Stratosphere opens their new poker room

[Al_Capone_Junior]

Stopped by the strat last night to check out the new room, and I have to say, I was impressed.

The new room is located right at the bottom of the escalators that lead in from the parking garage, which is directly next to the sports book (a great location in the casino, btw). It's also just about the first thing you see if you valet your car. The restrooms are close, and so are the snack bar and starbucks.

Currently their are eight tables, and they have plans to expand further into the sports book area in the near future. I must say that I remember the old poker room at the strat, and it was not very nice, barely a space cleared out on the casino floor with a few tables. Not so anymore, their new room is surprisingly nice. I personally like the new ceiling, very attractive. The tables are simple, yet attractive, and they have a betting line, which of course is GOOT. One thing that the room was NOT was too cramped, there is enough space between the tables so that everyone has a little elbow room. The strat did not push poker off to the side this time, they created a room that will definitely attract players.

A few of us stopped in to play a little no limit, 1-2 blinds. Overall, we had a blast playing. The staff was very pleasant, and the room had an atmosphere of relaxed party time. Of course they bring the booze right to your table, which is a plus. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] The room has only been open two days, but there were four games going while I was there, two 2-4 games, a 3-6 and the no limit game. It's going to be a low limit room at first, as all rooms are, but they will of course spread whatever people want to play. Currently the no limit was $100 buy in, but they are considering changing that to the $200 standard that seems to be taking over the city (I recommend they do change it to $200). They'll spread 2-5 no limit as well.

They said that in the next couple days they will have a player card system installed that will allow players to get the standard buck an hour in comps, with $12 max per day. I was told the comps can be used for anything in the casino.

High hand bonuses are coming in the near future, but no bad beat jackpot (bravo for that decision, I hate bad beat JPs).

Tournaments are starting already, they are having two or three per day, the exact schedule of which I am not completely sure of yet.

Overall, the new room is very nice, and should be a nice addition to pokering on the north end of the strip.

al

[Ghazban]

[ QUOTE ]
High hand bonuses are coming in the near future, but no bad beat jackpot (bravo for that decision, I hate bad beat JPs).

[/ QUOTE ]

Just curious-- do you like high hand bonuses? I'm not a fan of any of the bonuses (high hand, bad beat, whatever) that end up taking more money (i.e. more than just the rake) off the table every hand.

[RydenStoompala]

Good post Al. Thanks.

[Photoc]

I was with Al last night at the Strat and the room is exactly what he says. Very comfortable and appealing. I was very relaxed and had a good time in there. Even 2 of the managers sat in and played after they got off shift just for something to do. By the way, beers are very fast to come as the bar is right next to the entrance to the poker room. I will definately be going back there!

[Al_Capone_Junior]

I am not really that fond of anything that takes money off the table, but today's reality forces us to deal with it anyway. however, I much prefer high hand bonuses to bad beat jackpots. when a bad beat is hit, a TON of money goes bye-bye. Rarely will any of this money ever see the poker room again (As MM stated in one of the poker essays books, it's removed from the poker economy). In addition, the winner(s) of bad beat jackpots are almost purely random, there is little you can do but sit around and wait forever hoping you get stupid dumb lucky. Finally, in my experience, the jackpot "chasers" that flock to cardrooms with very large jackpots are generally not very desirable when it comes to having them around as regular customers. There are of course exceptions, but as a rule the procedure for most of these people is to play any pair, get the pot up to exactly what it needs to be to hit a jackpot, and not a dime more, then check it down hoping to hit. Not exactly action players.

Ironically, I don't mind if a small % of jackpot money is put into a SMALL bad beat jackpot. High hand bonuses are MUCH better because the money gets spread around to far more people, and the payouts are usually kept small enough to where the money is almost always recycled back into the cardroom right on the spot.

There are other promotions that make good use of jackpot drop, most notably the "wheel" at excalibur, which I think is a fantastic promotion. I have spun the wheel many times in the past, and so has almost everyone who plays there. Much fun, and I don't mind the dollar going down the slot nearly so much.

al

[SamIAm]

[thread hijack]
What I always worried about with the HighHand bonuses is that they take a percentage but pay a fixed amount. With the bad-beat bonus, I can be sure all the money they took is coming back to the players; they give all of it when the bonus hits. With the high-hand bonus, they don't need to show you how much they've taken since they give it out a little at a time. I always wondered if the numbers worked out to be an extra rake.

Do they take $1 from each pot but give back an expected $0.75?
-Sam
[/thread hijack]

[Al_Capone_Junior]

if a room is run PROPERLY then ALL of the jackpot / bonus drop gets returned to the players in some fashion or another. For instance, if the high hand bonuses only pay back 75% of the cash being taken in, then the other 25% should be given out in bonuses of some other variety. If they are taking any of this money as additional RAKE this is not only highly unethical but (in most places) also illegal.

The best uses of the money are of course those that bring players back to the room over and over, and spread the money around between many players.

al

[Lottery Larry]

[ QUOTE ]
if a room is run PROPERLY then ALL of the jackpot / bonus drop gets returned to the players in some fashion or another. For instance, if the high hand bonuses only pay back 75% of the cash being taken in, then the other 25% should be given out in bonuses of some other variety. If they are taking any of this money as additional RAKE this is not only highly unethical but (in most places) also illegal.

[/ QUOTE ]

Are the bad beat jackpots different from what I read two years ago? This is from my RGP trip report, at the Sahara

"the first being a bad beat jackpot, again Aces full in
holdem ($6000 at the time) and four of a kind in stud ($2450) was in place, with a low $10 pot minimum and 4 players? to trigger the jackpot. One telling note about the "value" of jackpots- on the wall, they listed the fact that only 50% of the jackpot drop money went to the primary prize pool, 30% to reserves and 20% to other promotional
funds. "

I thought I read similiar things at some of the small rooms that I visited then. Have things changed with bad beat jackpot rakes, or is that only certain rooms?

[DrCool]

Gotta agree here. High hand bonuses are much better than bad beat jackpots.

At the poker room I play in they started a bad beat jackpot a few months ago. I think they started it at $5K and it built up to $30K. The management (bless their souls) decided to take $25K of that money and convert it into high hand bonuses. They divided the day into 5 blocks and the highest hand in that block gets $100. So far I have hit 3 of them (almost 4 but my 4 of a kind that had held up for about an hour got cracked on the last hand of the time period by a straight flush).

They also are doing "Flush Fridays" where an A high flush (Ace must be in your hand, both your cards play, hand goes to the river) gets $50. I hit 3 of them last Friday and 2 the Friday before that. Combined with the high hands that is $550 I have gotten that I otherwise wouldn't have.

Now they put half of the jackpot rake into the high hand bonuses and half into the bad beat.

[Al_Capone_Junior]

The policies of different rooms are greatly varied, and not always posted. I much prefer that the policy is posted, so that it's made clear how all funds are distributed. It's perfectly reasonable to keep a backup fund % out of the bad beat jackpot drop, so as to re-seed the next one after it gets hit. "Other" promotions are reasonable too, as long as it's posted what they are.

al