There is a right and a wrong way to do it....

[MicroBob]

I too actually liked the band near the room at the Horseshoe.


I don't play much live...but when I go to Tunica I would either play at Horseshoe or Gold Strike mostly.

Even though I play MUCH more at Horseshoe...the 3 or 4 times that I have been at a table with a player falling asleep between hands was at the Gold Strike.
Pretty quiet except for a few slots. Pretty boring.
Sometimes you can hear the canned-music which at the Gold Strike is always Whitney Houston/Celine Dion crap.
Boring Boring Boring.

The band really did liven things up at the Horseshoe's old room and simply kept the marathon-session players from falling asleep.

But the room was getting too crowded and they needed to do something.
The new room is quiet nice...although it is DEFINITELY quieter.


Before I learned how to play poker (and I was familiar with casinos because I counted-cards at BJ) I was intimidated to play poker.
This was 3 years ago.
I would NEVER have known that you are actually allowed to stand there at the rail and watch.


I agree that the set-up at the Paris makes it look more like "hey...any shmoe who's just strolling by is allowed to sitdown and join us. This includes YOU."


Something like the Grand or Sam's Town in Tunica that both have those glass walls that go all the way to the ceiling (I think...haven't been at either in awhile) very much have a "Keep Out unless you belong here" type of feeling for many newbies like I used to be.
not unlike how the higher-stakes BJ and slots rooms look to me and many other customers.


Randy makes some pretty good points in this thread.


One thing that the Grand DOES do correctly is make 'open-seating' announcements through the casino.
"We have open-seating for 3/6 hold-em. C'mon up to the Poker room on the 2nd floor and join us."
Stuff like that.

For whatever reason they don't do this at the Horseshoe.
Can't remember if they do this at Gold Strike or not.


It was one of those announcements at the Grand in Biloxi in 1996 that got me to give poker a try.
I didn't know what 'hold-em' even meant...but they announced 1-5 7-card-stud and I took the bait and gave it a try.
I had no idea what I was doing and didn't play again for several years (partly because I wasn't living near casinos for a long time after that) but they DID get me to try it out.
And their 'room' at the time was just a bunch of tables in the corner...not intimidating at all. Just walk right up.

[Randy_Refeld]

[ QUOTE ]
One thing that the Grand DOES do correctly is make 'open-seating' announcements through the casino.
"We have open-seating for 3/6 hold-em. C'mon up to the Poker room on the 2nd floor and join us."
Stuff like that.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is good for poker and is good for poker players. It may or may not be good for the casino. When I was in Vegas we coudl not page in the casino. When seats were open the hotel operator could page them to the house phone and put them through to the poker room. Everytime an announcement about poker is made there is a chance that someone will leave the pit to go play poker; this is not something the casino likes.

[Jimmy The Fish]

[ QUOTE ]
Before I learned how to play poker (and I was familiar with casinos because I counted-cards at BJ) I was intimidated to play poker.
This was 3 years ago.
I would NEVER have known that you are actually allowed to stand there at the rail and watch.


[/ QUOTE ]

I was also highly intimidated at first. I would have been one of those people who had to be chased down by the floorman.

I think that a casino interested in the long-term health of its poker room could hang a couple discreet signs outside the room, simply stating "It's Okay To Watch!" (However, I can see many casino execs frowning on such friendly gestures -- because a customer watching the poker room is a customer who isn't gambling.)

I tend to prefer the closed rooms, but that's only because the closed rooms I've experienced were much less smoky. Give me a smoke-free environment, and I'd probably choose the open layout (preferably right next to the sports book).

[SheridanCat]

[ QUOTE ]
I am probably in the minority here, but I feel the "nice" rooms are intimidating. I like for the poker room to feel very accessible, it shoudl not look like the sort of places you have to be quiet in.


[/ QUOTE ]

I tend to agree with this.

Personally, I like the pretty rooms, really. I love Wynn's room and the clubby atmosphere at Monte Carlo. The Bellagio and Mirage rooms are great too.

But I have to say, the level of play and the goodness of the games are better at the more open rooms. Bally's, for example, sits right next to a bar with Video Poker and nestles up next to the Black Jack tables. On more than one occasion I've seen people wander in and want to play just because the "room" is generally inviting and the brush is easy to find and ask about the games. On numerous occasions I've seen the floor people and dealers talking to lookers-on about betting into games.

So, for getting people interested in playing, I think the open "rooms" are the way to go.

Regards,

T

[ QUOTE ]
On numerous occasions I've seen the floor people and dealers talking to lookers-on about betting into games.

So, for getting people interested in playing, I think the open "rooms" are the way to go.


[/ QUOTE ]

Oh heck, last time I was at Bally's playing 2/4, the table would get a little short handed and I'd just turn around to see who was watching. I'd say "c'mon in and sit down, there's room and no one on the list" and sometimes they would. The dealer didn't seem to mind and I didn't hear any complaints from any other players. Bally's was my favorite room for this on my last trip. Bellagio, i loved the aesthetics, but hated the gaming atmosphere. It just seemed like everyone was so damned serious about playing poker they didn't want to have fun or show me a good time.

[Bremen]

[ QUOTE ]
I am probably in the minority here, but I feel the "nice" rooms are intimidating

[/ QUOTE ]
I gotta agree with Randy here. In my limited experience its the nits/rocks who care, and complain quite voraciously, about the atmosphere. The fish just want to sit down and play, and frequently like having a guy in the corner playing piano.

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
I am probably in the minority here, but I feel the "nice" rooms are intimidating. I like for the poker room to feel very accessible, it shoudl not look like the sort of places you have to be quiet in.

[/ QUOTE ]

Great point. A classic example of an intimidating and unaccessible room from the old days was the Las Vegas Hilton circa 1987 or so. It seemed all the policies catered to local nits. It was way in back near the sports book and the entrance was narrow in such a way that you couldn't even see the tables in back. The lighting was designed to make it easy to see cards put the fact was it made the players look like they crawled out of a crypt.

Awful place, I'm not surprised it eventually closed.

~ Rick

[DrSavage]

I agree with what you are saying, however I feel that it would mostly apply to small stakes only. Maybe the right idea is to have an paris-like room for small "beginner" games and a nice and quiet wynn-like room for mid-high.

[Randy_Refeld]

[ QUOTE ]
I agree with what you are saying, however I feel that it would mostly apply to small stakes only. Maybe the right idea is to have an paris-like room for small "beginner" games and a nice and quiet wynn-like room for mid-high.

[/ QUOTE ]

Generally the mid and high players like to have beginners in their games also. People that have never played before will play higher given a chance. THey are on vacationand have no problem betting $25 or $100 a hand at blackjack; these same people would play poker if they were made to feel welcome.

When we had the only NL game in Vegas we had two things that happened more than once that are amazing in a poker room. We had players playing NL wiht the rank of hands sheet on the table (this was very common). And we had plsyers that would just bet liks it was blackjack (less common but I remeber 3 different people doing this on different occasion), that is they would buy $100 or so and put it out as their bet all-in before the cards were dealt (this was ususally a 1-2 blind game, ocasisonally a 2-5 blind game).

[DrSavage]

[ QUOTE ]

Generally the mid and high players like to have beginners in their games also.

[/ QUOTE ]

No joke. However, people who would be willing to play mid/high for the first time are also not the type of crowd to be intimidated by a nice and quiet room and it would also make them feel important.