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

[govman6767]

5 players or less you go to a HALF RAKE NO EXEMPTIONS.

This half rake is not taken in by the house it is added to a jackpot that starts at 1-2k. To hit this jackpot a player who recieves a hand of quad 7's or better (or any high ranking hand determined by management) wins the jackpot.

Playing 5 handed or less this jackpot should not be hit that often and while there will be spurts of hits that might even hurt a bit at times look at the big picture.

This jackpot should be for ALL SHORTHANDED games not just your 30/60 but ALL GAMES 5 PLAYERS OR LESS.

Nothing is worse than when YOU WANT TO play shorthanded but there is a few monster jackpots on the board and you think you would be better off playing for them but shorthanded games don't qualify.

MAKE A WHOLE NEW JACKPOT SYSTEM FOR 5 OR LESS TABLES.

Once a jackpot get's big enough people will be looking to play shorthanded.

1) Good Advertisement
2) Encourages Shorthanded Play
3) Rewards your diehards
4) The more Jackpots boards you have the more passer-bys might become interested.

Remember half rake but it goes directly into jackpot fund.

It should get REALLLLLL JUICY AT TIMES

[*TT*]

[ QUOTE ]
5 players or less you go to a HALF RAKE NO EXEMPTIONS.

This half rake is not taken in by the house it is added to a jackpot that starts at 1-2k. To hit this jackpot a player who recieves a hand of quad 7's or better (or any high ranking hand determined by management) wins the jackpot.

Playing 5 handed or less this jackpot should not be hit that often and while there will be spurts of hits that might even hurt a bit at times look at the big picture.

This jackpot should be for ALL SHORTHANDED games not just your 30/60 but ALL GAMES 5 PLAYERS OR LESS.

Nothing is worse than when YOU WANT TO play shorthanded but there is a few monster jackpots on the board and you think you would be better off playing for them but shorthanded games don't qualify.

MAKE A WHOLE NEW JACKPOT SYSTEM FOR 5 OR LESS TABLES.

Once a jackpot get's big enough people will be looking to play shorthanded.

1) Good Advertisement
2) Encourages Shorthanded Play
3) Rewards your diehards
4) The more Jackpots boards you have the more passer-bys might become interested.

Remember half rake but it goes directly into jackpot fund.

It should get REALLLLLL JUICY AT TIMES

[/ QUOTE ]

Nope, Jackpots are not the answer. Jackpots on middle and high limit games make no sense.

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

[goofball]

All,

How much of an effect on game stability do you think permanently reducing the time charge from $6/half to $5/half would have?

[cuserounder]

A lot of the ideas are good, and would probably work or at least help.. I don't have a ton of B&M experience, but I came up with something a little more out of the box... The concept is, don't market to the local nits - make them want to come to you..

1. Advertise to the fish. A flier at check-in to the hotel, an ad at the airport, etc.

2. Take care of the fishy types. Make them happy, make them feel special. Give them a free meal, etc.. If they are there a week, and have fun the first day they are more likely to play in your room the rest of the week. This also goes for local fish.. Keep an eye on who comes in once or twice a month and donates - take care of them. Also, make them feel like playing the 30/60 makes them high rollers (special comp card? take extra care and make sure they know it? "Now we don't do this for our SMALLER games, but since YOU guys are playing 30/60 and you're only 5 handed.. We'll cut the rake/time in half for you.")

OK, but how do we get tourists and fish into the 30/60 shorthanded game? A Bad Beat Jackpot. But not a traditional bad beat jackpot. We're going to pay the WINNER more... And this one is going to be paid out when a normal bad beat occurs, not a miracle quads over aces full.. Let's say anytime someone hits a 1-4 outer on the river to win the pot. You then pay the loser $120 or $150 or whatever number you pick.. But you pay the winner of the pot $500.

OK, but we're giving out a lot of money aren't we? Here's where we reign it in... Run the promotion the first week of every month, between the hours of 6am and 10am, or whatever dead hours you choose. And it only gets paid out ONCE a day per 30/60 table that started short (or went short and didn't break)...

This should get the fish chasing even more and bring in the locals who want to play in a loose and crazy game.. More people would probably pay off an extra bet on the river too to see a hand tabled that might pay the jackpot. And even after the promotion ends that day, the game will likely stay loose and your room will build a reputation for a soft 30/60 game.

The key would be, once you get these people playing in your room that first week of the first month, keep them coming back. Treat 'em well, reduced rake below 5 players, etc... But I think this would bring them in in volume and allow you to impress them, and pump up the game the first week of each month.

[chiachu]

I think the most important thing to do is to make sure people who show interest at one point (put their name on the board) get into games. This would involve doing things like maintaining the list (asking people to take their names off and asking if they will play short handed)... as well as calling people on their cell phones to make sure they know a game is getting started. Getting players interested is hard enough, it would be ashame to lose them due to communication issues.

I think i would try to advertise the game as being the biggest in the casino, and maybe have the table for it be separated from the masses of other poker table. I would keep it close to the rail so that passer bys could stop and watch. Maybe even post a security guard near the table. This might create a kind of prestige for playing in the game that rich fish might want. But then again i dont know a single thing about playing for higher stakes, so this could be completely stupid.

And of course we should have no rake for short handed (<5)games, and half rake for 5-6 players to try to convince regulars to show up and play.

[*TT*]

[ QUOTE ]
All,

How much of an effect on game stability do you think permanently reducing the time charge from $6/half to $5/half would have?

[/ QUOTE ]

No effect at all if the marketing campaign isn't there to back it up. Its only part of the solution.

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

[NickMPK]

[ QUOTE ]
Its a time game already, but I wonder if that would be adventitious at the lower level of 15/30 as well.

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

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't think you know what this word means. Of course, I don't think anyone knows what this word means unless they had recently been studying for the GRE.

[NickMPK]

I only play in AC, and I don't play anywhere near 30/60, but a couple things I would do to increase the health of the mid-limit games:

- Make the games unique somehow to encourage tourists. It doesn't have to be anything substantive, just a special chip or special table location. For example, the pink chip game at Tropicana. I guess the Venetian apparently tried something similar with $4 chips and it didn't work out though.

- Whatever the comp system is, make it transparent. I don't mind that Borgata has restricted poker rate rooms to higher limit players, but it pisses me off that you can't seem to get a straight answer about what sort of play qualifies you for what level of rate. It discourages me from ever playing middle-limit games there if I don't know for certain what kind of comps I will get.

[J.A.Sucker]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Having a well-defined drop schedule makes it seem fair to the players. They don't like having to grovel for a break or feel like they are getting screwed if the floor doesn't do it. Also, MAKE THE GAME A TIME GAME. This keeps games going, especially short. Time pots may not make sense at 30-60, but if players want to do it, let them.

[/ QUOTE ]

Its a time game already, but I wonder if that would be adventitious at the lower level of 15/30 as well. In AC the game levels switch to time much earlier than they do in LV - it would be breaking the mold but it may encourage a greater 15/30 base. Hmmm.... I like. I also think having the dealer collect time from time pots rather than having a player put it up is a fantastic solution.

The job offer still stand for you Sucker, you seem to know what you are doing.

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

[/ QUOTE ]

Time pots are good with the dealer. The problem with the smaller games is that it becomes a big part of the pot, especially if the game is full. I don't think I'd do time below 30/60. Even at that level, I think you should consider breaking it up into two different pots, depending on the time charge.

As for my comments about the games, I don't think that it's a problem for the most part. I guess I should be more specific, though. Have defined limits and then let the players choose what they want to get down. For example, say you will have 15-30, 30-60, 60-120, 100-200, and higher. I actually would play 20-40 and 40-80 instead, though. They can play mixed if they want at these limits. It just makes it easier to deal with. What you want is player base and those guys playing poker. You want players hanging around the room. The lounge is a huge idea, not to be taken lightly. Basically, you want to make your poker room more like California, where the regular players are appreciated. You also asked about whether you should sacrifice low limit games for higher limit games. If you find yourself running out of tables because you have too many games, then you have a good problem on your hands. My opinion is yes and no. It's a complicated problem, because you want low-limit games to stick around to build a player pool. They are very important, but I think many rooms spread too many of them. Look at the lists - realize that low limit players typically have a lot more turnover, so the lists can actually get longer than higher limit games where people actually play for awhile. If you are out of tables, you can manage this, but pay particular attention to your regular customers - the medium and high limit players.

Most people will tell you that they want free food, special this, and special that. Really, they just want a good place to play poker in an environment where they will be allowed to do so, without BS rules, without the floor telling them that they will break some other game by playing this one, etc. They players will eventually settle into what they want to do, and if people are competent (dealers and floor), you will be successful. If not, you won't. Also, don't wall the games off from the public - it's a public game and people should be able to watch.

Finally, I don't want another job. Sorry. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[SplawnDarts]

[ QUOTE ]

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.

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

[/ QUOTE ]

What can I say? I'm more of an idea rat.

Maybe I don't fully understand the constraints of the problem here, but how is having a comfortable place for people to wait inside the poker room with poker-related reading materials and drink service "redefining the operations of the casio?" In fact, I have an idea to take it a step further, combining the lounge with your shorthanded "lesson" idea:

Pay a well known pro to write a short (say, 10 page) guide to playing shorthanded limit holdem with suggestions about starting hand selection, valuing "trouble" hands like middle pair, running short handed bluffs etc. Have it targeted at the competent mid-limit full game player. Write it so that it talks up the advantages of short handed (less boredom, direct access to the fish, more hands per hour etc.). Leave these pamphlets lying around in the lounge. They may drum up some interest in and of themselves, and at the very least they may convince someone who's tired of waiting that they're willing to play shorthanded after all now that they know how to do it without losing their shirt.

Now, back to making the board work right. I can see how the coasters would be a PITA for the rest of the casino since they would inevitably end up abandoned at some craps table. So scrap that. A similar idea would be offering to take down cell phone numbers when people go on the board, so that if they miss first call, you can then call their cell. Some people would be adverse, and some people would take it as a license to wander off, but I suspect it would be a net win. You could also use this as a tool when you're slightly unsure if you have a game (ie. 4 shorthanded on the list, but only 3 of them are in the lounge or playing 15/30) you can call the 4th guy before announcing the game. If he says he's on his way, announce. If he doesn't answer or says he's not coming, don't.

You also wanted me to convince you on the subject of avoiding a "rake bubble" and instead scaling it in some way. I think the basic idea is that 0 rake attracts nits. The problem is that you need those nits to stay to get the game filled up the first time, and get your props out if you choose to use them. My experience is that if they came for the 0 rake, they'll seriously consider leaving when the rake kicks in if it kicks in all at once. I think the best strategy is to increase the rake slowly, on the "boiling a frog" theory. Those increases could be time based, fullness based etc. depending on what you find works best.

Mmmm, boiled nits...