Thanks Mason: Must Move Games

[Howard Burroughs]

And I was starting to think that I was the only person in the world who thought "Must Move" games are some sort of bad joke.

Thanks Mason for speaking out!



Best Wishes

Howard

[Mason Malmuth]

Hi Howard:

They're worst than a bad joke. Perament must move games show total incompetence and a complete lack of understanding as how a cardroom really works on the part of management.

best wishes,
Mason

[NLSoldier]

From my experience, must moves tend to cater to the regulars who play in the same cardroom close to every day and put in very long hours( And are usually there when the game starts). So I understand that the cardroom wants to keep these regulars happy by keeping their game full. What I don't understand is when the floorman will break the must move game which has say 5 players left(because the remaining players are unwilling to play 4 handed), just to keep the main game totally full. One game with 8 players and one with 5 makes infinately more sense than one game with 9 and a board with 4.

[TomCollins]

Mason, I have found one spot that I do partially enjoy Must Moves. This is for capped NL games, such as the Mirage. Once I get to the main game, the stacks are usually much deeper. Second, the new players who come in have bigger stacks than the new players at the must move table. This allows for a lot more action and a bigger game. When I played, there was a huge wait for the must-move table, so there was no risk in moving tables. There was 1 must move and 2 main games.

Any thoughts on capped buy-in NL games with Must Moves?

[phish]

Disagree with you regarding must-move games. Must move games prevent the nitty players from jumping game to game trying to get in the good game. Plus, the only reason a must-move game would break and leave three names on the list is cause those same nitty players refuse to play short-handed. So they are the real problem, not the must-moves themselves.

[TomCollins]

You are allowed to move from main game to main game at a most move table.

[cab4656]

I've heard the term many times but never knew what it meant.

What is a must move game?

[BarronVangorToth]

Let's say a casino has 2 $5-$10 games going. One will be the "main" game and one will be the "must move." If someone leaves the main game - they take one person from the must move that has been there the longest (they usually keep a list) and move that person to the main game to keep it filled. The theory goes that this way, the main game is ALWAYS filled to capacity, and the must move game has however many people they have.

It causes delays and annoys people and oftentimes creates this situation:

Must Move: 5 people
Main Game: 10 people

Guy X leaves the Main Game. They grab 1 from the Must Move. Now it has 4 people ... and they don't want to play four-handed (they were already annoyed playing 5 handed).

If the house didn't bother doing this nonsense, the tables would've had invariably 7 and 7 as the Main probably took a few Must Movers over recent history.

Those two tables would've kept going and no one would've left, now you'll have four guys annoyed and sitting on a list waiting for the one table to lose customers.

Barron Vangor Toth
www.BarronVangorToth.com

[MicroBob]

Having cut my poker-teeth via the online game I was pretty confused the first time I went to the Gold Strike in Tunica and was told I was in a 'must-move' game. "what the hell does that mean," I thought to myself not wanting to show-off my total live-poker ignorance.

If they have must-moves at the Horseshoe or Grand I don't think I had sat in them.
But at the GS I found myself in a must-move 3/6 game which seemed pretty silly.

I have since kind of figured out the general point behind them but obviously Mason's ideas on them make far more sense than the logic the poker-rooms are using.

[Khern]

But I've never understood why regulars want to play with other regulars... I have played a couple of sessions at Mandalay where I just leave when my name is called to move. Needless to say, I don't visit the room much anymore.

-John