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).

[Rick Nebiolo]

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

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Well the first two (along with other problems) led to the last problem.

[ QUOTE ]
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.

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Collectively they aren't getting a good deal since they were often playing at all or most of the seats at the tables (which made the games even worse).

I like Byron and made sure he was on my left, it's like getting two buttons every round. But no way he should have been paid as much as the action props (and this is doable with electronic tracking).


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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.

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I spot played it; mostly when taking a quiet break from the chaos on the main floor and when live props and live ones where in the game. I thought being able to push buttons (rather than chips) loosened up the game (other things held equal).

~ Rick

[StevieG]

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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.

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Those valets must have oatmeal for brains. This is tip hustling 101 material that you would think any of them could figure out after a week on the job.

[Rottersod]

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I like Byron and made sure he was on my left, it's like getting two buttons every round. But no way he should have been paid as much as the action props (and this is doable with electronic tracking).

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I pride myself on being able to tune out the other players but if I had to sit next to Byron for 8 hours...well, lets just say it wouldn't be a pretty sight.

[Rottersod]

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

[/ QUOTE ]

Well the first two (along with other problems) led to the last problem.


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Not really. Most of the customers for the main poker room don't valet park and the door they enter is all the way on the other side of the casino. The epoker room can't even be seen from over there. On a typical 12 hour session from say Saturday 3pm - Sunday 3am I'd guess there would be 20 customers that would pass by the etables from the main poker room and only 2 or 3 would ever sit down.

[po-Jay-to]

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In comparison to playing online, how easy is it to fall victim to a misclick?

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They have designed the software to avoid accidentally selecting the wrong action. There is one exception, when you go to fold and you are the last action, you can either fold or "fold & show". Because of the proximity and shape of the fold & show button on the screen, many people accidentally fold & show when the just wanted to fold. It's a little awkward when it happens but everyone eventually gets the hang of it after they've shown the table that they're chasers or bluffers.

[Rottersod]

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In comparison to playing online, how easy is it to fall victim to a misclick?

[/ QUOTE ]

They have designed the software to avoid accidentally selecting the wrong action. There is one exception, when you go to fold and you are the last action, you can either fold or "fold & show". Because of the proximity and shape of the fold & show button on the screen, many people accidentally fold & show when the just wanted to fold. It's a little awkward when it happens but everyone eventually gets the hang of it after they've shown the table that they're chasers or bluffers.

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I forgot about that. I did that about 1/2 dozen times.

[Rick Nebiolo]

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

[/ QUOTE ]

Well the first two (along with other problems) led to the last problem.


[/ QUOTE ]

Not really. Most of the customers for the main poker room don't valet park and the door they enter is all the way on the other side of the casino. The epoker room can't even be seen from over there. On a typical 12 hour session from say Saturday 3pm - Sunday 3am I'd guess there would be 20 customers that would pass by the etables from the main poker room and only 2 or 3 would ever sit down.

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I misunderstood what you meant by "customer flow". I agree that the room would have done better in plain view of the poker area. But the first two problems were still a big part of why they didn't retain customers (which is how I initially interpreted customer flow).

~ Rick

[Dennisa]

I still believe the strength of these machines are to run efficient live Sit n goes and satilites. Its to the players advantage as their would be no tipping. The casino would only need one floor to run 4 of theese concurrently. As the sng gets down to 2 players, they can move it to a heads up table and start a new one. SNG's are very popular online, due to the vig only being 9% at most sites. I think you could run these profitably in the casino for about 12-15% and bring in a new segment that is not currently playing live poker.

One point, is the setup that HP was using for their sng's was not very good. 800 starting chips and 25/50 or 25/25 starting blinds. More chips should be used, they turned into a crap shoot very early. I think the old party structure for SNG would of been perfect. Levels of 10 hands or ten minutes. Also their was no need to color up chips, its a computer it can account for odd chips.

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
I still believe the strength of these machines are to run efficient live Sit n goes and satilites. Its to the players advantage as their would be no tipping. The casino would only need one floor to run 4 of theese concurrently. As the sng gets down to 2 players, they can move it to a heads up table and start a new one. SNG's are very popular online, due to the vig only being 9% at most sites. I think you could run these profitably in the casino for about 12-15% and bring in a new segment that is not currently playing live poker.

One point, is the setup that HP was using for their sng's was not very good. 800 starting chips and 25/50 or 25/25 starting blinds. More chips should be used, they turned into a crap shoot very early. I think the old party structure for SNG would of been perfect. Levels of 10 hands or ten minutes. Also their was no need to color up chips, its a computer it can account for odd chips.

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I think Hawaiian Gardens could do nice $110 (current is $113 with $3 getting you extra T100 and covering dealer tip) SNGs and enlarge their already decent but perhaps not thriving SNG section. Put in about two tables and make the structure so that it lasts about as long as the live dealer tables.

That would give eTables a fair shake.

~ Rick