Turning Stone Rant

[naphinfitos]

Recently I took half a week off from school and hopped a train out to Turning Stone Casino in central New York. Having been there 5 times in the last year I was pretty confident I could make a substantial amount of money playing $100 max and staying in the Tower hotel there. How wrong I was.

First of all, TS changed their format for collecting rake. It used to be that every pot larger than $10 was raked 3$, but now you have to pay the dealer at the table 5$ every half hour. 5 bbs/hr is a rediculous amount to be giving straight to the house, especially since the best way to play there is very tight/agressive. All in all I funded the house with over $200 in rake in the 2 days I was there. And 10 hrs a day is not even playing that much.

The second factor that disturbed me was the amount of crap that I had to take for wearing a Red Sox jacket. Nobody had ever voiced any negative sentiment towards me for being a Sox fan before they won the series, so I guess the sudden change comes from Yankee fans now resenting us Sox fans just like we did for so long while you owned us.

Now obviously the casino can't control what other players say at the table about sports, but a majority of the crap that was said to me came from casino employees. Dealers, poker room operators, the front check-in desk. Not cool.

ALso the comps for poker players are a joke. If I play for 4 hrs, I'm entitled to a 5$ meal comp (which actually costs 2$ to get) and 25$ discounted toward a night in the hotel there. There is no difference between playing for 4 hrs and 14 hrs in what comps you receive, which is rediculous. They make a record of when you start playing in the room, and can pinpoint exactly how much money you pay to them in rake. The bottom line is that TS doesn't mind treating pokerplayers like second-class-citizens.

Anyways I'm not going back for a long time. When I can confidently beat the 20-40 limit game there I guess I'll make a return trip, but barring some rediculous hours played there, it has now become very hard to cover expenses and make a little profit on the side. It is no longer fun because the dealers are mostly jackasses (there are a few good ones), and with such a pathetic comp program there is absolutely no incentive for me to return anytime soon.

[tylerdurden]

Poker players ARE second classs citizens. Poker comps suck everywhere. Get over it.

[naphinfitos]

I love the way that my 4 pronged attack on TS was simplified down to just being about comps. I don't really care about comps that much. It's the entire situation that sucks.

[Photoc]

[ QUOTE ]
The second factor that disturbed me was the amount of crap that I had to take for wearing a Red Sox jacket. Nobody had ever voiced any negative sentiment towards me for being a Sox fan before they won the series, so I guess the sudden change comes from Yankee fans now resenting us Sox fans just like we did for so long while you owned us.


[/ QUOTE ]

Guess you never had Yankees plates and drove in the Boston area like I did when I lived out that way. Constant horn beeps, middle fingers and so on. Try going to the city some time, fights all the time.

I think its funny that fans dont know how to be fans instead of ASSHOLES towards other fans.

[naphinfitos]

I guess what I meant was that Sox fans have always hated Yankee fans because the Yankees have enjoyed much more success than we have. As soon as the sides have changed (even if only for 1 season) Yankee fans were just as quick to hate me because of who I root for.

[tylerdurden]

[ QUOTE ]
I love the way that my 4 pronged attack on TS was simplified down to just being about comps. I don't really care about comps that much. It's the entire situation that sucks.

[/ QUOTE ]

Four pronged? You also complained about the rake and obnoxious yankee fans.

The rake is tied to the comp situation. How much in comps do you think you should get for your measly $200 in rake??? They have to make SOME money off of poker players.

The obnoxious yankee fan point isn't even worth mentioning. You're in New York wearing Red Sox gear, wtf did you expect?

So really your four-pronged attack is two complaints, and one of them is pointless.

[toots]

A five dollar meal comp after four hours of play?

Second class, yes, but a heck of a deal compared to Foxwoods. There, you get a half a dollar in comp points for every hour of play.

Play all day and you'll be doing well to have enough points to buy a burger.

[Beerfund]

[ QUOTE ]
I guess what I meant was that Sox fans have always hated Yankee fans because the Yankees have enjoyed much more success than we have. As soon as the sides have changed (even if only for 1 season) Yankee fans were just as quick to hate me because of who I root for.

[/ QUOTE ]

Im pretty sure Yankee fans have always hated you. And the rest of your post is lame. Of course they dont give a shyt about poker players, they contribute nothing compared to the rest of the casino.

Freakin noobs

[naphinfitos]

People are focusing on the comp portion of my complaint. That really doesn't bother me that much. What I wanted to hear input on was the massive increase in rake (5 bbs/hr).

[Voltron87]

5$ a half hour for a NL table is not a bad deal. I's not good, but it's not like they are raping you.

You can't think of time charges in terms of BB per hour. Does it cost the casino more to spread a 5 10 NL game than a 1/2?

[toots]

Well, $5/half hour seems sadly like standard table charges for a binky NL game.

Yeah, it's a bit steep. But what ya gonna do?

[BigSkiRace]

Not at all they just hit you for more money beaucse your playing bigger, its just like 4k/8k they hit those dudes for liek 32 dollars a half hour.

[Dominic]

since you like the word so much, I thought it might be worth noting that it is spelled, "ridiculous."

[Voltron87]

From what I've heard the big game players don't pay anywhere near 64$ an hour.

[betgo]

Why would you ware a Boston Redsox jacket in NY state? When you got all that flack, did you think about putting on other clothes?

If you don't like the poker comps, try blowing a few grand on the table games. You will be treated like royalty next time you arrive.

The rake is pretty standard and I prefer table charges. In bigger games, the rake becomes pretty insignificant, but if you can't beat the 1-2 NL, I wouldn't try anything bigger.

The bottom line is that if you could beat the fish and maniacs in the 1-2 no limit game, you wouldn't be complaining about the rakes and comps.

[UprightCreature]

[ QUOTE ]
It used to be that every pot larger than $10 was raked 3$, but now you have to pay the dealer at the table 5$ every half hour.

[/ QUOTE ]

How much of a rake increase is this? The current rake is $100/hr off the table (assuming 10 handed). How many pots/hr are over $10? I have no idea how TS plays, but in the B&M 1/2 NL games I've played most hands are over $10.

[Brom]

You weren't winning 3 pots an hour before? If you are so tight that you were only winning one or two pots an hour than this rake increase does hurt you. However if you are like the other 80% of players that win more like 4-8 pots an hour this is a discount for you. Rake is paid by loose players, and session fees are paid by tight players.

[TStoneMBD]

turningstone players always gave heat to red sox fans, even before they won the world series.

i think it started happening because ts shows the yankee games on those plasma screens, and this would of course generate some trash talking between yankee/boston fans. when the game consisted of those two teams, you could imagine the intensity.

ignore them. theyre stupid. red sox may be a barbaric, scumsucking group of pretentious players, but that still doesnt mean that you shouldnt be able to root for them. /images/graemlins/cool.gif

[BeantownCaller]

$5 per 1/2 hour for time is standard, and while it is high if you're beating the game it won't matter. At 100 max buy in games you have to build a stack and push people around, if you have a stack the $5 won't hurt you, if you are hovering at 80 bucks obviously it will have an effect.

Anyone know the 200NL game rake off the top of their head? I'll be going up to TS in the next couple weeks once my buddy gets back from school, not sure if i'm gonna play more 10/20 or 200NL

Also, I've always worn my bosox hat while at TS and I've gotten [censored] for it but I enjoy it.

[TheJunkyardGod]

Yeah, poker comps to suck. I'll sit at a table for 6 hours and make a couple bucks towards a dinner, while my friend drops 200 at the roulette table in 30 minutes and has free rooms offered to him every other month. Oh well.

Every time I sit at a table in AC, there's a sox fan there. I'm only one of 3 yankee fans in my family (the rest are mets fans with a few sox fans as well) so I don't have alot of hatred for you guys like others do. I still make jokes and give them a hard time, but it's all in good fun. And besides, you have to expect getting heat in NY state. You should have heard some of the awful things that were shouted at my brother in NYC, especially when he took this picture.

http://img164.echo.cx/img164/5439/thetakeover4lx.jpg

it's part of being a sports fan.

[Falker11]

[ QUOTE ]


First of all, TS changed their format for collecting rake. It used to be that every pot larger than $10 was raked 3$, but now you have to pay the dealer at the table 5$ every half hour. 5 bbs/hr is a rediculous amount to be giving straight to the house, especially since the best way to play there is very tight/agressive. All in all I funded the house with over $200 in rake in the 2 days I was there. And 10 hrs a day is not even playing that much.


[/ QUOTE ]

I was just there this weekend for the crazy sidegame action that accompanies the tournament series in town and they were spreading a 1/2 200max buy in with the same $5 per half rake. Much higher earning potential than the 100 buy in for the same rake. I hope they keep the game around and that they weren't just running it this weekend.

Falker

[McGahee]

Wear a Syracuse jacket next time and hide your accent. They'll treat you fine.