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

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I see posts on here lately about which room people like, what feels good, what was designed well, and so on.

Why casinos keep opening up new rooms with lackluster efforts is confusing and driving me nuts. I'm sure lots of players feel the same way.

Here are just 2 quick examples of new poker rooms. This is my opinion on the right and wrong ways. Room names are being left out to protect the innocent.

Wrong:


Right:

[daryn]

paris and wynn?

[MicroBob]

yeah. that's what i thought anyway.

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paris and wynn?

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Yes. But there are many more examples out there.

[MicroBob]

In Tunica, Miss. the Horseshoe already had the best 'room' but there were problems stemming from the fact that it was built several years ago.
It was now too crowded, and too near the band that plays at the video-poker bar.

They built a new room in the back and really did it right imo.
It's not exactly the Wynn. but there is PLENTY of space to move around amongst the 16 tables there.


The Gold Strike next door is evidently following suit and is revamping their room so i've been told.
It was previously just a few poker-tables amongst a bunch of slot-machines which was obviously quite stupid and annoying.


So there are a couple of examples out here of rooms that are making improvements.
not 100% amazing/terrific or anything....but at least putting money into making the room better.


It looks like they just through some tables out on the side-floor at the new Paris 'room' and then threw a guard-rail around it (I haven't seen this room in person yet).
Obviously space considerations are probably part of the problem for these places that didn't have poker-rooms when they originally opened the casino.


Also possible that management somewhere along the lines is saying "Okay...well, before we put TOO much money into this...lets just open up something functional and see how it goes. And we'll keep tentative plans to make space to open and build a fancier room later on."
Something like that anyway.

Of course, they could just build the room now....and if it turns out that poker stops being a good use of space for them they can just turn that area into a high-roller room or snack-bar or whatever the hell they want.

[Randy_Refeld]

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.

When I worked in Vegas we had a long rail and when someoen would be standing there watchign we would go over and invite them to come in. Sometimes as we woudl approach they would start moving away because they assumed you we goign to tell them you couldn't stand there. We had a flooorman that was a dead ringer for Walter Mathau (no idea how to spell his name) and we woud make fun of him becasue he woudl start chasing people through the casino from the rail when they tried to get away without talking to him.

I have not seen the new room at the Horseshoe (Tunica), but I always like that the band was loud in there. A lot of players (as far back as late 90s before I moved west) complained about the noise, but I have always believed anything that makes the poker room feel like a fun place is good for attracting new players.

Looking at the pics of the poker "rooms" above, the one at Paris looks like the games would be better. I was once playing in a small room in Vegas and a woman sat down and asked if anyone would mind if she played since she had never palyed before and the players had jsut yelled at her for playing bad at blackjack. The room at Wynn (and other nice rooms) may make this sort of palyer afraid to sit down and play.

[Bulbarainey]

i like the Wynn too... but some of the tables seem a little too close together

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i like the Wynn too... but some of the tables seem a little too close together

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They are remedying that soon. They are removing the stud tables and getting rid of a bunch of the 9 handed games and going to all 10 handed, while dropping 1 or 2 more tables from the total to get more space in there.

[slavic]

Randy -

Your post is brilliant. I hate the poker rooms that are isolated, most of them are a little nicer but the action just isn't as good. Some of the best games I've been in were at noisey open rooms were I was playing hold'em on a stud table. I don't mind people who play hold'em like video poker.

[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.