Borgata getting bigger and better

[midas]

Borgata readies Loan backing expansion, refinancing


Boyd Gaming and MGM, which jointly own the Borgata, in July announced the Atlantic City casino's expansion. The $200 million Borgata expansion is expected to commence in December, and run through the second quarter of 2006. The expansion will include 600 additional slot machines, for a total of 2,500; 36 game tables, for a total of 175; and the largest poker room in the region, sources said.

[bulletspoker]

Bigger than Foxwoods? I think not, especially since they are doubling the size of the room.

[jar]

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Bigger than Foxwoods? I think not, especially since they are doubling the size of the room.

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Foxwoods is doubling the size of the room? Getting rid of the asian game tables next door? When/where did you hear this? Or did I misunderstand you and get too excited? I played 2-4 overnight sunday-monday, and there was a list until around 5am, so the expansion is certainly necessary.

[midas]

The Borgata will be at 85 tables when expansion is complete. I wasn't aware that FW was going to expand

[SunTzu68]

Not to be too negative...but I love playing at the Borgata. It is one of the few card rooms in the area where I feel they value poker players...and treat us well. I would hate to think that the Borgata is going to turn into another Taj....

[dcJohn]

I have a hard time imagining Borgata turning into Taj (yuck).

I was out in Vegas for the first time ever this past weekend, and I was amazed how much I found myself missing Borgata. I stayed and played at Bellagio, and then I also hiked over to the Mirage for a morning of play. Both were just dismal compared to Borgata's poker room... I missed the comfy chairs, better padded rails, the drink holder, drink staff that actually show up regularly, and electronic board for being able to quickly guage where you are in the list.

About the only thing I can say for the Vegas rooms were...
1. At least over labor day in Vegas there were much fewer of the Borgata's typical bevy of cranky, slow, overly-conservative retirees. Lots of wildly daft, loose players in Vegas.

2. The higher "low" stakes meant that I got to move up in my game typical limit level and actually face far worse opponents.

3. The live straddle. Yes, I did it. It didn't pay off for that hand--clearly I needed to be drinking and blind re-reaise as well--but oddly enough, one live stradle was enough to by me a (very unfitting) table image of maniac for well over an hour--with all the great calling and $ that implies.

As a final aside, what is it with folks in vegas getting so many of the lowest denomination of chips? Maybe it's just an east case thing about speed and whatnot, but it was just insanely slow when everyone had huge piles of one dollar chips at stakes that really should have meant that everyone had mostly 5s and just made quick change as needed (at least by my AC "culture").

John

[Luv2DriveTT]

Interesting. I prefered the Bellagio over the Borgata. I was very comfortable, and I was glad that the felt was tight. The Borgatta has that untra-suead feeling that looks beutiful but is not as easy to stack your chips on.

TT in da club/images/graemlins/club.gif

[bulletspoker]

I hated the chairs at Bellagio. I tried like 3 of them all of them were broken and tilted a lot. After I complained, the floorman just gave me a funny look an dtold me to find any open chair (there were none cuz itwas a busy night).

Borgata is much better.

[SunTzu68]

I prefer the Borgata over the Bellagio also. I hate the chairs at the Bellagio, I never can seem to get comfortable in them. My only complaints about the Borgata include the soft tables (makes it harder to shuffle my chips/stack them), and the only denominations that play at the 20/40 are $5 and $25 chips (why not let the $10 chips and $20 chips play? I don't understand this logic.)

But the staff at the Borgata treat me well....and run a good room. If the room gets bigger I don't believe that the staff will be able to treat the players as well, the facilities are more likely to get run down (tables, chairs, etc.), and it will be harder for me to get a beer (right now the Borgata is the only card room I've played in where I can get a bottle of beer as fast as I'd like...without waiting 45 minutes for a waitress to even show up on my part of the floor.)

I know that people sometimes have to wait long periods to get on a table...but that has never been a problem for me (I tend to start play around noon, or I start at 4:00 am when the lines are not bad.) And I have never had a problem finding loose players at the 20/40 level.

[Bremen]

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and the only denominations that play at the 20/40 are $5 and $25 chips (why not let the $10 chips and $20 chips play? I don't understand this logic.)

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Because then people are less likely to tip the dealers. Which you may not care about, but dealers do, and happy/competent dealers tend to cause fewer incidents with players.

[dcJohn]

[ QUOTE ]
Interesting. I prefered the Bellagio over the Borgata. I was very comfortable, and I was glad that the felt was tight. The Borgatta has that untra-suead feeling that looks beutiful but is not as easy to stack your chips on.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ahh, good point about the felt. It was easier to stack chips at Bellagio, and fun to watch the card go "woosh" across the faster felt when mucking (hey, when you're having to muck a lot because of a cold deck, you've got to find fun in the little things).

In retrospect, there is at least one other thing Bellagio has going for it... Vegas offered a lot more for fun things to do (vs AC) for my wife and in-laws to do.

Still, I'll take the Borgata for poker any day.

[neotope]

[ QUOTE ]
3. The live straddle. Yes, I did it. It didn't pay off for that hand--clearly I needed to be drinking and blind re-reaise as well--but oddly enough, one live stradle was enough to by me a (very unfitting) table image of maniac for well over an hour--with all the great calling and $ that implies.


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Does the Borgata not allow a live straddle?

Even though most people frown over the live straddle I usually use it once a session. It usually ticks people off and results in making me more money.

[slamdunkpro]

No Straddling is illegal in New Jersery (go figure!)

[SunTzu68]

Odd....I usually tip the dealers 1 or 2 dollars....I usually don't use a $5 chip or a $25 chip to tip dealers.

[Lou]

$10 and $20 chips play at $20-40 at the Borgata. ALthough most players don't sit down with a rack of blue or yellow, they play. I played 20-40 last Friday and 40-80 player came over with a rack of blue and no one said a word.

[daryn]

85 tables? bah. doesn't foxwoods already have more than that? if not foxwoods is expanding also.

[SunTzu68]

They let it go alot of the time, but if you ask the floor people they will tell you only the $5 and $25 chips play.

[Glenn]

One thing I really like about the Borgata is that in the bigger games they let the players decide some of the more trivial rules, and don't get all nitty about things for no reason. This is as much a function of the players as it is the management/dealers, but regardless, it makes the Borgata a nice place to play.