Repost: Hollywood Park ePoker Room Shut Down

[Rottersod]

After playing there for a while I saw that the main problems were the props, the drop, and no customer flow.

The props started off at .35 a hand which was ridiculous. All that did was brought out a bunch of aging nits who could sit at a table all day, every day and earn more money then they could lose by actually playing hands. Byron is a good example of this type of player. A guy who will only play AA and KK but can sit there for 2 days straight and talk the whole time. Sitting near him is like having permanent tooth abscess. Even when the amount per hand was dropped these guys were ingrained there.

I agree with you on the drop. Way too high for that game. If I wasn't able to make such easy money there I would have never even given it a thought to play at a table with such an outrageous drop.

The location of the epoker room was also poorly thought out. It was away from the main poker floor and most poker players entered through the non-valet parking entrance and never even went near the epoker room. The valet entrance was right in front of the epoker room and it was freezing in there at times as the doors kept opening.

Lastly I would say that the overall ambiance of HP leaves a lot to be desired. For example on the last weekend of etables they had this guy who kept announcing some big thing over the PA. I'm not exaggerating when I say that each announcement was over 3 minutes long and he repeated it every 30 minutes. And the final nail in the HP coffin is that it too ghetto/ganged out for comfortable play. I've played in every casino in the area (except Club Caribe) and have never felt uncomfortable even at Crystal Park in Compton. There were times at HP when it was like thugland - guys screaming and calling women they were with bitches and ho's. People standing up and yelling obscenities across the floor. I'm speaking more about the main floor and the Asian games and not the epoker room. And never did anyone in Management step in.

Finally, the valet parking. Valets make their money on tips and good valets know how to treat the customers right to earn those extra bucks. I'm a good tipper and I like to valet and have them park it close as I want to get out of there as soon as I am done playing. Every single time I went to HP it would take a few minutes for a valet to come to my car even when I was the only car there. Then they would automatically give me the regular white ticket. I finally started explaining to these guys that they need to offer the pink ticket to their customers - especially those they recognize - as that is where their tips are coming from. Then when I leave there would never be a valet at the pink ticket stand. They have a separate stand for this but no one mans it. Add to that at least 5 times that they took someone else's keys first and left me standing there even though I had a pink tik and the other care had a white one. And it's not like I don't tip good either. I asked one guy and he said that since I have my ticket stamped comp they lose the $2. I patiently explained to him that it was the house that loses the $2 and he would make plenty more in my tip. It still didn't register.

I can't imagine ever being a regular there but if they were to open the etables again and in a comfortable area I would think about going back, provided they took some of our advice re drops and props and ran larger games. The $50-$100 buyin is too small and bring the wrong crowd (uber nits).