MGM's Enhanced Parking is a Steep Hill to Climb

(You didn’t really think I’d talk about my first live experience with MGM’s new “enhanced parking” policy and do it in fewer than two posts, did you?  Do you not know me?  This is part 1--Part 2 is now posted and can be found here.

Twitter is a wonderful thing, and once again I urge you all to get on it and follow me.  For one thing, imagine the fun of seeing yours truly trying to fit a blog post into 140 characters or less.  And besides, it seems that a certain huge internet company that shall remain nameless is doing it’s gosh darn best to keep it a secret whenever I have new post up.  So following me on Twitter is may be the best way to know when I’ve got something new for you to enjoy (following me on Facebook works for that too).  

Twitter started allowing tweeters to tweet polls.  I always wanted to try one and the other day, I finally came up with something to survey the public about.  Of course, it was about me.  Specifically, I had four ideas for my next blog post and wasn’t sure which one to do first.  So I polled my Twitter followers. 

The problem is that each possibility had to be described in a few characters (25 I think).  So I couldn't really explain the ideas clearly and that may have skewed the results.  Also, only 36 people voted (but honestly, that’s more than I expected!) so I dunno how representative it is.

Anyway, the four options, exactly as I presented them, and the results, were:

Why I playedwhich tourns – 8%

3way all I won w/ 0 out – 25%

Update on MGM parking – 33%

Dlr shafts player purposely – 34%

The “winner” has been published and can be found here (here’s a secret, I was gonna publish that one first anyway cuz it was the easiest to write and I was running late).

For awhile, the MGM parking post was leading and I think it actually finished tied, but to make it add up to 100%, Twitter had to pick one to give the extra percentage point to.

I was surprised, I really thought based on some other comments that people were tired of my MGM parking rants.  I guess some people can never get enough.  Truth is, nothing could stop me from talking about this now that I’ve fully experienced MGM’s “enhanced parking” in all its glory. So I’m glad there are some people who actually do want to read my report.

You can find my previous posts on MGM’s new parking policy here, here and here.  Now as I mentioned last time, I qualified for my MLife Gold card and am entitled to free parking (both self and valet) at any MGM property in Vegas—at least for the time being.  So this will not be a post about how much I hate being charged to park at MGM casinos.  Note:  I still hate that anyone is charged to park at a casino where the whole idea is to get you to come in and lose several mortgage payments playing games of chance where the odds are stacked against you.  But let someone who actually is stuck paying write that rant (since I’ve already done it).

I’m just going to explore the mysteries, the wonders, the inconveniences and the sheer awesomeness that is MGM Resorts International's “enhanced parking.”

When MGM announced they were going to charge for parking, the actual fee they would be collecting was only one issue I had with it.  The other issue was the inconvenience and delay of both entering and especially leaving a giant parking garage while waiting for people to pay or present a validated ticket to exit.

I remember last summer I parked in Binion’s garage downtown.  I busted the tournament around midnight and collected my usual min-cash.  I had parked on like the 6^th level and by the time I descended down to the fifth level, I ran into a solid wall of traffic trying to exit the structure.  It took me 20-30 minutes just to get out of the damn garage that night.  It wasn’t just that they had only one exit lane and one attendant there (who probably once called Benny Binion “Sonny.”)  It was also due to the fact that once past the gate, cars had to wait a long time for pedestrians and cars to pass to enter the street.  It was a huge fustercluck, and I could only imagine that it would be a lot worse at the MGM properties.  Even without gates and such, exiting the MGM on a night when there’s a concert or a fight can be a mess.  Now, adding the fact that everyone is going to have to stop and pay or enter a ticket to exit was sure to make it a lot more chaotic.

But as the system was set up, they made it all computerized.  There is no one there to take your money.  You have to pay before you get in your car to exit.  There are signs all over the garages that say “Have you paid for parking?”  I suppose they could be accused of rubbing it in but that is not the purpose of the signs.  They don’t want you to be the poor schmuck who gets to the gate and doesn’t have a paid ticket with which to open the gate.

There are actually three ways to open the gate to get in, and three ways to open it to get out.  To get in, you can just pull a ticket that comes out when you push the button at the gate.  Pretty standard.  If you have a valid NV driver license, parking is free (for now), so you can pull your license out of your wallet, and run it under a super-market style scanner, which should confirm your local status and open the gate.  Finally, there’s a totally different slot for you to insert your magic MLife card, and should you be worthy, the gate will magically open for you.

For exiting, the driver license and MLife card work exactly the same way.  But if you’re one of those unworthy schlubs who must pay, you had better remember to visit one of the kiosks right inside the garage (next to the casino entrance) and pay the piper.  I really didn’t explore this since it is beneath me, having been designated one of the 1 percenters by the MGM gods.  I assume the kiosks take credit cards and cash, but honestly don’t know.  But you better have inserted your ticket in the machine and figured out a way to have the machine bless your ticket so it will open the gate when you and your car try to open the gate to get out of the garage.

I arrived in town just a few days after they started enforcing the new parking rules.  Of course, there was much confusion among the visitors and employees alike.  They had a bunch of (presumably temporary) employees at all the gates to help explain what people needed to do to get in and out.  They would even insert your MLife card or ticket for you, or wave your license under the scanner for you.

Still, it was rather chaotic, especially early in the trip.  Before I got there, I recalled seeing a tweet from poker guru Ed Miller that said something like, “Hey, MGM Resorts….the 15 minutes it took me to get into your garage was 15 minutes I wasn’t spending money in your casino.”  Heh heh.  Leave it to Ed to point out when something is –EV.

Aside from the general chaos, it seemed that at every entry/exit point that had more than one gate, one of them was always closed for a malfunction.  I saw this almost every time, and there was usually a long line of people trying to get in or out of garage.  Fun stuff.

Now, my own very first experience with the new system took place on my first night in town, at the Mirage.  Why Mirage?  Well, there was an unofficial PokerAtlas/Ante Up mixed game scheduled for that night.  Alert readers will recall that I’m not really a fan of mixed games but I did want to be social and join my friends and colleagues.  That was also the night of game 6 of the NBA finals, so I stayed in my room and watched the game before heading over to the Mirage.  Thus, I was too late for the mixed game; it was already full.  Aw, shucks.  I was sociable with the group and then went ahead and played 1/2 NLH. I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to write a blog post about that game in the future.

But this is a post about parking. At that point, all I had was my feeble MLife scum-of-the-earth card that they just give to just anybody. I was a member of the cool crowd but couldn’t prove it.  Now, as I drove to the Mirage, I assumed that my old card would be read by the machine as a Gold card and therefore I would be let in as the royalty I am.  But I wasn’t sure.  .

As it happened, there were two entry gates to choose from, and both were working (I think one of the exit gates was closed).  I picked the one that had the fewest cars waiting (by a factor of one, I believe).  Now here we come to one of the issues of the new parking system that I had already heard about from the 2+2 forums. They were complaining about the locations of the gates at some of the properties—notably Aria, if I recall.  The gates at Aria—and here at the Mirage—were on a steep hill.  So you would have to be at a dead stop on a steep incline to get a ticket or insert your card or whatever.  And then when the gate opened, you’d have to climb that hill from said dead stop.  And people were understandably worried that if the car in front of you had a manual transmission, it could easily roll back right into you before the driver was able to get it in gear and navigate the hill.

Hell, my car has an automatic and it started to roll back when I tried to drive up the hill from the dead stop after the gate opened.  Once inside, my friend Don, who was in the mixed game, asked me which gate I used. I told him and he said the other one—the one he used—was even worse, because that one not only had the same incline but also had a big speed bump right there in front of you where you stop for the ticket.  And he said his car’s tires were spinning like crazy before he was finally able to get over the speed bump.  Really great design!

Anyway, before I got past the gate, my main concern was opening it.  There were a couple of attendants there helping other people—none were free.  There were already a few cars stacked up behind me when I pulled to the gate.  I wasn’t sure my crummy old MLife card would work—or how to insert it.  I didn’t want to delay the people behind me any longer than I had to trying to figure out.  I guess I sort of panicked.  I knew—or at least thought I knew—that pushing the button and pulling out a ticket would open the gate.  So I did that.  And sure enough, pulling the ticket got the gate open, and then I managed to accelerate enough to climb up the ramp and look for an “enhanced parking” spot at the Mirage.

As I walked into the casino, I noticed all the kiosks there where people are supposed to pay for parking.  I wondered if, inasmuch as I had a ticket, I would have to visit one of those kiosks to get my ticket validated, even though I presumably wouldn’t have to pay.  There was a kid—and I do mean a kid, not sure he could actually go into the casino—helping people using the kiosks to pay for their parking. I really just wanted to go to a machine and read any instructions I might need.  But the kid asked if I needed help, and I told him I had pulled a ticket out even though I was sure I was qualified for free parking—I just needed to get the right card.  He said in that case, I wouldn’t need the ticket, or the kiosk, I should just be able to insert the card at the gate and it would open.  Then he said if that didn’t work, I might have to put the ticket in first, then put my card in.

OK….I would have felt better if he looked old enough to vote, I suppose.  I headed to the Mirage poker room, and after saying hello to everyone, I went to the podium with my plain vanilla MLife card and explained that I believed I had qualified for gold status and thus wanted a new card.  The woman up there checked and confirmed I was indeed entitled to the magic gold card.  She made a new one for me.  To my surprise, she gave me back my old card and said something like, “You should just keep this gold card in your car, and carry the old one with you to clock into games.  The gold card only matters for the parking.”  Hmm…..I hadn’t thought of that.  Then, just for fun, I asked her if my old card would have opened the gate.  She surprised me by saying no.  Really?  The machine that opens the gate reads the color of the card?  There’s some extra coding on the strip of the card that only is there on the right color card?  Well, it didn’t matter, I was “in” and although I could have tried to use my old card to get in or out any time after that, I never thought of trying it.

In fact, I didn’t leave the gold card in my car, I kept it in my wallet and stuck my old card in a draw.  It dawned on me that if my car was stolen while I was parked at an MGM property, having my card in there would let them escape too easily.  If I didn’t leave the card in the card, they’d be unable to open the gate to make their getaway.  They’d have to ram the gate to get out, and damage their new stolen car.  Hmm…..maybe I didn’t think that one through too well.

Anyway, when I was ready to depart, I followed the kid’s advice and just inserted my newly minted gold into the machine (after a false start or two inserting it the wrong way) and viola….the gate opened!  I felt like I’d won something.  So I still had the ticket I’d used to enter, which I decided to keep as a souvenir of my first “enhanced parking” experience.  Yes, I still have it!

The next night I parked at New York New York and this time I would try out my new Gold card to try to get into an MGM property.  In the past, I’ve parked at NYNY a lot.  There are a couple of places I like to eat there, and I think that the MGM poker room is about the same walking distance from the NYNY parking garage as it is from the MGM parking garage.  So if I’m going to eat at NYNY, it’s always been pretty convenient to park there.

Until now, that is.  I arrived early evening and there was of course a line to get to the gate.  And at NYNY, that gate is up a much steeper incline than the one at Mirage.  I don’t recall a speed bump, but man, I really had to floor it to get going forward once I had figured out the right way to insert my gold card to get the gate open. And yes, I was rolling back before I started going forward.  But the card worked fine once I figured that out.   As I was waiting my turn in line, I noticed a much, much longer line of cars waiting to get out.  These cars were all pointed downhill—again, a very steep hill—and I sure didn’t want think about the possibility that someone at the gate couldn’t get out for whatever reason, and you’d have a mass of cars trying to back up that hill trying to get into another lane to exit (assuming there was another lane open).

As I was driving up the parking garage, I noticed what appeared to be a brand new entry/exit point for the garage that never existed before.  I made a mental note to investigate when I was ready to depart.  It was on the second or third level of the garage and I had no idea where it might lead to.  But when I was ready to exit, I drove up to it and it appeared to be a legitimate exit (and entrance) that I could take.  There was no one in line (either to get in or out), and, remembering the line I had seen exiting at the “normal” exit earlier, I decided to take my chances and take this new exit.  To where, I wasn’t sure.  Ah, the thrill of discovery!

The gates were of course at the top of a steep incline, but at least the waiting line to exit (if there was one) was on level ground.  Only the entry would present a steep incline to navigate.  As soon as I approached the gate, card in hand, the gate mysteriously opened all on its on, without my having to insert a card.   OK, cool.  But keep in mind that I didn’t have to insert my card to exit, that will come into play later (in part 2).

It turned out that this exit lets you out onto Frank Sinatra Drive.  Now this is pretty inside baseball, but Frank Sinatra Drive is kind of a secret street located between the Strip and the I-15.  Once you know about it, you can use it as a shortcut to get to some Strip properties’ parking areas.  You do have to be careful because once you get on it it’s not that easy to get off of it.  Unless you live in Vegas, or go there by car as often as I do, the first time most people discover it is by accident when they make a wrong turn. And if you visit Vegas and never have a car, you may never encounter it at all.  Anyway, it took me a bit out of my way but it was no big deal.  Much better than exiting NYNY by the regular exit, at least in my mind. 

And that will do it for part 1.  Part 2 is now posted and can be found here.

Poker And the Infield Fly Rule

Special thanks to Chad Harberts for providing the content—however inadvertently—for this post.  Chad responded to my previous post via Twitter (please see the “revised” post here, down near the bottom). Don’t worry, I’m not talking about that again!  I’m done talking about the dealer and the exposed card!  Two posts and about three changes of mind is enough.

But after Chad tweeted to me saying I was right all along, he sent a follow up tweet that got us on an interesting Twitter conversation.  Remember, Chad is a long-time dealer and poker room floor person.  Anyway, I’ll interject some thoughts about our convo, which I’ll reprint below.  That should flesh out the post.  After all, if there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s taking something that should take 100 words to write and turning it into a 1,000 word post.

Here we go:

Chad: “There is no sport in America where the players know the rules less than in poker.”

Rob: “lol..Please explain the infield fly rule as it pertains to poker.  J”

I was just being silly.  Of course, I ignored the fact the fact that Chad referred to poker as a “sport,” which I don’t agree with.  No point in bringing that up when Chad was clearly on my side in the matter at hand.

The “infield fly rule” came to me because, just the day before, I happened to be watching a baseball game and saw an instance where I actually thought the infield fly rule should have been invoked.  It was not, and I realized that either I had forgotten more about baseball than I thought, or I never understood the rule it in the first place.

You see, the infield fly rule was a running gag between a long time friend and me that goes back decades.  This is actually a friend I am now estranged from.  But he was never a sports fan and one time he heard someone talking about the infield fly rule and asked me to explain it.  This was before Google.  I did the best I could, and because he didn’t really understand baseball, he never got it.  But he would throw it into random conversations as something that made no sense (to him) for years after….pretty much until the time a few years ago when we stopped seeing each other.

Thus when I thought the rule should have been invoked in the game I was watching, it was the first time I’d thought of the rule in years.  And so, it was fresh on my mind when Chad mentioned a sport where people don’t understand the rules—it was the first oddball sports rule that came to mind.  I was just making a joke, but to my surprise and delight, he took me semi-seriously!

Chad: “A bets 10. B calls 10. C raises to 50. D goes all in for 70. Player A asks if C can reraise. What's the dealer answer?”

Rob: “C can't raise unless A or B raise first.”

Chad: “The correct dealer answer is, ‘I'm not going to answer that question with multiple actions pending.’”

Aha!  I thought Chad was just testing my knowledge on what qualifies for a raise in a NL game.  He was really testing me on dealer protocol.  I bet a lot of dealers would not get this right.

Rob: “But if action is on A, doesn't he have the right to ask that question (and have it answered) before he acts?”

Chad: “No, the answer gives extra info to Player A and B, especially B, which is unfair to C. Players should know the rules.”

Chad: “Too many dealers think they are part of the game. They are not. They are simply facilitating the game.”

Rob: “Interesting. If there was no B in the hand, ok to answer?”

Chad: “I believe you can answer then. Though players should know the rules. With multiple actions I would not answer.”

Chad: “The All in for less than a full raise is poker's infield fly rule.”

OMG.  I was suddenly howling with laughter and delight.  Chad had actually accepted my challenge and had come up with something in poker that was somewhat analogous to baseball’s infield fly rule.  It was fantastic, and pleased me no end.  I knew I had to ask Chad if I could turn this thread into a post. 

Our conversation continued for a bit.

Chad: “I was the dealer in this hand. Not only did A and B not know the answer, C didn't either. A called, B folded. C called.”

Rob: “Did C try to raise?”

Chad: “No. He asked when it got to him.”

Rob: “So he wanted to raise...or that was an angle and he wanted A to think he wanted to raise.”

Chad: “My take was he honestly did not know. He was sheepish about asking.”

Rob: “All part of the scam. J”

Chad: “Could have been. But it was a game where you could tell some of the players had never played poker in a casino before.”

And there you have it.  Chad took me up on my silly infield fly rule challenge and taught me something about how a dealer is supposed to act when I player asks a question.  How many of you got it right?  I know many of the dealers I had just on my last trip, many new and temporary dealers just brought in for the summer series, would have gotten it wrong.  Did you?

Bonus points for knowing both the poker rule and baseball’s infield fly rule!

Apparently, I Was Wrong

My last post received some great reaction.  Virtually all of it telling me I was wrong!  I am tempted to tell you not to read it, and I'm tempted to actually take it down off the blog.

But I won't do that.  Oddly enough, my being so wrong may helped make it one of the most popular posts I've ever done!  Seriously.  It got more page views in a day than 95% of my posts do.  

Besides, I'm going to try to explain/apologize for it, so you need to read it if you haven't already done so.  You can find it here.  And be sure to read all the comments ripping me apart for it too.  That's the fun part.  

My friend Grange was the most prolific, giving an item-by-item destruction of my position.

What can I say?  I can't be right if everyone tells me I'm wrong, can I?  So yeah, the old guy who was too busy eating his food got what he deserved.  I apologize not only to my readers but to dealers everywhere who were tarred with my unfair title.  Apparently, there was not an irresponsible dealer to be found.

In my defense.  I don't think I made it clear enough how the dealer was, to my mind, denying info to the player.  I probably didn't use enough words.  I'm used to using more, that's for sure.

I won't defend my position again, I will just try to explain it a little better.  When the card flipped over, and the dealer grabbed it as soon as he could,  he made no effort to show anyone at the table the card, which I believe is standard practice.  He stuck that card on top of the deck as fast as he could. Other people could have missed it as well, I just know for sure that most of us saw it and a few commented on it.  

Now, he didn't have to say, "Hey (Seat 2), the Ace of spades is exposed," but he could have (should have?) said, loud enough for the old guy to hear it, "Exposed card," and if the guy didn't want to turn around to see, then for sure, tough on him.  But he seemed to want to keep it a secret.

My feeling at the time, based on body language, the look he gave me, even the way he held the deck before he put the card down as the burn card, was that he was making every effort possible to keep the guy from seeing exposed card.  Also, there was his comment, when someone asked about it, "Let it go."  I took that to mean in no uncertain circumstances was anyone to say anything about the exposed card.

It just felt to me that he was going out of his way to punish the guy.  I didn't make that clear, and I apologize for that, and even if I'm right (and it's just a feeling), I certainly understand the position you all have taken..."you snooze, you lose."  I did mention that myself in the original post.

Anyway, that's it.  I guess I'm saying that the previous post is void.  But I hope you enjoyed it and my humiliation anyway.

EDITED TO ADD....STOP THE PRESSES!!!  Apparently I was premature in throwing in the towel.  Almost immediately after posting this and tweeting out the link, I heard (via Twitter) from two damn good sources that I was right in the first place.

First, Sean McCormack, The Director of Poker Operations at the Aria, tweeted back to me,  "As an industry person that runs a room I will say-You were 100% correct in your OP. 'You snooze you lose' is invalid."

Then Chad Harberts, long time poker dealer, floor person, and blogger,  tweeted this to me:  ."you are not wrong in any way.  When I deal an exposed card I announce the card at the table and put it face up on deck."  I will point out though that the dealer did have the card face up on the deck, but based on positioning, I don't think the player had a reasonable chance to see it.

Thanks to both for chiming in.  I guess I just gave in too easily.  But I'm not going to say much more.....clearly this is open to interpretation and was also based on my open read on what the dealer was trying to do.

Final note:  The pic below is presented entirely for my own amusement.  It is such an inside joke that I am the only who gets it.  But I need to make myself laugh, so there you are.