What the smartest Vegas poker boss will do.

[MrMore]

1. Move from 10-handed tables to 9-handed. More hands per hour, and more action per hand. Short handed games play faster and looser. 9-handed isn't much shorter or faster, but since when do suits not want small benefits?

2. Switch from deep-stack to mid-stack or small-stack NL. IOW, switch to LA-style NL. 5/10 with $500 buy-ins. Much more action, much more fun. I don't think anyone in Vegas spreads games like this.

3. Jackpot, NL seperate pool. Some Vegas joints offer this. All but the B should.

4. Free food. Or, $3/hr comp rate. Be GENEROUS to your customers. Make them feel like kings while they're losing to you. Every penny you save them, you get anyway. They're almost all playing to the extent of their disposable income, so a dollar you save them on food is one more dollar they have to play with.



Okay, ALL these suggestions, ex. the food, are hugely anti-nit. But no smart poker boss worries about the nits in his ear (and if you've even been a poker boss, you know they really are in your ear with their stupid NIT suggestions and whines). Ignore the nits. Nits follow action. So, get the action. And action WANTS action. They WANT big blinds relative to the buy-ins. They WANT jackpots. They WANT more hands per hour. They WANT to be able to play looser, and play with people who are playing looser. And the difference in looseness between a 5/10 NL with $500 buy-ins, and a 2/5 NL with $1000 buy-ins is HUGE. There's a reason Oceanside has the toughest games in SoCal, and the Commerce the softest. Be like the Commerce.

Most importantly, stop trying to be like the B. I can't understand why there are so many pale versions of the B. The B is different, but it seems like all the Vegas poker bosses look at the city's most successful room and think: let's do what they do. [censored] what they do. Give them an endrun. Throw them a curve ball.

Cliff's notes: someone in Vegas should run an LA-style room.

[Bishop22]

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someone in Atlantic City should run an LA-style room.

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[Ghazban]

Midstakes NL games with very low caps would never last in Vegas IMO.

[Rick Nebiolo]

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Midstakes NL games with very low caps would never last in Vegas IMO.

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Disagree. An under-performing room with foot traffic and enough players to start games (but not enough to go to capacity) would do well with something even more extreme than the LA fixed/spread buy games.

For example, I'd try 5-5 blind with a $100 fixed buy. Put it near the rail. Call it "TV style all-in poker" or something similar. Must be felted to rebuy. Make it super easy (i.e., not embarrassing and very convenient) to get another hundred in chips. Put the promotion money into things that attract the casual gambler, not the local nits.

I think the games would look like the $20 buy (with $1/$1 blinds) or the $40 buy (with $1/$2) blinds behind the bar at Hawaiian Gardens. It's party city and the most packed part of any casino in LA.

~ Rick

[punkass]

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For example, I'd try 5-5 blind with a $100 fixed buy. Put it near the rail. Call it "TV style all-in poker" or something similar. Must be felted to rebuy. Make it super easy (i.e., not embarrassing and very convenient) to get another hundred in chips. Put the promotion money into things that attract the casual gambler, not the local nits

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this sounds like a great game that I would rarely play, unless i wanted to gamble. I like low variance play. But this game may be good to get the high action players in.

[pig4bill]

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Midstakes NL games with very low caps would never last in Vegas IMO.

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Disagree. An under-performing room with foot traffic and enough players to start games (but not enough to go to capacity) would do well with something even more extreme than the LA fixed/spread buy games.

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You mean sort of like the Luxor had? That was pretty much a flop as I understand it.

Most of the players in Vegas are tourists. Most of the players in LA are not. I think most tourists don't want to pay for a jackpot they have almost no chance to win. I certainly don't.

Food comps? Meh. Most tourists don't even know there are comps, so it certainly doesn't affect their choice of casinos to play in. Comps cost the casino money, so if they raise their comps, they have to pay for it somehow. If one casino raises comps and it's successful in increaisng it's market share, everyone will follow. End result - no advantage for that casino, yet they have to pay for those comps somehow - likely through a raised rake.

As a Vegas tourist, I just want them to keep it simple. Give me a decent place to play, no comps needed other than maybe a poker rate, no jackpot, no gimmicks.

[cmurl904]

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someone in Atlantic City should run an LA-style room.

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I was gonna post that exact statement.

Borgata is huge like an LA room (85 tables), but they wouldn't shake things up like that. They've been pretty successful thus far, and won't make any changes. But, by 2012 there will be three new (Revel, Pinnacle, MGM) luxury casino/resorts in AC. If they have each have big (40 tables +) poker rooms, Borgata may be forced to make some changes. We'll see....

[Bishop22]

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someone in Atlantic City should run an LA-style room.

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I was gonna post that exact statement.

Borgata is huge like an LA room (85 tables), but they wouldn't shake things up like that. They've been pretty successful thus far, and won't make any changes. But, by 2012 there will be three new (Revel, Pinnacle, MGM) luxury casino/resorts in AC. If they have each have big (40 tables +) poker rooms, Borgata may be forced to make some changes. We'll see....

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The Borgata has done little if anything to promote AC poker, the Taj was a better representative when they were the leading room. With so many struggling rooms no one wants to take a chance. You want to fill your room: good totally free food (ala Commerce/Wynn), small cap NL games, and pester the NJCC until they allow stradles, buying the button and chip runners doing fills/players checks. WTF we can't even play triple draw..it's freakin' illegal in a poker room!!!

[Max Raker]

I don't really think bad beat jackpots are good for the room since they are so rarely hit. I have spent a decent amount of time in poker rooms with alot of tables and I don't think I have ever seen one hit. I think these may work to bring in the regular locals but a tourist sees a super high number like that and knows he pretty much has a 0% chance of winning.

What does work I think is having high hand jackpots. Make them small, a few hundred or so, and have a board that resets every 5 hours. Maybe pay the top three hands. I have seen quite a few tourists who were about to leave stay another 4 hours or so to see if their quads hold up for a couple hundred dollar prize.

[Poshua]

IIRC, the Wynn does have 9-handed tables.

I seriously doubt that a $3 comp rate would be +EV for the casino. Raising the comp by $2 in a room with 180 players on 20 tables costs $360/hr. Hourly rake is probably something like $3 avg. rake x 30 hands/hr x 20 tables = $1800. So, that's 1/5 of your poker income down the drain as additional comps.

It's not even good enough to draw another 36 players to open four new tables and generate $360/hr more in rake. Not only do you have to comp those players, you have to provide dealers and floor staff, and serve them drinks. You'd probably have to boost traffic by more than 50% to make this drastic rake increase worthwhile, and I think that'd be a tall order.

I also think it's untrue that Vegas customers are "almost all playing to the extent of their disposable income."