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

[Bicycles_Biatch]

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).

[Biggle10]

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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. 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?

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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.

[J.A.Sucker]

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.

[*TT*]

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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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[2461Badugi]

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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>

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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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[*TT*]

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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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[*TT*]

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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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[*TT*]

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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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[*TT*]

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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]

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