2F295798291

I don't dislike Greg at all so this isn't personal just what it looks like from the outside.

Looking at it from a rich whales perspective (not being one lol - but knowing quite a few), why the hell would they want to play with an ex/current online crusher who is likely playing close to GTO - like every other online pro, who is a bit geeky and clearly whines/makes a scene when he doesn't get what he wants? Not saying that is all true but that's how it looks and its likely not personal to you it would be for anyone that fits that demographic or who isn't in their scene/who they are comfortable playing with. The billionaires and whales want to play with other business owners, athletes, directors, nightclub owners, guys who legit splash about who don't play close to perfect poker - its incredibly boring (you don't come across as a reckless degen Greg) and people that can help them out in other areas in life, much like the fraternity comments above.

It isn't anything to do with how pleasant you may be or that you like to chat. Lots of groups of people in life are cliquey - you might not like it but that's how the world works. Especially with the super rich.

I agree with the premise that it is 'unfair' - but that sort of whiney view is something that would immediately annoy the super rich, they don't have patience and they certainly didn't make their billions caring about what people thought was fair. They do what they want and their 'friends' such as JRB etc are there for amusement value and value they can be of when they want to do xyz after the game is over etc.

That's exactly how it seems to me as well.

Basically, Merson has nothing to offer the rich guys besides action and them being able to say "I played with Greg Merson, that guy that won the WSOP main a few years ago". Provides no business connections or other networking value.

Whines and makes a scene? Because of this one thread? The Aria thing has been going on for a couple years and people have been real quiet about it publicly. "GTO" poker is not boring at all, you saying that demonstrates you likely don't understand it, on top of that I have no doubt these players won't be playing "GTO", they will be attempting to adapt to their opponents.

If they want to only play with certain people, that's fine they can play a homegame, the Aria thing seems like a have your cake and eat it too situation.

Zzzz

Is it just this thread or was it also all over Twitter/verbally heard in Aria? I seem to remember that but I could be wrong.

Eitherway who would want to play with someone that is a) likely playing perfect poker b) doesnt offer much to them apart from poker and is hardly a Matt Kirk type of a player c) is abit of a geek or at least appears to be one (I can imagine Galfond falling into this same category) d) in their view (and remember the patience of a billionaire) moans about not being allowed to play and tries to blow up their game e) isnt one of their friends/part of their circle/of use to them (they would also be swayed by what their 'friend' JRB says about Greg)

Playing a GTO or exploitative style really have very little to do with it and I shouldve just left it at perfect poker - its more about the character of the person and what else they can bring to the table pardon the pun. Something you clearly don't understand. Home games are rife with cheating, they arent next door to nice restaurants or nightclubs, they arent run as efficient and its unprofessional. Not to mention the fact theres an atmosphere in a casino that is hard to recreate in a homegame.

I'm not saying I agree with it all and it must be annoying and 'unfair' but im looking at it from a rich whales perspective as if I were one.

They may be creating an environment where the whales like to play, but it sounds to me more like a handful of players trying to lock up all the nosebleed NL action in las vegas for themselves.

The problem I see is that it isn't really a private game. Its an Aria game. I'd assume they'd let a random billionaire into the game.

Sure they may be driving the majority of the players to the game, but I'm sure some might would be playing in a public game at Aria or Bellagio if it weren't for this game.

I experienced some of what Doug described trying to get into a 1/2 game at Bellagio when they used paper lists. It sure wasn't because the fish were clamoring for the brush to continue seating people ahead of me.

I would love to see Greggy outside of a hot night club:

"YOU SAID I WAS ON THE LIST BUT YOU JUST LET THOSE HOT GIRLS IN! I WANT TO SEE A MANAGER AND TO CHANGE THE EXCLUSIVE CLUB CULTURE ONCE AND FOR ALL!"

But seriously, this is a reality of the world big guy. You can have the mentality to whine about it and call it unfair. If you think it's illegal (I seriously doubt it is) then sue Aria or bring action against them or whatever.

If it is indeed illegal (which again 99% isn't) that seems like a pretty dumb law. If some people want to play in their own game at a casino and not let me play, that doesn't really bother me in the slightest nor would I waste time and energy bitching about it. If it really just eats you up inside so much, maybe focus your energy on how you can create a similar game or get into that game, it would definitely be more worthwhile.

In general just a very non GTO life attitude.

If Mike Matusow can get in while wearing a Bluetooth headset, I don't see why they wouldn't let Greg in.

What happens if the table has multiple seats open? I mean, they can only "lock it up" for the fictional player next on the list (who will never be showing up) only for so long before they finally have to seat someone, right? I mean, if the fish/whale wanted a full game but it's short currently, what happens? Do they just fill it with other players inside the circle / clique?

I'm on the Bellande side of this argument. To answer the question of who decides. There doesn't have to be any official person. It should be organic and kind of work itself out among mainly the rich fish and the regs who make the game run. These games wouldn't run without either of those two categories of players in most cases. Maybe occasionally a game will run for a while just because rich fish decide they like playing a certain casino at a certain time. But for the game to have a long lasting lifespan you need to have regs who put in time and work to make the games go. Not just playing.

Any other pros who play in these games without doing any of the "leg work" are often looked at as "leeches" or "bumhunters" as they rightfully should be. Of course there are degree's to their leeching. The really extreme examples are the pro's who will only play when a huge fish is playing, then as soon as they fish leaves they insta- pick up. This is common place online, but in real life it's as bad as it gets. Or course the people who make the game run are not going to want these pro's in the game. The whales don't want them either.

Unfortunately there are laws and regulations and such that allow these "leeches" to have the "screw everyone else , I'm just going to do whats best for me no matter who I offend or take advantage of". Because of this the players who make the game run have two choices...

-make it a home game not at a casino, which is often the case
or
-do some "sneaky stuff" and skirt the rules to prevent the leeches from taking advantage.

Still at it. . .



In other news, they're playing short deck @ the Aria!

I thought we hadn't seen short deck in Vegas yet because you have to get new variants approved by the gaming control board, which isn't a fast process.

Then again, it's Aria, so maybe they just do whatever.

I assume this isnt true for poker since it seems like the high stakes guys always seem to add weird variants to the games when they play 473-game mix.

Clearly this is the case for pit games tho

I am not sure how much control gaming has over a semi-private game. If they had any, they would probably address that semi-private issue first..

Greg needs to make a gratitude list.

if any casino can make things that are a slow process turn into a fast process it would be the aria