My Borgata Experience

[Luke]

I went to the Borgata for the first time this past weekend and thought I'd share my experience. The casino looks great, especially the card room. I like the monitors displaying the waiting list. The tables were nice and the employees were friendly. The waitresses, while they looked nice, were sparce. All in all it was a good experience but there was one perplexing and disturbing situation that came up:

I was playing in a terribly soft $2-4 hold 'em at a table with mostly young kids like myself. I get KQo in UTG + 2 and when it's folded to me, I decide to open raise. The elderly woman to my left throws in $2 and says "he can't raise". Not sure what she means I say "sure I can - I only made it $4". Within moments the entire table (except for one young guy) begins chiming in siding with her (to my suprise). "...it's a structured game... you can't raise until someone else bets $2... it's this way EVERYWHERE, the Taj, Binions, the Mirage... you must be thinking of a straddle which isn't allowed here" - I heard all sorts of nonsense. The dealer, obviously confused and unsure of the rule, sided with the majority of the table. Eventually, even the young kid who was on my side was swayed by the mob psychology. Then the floorman came over to evaluate the situation. He too seemed unsure of the ruling and decided against me (I think as to not upset the majority or go against the dealer).

I just decided to let it go for the moment because there was no changing their minds and I couldn't care less about missing out on 6 more dollars in the pot. But I did decide to write the Borgata a message in their online "comment box" pointing the holes in their service as well as the positives of their place. I just hope the employees become more educated of the games and organized as the facility is great.

On an interesting note, I bet out on the flop and the 3 other players in the hand immediately folded as if I had aces or something. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] They must have figured I would only push the issue of the raise if I had a premium hand. I couldn't help but laugh.

Luke