Wheeling Island Poker Room *update*
 

I have heard from a friend that visited the OPEN poker room today. All but 3 of the 20 tables were pretty full as of lunch today. There was a small waiting list for 1-2 NL Omaha high and 2-4 limit. There was a 8 deep waiting list for 5-10NL. There was also at least one 1-5 Stud game running.

This was just at a quick glance. I was surprised at the 5-10 NL waiting list. I am sure tonight there will be a waiting list for most games.

Re: Wheeling Island Poker Room *update*
 

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There was a small waiting list for 1-2 NL Omaha high and 2-4 limit.

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I think you must mean there were separate lists for 1/2 NLHE and Omaha high, but I'm holding out hope that they're actually spreading 1/2 NL Omaha...

Re: Wheeling Island Poker Room *update*
 

Thanks for the update. Do you happen to know what the max/min buy ins are for the NLHE games?

Re: Wheeling Island Poker Room *update*
 

[ QUOTE ]

I think you must mean there were separate lists for 1/2 NLHE and Omaha high, but I'm holding out hope that they're actually spreading 1/2 NL Omaha...

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They are spreading 1/2 NL Omaha. They are not spreading any Hi/Lo at this point. As far as the starting stack limits I am unsure. I will post after I play tonight with the table limits.

Re: Wheeling Island Poker Room *update*
 

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They are spreading 1/2 NL Omaha.

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Thank you. Can you also report on the quality of the dealers?

Re: Wheeling Island Poker Room *update*
 

Sure thing. I can tell you now that the quality of the dealers from the soft opening earlier in the week. They are very friendly but very green. Be prepared for some mistakes early on and understand that going in. I will add more comments after this evening.

I can almost guarantee that the green comment will be true for the players as well. I would imagine for many this will be their first casino poker trip.

Re: Wheeling Island Poker Room *update*
 

whats the max buyin of the NL games? Is 1/2 $100 max or did they bump it up?

Re: Wheeling Island Poker Room *update*
 

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whats the max buyin of the NL games? Is 1/2 $100 max or did they bump it up?

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Will let you know when I get back after tonight's session.

Re: Wheeling Island Poker Room *update*
 

Omaha? Giddyup!!!

See you there. (Sup Bro?)

Re: Wheeling Island Poker Room *update*
 

On my way there now! Will post TR when I get back which will be late!

Re: Wheeling Island Poker Room *update*
 

[ QUOTE ]
On my way there now! Will post TR when I get back which will be late!

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God, I wish I could go tonight. Too constrained all weekend long, grrrrr..... after all this waiting.

Re: Wheeling Island Poker Room *update*
 

I used to go to school in Wheeling. This would give me an excuse to go visit.

Re: Wheeling Island Poker Room *update*
 

I went to Wheeling tonight. Poker room was full. Waited 45 minutes just to *check in* and then talked to some dude who said he had been waiting two hours since he checked in and still didn't have a seat.

Looked from the board like there were about 8 1/2NL tables, and ~100 people on the waiting list. 2/4L was almost as bad. 3/6L was not as bad, but still quite a wait. Lots of "interest" registrations but no indication that that interest would turn into tables. There were about 8 people "interested" in 2/4 Omaha Hi -- I'da played that game, but wasn't really willing to wait.

As might be expected, most of the staff was pretty clueless; on my way out I signed up for the players club. The guys said, "This is our first night. We're still figuring things out. Apologies. Please come back again." They said that for right now, they're crediting one players club point per hour sat. Kinda crappy; Play 24 hours, get $5 in food. They still have a lot of working out to do.

Really, I wish I had gone to Mountaineer. I may try again tomorrow. It's about an hour drive from where I am. Not too bad, but a bummer to drive there and see that I basically wasn't going to be able to play in a reasonable amount of time. I don't do slots or dogs, so there wasn't anything else to see there.

Crowd consisted mostly of blue-hairs, meathead college dudes and local-WVa-looking people. Looks like it'll be bumpin' for a while.

If anyone else has any reports from later in the night I'd love to hear them. If I go back this weekend I'll go midday and bring a book for the wait.

I'm stoked to have something open, but they need a few weeks to figure some things out. Hope others had fun. Please post and let us know.

Go Stillers!

Re: Wheeling Island Poker Room *update*
 

[ QUOTE ]
I went to Wheeling tonight. Poker room was full. Waited 45 minutes just to *check in* and then talked to some dude who said he had been waiting two hours since he checked in and still didn't have a seat.

Looked from the board like there were about 8 1/2NL tables, and ~100 people on the waiting list. 2/4L was almost as bad. 3/6L was not as bad, but still quite a wait. Lots of "interest" registrations but no indication that that interest would turn into tables. There were about 8 people "interested" in 2/4 Omaha Hi -- I'da played that game, but wasn't really willing to wait.

As might be expected, most of the staff was pretty clueless; on my way out I signed up for the players club. The guys said, "This is our first night. We're still figuring things out. Apologies. Please come back again." They said that for right now, they're crediting one players club point per hour sat. Kinda crappy; Play 24 hours, get $5 in food. They still have a lot of working out to do.

Really, I wish I had gone to Mountaineer. I may try again tomorrow. It's about an hour drive from where I am. Not too bad, but a bummer to drive there and see that I basically wasn't going to be able to play in a reasonable amount of time. I don't do slots or dogs, so there wasn't anything else to see there.

Crowd consisted mostly of blue-hairs, meathead college dudes and local-WVa-looking people. Looks like it'll be bumpin' for a while.

If anyone else has any reports from later in the night I'd love to hear them. If I go back this weekend I'll go midday and bring a book for the wait.

I'm stoked to have something open, but they need a few weeks to figure some things out. Hope others had fun. Please post and let us know.

Go Stillers!

[/ QUOTE ]

The comps sound kind of like the Seneca Allegany - you basically need to play a 40 hr week to get a buffet dinner. This area ain't Vegas.

Re: Wheeling Island Poker Room *update*
 

Just in from a session that I don't care to talk about, but here's some random thoughts about the card room.

* Completely smoke free, since the neighboring spaces are also smoke free
* The cage folks really need more training in terms of doing very basic things quickly. If it takes them 2 minutes to figure out how to give you $100 in chips, and there's 10 people in line, you'd better get your chips well before its your turn to play. Seemed to take 4 minutes plus for any player to cash out at the cage.
* You can get food served tableside. I didn't partake, but it didn't look bad. Drink service was generally competent. Soda pop is free, all others pay.
* The dealers were uniformly competent and trained, but generally on the green side.
* Actions made out of turn are non-binding
* The only relief from the ridiculously long wait for Hold'em was to play stud, with 1$ ante, and 1-5$ spread betting. The wait for this was generally shortish.
* Omaha was put on the board, but it was obvious that the game was not going to go, because it would have involved killing a hold'em table to do so. Once things calm down, there may be 1-2 NLO high only. They also took lists for 5-5 PLO and 3-6 O8.
* The floor was really struggling to keep control of how many empty seats they had and how to fill them, despite some very sophisticated buttonry on the fancy tables
* The players at my table were all home-gamers, which meant that general casino rules, such as '1 to a hand' were not generally respected, and some of the dealers were too green to enforce this. I suspect this will get better.
* I think that within a few months, this will be a pretty decent place to play.
* The great state of Ohio is losing boatloads of revenue to its three casino-offering neighbors. I hope the lunkheads in the capitol building cave in soon.

Re: Wheeling Island Poker Room *update*
 

Ok here is my report....

Arrived at 7pm-ish. There was a huge line just to put name on game queue as expected. There was a kiosk for those with players cards. Glad I got one at the soft opening since there was no one at the kiosk. Signed up for 3-6 and 1-2NL. 1-2 had the most tables but a huge wait.

Here are my quick observations:

- Loved the dealers. Most were well trained and very few mistakes were made. This is outstanding for an opening night. Many exchanged $1 for $3 chips for rake which is nice. Dealers were a little timid to enforce some of the lighter rules such as minor string bets and such but once again that is to be expected on the first day.
- Room is setup nice. It is open an airy. Needs more televisions though.
- Computers to manage open seats is useless right now. I was at the front desk watching the screen. I could see open seats but the front desk refused to call them. Part of the reason is my next bullet which is the cage. Hopefully that is only a result of opening day.
- I got my chips when I first got to the room because the cage had a long line. The cage staff must be extremely nervous as they took quite some time to count out chips. This long line also is what caused confusion at the front desk as they for some reason couldn't lock in a seat. Since players were waiting in line at the cage the front desk would announce they need to wait to determine where those players will be seated.
- Drink service was slow. We were in a a corner table and it was hard to get their attention. Once again, first day and it was a mobscene. Soda/water type stuff was free. All other items have a cost.
- The cards and chips are fine. Normal poker size plastic cards and the chips are the paulson top hat/cane design with logo insert. Chips are sharp and hard to shuffle because they are so new.
- The table limits are as follows. Don't bother asking the cage at this point. They barely know how to count chips and they have no knowledge of what is going on in the poker room. I don't think the dealers would enforce this too much anyway as I am unsure they know the limits.
1-2 - 200
2-5 - 500
5-10 - 1500

That is about it for now. I ended up at a 3-6 table hoping to get on a 1-2 but pretty much gave up on that thought. Want to give a shout out to Mike from Athens who gave me the equivalent of a 'sup bro'.

Even with the mobscene and the room management issues I had a great time. Can't wait to go back!

Mike

Re: Wheeling Island Poker Room *update*
 

One other note...

The gaming commission is not allowing the dealers to take cash for chips for rebuys. They had chip runners going around asking for those that needed chips. All cash for chips needed to happen at the cage. This was quite cumbersome and I would imagine will change once the commission allows it.

Re: Wheeling Island Poker Room *update*
 

[ QUOTE ]
One other note...

The gaming commission is not allowing the dealers to take cash for chips for rebuys. They had chip runners going around asking for those that needed chips. All cash for chips needed to happen at the cage. This was quite cumbersome and I would imagine will change once the commission allows it.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's how it was over at the Argosy Casino in Cincinnati. Wasn't a real big fan of that.

Anyway, any other higher limit games that when on? like 6/12+?

Re: Wheeling Island Poker Room *update*
 

5/10 was the biggest I saw. About to head out to go back, will post when I get home.

Re: Wheeling Island Poker Room *update*
 

franknagaijr, were you at the table where the guy had 6-2 offsuit with flop of A22 almost jumped out of his seat to call my all in out of turn. I had AK and this guy called a preflop raise of $15 with 6-2 off. The turn comes 6 but the river came an Ace.

If you were at that table, which dude were you? I was the guy that came in @ 11:30 pm and sat in seat 10.

Re: Wheeling Island Poker Room *update*
 

I agree that the dealers seemed competent but nervous which is to be expected.

Cage was ridiculous, I have never seen a cage worker use a calculator to cash out chips. It was quite comical actually.

I don't think the wait list thing is going to be a problem for long but the waitlists were a joke. The floor was just grabbing people to fill seats so if you were on a wait list and just listened for your name to be called forget it. like I said, when the initial excitement wears off, there aren't going to be a whole lot of people on wait lists.

The staff was going out of their way to be friendly. I think it is going to be a great place to play.

Re: Wheeling Island Poker Room *update*
 

This is my first post and I haven't been playing poker because there was never any place convenient, but Wheeling and the Mount are close enough for me to start up again, I read the books and practice on the internet and plan on making a trip to W V to try my luck and learn the ropes, I realize I’ll be a fish at first so I need to start off slow so
I don’t lose too much money while I’m learning, I’m looking at LHE at the lowest buy in I can play to get started, any recommendations will be appreciated, also the best time to play to miss the big crowds, I’m flexible on time, so I can play anytime?
This probably should be in the beginners section, but I’m only interested in W V poker, so I posted here

I read in the paper if you get a four of a kind, J thru A that you win $2500.00!

Thanks for any information you can provide for a noobie.

Re: Wheeling Island Poker Room *update*
 

2/4 limit hold'em is the lowest. As far as when to miss the big crowds, it seems like right now that is impossible.

Re: Wheeling Island Poker Room *update*
 

I went Saturday morning about 9:00 a.m. and there were only about 5 tables going. I don't think they all were filled until about 1:00 p.m.

Re: Wheeling Island Poker Room *update*
 

I was there friday, arrived around 1:30, got a seat around 2:30, kind of expected to wait this long. I tried to call in and put my name on the list while I drove down, but they aren't doing phone ins which I didnt really like. There were more than a few problems in my opinion, but nothing that shouldn't be fixed soon. The biggest one, in my opinion, was the desk and the waiting lists. They have the fancy computer tables that are supposed to let the desk know when there is an open seat. This would be great if the people at the desk would clear the lists. I was 7th on the list for about 40 minutes, when I can clearly see more than 7 open seats throughout the room. The girl would continually call the first 4 or 5 names over and over when the people clearly were not showing up, or were already seated. This got progresively worse over the night, my table had 3 empty seats (not a prob b/c I love shorthanded games) for at least 25 minutes when there was 108 people on the list for 1/2.
The dealers, bad, to say the least. Some were better than others, but still need practice. I have never heard of this, and I made it known to the dealer who enforced it, he called it the "California Floating Button". Here's the situation, I was UTG, the BB got involved in the hand and busted out. This would have made me BB only, and a dead SB, or so it has been in every other casino I have played in. Instead, I posted a BB, and the player to my left (should be UTG) had to post a BB as well because there has to be 2 blinds posted he said? After this, I had to post a SB the next hand, and a SB when I was on the button??? (it was only $1 so I didn't care much)
More beef, the High Hand jackpot sign clearly states "Get four jacks or BETTER", no rules, nothing. A guy on the table next to me gets 4 Kings, but he only had 1 K in his hand, and 3 on the board...no pay. I heard from a guy that was moved to my table that on his other table, someone hit a royal flush, but didnt get paid because it is ONLY quads, which in my opinion is completely retarded.
Overall, it was ok, not too impressive though, bad dealers, bad cashier, bad floor, VERY bad players...I dunno, i'm gonna try mountaineer tonight and see if it is any better, after the steeler game obviously.

Re: Wheeling Island Poker Room *update*
 

The dealers are very friendly and most are fairly competent they just need more experience with the mechanics of working the game (this is further complicated by the all the extra bells and whistles on the tables...the autoshuffler, the swiping of player cards, etc).

The two main problems are the waitlists (largely caused by the dealers not being comfortable with the electronic panel on the tables yet and the floor just randomly sticking people in seats) and the effing cage/chip running.

According to the floor person I spoke with it's actually the gaming board who aren't allowing the dealers to make change at the table. This needs to be changed, I suggest they start a petition or something.

Until such time as that get changed they ABSOLUTELY MUST figure out a better way to get chips to the tables. I saw one guy sit for 15-20 mins after giving his cash to a chip runner before his chips got back to the table.

Obviously the delay is at the cage (I saw the lady using the calculator too, lol calcuments). I would like to think that part of the problem is the brand new chips which are still rough and difficult to cut/handle, but even with that caveat they're still pretty bad/slow (when I was cashing out I had to stop the lady from giving me too much money...it was only a buck but it's still a mistake she should not have made, if she can miscount in my favor she can also miscount in favor of the house and not everyone pays that much attention when cashing out...I'd recommend you know how many chips you have before you get to the window...thankfully you'll have plenty of time to do this given the line due to the incredibly slow cashiers).

All the same, I had a good time (the first live poker I've played in like a year and a half) and I'll probably become a regular there on the weekends once my workload slows down after the holidays.

jHE

EDITED TO ADD: FYI if you're coming from the east on 70 there is construction in the wheeling tunnel. It's open on the westbound lanes but the eastbound lanes (i.e. going home) are closed and there is a detour through wheeling (it's not horrible just a few blocks/lights a left turn and you're good). Supposedly they will be working on the westbound side of the tunnel in the next couple months so there will be a detour coming in as opposed to going out.

Re: Wheeling Island Poker Room *update*
 

I went to Wheeling and played 2 4 lhe, actually it was kind of fun, it was my fisrt time ever playing in a poker room so I can't compare it with any place else, but I think I will be going back.
I don't really have any complaints and I liked playing there better than on line, for some reason I can't concentrate when I play on line. I played for a couple hours and was $13.00 ahead when I quit. Some of the players were doing the straddle, how do you play the straddle?

Re: Wheeling Island Poker Room *update*
 

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Some of the players were doing the straddle, how do you play the straddle?

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Depends on the table makeup. If it tends to breed silly action, play your hands that do well multiway. If it tends to scare people off, use it as an opportunity to 3-bet with hands that you would like to play heads up against a really loose opponent (specifically in this case, two random cards).

Re: Wheeling Island Poker Room *update*
 

[ QUOTE ]
franknagaijr, were you at the table where the guy had 6-2 offsuit with flop of A22 almost jumped out of his seat to call my all in out of turn. I had AK and this guy called a preflop raise of $15 with 6-2 off. The turn comes 6 but the river came an Ace.

If you were at that table, which dude were you? I was the guy that came in @ 11:30 pm and sat in seat 10.

[/ QUOTE ]

I responded by PM which one I was, did you get it?

I'm still drawing a blank which 10 seater you were, since the 7 to the 10 were swapped out so frequently. Are you in your 20s, 30s, or somwhere beyond that?

Wheeling Poker Room Review
 

I just got home from the Wheeling poker room, I live about two hours away. I really enjoyed the room. The other players were fun to play with, a few jerks, but I had a really good time playing limit holdem. There were a couple of good players, but mostly inexperienced players, which was nice to my bankroll. There are 20 tables, all of which were full around 7 o clock. I played in the afternoon and I really enjoyed it. Started to get packed at night. If you wanna go there to play 1/2 NL, you better show up at least an hour before you were thinking of playing. If you wanna play limit HE, omaha, or stud, you should be able to walk in and sit down as long as you show up by 5 or 6. The dealers werent as bad as everyone was saying, theyre finally getting some experience under their belts. Most of the problems I was were with floor men and chip runners. Hard to get chips at the table because you have to have a chip runner, they messed up the dealer rotation and we had the same dealer for an hour and a half, then seriously got three dealers in three hands, which holds up the game. Overall the room is nice, not stuffy, nice tables, chairs, and chips. I'll definitely be back.

Re: Wheeling Poker Room Review
 

[ QUOTE ]
I just got home from the Wheeling poker room, I live about two hours away. I really enjoyed the room. The other players were fun to play with, a few jerks, but I had a really good time playing limit holdem. There were a couple of good players, but mostly inexperienced players, which was nice to my bankroll. There are 20 tables, all of which were full around 7 o clock. I played in the afternoon and I really enjoyed it. Started to get packed at night. If you wanna go there to play 1/2 NL, you better show up at least an hour before you were thinking of playing. If you wanna play limit HE, omaha, or stud, you should be able to walk in and sit down as long as you show up by 5 or 6. The dealers werent as bad as everyone was saying, theyre finally getting some experience under their belts. Most of the problems I was were with floor men and chip runners. Hard to get chips at the table because you have to have a chip runner, they messed up the dealer rotation and we had the same dealer for an hour and a half, then seriously got three dealers in three hands, which holds up the game. Overall the room is nice, not stuffy, nice tables, chairs, and chips. I'll definitely be back.

[/ QUOTE ]

What limit games were running?

Re: Wheeling Poker Room Review
 

Are either Wheeling or Mountaineer running tournaments yet? I imagine with how packed they are with the ring games they probably don't feel compelled. The owner of Mountaineer did say at their opening that he planned to have tournaments but there's no schedule posted on their site.

Re: Wheeling Poker Room Review
 

Right now they are running 2/4 and 3/6 limit. There was an interest list for 4/8 and i got on it, but it never got above 8 names so they didnt seat it. They are also running 1/2, 2/5, and 5/10 NL and I saw some huge stacks at those tables. There are no tournaments yet at either casino, but wheeling said theyll have them "soon" whatever that means. I thought the room is honestly too small for tournaments, if you have 20 tables full with cash games, where are you gonna hold tournaments? Mountaineer will probably have bigger tournaments.

Re: Wheeling Poker Room Review
 

[ QUOTE ]
Are either Wheeling or Mountaineer running tournaments yet? I imagine with how packed they are with the ring games they probably don't feel compelled.

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Wheeling Island is planning on hosting tournaments. I have heard they will be run in a separate ballroom. The dealers were mentioning three daily tournaments ranging from $30 to $100 buyins. I believe they are waiting on commission approval.

Re: Wheeling Poker Room Review
 

I played 2/4 Saturday AM, villain had diahrea of the mouth and also trid to cheat another card player out of his half the pot when they had equal hands,grabbed chips and ran to 1/2 table, but management made him give back 1/2 of chips, also I was missing a $5.00 chip when I came back from the head, and he had one $5.00 chip on his pile of $1.00 chips, so I'm going to be extra careful from now on!

Re: Wheeling Poker Room Review
 

I always cap my $5 chips with white chips when I'm leaving the table for more then a minute or two.

Re: Wheeling Poker Room Review
 

I'll try capping mine with a white chip too, also at the 2/4 LHE table I could probably put them in my pocket and take them with me?The game is practically unwinnable anyway without someone stealing your chips, but I'm just a beginner and want to stay in the low limit games until I gain some experience?

Re: Wheeling Poker Room Review
 

5-10 limit O8 was fun there last night. Only took most dealers a couple hands to get into the swing of it. It was nice to have the floor actually encourage us to bump the limits from 3-6 (where the game had opened) to 5-10, he seemed very committed to spreading (and even actively promoting) games other than 1-2NL and 2-4 limit HE.

Re: Wheeling Poker Room Review
 

anything going on in charles town? or closer to VA? thanks if anyone knows anything,
jason

Re: Wheeling Poker Room Review
 

Hello everyone... I am a dealer at Wheeling Island. Just browsing the boards here... I will try and check these forums. Questions, comments, and recommendations welcomed! See you at the tables!