Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room!
 

Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room! This room is one of the top rooms in the city, well respected for the quality of dealers and the comfort of the room. BUT - its not the Bellagio which has a guaranteed player base at all limits regardless of how the room is run - and that’s where you need to put on your management hat.

The Goal: Establish a daily 30/60 game that runs nearly around the clock within a 6 month period.

The Variance: At the same time as the 30/60 is trying to get established, a small group of 5-10 players have congregated almost every evening to play 20/40 to 40/80- rotation games. This same group of players would play in the 30/60 limit Hold'em if enticed to start short games because they are all shorthanded online pros who want to play rotation just to blow off steam.

The Must Move Rule: Must Move tables are defined as 1 hour long, after which the floor will maintain the vitality of the game through seating decisions manually.

The Headache: Both locals and tourists hate short games... they need to be trained to not be fearful of them, or provide other incentives. Generally once a table is established it will fill up within the hour, but in Vegas it’s common to wait till a list is 12-15 people deep occurs before calling a new table and even then you’re lucky if the game starts because so many players wonder away due to frustration. Part of the marketing goal must be to encourage players who are willing to start short handed games, and conversely make changes so games aren’t started only when the list is long enough.

What would you do to establish this game, attracting both locals and tourists to your card room? This is a real world scenario; you don't have a blank check so please provide real world answers that work in the long run, not just for this six month period. When providing your answers also discuss the ramifications of your marketing strategy both on your existing player base and the overall market (with every action there is always a reaction). Some options might include reduced rake, props who receive "rakeback" when starting short games, a time period where everyone at the table who starts a short game receives rake amnesty, entry into tournaments or other incentives. Also think out of the box; recommend new ideas that haven't been discussed before such as short handed lessons - even if it’s a bit out there because this is a brainstorming experiment. The real world management of a room in Vegas is watching this thread (it doesn’t matter which one so lets not turn the thread into a guessing game ok?); it should prove to be a very enlightening B&M topic!

TT [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room!
 

1)Establish a certain level at which poker players are considered in the same vein as the high-level gamblers...poker rate, platinum cards, etc. Work hard to abolish the implied notion that casinos look down on the poker players...the days when poker was relegated to the back room, if at all, are gone.

2)Provide incentives for your platinum card gamblers who normally don't play poker to go play the 30/60...say, double comp points or ratings for the blackjack, slots, and craps whales. It shouldn't be hard to determine who the big donators to the table games are...give them an incentive to play 30/60...not all will, because the action is too slow, but if enough come over, it will render the 30/60 soft enough to support consistent play.

3)Start a feature called the "Shorthanded Spew" or something like that. Have an amount of money set aside(say $1000). From the time the 30/60 starts, have a clock running. For every minute(or two, or five), take away $25 from the set aside. Once the table fills up...either the set aside gets dumped into the first full ring pot, or distributed evenly amongst the ten players. Doing this would inspire people to call their friends and hurry them to get to the game, because the quicker it fills, the more money they can get.

4)If possible, ally the room with a known pro.

5)Do any sort of tie-in possible for the WSOP. Most people know poker from it. Pitch it along the lines of this is the best place for side action after you bust out.

6)Perhaps a poker room chef or kitchen would be a good investment for all levels of the games. Having unbeatable food that you could only get in the poker room might be enough to draw some of the locals away.

7)Establish a "dealer calls it" aspect of the game. Post many variations of games on the wall, and let the person on the button decide which game it is for that hand. Pitch it as the "Your home game away from your home game."

Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room!
 

You're going to get 100 posts about free food, free this, free that... but all you need to do is this.

5 players or less dealt in... NO RAKE. End of story. "pro's" and seasoned "locals" will do just about anything to play a no-rake game.

They did this at The Bike for 2 months and in no time at all they had x4 20-40 games and x1-2 30-60 games going at ALL times.

Sometimes the 30-60 game would be going 3 handed for hours on Sunday A.M. will no income to the casino; but it would keep the game going around the clock and by 10a.m. the game was always full. I truly believe more people spent more time there cause they new they could get an earlier start on their limit games and then look around and feel out the no-limit action.

They got away from this about 6 months ago, and now the place is pretty slow.

Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room!
 

In terms of giving high-limit players extra comps or a reduced rake or whatever, I don't really understand why a poker room would have any incentive to do this. Why do they even care about whether they have high limit games, unless they are drawing celebrities that bring other people into the poker room? These games hardly generate any more in rake than low limit games, right?

In fact, it seems like the casino would want to discourage whales from playing poker, where they are likely to lose their money to other players rather than the casino.

Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room!
 

[ QUOTE ]
In terms of giving high-limit players extra comps or a reduced rake or whatever, I don't really understand why a poker room would have any incentive to do this. Why do they even care about whether they have high limit games, unless they are drawing celebrities that bring other people into the poker room? These games hardly generate any more in rake than low limit games, right?

In fact, it seems like the casino would want to discourage whales from playing poker, where they are likely to lose their money to other players rather than the casino.

[/ QUOTE ]

But that's not the point. Your 'job', so to speak, is to get a regular 30/60 game going.

So unless you have suggestion ...

Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room
 

I'd like to amend the job description by adding once the 30/60 game is thriving and it lasts long after the WSOP leaves town, the next goal is to establish a 60/120 game that runs every day from 5PM to late night. The same strategies will be employed.

TT [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
In terms of giving high-limit players extra comps or a reduced rake or whatever, I don't really understand why a poker room would have any incentive to do this. Why do they even care about whether they have high limit games, unless they are drawing celebrities that bring other people into the poker room? These games hardly generate any more in rake than low limit games, right?

In fact, it seems like the casino would want to discourage whales from playing poker, where they are likely to lose their money to other players rather than the casino.

[/ QUOTE ]

But that's not the point. Your 'job', so to speak, is to get a regular 30/60 game going.


[/ QUOTE ]

Thank you, you were just promoted to shift manager for your loyalty and dedication to the poker room.

TT [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room
 

Good question - I've been thinking about how to make this work myself. Here's what I came up with, and this could be applied to starting any game, not just 30/60 LTH:

1) On the board, have players indicate whether they will play short or not. Furthermore, establish a relationship with your shorthanded-happy players, where they get some kind of minor bonus comp in return for one simple act: taking their name off the list if they leave or get into another game they like more. If you make friends with them, and get games happening that they want to play in, they WILL help you out in return. The comp just shows you care. That way, at least the short-handed part of your list will usually be accurate.

2) Start games earlier - 4 actually present short-handed players is enough to go. Offer reduced rake/fee of some sort for any game under 5.

3) Have exactly 2 props on staff willing to play pretty much anything you might seriously consider spreading. If you get even one definitely-present non-shorthanded player for one of the shorthanded games, put both props in that game so that the coward makes it seven. Most people will play at seven, especially if you only put nine chairs at new tables so it doesn't look too empty.

4) Now here's where it gets tricky, because at this point, you've probably got the toughest game at that limit in town, what with 4 likely-pros and 2 props. That one guy is at serious risk, and with him your game. The good news is you've got a running near-full game. My experience is that running games tend to fill up at reasonable hours once you get them started, so you should be able to get the props out pretty fast which will make the game a little softer.

5) Repeat the process for 2/5 PLO or 5/10 NLTH or 20/40 HOSE or whatever you want to get going next.


FWIW, if you take my advice, I will pitch a tent in your cardroom and never leave next time I go to vegas. I don't think I would be alone - there are a lot of people who don't want to wait for games and aren't afraid to play shorthanded.

Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room
 

make the 30/60 an overs game or a kill game, to establish some regulars who would play in the bigger game, then when you see there is a consistent number of overs players start the 60/120.

Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room
 

Bicycles' point seems a good one as best I can tell.

Seems unlikely to me that there would be a room with a bunch of 4/8 tables and one 30/60 table.

So to do this you would need to also have 8/16 and 15/30 thriving as well, wouldn't you? Thus the correct strategy needs to keep those games going as well which isn't exactly a given in many Vegas rooms afaik.


Also - with the popularity of NL these days (thus the decreasing popularity of limit) I'm not sure this is a very realistic venture anyway.

Sorry TT, I guess I'm fired.

Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room
 

[ QUOTE ]

1) On the board, have players indicate whether they will play short or not

[/ QUOTE ]

Now thats creative thinking! I like!

TT [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room
 

[ QUOTE ]
Also - with the popularity of NL these days (thus the decreasing popularity of limit) I'm not sure this is a very realistic venture anyway.

Sorry TT, I guess I'm fired.

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Your fired, you have deviated from the job description. The upper level management doesn't want opinions, they want solutions.

Keep in mind that at the upper mid-levels and high limit levels limit games of all types still more popular than NL.

PS: Assume for this exercise that the room has a vibrant 15/30 and lower limit game selection, that is not a concern.

TT [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room
 

1. Buy a bunch of those Chilis type vibrating square things and give them out to people who put their names on the list. This solves the problem of people wandering off.

2. Get cell phone numbers of players who sign up. Tell them you'll text msg (or maybe even call them personally) them when their table is ready.

The no rake at 5 thing is probably also perfect.

Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room
 

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!

This thread is killing me...What? You all think rooms in Vegas haven't tried all of these tactics?

The ONLY way to get a 30/60 game going is to promote one heavily during the WSOP (or if your room has a week or two long event of their own) and HOPE that you have offered good enough service during that time to keep them afterwards.

There is NO way to draw them to your room during the slower times of the year. Free food, free rake, and 4.5 dollars an hour in comps were not enough to get the 20/40 game to leave the Mirage. Why? Because a player is not going to play a short handed game in hopes it fills when he KNOWS there is a full game down the road or across the street.

PLAYERS WILL ONLY GO WHERE THE ACTION IS...and that can't happen within the 1st 6 months of a room being open. Bottom line, offer good, well-run games of any limit with a smile and treat players with respect and, eventually, you will get the games without any "gimmicks".

Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room
 

Partner with an online site, identify American six-max fish and LAGtards, and comp them heavily.

Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room!
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
In terms of giving high-limit players extra comps or a reduced rake or whatever, I don't really understand why a poker room would have any incentive to do this. Why do they even care about whether they have high limit games, unless they are drawing celebrities that bring other people into the poker room? These games hardly generate any more in rake than low limit games, right?

In fact, it seems like the casino would want to discourage whales from playing poker, where they are likely to lose their money to other players rather than the casino.

[/ QUOTE ]

But that's not the point. Your 'job', so to speak, is to get a regular 30/60 game going.

So unless you have suggestion ...

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm just asking an honest question. Do the casinos ever actually care whether they have high limit games running? And if so, why?

Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room
 

[ QUOTE ]

The ONLY way to get a 30/60 game going is to promote one heavily during the WSOP (or if your room has a week or two long event of their own) and HOPE that you have offered good enough service during that time to keep them afterwards.

[/ QUOTE ]

Your fired. The directive for the job is to make this work before the WSOP, not during or after.

There are many marketing concepts that have never been tried, this thread is about rehashing old ones and trying new ideas that are cutting edge. The proof of course will be in the pudding, this is all hypothetical as presented.

TT [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room
 

[ QUOTE ]

I'm just asking an honest question. Do the casinos ever actually care whether they have high limit games running? And if so, why?

[/ QUOTE ]

Start a new thread for that question.. its very valid, but outside the scope of the job. Solutions are what management wants, not questioning the company's policies.

TT [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room
 

Is this room usually full? If this is a new room, and one without a large player base (and if space permits) you could market yourself as a shorthanded room. 6 max has become so popular online, that I think this could work. You might not have some of the nitty locals, but I think most online players would be happy to play at a room like this. Your message could be something to the effect of getting to play more hands per hour (dealt hands) meaning more pots to be one, which means more $$$$!!!

The only downside to this would be when you get your room full all the time, you're going to be capped on the number of people you can serve in your room at a lower number than other rooms, but maybe you could get smaller tables that would allow you to fit an extra 3-5 tables in the room?

Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room
 

Based on what comps on a player-card level you are allowed to give, place just below maximum (knowing that you need to up the comps for the 60/120 game).

Offer food service at the tables for 30/60 and up only. (Similar to Borgata's policy). This has actually brought people up a level that I've seen.

Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room!
 

You're fired!

TT must stand for Trying to be Trump. You are fast on the firing button my friend.

I don't get out to vegas very often so I have to use the Midwest market but I think they are similar.

The No Rake idea when the game is -5 is really good. Free food is also good. I think you would need to extend the free food idea to the entire poker room. Start a short handed game and if the game is still -6 in one hour, everybody eats free, something like that because you will need to establish a culture of starting games short.

The current culture (Midwest, but I assume local nits are consistent across all borders)is to never play short at anytime for any reason. I think this is the change that needs to be made and it won't be easy but I think it is very doable. (Is doable a real word?)

The players that are willing to start games and play short until the game gets going need to be made to feel special. I am not certain how this would be accomplished, if you made a special "Game Starters Club", hooked them up with a jacket or comps, gave them a special chip protector or anything that makes them feel special.

We need to ask ourselves, as poker room managers, why would someone come to our room and play short handed? To my knowledge, there is currently no good reason for a player to change where they play to go start a game at another cardroom.

there has to be an incentive but you don't have to give the farm away either. Value is precieved, so as smart poker room managers, we need some incentive the players will appreciate that isn't cost prohibitive. It might as simple are teaching the floor and the dealers to extra nice to the members of of "Game Starters Club" instead of just barely tolerating the players existence, like normal, actually pretend to like the members of "The Club".

I will probably get fired for rambling and taking up to much time in the boardroom, ratings drop if the meetings are boring.

Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

1) On the board, have players indicate whether they will play short or not

[/ QUOTE ]

Now thats creative thinking! I like!

TT [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

To sort of expand on the idea, the goal is to have the board be accurate and useful to floor personel, so you make the right decision about whether a game can start as quickly as possible. Some thoughts that might, or might not, help:

1) have a "lounge" for players to wait for games in comfort, with chairs, coffee tables, and poker-ralated reading materials. Extend drink service and food delivery service to those wating for games so they don't leave looking for a drink.

2) Make sure there's a close restroom so you don't miss players taking a leak.

3) Put up signs kindly asking players to remove their names from any lists they're no longer interested in - remind them that the speed with which you can get them into a game depends on their cooperation.

4) Give out those restaurants pager-coasters to those on the list, so that they can go play table games or get food and still be paged when their game is up.

5) Offer to take down a cell number when someone goes on the list, and if they miss first call, call their cell.


One other idea is to keep a cell list of those willing to play various games at various limits. Call them if their game is almost up, or would be up if they arrived. Since you'll start games with 4 instead of 12 or whatever, this will be much more useful to the players than the calls currently placed by rooms because if they show up, there probably really will be a game.

Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room
 

When considering all possible promotions for this game it is important to realize what we're really trying to do, which is keep this game going "forever". We don't want this game to run only during whatever promotion we come up with, we want it to stay for the life of the poker room. It is important to realize that whatever promotion we use must involve getting the player in the game, and then keeping them there through service and quality that won't stop after our "gimmick" is finished.

That said, I think we should do some sort of "rake-free" promotion. I don't think this should occur strictly when the game is short, but instead it should run on a time spent basis. For example, for every X number of hours you play you get a free half, either rake free or no time, whichever is charged for the game. I'm not sure what the X number would have to be here, but I'm thinking maybe in the area of 5-10 hours. Obviously this will depend on the other factors we are not aware of in this post. I think the benefits of this are quite abundent. First, you aren't paying for a dealer to deal to a table of people playing for free. Instead you are allowing one player to play for free. This is really only costing you money if there is a list for a game. During the first couple of months this shouldn't be too much of a problem. Second, this will keep players in the game. If someone is coming back to use their free half, they most likely aren't going to just play the half and get up. They will instead put in a complete session in the poker room.

For starting games short I would suggest that we offer double comp dollars for any game 30/60 or over that has fewer than 5 players. This is basically the same as half rake, however these players must come back to use their comp dollars. I'm not really sure how feasible this is with regard to the comp system in the poker room. It would require a little more work swiping players in and out a few more times, however if we're dedicated to getting this game going then it is worth it.

Giving things away for free the way the Venetian did when they were getting the 40/80 game going doesn't seem to work. Players will play there as long as they are getting free stuff, and then once that stops they will just return to the Bellagio. It is important to not cater to these players, but to give them a reason to come to our room. We want them to want to play here, instead of basically forcing themselves to play just because of the perks.

The whole key to this promotion in my opinion is the service we provide. If the players are happy with the way they are treated and the quality of the games, they will have no reason not to come back.

Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room
 

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The No Rake idea when the game is -5 is really good.

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it seems like it would be tough to pass that threshold though, with either the aware player not wanted to play with rake but still semi-shorthanded, or all the people giving him the evil eye as he went to sit down.

Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room
 

How about:
calling the list and stating "the game will start in exactly 5 minutes, and if you are seated when the game starts the house pays your first orbit of blinds".

My experience of trying to get the 8-16 started at RR is that people sign up and then when the adequete list is called everyone mills around still playing in their game until they see 5 or more people sitting, which never happens because everyone is milling about and won't sit down.

Another thing would be when you approach the desk when your name is called is for them to ask if there are other lists you are on that you want to be taken off of or added too. This would make the lists more accurate so easier to start calling when it gets to 8-10 instead of waiting until 15 since classically half the people don't want to leave the game they are in.

Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]


The No Rake idea when the game is -5 is really good.

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it seems like it would be tough to pass that threshold though, with either the aware player not wanted to play with rake but still semi-shorthanded, or all the people giving him the evil eye as he went to sit down.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's why a scaled reduced rake is better than no rake. No "rake bubble" = no cranky players.

Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room
 

[ QUOTE ]

Giving things away for free the way the Venetian did when they were getting the 40/80 game going doesn't seem to work.

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My understanding was that the room was not managed so well and the dealers were pretty lousy.

I still believe that actually running the room well and catering to the players (lose the Bellagio-floor attitude) including hiring competent floor and dealers would be huge.


Here's a crazy set-up:

Why not just make the 30/60 tables no-rake for a month or two?
Or perhaps just an insanely low time-charge like $2 or something.

And then after that make them no-rake at 5 players or less to make sure you are still getting the games started.

you need to get the 30/60 players to walk in there in the first place if you're ever going to get them to play there consistently.

This 1 or 2 month promotion is crucial.
Have competent floor and dealers working these games. You are trying to win these players over FULL TIME.

Venetian got players in the door but they just kept having problems from what I read on here.

You don't want rookie dealers because that annoys players.
You don't want rude staff because your customers will decide that if they want to get treated like that they can just stay at the Bellagio.

Welcome staff and good dealers and practically free games for a month or two.


Am I re-hired? Does this have a shot in hell perhaps with a little tweaking?

Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room!
 

How very much like management to present a problem, demand a solution and not provide enough direction or at the very least the parameters that need to be held to. TT - what's the budget? What are the profit expectations? How long is "management" willing to front-load this initiative?

OK, I'm going to assume that management is willing to front-load this endeavour - in other words, that we don't have to be immediately profitable and there is some money to spend on marketing, spiffs, comps what not for a period of time to establish a viable running game.

Other's have mentioned this but let me summarize: 3 "vectors" for a game to be established and run regularly (in order of importance): 1) good game/profitability of the game; 2) service/ comfort/ environment; 3) Comps/ costs/ drain on winrate.

To make the games consistently good you'll need the tourists. Advertising and promotion are one means of encouraging a tourist player pool. But essentially whatever you do it must be FUN! Tourists are there to enjoy, have fun, to party - yes to play poker and win but the "fun" component will be the draw. Some ideas/thoughts on possible promo's - Play with the Pro's - there have to be several/dozen's of recognizable pro's that you could hire as props. Of what I see of Matusow, he can't be doing well enough where he wouldn't jump at the opportunity to get paid to play. I can guarantee you you'll have the tourists flocking to the game to be able to sit and chat with "the Mouth" or others - where has "the Crew" disappeared to. Anyone who has any TV time at the main event will do. Hey are you Po Kim? (lol). Not anywhere as good - but what about having a low limit high hand promotion where you stake the high hand winner to a hand at 30/60? This one is tricky - the 30/60 guys would probably love the soft money entering but hate if it should happen to take some money off the table. Add to this the others ideas above about reduced rake for shorthanded and possibly double comp points for shorthanded and you've got the makings of a good game - as long as you can consistently get the tourists out to subsidize.

Service/comfort everybody else has mentioned. It is what will keep your regulars/locals around once the "specials" have expired - assuming the games remain good. If a good job at advertising and promotion have been done.

Perks - mentioned in others comments. There are many good ideas presented by others. As I think many have realized you'll want to focus on subsidizing short handed play. Reduced rake and double comp points etc. etc.

All in all I think your main aim is to really try to generate some word of mouth that your new room is "Bellagio but better - we treat our players with the respect and service they deserve."

If this is really something that you are trying to do for real - let me know as I have some PR ideas and viral marketing type of stuff that should be effect in generating soem "groundswell noise".

Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room
 

I like the 6 max table idea for all limits. I also think that the tables should be round or smaller so that you can see other players better. 6 max should have a lower rake to offset the greater number of hands played.

Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room!
 

How about some 5-10K buyin major tournaments to bring in the high(er) rollers and professionals? I guess this depends on the size of the room, but this seems like a great way to jumpstart some higher-limit tables.

Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room!
 

Besides my no rake >5 players... I really like the idea of "starting time games".

Just like a tournament "starts daily" at 12:00...

I always liked the idea of a casino advertising cash games in the same fashion.

Starting April 1st... Tables of 20-40 / 30-60 / et. al. start promptly at 6pm. Be there to get your seat. Then, even if the game breaks quickly... I would ALWAYS know what time I could get a game started at a specific casino (as a player).

Create a Buzz about the game starting time; that's what I would do. If they did this for the mixed game at the Wynn, I would never play anywhere else.

(P.S. this routine might involve hiring 2-3 props for the first couple months).

Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room
 

[ QUOTE ]
Is this room usually full? If this is a new room, and one without a large player base (and if space permits) you could market yourself as a shorthanded room. 6 max has become so popular online, that I think this could work. You might not have some of the nitty locals, but I think most online players would be happy to play at a room like this. Your message could be something to the effect of getting to play more hands per hour (dealt hands) meaning more pots to be one, which means more $$$$!!!

The only downside to this would be when you get your room full all the time, you're going to be capped on the number of people you can serve in your room at a lower number than other rooms, but maybe you could get smaller tables that would allow you to fit an extra 3-5 tables in the room?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think this is a fabulous idea. You can worry about a room that's too full later. In fact I think there are several fantastic ideas in this thread.

Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room!
 

Have a player's lounge area for people to kick back and relax. Give the players a place to sit around, chat, and read the paper. This should not be in the playing area, but it should be within the poker room. It keeps people in the poker room, and this is what you want. Have a plasma so they can watch sports/CNN. Stock several newspapers - like the NY Times and the LA Times.

Spread any game, anytime. Even if it's two people who want to play headsup. Don't worry about the stakes or the game. Once you get a reputation for doing WHATEVER THE PLAYERS WANT, you win. While the rotation players seem to be hurting you, it doesn't matter. You want players and games. In this case, you are getting both. Action brings more action.

Have safe deposit boxes for your high limit players.

Call players on the phone letting them know when a game is ready to get down. Cali cardrooms do this all the time for bigger games. The guys to call are people who play every day and who live close. I don't think most places in Vegas do this.

Don't employ props, but you may want to get a host. They usually get a piece of the drop, but they should be amiable guys who like to play and who will keep others playing. They usually do the hustling for the game and will call known players (both live ones and good players). The best hosts are small winners but players who like to gamble. Make sure they have a good bankroll so they don't go broke. Maybe allow the host to comp a nice bottle of wine to the table once a night. Players like these things.

Give players a break on the juice (take time in the 30 and larger games, by the way).

Have good service. Let the players order food at the tables. You may want to subsidize this or even comp it, depending on cost.

Hire comepetent dealers.

Again, let the players run the games more. Stay out of most anything. Did I mention to let the players run the games? Trust me, people will LOVE this.

Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room
 

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Is this room usually full? If this is a new room, and one without a large player base (and if space permits) you could market yourself as a shorthanded room.

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Live players in Las Vegas are petrified of playing short, the whole purpose of this exercise is to encourage short handed play, not to rethink the business model of the poker room.

Your fired.

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Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room
 

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Don't employ props, but you may want to get a host. They usually get a piece of the drop, but they should be amiable guys who like to play and who will keep others playing. They usually do the hustling for the game and will call known players (both live ones and good players). The best hosts are small winners but players who like to gamble. Make sure they have a good bankroll so they don't go broke. Maybe allow the host to comp a nice bottle of wine to the table once a night. Players like these things.


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Ooh, I know who we should hire!

<font color="white">I'm fired now, aren't I?</font>

Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room
 

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Based on what comps on a player-card level you are allowed to give, place just below maximum (knowing that you need to up the comps for the 60/120 game).

Offer food service at the tables for 30/60 and up only. (Similar to Borgata's policy). This has actually brought people up a level that I've seen.

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As a floor said to me yesterday as I was checking out "you don't really need to check out, we always take care of our regular high limit players regardless of their comp cards. In other words players who are playing at limits that are not the norm for the room are taken care of regardless, and these players know that they don't have to hunt for higher comps - its not a huge deciding factor in their play.

Also food service is commonly only offered at the high limit tables, so this is not something foreign to the players - it will not make a difference.

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Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room
 

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You're fired!


We need to ask ourselves, as poker room managers, why would someone come to our room and play short handed? To my knowledge, there is currently no good reason for a player to change where they play to go start a game at another cardroom.

there has to be an incentive but you don't have to give the farm away either. Value is precieved, so as smart poker room managers, we need some incentive the players will appreciate that isn't cost prohibitive. It might as simple are teaching the floor and the dealers to extra nice to the members of of "Game Starters Club" instead of just barely tolerating the players existence, like normal, actually pretend to like the members of "The Club".

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Although the end result of your concept is more marketing gimmick than marketing success, your actually on to something here. I think the premium offered could be financial, food, or events rather than things like jackets. Most of these concepts were discussed earlier in the thread but your ties it together by discussing the shell of a marketing strategy.

Employees - there is one thing many of you are missing - a marketing execution to go along with your marketing strategy. How do you communicate to the world the new policy changes? At least Steam's solution was fully thought out... well done young man!

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Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room
 

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3) Put up signs kindly asking players to remove their names from any lists they're no longer interested in - remind them that the speed with which you can get them into a game depends on their cooperation.

One other idea is to keep a cell list of those willing to play various games at various limits. Call them if their game is almost up, or would be up if they arrived. Since you'll start games with 4 instead of 12 or whatever, this will be much more useful to the players than the calls currently placed by rooms because if they show up, there probably really will be a game.

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Both excellent suggestions! Too bad your other suggestions redefine operations of the casino as a whole, and therefore cannot be considered. You get to stay for one more round int he board room - I'm not firing you yet.

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Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room
 

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The No Rake idea when the game is -5 is really good.

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it seems like it would be tough to pass that threshold though, with either the aware player not wanted to play with rake but still semi-shorthanded, or all the people giving him the evil eye as he went to sit down.

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That's why a scaled reduced rake is better than no rake. No "rake bubble" = no cranky players.

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I am beginning to believe this too... convince me some more.

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Re: Congratulations! You just became the manager of a Vegas poker room
 

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Am I re-hired? Does this have a shot in hell perhaps with a little tweaking?

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nope, you cant follow instructions [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

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