Thursday, March 21, 2013

Riviera Poker Room Offers a New Spread

My latest column for Ante Up Magazine is online and you can read it here.

It will probably be another week or two before it starts appearing in poker rooms around the country.

8 comments:

  1. i mentioned this on my blog weeks ago, no one was interested. thats probably how either u or the magazine u work for found out since mark didnt seem to want to promote it.

    ive never seen it once going when ive looked of bravo live, but i usually look at a different time of day.

    if he really cared about getting players, hed try not to price the lower bankrolled players out of the room. moving the games to 1-3 from 1-2 severly decreases the people who want to go play there, but because it makes the pot reach $10 more often for the $1 rake, he cant see the forest for the trees. that had a huge effect on why me and others quit going in there. and only the guys with lots of money who were vocal about it still go. same way with the $4 straddle. i was really looking forward to nitting it up in the spread limit and making easy money, til i found out about the straddle which infuriated me, and then realized i couldnt affford the game. so i never once came, and im sure about 100 others agreed with my feelings and also didnt come, and about 10 people probably didnt mind the straddle and play that game now still. 1 guy i hang out with a lot too wont come because of the straddle, the straddle is there for one reason only, to increase the rake.

    mark is the same as any poker room manager who wants to keep his job. his main concern, as is everyones, is increasing the rake, not in bringing in new players. sorry but i speak the truth, lets see if rob has the guts to print the truth

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    1. Tony, your final comment is illogical. By increasing the number of players in a room and therefore expanding the number of tables being utilized, the total rake is increased at a much more rapid pace.

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    2. Tony, the first I heard about the Riv/Team5 promo was when they sent it in to AVP so it could listed there in both the cash games and tournaments section. I work for AVP and in fact it is my responsibility to enter just this kind of information on the site. So the info about the promo was sent to me for input.

      When I read about the promo, it occurred to me that this might be something I could use for my Ante Up column, so I reached out to Mark and did the interview with him for the magazine column.

      The spread limit game is only scheduled to run the times listed, so if you look at Bravo at other times, it's unlikely you'll see it (tho of course they'd be happy to spread it any time there was enough interest, I'm sure). Every time I've checked when it was supposed to be running, there's a game going. I just checked now, and at 12:30 AM Thursday nite/Friday morning, it shows that the game is running.

      I would also like to point that I offer no opinion on the game, never having played it (tho I do hope to give it a try soon), but my column for Ante Up is not an opinion column. I would never present an opinion in it one way or the other. It is meant to provide information to the reader as to what is going on in the Vegas poker scene. I'm sure some people like it and some don't, and time will tell whether or not it lasts. Personally, I find it encouraging that poker rooms are trying new things and new games to try to get players in their doors.

      Oddly enough, I seem to recall that when I was driving you around town last summer, I expressed my own bewilderment that a room that struggles to get players in like the Riv has 1/3 instead of 1/2. I don't remember you giving the explanation that you gave in the comment but I admit that could just be because of a faulty memory. I guess every room has to make that call balancing more players vs more rake if that's really the reason for it.

      I hardly think it is a criticism of Mark that he wants to keep his job! Perhaps as someone who's never really had a job, you just can't relate. It seems to me that Mark has a really tough challenge, trying to get players into his room considering the location of the Riviera and the fact that it's been 25 years or so since the Riviera was a destination resort.

      My impressions of Mark from my contact with him, both at the TBC event at the Riv last year and in my professional dealings with him thru AVP & Ante Up, is extremely positive. He is a very nice guy and is really trying to turn things around at the Riv. I also believe he has been extremely kind and generous in his dealings with you. Did you see all the posts on AVP he made recently defending you against the many attacks you received? I would be a lot more appreciative and respectful of Mark if I were in your shoes.

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    3. Thanks Lightning, good point, of course.

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  2. rob, im only pissed off, because i would like to play that game, (and to buyin $50 other times of the week and play the NL game due to cheap rooms (with the $25 in the coupon book that is reimbursing most of the $40 (with resort fee) room costs in the form of a BJ match play. But because the blinds are now $1-3 instead of $1-2, and the other game i was looking forward to playing instituted that $4 straddle, now i cant afford either game, so now i have to miss out on the freerolls, the aa promotion, etc.

    and i never posted about the team 5 promo. ONLY about the 20 spread limit a while back, and was wondering when it was starting up. i do feel like Mark is a nice guy, thats why i wish i could afford to play there. I feel like pricing people out of the game, implies they arent really welcome unless they intend to play loose for big money.

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    1. Well, I certainly think they mean for the $2-$20 game to be an action game. Not for everyone.

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  3. I'm glad the Riviera is trying something new. I was there last October and there was hardly ever a table going, cash or tournament. It wasn't like that a few years ago. It's always been one of my favorite places so I hope they start getting their player base up again.

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    1. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with the Riv poker room that getting a steady stream of players wouldn't cure. As I said, the problem is their location; they are just too isolated where they are. The only other casino nearby is Circus Circus, another struggling room. The Stratosphere, which I believe is a fairly busy room to the north, isn't really in walking distance.

      It's a long ways off, but perhaps when that "Asian-themed" resort opens where the Stardust used to be, that will help.

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