New Bellagio Poker Room Opens Wednesday Night (4/27)

[AllVegasPoker.com]

I haven't peeked through the curtain yet, but several of my friends told me it looked fantastic. I'm surprised at some of the reactions. I guess in a few days I'll judge for myself.

[Glider]

When I was at the Bellagio a couple of weeks ago I heard a rumor that I found pretty believable. Supposedly one of the major reasons for the renovation was to improve the security of the high stakes tables. And the reason they wanted to improve the security was that someone got robbed.

Apparently what happened was, one of the high stakes players got up and left his stack of chips (4k+) on the table. A thief came by, grabbed the chips and ran out a side door before anyone could stop him. The thief got away, and the player was out the money, since the Bellagio doesn't guarantee the safety of chips on the table.

If it's true, it makes sense the Bellagio would want to make sure this doesn't happen again.

[chucksim]

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id say that the 4/8 waitlist has been at least 50 people every single time i went to the b. so yeah, id assume that the extra tables will help if we assume that at least 1 or 2 tables will be used for lower limits.

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I certainly hope so. One time last summer, I went in around 9:30 or 10:00 AM and there was immediate seating in a 4/8 game. I figured I found the magic time. However, the next day I went at the same time, and the list was already 10 deep. I like the room, but the LL waits make Borgata's lists seem reasonable.

[Dynasty]

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I understand that there will be an automatic shuffler on each table.

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Even the curtains are gone now. You can clearly see the whole room which is completlely done other than some cleaning up in the back.

A quick count showed there will be 33 tables on the main floor- all of which have the automatic shufflers. The old high-limit area appeared to have 5 tables. The new high-limit area appeared to have 2 tables.

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The lighting looks like it may hve been improved

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I never had a problem with the Bellagio's lighting and don't remember anybody else complaining either.

However, they do have new chairs. That's something I and others have complained about.

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Also, the room now looks like it is more open to those on the outside looking in than it was before.

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It always seemed rather open to me anyway. It still has the same basic design with a rail in which people outside can easily observe the games.

My main point isn't that the Bellagio room isn't good. It'll be just as good as it was before. My point is that the 2-3 months they used to renovate the room doesn't seem to have resulted in any significant change for the average player beyond the automatic shufflers.

What was the point of this big renovation?


A little story

Tonight, the room might have been a little to inviting. As I was checking the room out, I noticed a few guys had gone inside to see it for themselves. A security guard came from the back of the room and informed the men they had to leave- which they did with no incident. As I walked out, I noticed one of the men was Johnny Chan.

[SinCityGuy]

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Unfathomably, the Bellagio is still going to be using clipboards to maintain their waiting lists. I couldn't believe the manager when she told me they aren't even planning to computerize this.

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This arrogance is reminiscent of the Stardust Race and Sports Book's refusal to convert to a computerized board until long after all of the other major books in town had done so. For several years, they kept some minimum wage grunt behind the stage on a ladder, manually changing the numbers every time there was a line change. I think it was the mid to late 90's before they finally gave in.

[lucas9000]

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Interesting. I predict it will be a bad investment. Sounds like competition for the high limit games is about to become bigger than they expected.

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isn't it the low limit games that they make more money off of, though?

[ShadowBJ21]

They may make more money from low-limit (than high-limit) poker but they make much more from high-limit poker players playing other (carnival) games!

I think most casinos have to look at poker as a marketing tool that may pay for itself. If they don't have a poker room they may lose customers to other places (and therefore lose overall business). If they have one it may add a little to the casino winnings but it may increase the revenue of the other games.

Unfortunatly it is difficult to calculate and extract these numbers and only the best run places may really be able to take advantage of this.

Shadow

[terrapin314]

The poker landscape of town has really changed. MGM is really capitalizing on the lower end of the market and Bellagio and Wynn will fight it out for the high stakes portion.

This should be great for players as they will work for our business with some competition.

[andyfox]

The few times I've played there I did have a problem with the lighting. I had a hard time seeing my hole cards. My eyes are not great, but I did find the lighting somewhat darker than it is here in the L.A. cardbarns.

Do you know if the big games are staying there, or are they moving to the new Wynn casino?

[andyfox]

Might this have something to do with clipboards being easier to grant favors to favored players than a publicly exposed electronic board?