Venetian Poker Questions
 

Hello Everyone,
My name is Lee Vinocur, Poker Room Manager at The Venetian. I just wanted to make myself available to answer any questions related to the room or staff. While we the management staff run the operation, we understand that the room is driven by you the players who fill our seats everyday. That being said I want to hear any suggestions you might have to make this the most successful room in Las Vegas. While we may not be able to accommodate all of your requests we will try to give you a reason for everything we do. Thank you.

Re: Venetian Poker Questions
 

Hi Everyone:

Just so there is no confusion Lee Vinocur is the Poker Room Manager at the Venetian. (Kathy Raymond is the Director of Poker Operations.)

This is a great opportunity for us on these boards to have our voice heard in a major poker room. So I encourage everyone with an interest to either ask questions or make suggestions concerning the Venetian Poker Room to do so here.

Best wishes,
Mason

Re: Venetian Poker Questions
 

this may seem immature and somewhat off topic, but what's up with the smell?

Re: Venetian Poker Questions
 

Mr. Vinocur,

First this is really cool that you're coming on here to answer questions...I have only three questions regarding your room because after 2 weeks of playing there regularly, I have since stopped.

1. What is the deal with the very very potent air freshener?

2. Why with sometimes 15-18 names on a list do your floormen refuse to start new 2/5NL games? (with dealers standing by)

3. Why is the list only on the outside and is interrupted every 5 seconds by 30 seconds of bad beat jackpot advertisements? The only way I can see where my name is on the list is when I come behind the main podium and ask the brush.

ok thanks

Re: Venetian Poker Questions
 

Thanks Lee and welcome to 2+2!


FWIW, I've put in 90+ hours at the V in May and have over 30 hours in June (as I write this).

******************


1) Is it true that the comps are $2 per hour in June like they were in May (a carry over)?


2) Why was I paid less then a dollar per hour (in comps) for more then one session (one session over 7 hours long) in the month of May?


Every floorperson I talked to said the computer made NO sense for the hours I put in. BUT that NO ONE knows how to fix the situation. That's what I was told by more then one floor and brush.



3) I've been told by many that the Venetian is putting in several players in the big freeroll that do NOT have hours logged in the Venetian poker room. I'm hearing this everywhere I go. At first I thought, "No Way". But now I wonder?


4) Last week, many 2+2ers and regular Venetian poker players wanted to start a stud game. We were told to go to table X and the game would start. No stud game going yet (It's about 3:32 pm).

All of us players are there ready to play. At a table next to ours there are a bunch of poker dealers with nothing to do (but wait for games to start, I would think).


IMO, it took Way, Way TOO long to get a dealer to the game. Made no sense to any of us.


With so many dealers in the room, we just did not understand this (I could understand if you were short dealers).



*********************



Welcome to 2+2 Lee. You have a very nice room with some great employees overall.



Best of luck on your poker room!


Howard

Re: Venetian Poker Questions
 

I'm putting the over/under on Lee's replies to this thread at 6½, before he runs off into the night, screaming, overwhelmed by nit-picky posts from players who feel they had to wait too long for their free drink to arrive, and when it finally did arrive, the ice wasn't cold enough.

Re: Venetian Poker Questions
 

1. Two air freshener posts in one night. Honestly being there for so long I don't smell it myself, but I will certainly check with the Hotel Manager and see how many people are compaining about this. Hopefully we can change the scent or at least tone it down.
2. With regards to this question it depends upon the situation. It is obviously better for us to open as many games as possible for revenue, however if we have 5 or more of a certain limit going, the list moves quite fast. There have been situations where we have pushed to open a game and then multiple seats open elsewhere and games get shorthanded. Also sometimes the names on the list are phone-ins and they are not present in the room. But if there were 15-18 bodies in the room and we didn't call down the list we failed.
3. We are installing two 40 inch LCD screens that will face inside the room to show the list. They have been ordered and should be in place by June 26th. The bad beat jackpot announcement drives me crazy too. The QueueOS programmer is out of town and will fix it when he returns. Just so you know, the timer is currently set to show the list for 30 seconds and the jackpot for ten. As we get busy throughout the day and add a second and third page to the list this is when that problem is magnified. We're on it.

Re: Venetian Poker Questions
 

Hi Lee....welcome to 2+2. I'll be staying at the Venetian this summer for a few weeks as usual and am happy theres finally poker available there.
My question is , can I just phone down to reserve a seat at a specific limit and get a call back to my room when one opens up?

Thanks in advance.

Re: Venetian Poker Questions
 

Lee,
Good to see you are opening a new line of communication to the players.
I know from experience you are open to suggestions and listen to players when you have time in the room.

A few thoughts here:
1.Make it easier for the players to find games such as
a.All 2/5 games should be down the same line of tables and across the right front of the room
b.All 1/2 games should be down the second row
c.All 3/6 limit should be down the next row
This would make it much easier for players to walk in the room, find the games they want to play and look over the table.
Also the floor could take a quick glance down each row to see what seats are open for each game.

2.Swipe –out
a.The second podium should swipe players out. This will help clear the check in area.
3.Games: To make this room an OVER THE TOP ROOM I think if 10 players want to start game ABC every effort should be made to do this.
a.I hear a lot of players asking for a KILL GAME
b.I hear players asking for a 10-20 game, they are used to this limit from the mid-west and back east.
Don O
p.s. The air stuff is better then some SMELLY PLAYER SITTING NEXT TO ME

Re: Venetian Poker Questions
 

I play for the first time this week at the Venetian. I never did notice the air freshener smell. I had a very pleasant experience.

Re: Venetian Poker Questions
 

I look forward to the tournament information being made available at AllVegasPoker.com ! Any idea of how difficult it is to get that information posted?

BTW, thanks for making yourself available to this component of your player base.

Re: Venetian Poker Questions
 

Air freshener is an issue
Me and a friend came to vegas last month and after two hours playing on separate tables we both met and independantly said we couldn't stand the smell and our noses were red. Maybe it's an allergy to some people, but we really liked the room overall and would have definitly stayed and come back otherwise!

Re: Venetian Poker Questions
 

[ QUOTE ]

My question is , can I just phone down to reserve a seat at a specific limit and get a call back to my room when one opens up?


[/ QUOTE ]

I know you can call in per his post, but you cannot recieve a phone call in the room.

Re: Venetian Poker Questions
 

haven't played in the room but have visited. Interested in seeing the room succeed.

We had an entire seperate thread regarding the air-freshner...and there have been other comments about in other threads here.
People are DEFINITELY complaining.


GF and I walked through the Venetian in April and after about a minute she said the petuli-freshner thing was really bothering her and she couldn't wait to get outside.
She started sneezing up a storm.
I know she has some allergies, but I've never really seen her sneeze/react like that before.

To this observer it seems obvious that some people have allergy issues with the air-freshner there.

Personally, I like it.
But I think the Venetian needs to look into it.

With the number of people complaining on these forums I have to imagine that people have complained in person to management there as well. Kind of surprised nothing has been done about it already.

Re: Venetian Poker Questions
 

yes

Re: Venetian Poker Questions
 

I can e-mail Doug at AllVegas. We are finalizing the schedule first.

Re: Venetian Poker Questions
 

In seven years these are the first compaints that I have ever heard, but it will be addressed

Re: Venetian Poker Questions
 

1. i think the air freshner is fine. my clothes end up smelling like vanilla - better than cigarrettes.. its never botherered me....

2. another poster asked this question - is the comp still $2 hr? when will that likely be reduced to $1, if so. Can we use it at the gift shop and for hotel rooms?

3. Ive heard food includes butler service from the internal menu AND the grand lux? is this true? It would also be nice to add table service from noodle asia - is this avaliable?

4. when theres over 2 tables of a certain limit and your looking to open up a 3rd one - consider making it a mustmove for an hour or so.... even on the lowest of limits - as a courtesy to the players who've been there for a while

5. what was the reason for ending the 4/8 and creating a 3/6 and 6/12 - what was the reasoning behind it? will you ever create a 2/4 and bring back the 4/8 with a kill maybe? ...

most important question
6. please address the tournament - will there be outside players? if a player is an hour short of 50 for a month will he be forced to play for 200 instead of 150? Any further info on the tournament as it's panning out would be greatly appreciated.

7. whats the details on that vip parking? how do you access that

Re: Venetian Poker Questions
 

Mr. Vinocur,

Thanks for taking the time to come to 2+2. I got into Vegas last Sunday and played about thirty hours at Venetian in the past week. I'm one of the (several) young regulars in the 2/5. I'm impressed with the room. There are certainly a few kinks that need to be worked out, but that is to be expected with a new cardroom, and you seem to be working on them (flashing bad beat jackpot, new screens etc.)

1) I don't mind the smell much, but as you can see it's a hot topic on the forum. I actually didn't notice it until I read about it here, and the next day I walked in and went "whoa!". It's strong and could be toned down a bit, but it doesn't bother me.

2) The front podium is a mess. Even at peak hours, there is often only one brush there, trying to get people into games/lists, calling names, swiping in and out, AND doing food comps. On Wednesday I tried to get a food comp to go to the Grand Lux and it took a full twenty minutes; I barely made it back in time to keep my seat after dinner. There needs to be either a second brush there, especially in the evenings, to help with the traffic or let people swipe in and out and get comps at the other podium (as someone suggested). Easy problem to fix.

3) The staff have all been very, very nice, from the dealers to the cage. All the dealers are atleast passable, and many of them are quite good. There have been very few dealer mistakes at my tables. There have, however, been some horror stories floating around about the floor; you can read about them in other threads on this forum and decide for yourself.

Thats all I can think of for now, most of what I would have suggested has already been said. Thanks again for stopping by and welcome to 2+2.

-Fink

Re: Venetian Poker Questions
 

"...nit-picky posts from players who feel they had to wait too long for their free drink to arrive, and when it finally did arrive, the ice wasn't cold enough."


Hi Bobby,

I don't think it's nit-picky when you are told to go to table X to start a new game. Plenty of players are there and you have to wait a good twenty minutes with NO dealer coming to the table. All the while, there are many dealers at a break table directly next to you. Go figure.



Sadly, I think the fact that Lee responded to air freshener questions but not to point 3* in my post speaks volumes.


*Also asked by another poster in this thread; pertaining to players having never played in the Venetian poker room, being put into the free-roll tournament. I don't know if it's true or not (but lots of people are telling me it is) BUT..........

A simple yes or no by Lee would have been nice (while he was busy answering his air freshener questions).


All the best,

Howard

Re: Venetian Poker Questions
 

[ QUOTE ]
Hi Bobby,

I don't think it's nit-picky when you are told to go to table X to start a new game. Plenty of players are there and you have to wait a good twenty minutes with NO dealer coming to the table.

[/ QUOTE ]

My "nit-picky" remark was not addressed towards your post. I apologize for the confusion.

I've been in Lee's spot many times before, when I was booking sports offshore. My boss decided that instead of spending money on advertising, we should spend time in the sports betting forums, trying to drum up business**. Since my boss wasn't much at spelling or grammar, it fell to me to interact with the posters.

For every legitimate question/suggestion, there were twenty ridiculous nitpicks. One guy complained that his Neteller cashout took an hour, because one book once got him paid in ten minutes. They normally take twenty-four hours, and I'm fielding complaints from a guy who got his in one. Another guy said we were the worst sportsbook in the world, because we didn't offer any PBA bowling props.

I'm asking my boss, "Why on earth do we need these forums? Every time anybody opens their mouth about us, it sounds like we're the worst sportsbook in the world."

I'm very, very proud of my fellow 2+2'ers so far. Their tone has been far more respectful than any I've heard in the sportsbetting forums. Their posts come across as "suggestions" much more than as "complaints". And the issues in question seem to be genuinely in need of address--there have been almost no nit-picks. Nice job, 2+2.

But my point still stands. There will be questions asked that Lee won't want to answer (such as, "I know it was busy the moment you asked for a comp, but we're not busy enough to justify hiring two or three extra people fulltime just to write comps."). He'll duck the question, hoping it will go away. It won't.

His choices at that point will be, "Admit unpleasant truths, that make his company look uncaring or cheap," or "Stop posting."

The line opened at 6½, but the quality of the posts has seen that number balloon to 15 flat.



** = I'm not accusing Lee of any such thing; I'm quite aware that the Venetian's advertising budget could buy and sell the puny sportsbook I worked at.

Re: Venetian Poker Questions
 

Some questions I won't be able to answer to your satisfaction but I will try. And I'll take the over!!

Re: Venetian Poker Questions
 

We are filling our support staff positions. This week we have six new people starting for the list coordinator and game attendant positions. This will help A LOT.

Re: Venetian Poker Questions
 

Howard,
1. Comps are $2/hour for raked games & $3/hour for timed games through August
2.The QueueOs system had some kinks with some accounts and that has been resolved
3. Freeroll question. I'll say no way as well.
4. opening the game on time. Sorry we didn't open the game in a timely manner. It really isn't a matter of having the dealers. We've been very short staffed in our support positions and this has lead to the delays.
BTW air freshener question was answered at 4:30am and was much easier to respond to.

Re: Venetian Poker Questions
 

[ QUOTE ]
4. opening the game on time. Sorry we didn't open the game in a timely manner. It really isn't a matter of having the dealers. We've been very short staffed in our support positions and this has lead to the delays.

[/ QUOTE ]

This statement seem like a great concern to me. In most rooms it is not uncommon for the shift superviser to jump in and seat players or "draft" some people to help him. It is wonderful that you are coming here to get input from 2+2ers, but I think a lot of the Venetian's growing pains come from a lack of experience at the top. Of the director and the poker room manager one has never worked in poker before and one has never worked in a competitve market before. I hope you are successful in this undertaking.

Re: Venetian Poker Questions
 

[ QUOTE ]
I've been in Lee's spot many times before, when I was booking sports offshore. My boss decided that instead of spending money on advertising, we should spend time in the sports betting forums, trying to drum up business**.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hi Talk:

I invited Lee, as I have invited other representatives from other poker rooms, to participate here. This does not mean he works for me.

Best wishes,
Mason

Re: Venetian Poker Questions
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I've been in Lee's spot many times before, when I was booking sports offshore. My boss decided that instead of spending money on advertising, we should spend time in the sports betting forums, trying to drum up business**.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hi Talk:

I invited Lee, as I have invited other representatives from other poker rooms, to participate here. This does not mean he works for me.

Best wishes,
Mason

[/ QUOTE ]

I do wish more would take you up on your offer to participate here. I remmeber many years ago you had a forum for casino announcments but I believe the only person pesides me to ever psot in it was Donna Harris.

Re: Venetian Poker Questions
 

My Venetian experience was very shortlived, as myself and two other players arrived late at night (around 1 am) only to be turned away. As we were requesting seats, 3 other players whom I recognized from the Wynn also arrived and requested to be added to the list as well. There were several empty tables as well as dealers standing around, but the 3 NL tables that were running at the time were full. When we asked the guy in charge if we could start up a new table, he froze like a deer in headlights and had no idea what to do. We explained to him that we had plenty of players and were looking to play any limit. He scrambled around for nearly 20 minutes telling us to just wait. We went to the Wynn shortly thereafter.

Re: Venetian Poker Questions
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I've been in Lee's spot many times before, when I was booking sports offshore. My boss decided that instead of spending money on advertising, we should spend time in the sports betting forums, trying to drum up business**.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hi Talk:

I invited Lee, as I have invited other representatives from other poker rooms, to participate here. This does not mean he works for me.


[/ QUOTE ]

Hey Mason,

Did you read the ** footnote from YTF's post?

[ QUOTE ]

** = I'm not accusing Lee of any such thing; I'm quite aware that the Venetian's advertising budget could buy and sell the puny sportsbook I worked at.


[/ QUOTE ]

Re: Venetian Poker Questions
 

[ QUOTE ]
My Venetian experience was very shortlived, as myself and two other players arrived late at night (around 1 am) only to be turned away. As we were requesting seats, 3 other players whom I recognized from the Wynn also arrived and requested to be added to the list as well. There were several empty tables as well as dealers standing around, but the 3 NL tables that were running at the time were full. When we asked the guy in charge if we could start up a new table, he froze like a deer in headlights and had no idea what to do. We explained to him that we had plenty of players and were looking to play any limit. He scrambled around for nearly 20 minutes telling us to just wait. We went to the Wynn shortly thereafter.

[/ QUOTE ]

seems this is SOP...

3 suggestions to improve your poker room
 

Props for coming to the elite poker forum on the web.
I have a few suggestions:

1: Make the food cheap. At least for a while. I play on the internet, but also in a casino everyday in vegas. If I found a poker room that served really good but cheap food, I would probably make it my new home.

2: This has been rehashed before but I have a compromise: Alot of people hate the parking at Venetian, and the poker room is a decent walking distance. Moving walkways, like they have in the airport, would be very refreshing.

3: Don't donk up your freeroll the way Station casinos did. Keep it pot limit and No limit only. Limit is pointless and limits the amount of hands we get to play. Sahara is good about running tournaments while killing off people quickly.
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showth...e=0#Post6146225

Thanks for taking the time to read this, if you didn't read this, well you can fly a kite =).

Re: 3 suggestions to improve your poker room
 

Blake,

They're comping $2 per hour. That pretty much feeds you for free. And the food at the Grand Lux is excellent.

Re: 3 suggestions to improve your poker room
 

a couple of my buddies and i have played the higher limit games at the venetian (20/40 and 40/80). we were very pleased that a floor person was specifically assigned to the two 40/80 games that were going. there is some confusion about food comps at these games, do the 20/40 players get free food from the room service menu and the 40/80 players get free food from grand lux? does any of this come off your comp card? the freeroll is an excellent promo, btw.

Re: 3 suggestions to improve your poker room
 

Lee,

I know this comp thing is being beaten to death, but yesterday a day shift manager told me that 2-5 NL and up players were earning $3/hour, and lower limits were $2. I'm not sure about limit tables.

Previously, I was told that all tables were $1 an hour in June and after that. I think it'd be nice if you guys could really clarify that in the room itself. I've heard tons of players asking dealers and other players about the comp system, and many of the dealers aren't sure themselves.

So which is it? $3 for higher games or $2 for all of them? And like I said, giving handouts or a sign and informing your dealers would go a long way to clearing up confusion for many casual players.

Re: Venetian Poker Questions
 

[ QUOTE ]
Hey Mason,

Did you read the ** footnote from YTF's post?

[ QUOTE ]

** = I'm not accusing Lee of any such thing; I'm quite aware that the Venetian's advertising budget could buy and sell the puny sportsbook I worked at.


[/ QUOTE ]

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm sure Mason saw that. And because I buried the disclaimer in a footnote, instead of putting it prominently next to my situation, he probably felt the need to emphasize it for those who didn't see the footnote.

This was Mason cleaning up a mistake that I made, and I apologize for not being as clear as I possibly could've been.

(Either that, or it was Mason being his usual thorough self--like when he responded to the first "I'm Lee, the poker room manager" post with, "Lee's the poker room manager, just to clear up any confusion.") [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: Venetian Poker Questions
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
My Venetian experience was very shortlived, as myself and two other players arrived late at night (around 1 am) only to be turned away. As we were requesting seats, 3 other players whom I recognized from the Wynn also arrived and requested to be added to the list as well. There were several empty tables as well as dealers standing around, but the 3 NL tables that were running at the time were full. When we asked the guy in charge if we could start up a new table, he froze like a deer in headlights and had no idea what to do. We explained to him that we had plenty of players and were looking to play any limit. He scrambled around for nearly 20 minutes telling us to just wait. We went to the Wynn shortly thereafter.

[/ QUOTE ]

seems this is SOP...

[/ QUOTE ]

Personally I see nothinmg wrong with this (unless there was already a significant list). There were three full tables of the NL game going at 1AM. There is no reason to open a table for a shorthanded game.

Sure you can open a must move table, but the reality of the situation is that 6 on a waiting is not much for 3 NL games at 1 AM.

Re: Venetian Poker Questions
 

It's a problem casino-wide. My mom cannot stand to be in there because she is allergic to fragrances. She doesn't complain, she just goes elsewhere.

Re: Venetian Poker Questions
 

Hi Lee. Thanks for posting. My questions have been asked by others so I won't waste space on them.

I do want to chime in as another person concerned with the scent in the poker room. I'm good for anywhere between 3-5 hours before it is overwhelming. I, like others, can and do easily spend 12-18 hours in some rooms in town so please understand that a 3-5 hour threshold is an issue in determining whether to play in what is otherwise a fine room.

Are there jets or whatever propels the scent in the poker room? It definitely seems to be more pungent in that area of the casino.

Re: 3 suggestions to improve your poker room
 

[ QUOTE ]
2: This has been rehashed before but I have a compromise: Alot of people hate the parking at Venetian, and the poker room is a decent walking distance. Moving walkways, like they have in the airport, would be very refreshing.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm sorry but this is just too funny. How far should these moving walkways go? Through the casino to the entryway to the poker room? Should Sheldon tear up the lobby? Maybe we can provide Larks to poker players when they hop out of their cars in the special poker players valet.

If you have a handicap that prevents you from walking so far, I'm certain the Venetian is ADA compliant. For everyone else, a little exercise will do you some good.


[/ QUOTE ]

Re: Venetian Poker Questions
 

Greetings...

1. Man, that air freshner is overwhelming. Just kidding, but I figured I had to mention it since that was #1 on literally most people's posts.

2. Check out this post:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showfl...rue#Post6092604

Some people got more bent out of shape about it than they should, since it was generally just a really funny story. But as a manager, you might be more interested on a different plane of humor [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

The room is beautiful, and can only get better if management has an honest desire to make it so.