Just got back from a 10 day trip in Barcelona where I plugged in about 90+ hours of cash game. I played stakes from 5/10 NLHE and PLO - 10/20 NLHE and PLO. I'm from Canada so wasn't sure what to expect however a friend of mine who travels on the EPT circuit advised me that the cash games were pretty sick.

Anyways, first day I get there I've never been inside a casino that was sooo hot/humid inside. Every table downstairs was full and the place was like a sauna. I tried ordering something refreshing from the waitress however I could not find one for over 2 hours. The place was literally a zoo. I then decide to go get my own drink at the bar situated 30 feet away from my table and I get charged for my order even when I tell the bartender that I am playing and that there's no waitress in sight. Whatever, I just pay because I can't deal with all the heat and thirst. The last two days of my trip it did get better cause most of the people left but still doesn't justify how the casino doesn't have the proper staffing to accommodate the traffic.

Anyways back to the game. Playing 10/20 NLHE and the action is very slow. Some idiot buys in for 1k and just literally tanked on every action. He tanked 15 seconds to fold his hand pre flop. For a pre flop fold, 15 seconds is a long time. Anyways I find that there's absolutely no flow to the game. There's always 2 or 3 European regs who just get up off the table to bum hunt other tables or hit and run. It was unbelievable the amount of times I was at a table and we'd be 7 or 8 handed when there's be 10 stacks on the table. On my last day there was one case where 4 guys decide to all get up for whatever reason, causing a 5th player on the table to be asked to be dealt out. I literally snapped at the dealer to control the game. You'd never see this kinda **** in a North American casino.

Other things that tilted me were the following
1. Dealers not controlling the use of other languages on the table ie. French, Italian, Arabic etc
2. After ordering the first 5 bottles of Heineken with no charge, I all of a sudden get charged for the 6th and then sporadically after that. I ask the waitress who responds back "sometimes we charge and sometimes we don't". I told her that made no sense and asked to speak with a supervisor who responded the exact same. Also a few days later the situation happened again and I again asked for a supervisor, not believing the first response.
3. The casino should implement a main and feeder table with a must move to keep the flow of the tables moving. This would eliminate a lot of the issues with people bum hunting other tables.
4. The dealers were pretty bad. Too many cases where they would not count the pots correctly in PLO or making mistakes and not collecting enough chips on a players CALL action. The last time I saw **** like was when I was at St Kitts casino 10 years ago and the blackjack dealers were paying me on a push etc.
5. The waitresses I found to be pretty rude for the most part. During the first 5 or 6 days of my trip and when the casino was packed I can't count the number of times I would flag down a nearby waitress only to be utterly ignored lol. It was funny how they would see you and just look the other way and not to be bothered. Yes I understand ****s busy but at least acknowledge your customers.
6. I didn't like the idea of an uncapped buyin. Some of these euro regs would buy in for like 400 or 500 BBs and chips wouldn't move, maybe as a result of the deep stacks. I don't know. But in my opinion the action was pretty dry.

Conclusion, doubt I'll ever go to another EPT event for cash games and considering this is suppose to be one of the juicier spots, it was a real let down. Maybe I was playing the wrong stakes. Probably more whales on 20/40+ games. Mind you I've played at Vegas games regularly at 5/10 to 10/20 NLHE and PLO as well as other well known casinos in the US and my regular local casino.

Wanna hear other people's input or experiences on EPT circuits or Barcelona...

I'm glad to hear that you had a great time OP, it sounds much nicer than the other EPT Barcelona trip reports I've read here.

"Literally a zoo"

Are those cash games run by Pokerstars? The tournament area was totally different fwiw, rather cool than humid and hot, with great dealers,staff, waiters etc.

Just got back from Barcelona...

Learned how to freeroll NVG

each country has its own gaming laws, and anyone that gives a universal "here how this works" is foolish.

I have very limited experience with gaming in Spain, but believe it works similar to most other mature regulated B&M markets.

The casino is the licensed operator. Companies like Stars come in and help organize and run the tournament, including temp dealers.

So, its usually the the casino that operates and responsible for the cash games (maybe with an assist from some of the temp dealers for EPT)

Quit being a cheap **** and buy the beer.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for reminding me why I never play live any more.

You sound like great fun OP - wanna hang out?

Photos of penguins or it didn't happen.

fyp

Your feelings are largely the result of unrealistic expectations. The casino and cash games have been a **** show for years and anyone who has been before should be able to tell you that. If your friend had said "Games are amazing but the casino is running at 350% capacity for the stakes you want to play" you couldn't really complain. I think you should blame your friend rather than keep the boorish American attitude that every waitress should pay you attention. It blows my mind the amount of people that simply cannot understand that the places have a system (as terrible as they might be). Often I see people try to grab a waitress who works on the other side of the room who then proceeds to complain bitterly about his service when she skips past him. If you are going to visit a place of business during extremely busy hours, do no expect the level of service you would during a usual day. Sometimes there are other limiting factors, and whilst I also wish a place of business who is willing to charge 9 euros for a coke and an apple would hire more staff but it isn't always going to fix the problem. It is hard to get a hard working waitress who understands your system and is qualified to handle € etc who will work long hours for a 2 week period once a year.

So yeah, the service is ****, the lists are huge and many of the games you play in will be full of the problems you mentioned which relate more to the type of player. I think there is a degree of variance here as I've not been limp/reraised in Europe in 3 years but it seems to happen once a session in America. The must move system would be a good one to implement but the casino runs the cards games. This wasn't afaik a Stars run operation, so they are bound to follow their usual rules. It is pretty disingenuous to even call it your visit to EPT Barcelona if you didn't interact with any of the staff, which are a class apart from the Spanish run dealers. This contrasts with Dublin for example where Stars ran everything.

Sorry if this came across to aggro, it wasn't intended to be. Left it up to ponder and cba to edit now.

americans are just the nut low of people, OP proves it yet again

We'll all flag down waitresses together.

The OP is Canadian.

God damned Canadians.

It´s not the casinos fault you can´t beat the games.
The other things you described are just noise that doesnt matter if you are a winner.

Staff and dealers for cash games are from the casino- not EPT. Dealers from ept and staff in general are the best in the industry and do a great job. Waiters/waitresses have nothing to do with ept overall, this is more like "casino Barcelona experience". Same with security.
If you play tournaments it's generally a much better experience especially staff wise - although Barcelona being so busy meant long waiting lines at times/alternates etc

Drive a porsche to the 125 euro cap table and you'll get some respect but if you get your brother to drive it you'll get great service.

The reality is, blaming a Barcelona casino isn't as attractive to the zeitgeist as blaming a PokerStars brand, and it wouldn't get any traction on NVG. I would recommend just making the title "Amaya refused to serve me liquid as I was dying of thirst" next time.

Blame your friend for not telling you what you're getting into. Most of the things you're talking about are not only common at other EPT stops but also at other bigger poker events like the WSOP cashgames. Even though that area is usually freezing cold instead of too hot..

You also should be happy about getting some free drinks, that's far from standard at European casinos.

Actually there are two people who mention that he´s american.Having said that, I must say that in my many years of running casinos all over the world, I´ve noticed that americans always expect things to be run exactly as they are used to at home. One example is where they expect all drinks to be comped. In the case of Barcelona, the casino pays a 55% tax on winnings and a 30% company tax. Not much room for freebies, nor for hiring extra staff.

The casino at Barcelona is pretty terrible.In the high stakes cash game area they went back to their old habit of not even using a microphone to call out the lists( which can be very long). Service was also even poorer this year than it usually is, harder to find waitresses who were just too busy as there weren't enough of them. The casino " restaurant" is also awful where changing anything on the menu, i.e. Fries to potatoes or adding a fried egg, taking a vegetable off etc was we are told " impossible ". I was also disappointed that backpacks couldn't be taken into the poker area this year because I was told the casino hadn't bothered to spend money on adequate security to allow this.

You don't like the idea of an uncapped buyin for a live 10/20 game but also don't like the idiot who bought in for 50bbs??? What live 10/20 games are you playing without an uncapped buyin??

The bar was 30 feet away and you waited 2 hours??

Other then that, welcome to Barcelona