*** OFFICIAL Borgata Opening Weekend Thread ***

[cockpit]

If you're a low limit player and want a pleasant atmosphere in a B&M, the Borgata's new room is great.

If you're a Borgata regular and like to have the "home court advantage" you'll love the place.

But if you are a serious mid-limit player I would recommend that you avoid the Borgata, because although the new room is "the nuts," the floor personnel still suck.

I thought I'd give the Borg another chance today. Here are some lowlights from the floor. The details of the cards are irrelevant to the stories.

1)5-10 NLHE. Three players are all-in on the flop with over $3k in the middle. One player gets disgusted with the turncard and walks pretty far away from the table. Plenty far enough away that the dealer should muck his cards. Instead dealer just deals out the river card. Two remaining players showdown. Dealer then asks for the departed player's cards. A player not in the hand turns them up out of curiosity. Departed player hit a miracle one-outer for the best hand. They have to yell to him to get his attention. Floor awards the pot to the player who had departed the table.

2) 5-10 NLHE Borgata regular is heads-up against guy I know who is a Taj regular. About $250 goes in by the flop. Turn goes check, check. Borg regular leads out for $75 on the river. Taj regular ponders while holding 5 green chips in his hand. Taj reg announces "raise. $200." Borg regular screams that the Taj guy had waved his hand with the 5 green chips past his hole cards before announcing the raise, therefore it's a string raise. Dealer didn't see it and the floor is called. (Note that in A.C. you must bring out a full raise for it to count, i.e. if you only bring out $125 it is not a full raise in this case and the player can't go back for the extra $25). Borg regular loudly makes his case. Taj player says nothing. Based on A.C. rules, the floor has one of two choices: it's either a call for $75 or a raise to $200. It's obvious the Borg regular does not want to make a call for $200. The floor decides the Taj regular's bet is a raise to $150, an amount that was never one of the possibilities.

3) This one involves me. I return from my dinner break and get on a few lists. The $20-40 HE game is the shortest list and I'm number 2 on it. About 15 minutes later the list has grown to 7 names and the first name is called. He skips and then I am called. I am standing right next to a floorperson and he radios to lock up the seat for me. I already have my chips in hand and make the 30 second walk to my table. By the time I get there "SJK" is called for $20-40 HE. I get to the table a couple of seconds BEFORE "SJK," who it turns out had requested to move up from $10-20. It's obvious that SJK knows the floorpeople involved. The floorperson, Crystal, shows me her own list she is keeping for the $20-40 game and says that SJK is ahead of me. I point out that her list doesn't match the board posted in the room for all to see, that she doesn't have my name on her list at all - so it can't be right and how does she know if I am behind SJK?, and that my story can be easily verified by asking the two personnel who called my name and radioed to lock up my seat. Crystal insists that her list is right, which means the list everone else in the room is using is wrong. But she offers to put me first on her list for the next seat! No thanks. I'm not sure what it takes or how much it costs to get my name on Crystal's private list, and I'm not interested in finding out.

Bottom line: if the bottom line matters to you, if you care whether you win or lose, avoid the Borgata's Poker room. Because sooner or later a "home court ruling" is going to go against you. And it might be more than just an irritating seating decision. It may be a table decision that could cost you a lot of money.

[Slubrad]

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Yes, as your approaching the entrance to the Borgata, you'll see the large road signs with arrows directing you to either garage/valet parking or surface lot. Ya cant miss it.

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I was planning on hitting the garage (instead of letting the car sit in the sun all morning/afternoon as it has no A/C) but when I saw the "SURFACE PARKING" on the big green sign that directs you to the Borg off the connector expressway I remembered reading Bishop's post and hit it up. You absolutely can't miss it, unless you autopilot into the garage or valet without looking up. I can see it filling up quickly once it becomes well known and during high traffic times.

To get out, go towards the gate where you entered, turn left until you hit the back wall, then follow it right.

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I parked in my usual spot(parking garage,2nd level to the back) and its quite a jaunt to the new poker room.I was seated at the front of the room and couldn't tell if the pleasant aroma was from WolfGang Pucks or the Cafeteria.
With penny slots right across from the poker room, no need to search the whole floor for the better half.Plenty of room between tables. I beleive they had a Omaha hi/lo 2-4 game going on Sundau night..

[ScottHoward]

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Bottom line: if the bottom line matters to you, if you care whether you win or lose, avoid the Borgata's Poker room. Because sooner or later a "home court ruling" is going to go against you. And it might be more than just an irritating seating decision. It may be a table decision that could cost you a lot of money.

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yeah, cause this doesnt happen at the taj, or trop, or any othe rpoker room in the world

[Bishop22]

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I beleive they had a Omaha hi/lo 2-4 game going on Sundau night..

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Tonight they had a 4-8 O8B half kill which I believe makes for a better game than 5-10 full kill becasue of the pot size. I cleaned up at a lag-tarded 10-20 HE ($500 in 2hrs) so decided to donk it up at omaha. VP$IP was somewhere around 70 the whole night and we saw a few flops 8-way for the cap (I had A2s each time) and ended up netting another $290, which isn't bad for a 4-8 game.

Two names on the 10-20 SHOE tonight and there were a few ppl interested who were playing in the Omaha game but I couldn't make it happen. I guess my dream of a mid limit O8B or mixed game is over for now.

[Bulldog]

Crystal sucks. Complain to Stan. I have and so has at least one other person I know of.

[cockpit]

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yeah, cause this doesnt happen at the taj, or trop, or any othe rpoker room in the world

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This is a thread about Borgata. But since you brought up the other rooms...I visit Taj about 15-20 times a year. Not often enough for them know me as a regular but often enough that I have a good sense of how they run the room. I have visited Borgata about 5 times total. Why? Because I have found it very, very rare to see an unfair ruling/treatment at Taj but I've witnessed it almost EVERY TIME at Borgata. It can't be that I always seem to find Borgata when they are having an off day.

There's no debate over which is a nicer looking and more comfortable room. But when I'm playing pots for up to $1k or more I don't want to risk getting taken advantage of by a biased floorperson.

[DrewOnTilt]

I have never seen so many stud games in my life. $500-
$1000 game had a WAIT LIST last night. Is this going to be the nail in the coffin for the Taj? Heh, good riddance.

The room is awesome. There are a few kinks in the system, but the staff will work them out eventually. This place rocks.

[mike4]

autoshufflers?

[CCx]

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autoshufflers?

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in every table.

[Bulldog]

Okay, here is my trip report to the new room. Maybe this can serve as a fix while the city is locked down!

I went to AC with my friend John for the day Sunday. We cruised down the PA Turnpike, the Schuylkill Expressway, and through the city no problem, but when we hit the ACX there was trouble. We jumped off at Exit 43 and got back on at Exit 12 about 35 minutes later, so even if it was a bad decision it couldn't have been too bad. We got to the Borg at about 11:30 and snagged a primo surface space. I rode the outdoor escalator because that's just how I roll.

We went straight into the impressive new room. They had open seating for 1/2 NL, making my decision easy. I went to Table 27 where I parked it for the next eight hours. John hopped on the 2/4 list and only had to wait 10 minutes or so.

My "sup bro" went unreturned so I knew I had a soft table. I was immediately nicknamed "Vince", either because of my striking resemblence to Vincent Chase or because of this:



I played badly for about four hours and was down $275 at my lowest point. A couple key hands got me back in business. One interesting hand was raised to $7 UTG, one caller, an all-in for $62, and I called from the SB with AKo. One of the $7 players called and we were three to the flop of 874. Check check, turn a 6. Check check, river a 7. Check check one more time, and MHIG! (Can you guess the other two hands?)

Another was $12 to the flop five or six ways. I held 88 and flopped T86. I fired out $30 and got called in three places. Q on the turn, I fired out $51 and got called in all three places again! (One was all-in for $44.) I had $102 ready to bet when the board paired, but a 4 on the river caused me to lose my nerve. I checked and it checked through, and again, MHIG. I didn't see any of the other hands.

Last interesting hand: I have 98s, at least four to the flop of 988. There is a bet of $10 (maybe $14 pot?), a raise to $30, and I call the $30. Before the bettor can act on the additional $20 he is facing, the dealer deals the turn, a 9 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]! I quickly protest that the action isn't complete and that the 9 has to be replaced. (In hindsight, this certainly made it look like I had an 8 but no 9.) The dealer agrees, and pulls it aside to shuffle in after the turn. The $10 guy decides to fold, and the dealer puts a J on the turn. Opponent bets $60 and I call. After the shuffle, the dealer comes up with the 9 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] again. It is checked to me, and I bet $100 even though I figure I'm chopping this pot. I get called by K8 however, which makes sense after I thought it through. He put me on an 8, quite possibly a weaker 8. When the board paired 9s, he had to call figuring he had a chop.

Anyway, enough about the poker. Since the room is bigger, a few good dealers were promoted to the floor. That meant that even more new dealers were needed. With just a couple exceptions, every new dealer I had was solid, and with the addition of the shuffle machines, we got even more hands out than before. Very nice. No jams or anything during my session.

Wait service was a little slower than normal--must be hard staffing up in a position with the measurements required for this one. John said he had 10 drinks in the 8 hours, so it couldn't have been too terrible over there either. (He finished up $175, BTW.)

I didn't find it to be cold at all. One of the dealers complained to the floor about it being hot, and the conversation was that it was cold Saturday so the raised the temperature a little going into Sunday.

The new chairs are very nice. The spacing between tables was also a nice touch. Instead of constantly backing into other chairs or people walking by, there was room to move back from the table a few inches or stand up.

They definitely screwed up the TV situation. They are built into the trim, which was made to be the height of the TVs. So it won't be easy to get bigger TVs. They are probably the same size TVs as in the old room, but these are 30 feet off the floor instead of 20. While the high ceiling is nice, it sucks for viewing sports (what's that score?).

I miss seeing the wait lists on at least one TV on the main floor. They are visible behind the high limit podium, the tournament podium, and the main podium.

I also miss the big board with the sports scores and lines, but it definitely wouldn't have fit with the atmosphere of the new room.

I won't miss the thumping from Mixx at 1 AM.

I was up $475 at 7:30, perfect time to get some food and get on the road back to PA with a little driving daylight. We rounded up another friend Jason and went downstairs to check out the cafeteria. Nice. I like the white light/white wall action. Lots of choices--Tony Luke's, Fatburger, Hibachi San (?), one more Asian place, the salad place, a pizza place, a Ben & Jerry's and a juice place I think.

Jason told us about the $5 table games so we decided a little donkage was in order before calling it a day. The $5 BJ was packed but we found an open $5 Texas Hold'em Bonus table so we wasted 90 minutes and $100 each on this silly game. I went for the double-up-or-bust hand, a $20 ante which likely ends up a riak-$100-to-win-$80 proposition. I flopped two pair with my J6 on the J64 flop, but the dealer caught a Q turn and 4 river to beat me with Q8. Ugh.

A little to a lot of traffic for the first 30 miles westbound on the ACX and that was that.

In the past, there were only two reasons for an AC poker player to go anywhere but the Borg: game selection (high limit at the Taj, and Pink Chip at the Trop), and wait times. Now, the only thing missing at the Borg is a pink chip game. Add that, and fix the TV situation somehow, and it will be the perfect room.

9.7 out of 10.