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

[Clarkmeister]

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9. Management does not promote pot limit and no limit games.
A. Weak players almost never win.
B. Cheating accusations are inevitable.
C. Takes up a table that could be used for other games.

Every cardroom that I have ever seen that promotes pot limit and/or no limit games on a regular basis has run into trouble.

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Two questions and an observation.

i. Does this point apply anymore? It seems that the only good middle-stakes games these days are in fact no-limit games. Restricted buy-ins help keep the weaker players from going busto as quickly, which helps the health of these games.

ii. To follow up on the above, do rooms on the Strip offering uncapped low-stakes and middle-stakes NL games heading for disaster? Or will the continuing expansion of poker mitigate it?

iii. I think it does apply insofar as trying to get a 30-60 going. Most of your live ones for 30-60 are probably playing 5-10 NL instead (which is usually uncapped on the Strip). 5-10 games decimate the medium limit games not only in the casino which they are spread, but in a wider area also.

But what are you going to do about it? I mean, the reason people are playing 5-10 NL is because they want to play that instead of 30-60. You can't really be successful as a cardroom if you don't offer the games people really want to play. Can you?

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The old ways of thinking about NL are out of date. NL is the predominant game now and is likely to be so for quite some time. The fact that rooms in the past that focused on NL failed has zero to do with today. Similarly, I have yet to be convinced that capped buy-ins matter at all, though perhaps in the 1-2 games it's ok to have like a $200max just to allow the new players to avoid being as intimidated.

A few other thougths:

Mason's point about the head of the poker room being on the floor is absolutely correct. There's no reason that the Director of Poker Operations shouldn't be on the floor at least 65% of the time, and they should also have a schedule that allows them to be present on all shifts from time to time, and especially on swing during Saturday.

2. I disagree that the freeroll promotion is bad. It's a good alternative to bad ideas like rake reduction. They are generally profitable, though the Venetian may have overshot it with the $500k amount.

3. The Wynn made a huge mistake running out Cathleen McCall. Comping issues aside, she was hands-down the best poker room shift I have run across, and I never tipped her a dime (I'm not a fan of tipping salaried room personell).

4. I agree that the must move stuff is pretty terrible for all the reasons given. It also cements the "we can't play shorthanded" mindset.

5. 10-handed holdem tables are an abomination.

6. As someone mentioned, there needs to simply be a standard rake/time schedule as in California. Wynn started doing this in the 30/60 with 5-handed or less being half-time. Much clearer, fairer and faster. Avoids hard feelings. Rooms should just post it on the tables.