Four Winds - New Buffalo.

[magoo]

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All Poker Pro tables is nuts... Trust me, they are horrible and very very boring. This room is going to change quickly, take my word.. They bombed so bad in Detroit, I don't even think you can use them anymore.

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You must be one of the poker dealers, who for once, won't be headed for the "new joint" in the area. Where did the last group of them migrate? Potawatomie. Looks like the will have to stay in Milwaukee.

[tkkfan]

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All Poker Pro tables is nuts... Trust me, they are horrible and very very boring. This room is going to change quickly, take my word.. They bombed so bad in Detroit, I don't even think you can use them anymore.

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You must be one of the poker dealers, who for once, won't be headed for the "new joint" in the area. Where did the last group of them migrate? Potawatomie. Looks like the will have to stay in Milwaukee.

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No, I have played on them before and they suck. You might as well stay home. 5.00 + 1.00 bbj rake is outrageous, why pay 6 bucks when I can pay 2 or 3 online and get the same thing. I don't know if you played them before, but it's not live poker at all. You will not be able to get any "live reads" off people. Watch the table when people play, it will look like they are about to fall asleep.

[Sly Selea]

I think the heads up ones have great promise, though.

[Dr. Detroit]

Those Heads Up machines will get me to drive 3 hours at least once.

[totallyfocused]

so dissappointing, i had high hopes for the limit games there. Bad beat and have'nt even played a hand.

[SHnewbie]

Any information on the new casino's LHE games? By reading this thread, it looks like the games are computerized. Was anyone able to confirm the number of hands dealt per hour? How about the table limits that were playing? Were there quite a few games going? Any general impressions from the first day would be great.

[Biggerstack]

I know a guy who won tickets to the preview party last night and this was his review.

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Well I had a decent time tonight. I'm up $170 and the atmosphere was very nice.

They may have to do something about the entrance to Four Winds because Tim and I spent damn near an hour and a half waiting in traffic to get into the casino... I don't think they thought it out. Even if they have half the traffic as they did this evening it could pose an issue.

Now for what you've all been waiting for... and no I'm not pulling a rabbit out of my hat. The new WPT poker room is in fact all video poker with no live dealers at all. The plan is not to have any live dealers. If you've never played on a pokerpro video poker table then you're in for a treat. My very biased opinion is that any table that deals me pocket A's the third hand after I just sat down is good. I got paid on my pre-flop raise as the flop came 2 3 2 and no one called my continuation.

The two down sides to machines and no dealer is that there is no live body to direct the action. Many times in the night people were not paying attention and they had to be told by other players to act. This should not be something a player should have to do and could be a point of confrentation depending on how you alert someone to their action. The second is that with no dealer the table can be very quiet. I was fortunate enough to sit at a table with nice decent people who were just giving some basic regular talk.

The poker room staff was great and the pokerpro people were on hand. They plan to give the people what they want. If they have a good number of people who want to play 2/5 NLHE thats what they will set up. There will always be SNG available to be played as well as schedualed tournaments on a daily basis.

I counted 14 ten person video board tables as well as 8 heads up tables... yes a table with two seats where two people can play heads up tournaments.... kind of weird when you first see them but kind of cool.

Monday - Thursday there will be a NLHE tournament at 10am, 2pm, 7pm and 12am for $50 buy in with 10% ($5) going to the house... so it will pay like a 45+5

Friday - Saturday the times stay the same but buy ins go up. 10am and 12am will be a $100 with again 10% of the buy in going to the house. 2pm and 7pm will be a $250 buy with 10% going to the house.

Sunday 10am and 12am will be a $50 buy in and 2pm and 7pm will be a $100 buy in again all games are a straight fee with 10% of the buy in going to the rake/house.

These tournaments all start with 3000 chips and the blind levels are 15 minutes... I was not able to find any information on the blind levels for the tournaments.

Cash games for all games is 10% of the pot up to $3... yes thats right fans $3 which means this is the lowest rake you'll ever find. Of course another dollar comes out of every flopped hand for a bad beat jackpot. So even then the total rake is max $4.

Bad beat pot is Aces over Kings with both cards playing being beat by a better hand. The Casino has started the pot at $44,000

The whole resort is absolutely huge. They have a little bit of something for everyone. The restaurants look good though I never actually ate food there.

The WPT does own the casino. There will be a WPT stop in New Buffalo. They are also running deal that goes like this. They will be sending 10 people to any WPT tournament you choose all expenses paid. Here is how its done. To qualify you have to play 10,000 hands. That alone doesn't get you there. You have to then be in the top 10 of hands seen. So that means some people will be well over 10,000 hands but it might be incentive for anyone that might have the bank roll and time to get in those hands.

Ok so I just re-read the rules. 12000 hands gets you a jacket. The top 100 players over 12000 hands get an invite to a tournament at Four Winds. 10 people from that tournament win a $10,000 seat to any WPT tournament... any.

For me the jury is out on video poker. I had fun but it was fad fun. Eventually the fad will run out and eventually people will protest for live dealers but the video poker machines will work absolutely well for SNG's and MTT.

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[magoo]

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Any information on the new casino's LHE games? By reading this thread, it looks like the games are computerized. Was anyone able to confirm the number of hands dealt per hour? How about the table limits that were playing? Were there quite a few games going? Any general impressions from the first day would be great.

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Good looking, spacious, smoke free poker room. The joint was packed.

http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbc...template=247art

[chuckometz]

Here's my take on opening day at Four Winds. We arrived about 9:15 in the morning to the front gate and were parked and in the casino by 9:25. We were able to beat the traffic. (when we left 10 hours later it was backed up 2 miles to get in)

We got our "W" Cards right away to get the "comps" and such. They start you out with $10 in free slot play. All of the staff was very helpful and friendly while getting the card.

Next on to the poker room. Arrived and there were more staff than players. They had 4 guys playing 1/2 Nlhe and they were showing 2 guys a demo on a heads up machine. Staff again was very friendly. Have to take the "w" Card and turn it in to a poker card to be able to load money on it at the cage and to log into the PokerPro Tables. This process was painless when we got there...by the time we left the poker room was pretty packed and people were Waiting in line 15 deep to get money on cards and to cash out.

Once I got to the Nl table as it was the only one spread, a gentleman from PokerPro was right over and gave me a free hat and welcomed me and showed me how to log in. It was quite simple simply inserting and removing card, entering pin number, and telling it how much money you wanted to buy in for between 50-200.

I get logged in and someone says "Hi Charles, how are you doing?" I looked up and didnt recognize anyone at the table and then realized that the screen shows you the name of the players at the table. I thought this was a nice touch as I went into this day with very negative thoughts of these tables based upon the grief they are getting on these forums and one of my worries was that the game wouldn't be social. But this feature alone makes it more sociable than a regular table.

I think that all in all the day with the PokerPro tables went pretty smooth, it was a learning experience for everyone. I learned that some learn quicker than others. WE had a couple of 80 year olds at the table who 7 hours in still couldn't remember they had to hit the confirm button, or win the light comes on its their turn. However, knowing their names we could politely remind them that it was their turn or that they needed to confirm.

We averaged about 38-40 hands an hour. I truly feel that once people get used to the tables it will be more like 45-50 hands an hour. The rake was 10% up to $3 and $1 for bad beat if pot is over $20.

The biggest negative that I saw throughout the day is kind of a weird one. With players not having chips in hand they tended to "forget" to tip the waitresses. After 3 or 4 hours of this the waitresses understandably stopped paying as close of attention to the poker room.

As far as the games they were spreading by the time we left were 1/2 NlHE 3-6LHE 5-10LHE and 10-20LHE They had a list for a 4-8 LOHI w/kill but I am not sure if they got it started or not.

As far as the heads up machines go I didn't really see anyone play them other than demos. But I think they will be great for the times you get two cocky people going back and forth they can go duke it out at a heads up machines.

All in all it was a good day, I made a few dollars, ate some good food, got a free hat and shirt from PokerPro, and played some fun poker with some good guys and a gal who took the table for $520 and left.

[f8andbethere]

After being at the casino at noon yesterday for the "official opening" (I covered it for a newspaper that serves this area), I went back with a friend about midnight, and stayed for about 3 hours. Played for about an hour on the pokerpro tables.

Initially, I did not think I would like them. But they grew on me. The ability to instantly see how many chips you have and how many your opponent has can be both good and bad.

I would agree the play seemed loose. I was playing a cash game for the first time in my life, so I was playing a bit TAG-ish because I was unfamiliar with the electronic tables. 1/2 NLHE, bought in for $100.
One pot, I was in the blinds with AQ. Because I wanted to take things slow, I simply checked my option as it came around to me with a few limpers. I didn't hit the flop, but one guy bet out $2 on the flop. With just 2 overs, I thought, what the hell, might catch something. Well, the queen hits the turn. I check call his turn raise of $10. Blank hits the river,he bets the pot, something around $40. I called, he shows 7-2 offsuit. Later, he pushed all in preflop with 8-3, saying "my GF wants to leave, so I'm gonna gamble". Well, someone called him with Q10, so it seems to me that the electronic nature of the play contributes to a few donkeys. Since the tables prompt you, can you never really feel stupid, as you will always know when it's your turn to play. So I think you'll see a lot of new players.

So I was up fairly comfortably , and played a bit looser. Picked up KK about halfway through, and poppped it to $10 with 3 limpers behind me. All three call. Flop comes Qxx. I'm not too scared here, but with a pot of about $45 and my remaining stack being $85, I'm debating what to do. I ended up making it $50, probably an overbet, but as this was my first cash game, I was admittedly a bit nervous. I get one caller. Turn comes a third spade, and I've got the King of spades with $35 left, so I just push after he checks, and he mucked.

All in all, a pretty fun time. Contrary to other posts I've read, the touchscreens are just fine. It's easy to see your hole cards, but probably harder to make sure the guy sitting next to you can't peek. I've heard in cash games, it's not too uncommon to pop it up much more than 3x the big blind, but I didn't find this the case last night. The most it was raised was $10.

I like that you don't have to tip. One reason I've avoided poker rooms at casinos, along with the fact that most are 3/6. It's nice to have a 1/2, where I can play comfortably within my bankroll until I'm a bit more confident.

One cool touch I found was that upon taking down a pot, you could show both cards, show hi, show lo, or muck. I found many players showing hands after taking down pots with aggressive bets, apparently trying to reinforce they really had the goods. Social interaction was pretty good. On a few hands, there was discussion of the play of the previous hand, and no one was a dick about how someone played.

There did seem to be a few pretty decent players. I'm looking forward to going back. I ended up +$67, and I really think that for me, at 1/2NL that I could consistently profit.