Tales of Poker from the Luton G - 2013

[celtic]

Just remembered. Why has fb stopped being used to advertise? Also, the g is the only card room that has it own thread on the forum. It's seems to be under used at the moment.

[Drain Alien]

LOLZ vin. Great point Re that Drainy fella.
Wat a  toss pot.

[Drain Alien]

RE the G's downturn, George has two problems:

1. Despite his good intentions, he clearly has no support from mamagenent.
2. Bad news breeds bad news. People hear or read that the players are going elsewhere, so they themselves go elsewhere.

We have only been once recently and based on the poor turn out dont intend to return any time soon.

I would imagine they were losing money overall via the GTEEs, which is why management have stopped them.

What they fail to realise is that me not going will kill their bar action. Q1 takings will be massively down!

Gg G.

[Chompy]

Will see if I can make it to that 15k tournie in March.

During the last GUKPT Festival, the place was rammed for the 6 max event.  Now I realise that these events are very hard to organise because of dealers, but would it be possible to have a monthly 6 max?  If the BI was 150/200 I think that as 6 max is so rarely offered live it could bring in a lot of new blood.  

Keep seeing spamming on FB about this 25/25 series.  Is this likely to come to Luton?

When I first starting coming to Luton there were 3 events that I enjoyed.  I think on a Wednesday is was a 50 turbo/Friday a 75 and a Sunday was a 100.  These all got very good numbers.  I personally find the tournies on offer not really worth traveling for, and it seems that the rival room in Luton has mainly lower BI comps.  Do you think that pulling away and trying to go for higher BIs could help.

BTW I know this sounds a bit silly coming from someone who rarely comes to the G now, but as I can't guarantee that a game will be running I may as well go play in London.  Even Reading now has ok-ish 1/2 action.

Exactly the same as Scotty for me, I've only been once since Xmas. There's just nothing to play any more; the structures on Friday and Sunday are not good.

[ripple11]

The 7.30PM start time has worked out well, and I certainly don't think you can attribute that aspect to a decline. It is ultimately, and understandably, the removal of guaranteed prizepools that has impacted upon the venue.

Significant, mostly, because Genting capatalised on the occasion by putting guaranteed prizepools on their competitions. While I can understand the appeal to the player, it is worth noting that the stance was that it was better to make it known that we weren't guaranteeing our competitions as opposed to having to remove them in the event of something occuring beyond our control - this ultimately being severe weather conditions that caused us trouble the same time last year.

We've never not honoured our guarantees, and while it is not likely appreciated it remains something that we alone in Luton are able to say.

That being said, March is a new month and it will see an end to the most extreme of the weather conditions.

We're kicking it off with our £100 NLH with a guaranteed prizepool of £15,000.

Day 1A - Friday 1st March at 7PM
Day 1B - Saturday 2nd March at 4PM

25,000 chips. 40 min clock. Playing for 10 levels. Alternates for 6 levels. Re-Entry allowed.

Day 2 - Sunday 3rd March - 2PM.

Just seen this......Nice one .

 Day 1b on a Saturday and day 2 on Sunday fits well with me.

[celtic]

Will see if I can make it to that 15k tournie in March.

During the last GUKPT Festival, the place was rammed for the 6 max event.  Now I realise that these events are very hard to organise because of dealers, but would it be possible to have a monthly 6 max?  If the BI was 150/200 I think that as 6 max is so rarely offered live it could bring in a lot of new blood.  

Keep seeing spamming on FB about this 25/25 series.  Is this likely to come to Luton?

When I first starting coming to Luton there were 3 events that I enjoyed.  I think on a Wednesday is was a 50 turbo/Friday a 75 and a Sunday was a 100.  These all got very good numbers.  I pery find the tournies on offer not really worth traveling for, and it seems that te rival room in Luton has mainly lower BI comps.  Do you think that pulling away and trying to go for higher BIs could help.

BTW I know this sounds a bit silly coming from someone who rarely comes to the G now, but as I can't guarantee that a game will be running I may as well go play in London.  Even Reading now has ok-ish 1/2 action.

Exactly the same as Scotty for me, I've only been once since Xmas. There's just nothing to play any more; the structures on Friday and Sunday are not good.

Friday's structure is very good. Its now 8k + 8k, and has been for a couple of months. And Sunday is better, now the long levels have gone at the start.

[Mohican]

The 7.30 kick off works well. In fact, it was requested by a lot of players, through the players/management group. It means comps finished an hour earlier. The late finishes were putting some people off attending.

What happened to the players/management group? I took part in one very productive session, with some good changes implemented. We were promised a copy of the report, which I never did see, despite giving up my own time to attend. There was then another session lined up, that I was not invited to. I'm not sure if there have been any held since then.

As to the current problems in the card room, there are numerous reasons for that. The weather doesn't help, but can't be held responsible for the drop in number, nor can it be used an excuse by the decision makers to just drop the guarantees. I doubt that's even the real reason the guarantees were dropped in the first place.

We are almost through the second month of no guarantees. What's the plans for March? I'm guessing as George hasn't mentioned in his post above, then it's only the monthly deep stack that is gonna have a guarantee? So that will be a third month of absolute shite at the G.

I obviously don't know the figures, or what the overlay in guarantees was for last year, but surely there has been a loss of income suffered in the card room since the turn of the year? The cash games are an absolute joke, and it seems nothing has been done to address this. Having a 25/25 game is laughable. It killed the 1/2 game, and on Friday, which is normally a decent night for 1/2, we couldn't get a game going. There was one 1/1 game, and although the rake for the casino was probably still the same, it is stopping punters attending, as they know there will be little chance, if any of getting a decent cash game.

Even when big events are held at the g, there doesn't seem to be enough staff on duty, to cater for the needs of the customers. Most noticeably at the recent APAT event, there were 20 people waiting for a cash game to start for two hours, and no dealers to start it.

I like to think I've been a decent supporter of the card room for a few years now, and I've always been quick to defend it, either on here, Facebook or elsewhere. Events of the last few months have left me unable to defend it much more. Too many regulars, who barely spend anything are happy to sit there and moan about the place, and advise others where the good value comps and cash games are, are still being treated well because management are scared to get rid of them. And then make ridic decisions in their favour, because its the easy option.

Last Friday, the comp was set up wrong, for whatever reason. When this was pointed out, I was laughed at by one member of staff, who said nothing could be done to change it. It turns out that this was not the case, more a reluctance to change it. I asked to speak to one of the managers, but was unable to, as they were both in meetings. Even when they were finished from their meeting, neither had the decency to come and ask what the problem was, but sent raj over to deal with it. The same person who laughed at me on Friday, then laughed again, and did nothing tonight when I reported clear collusion between two people. Then stood there and watched as I argued the point with one of the people involved.

I've heard nothing good about the g from anyone recently, only people moaning about how bad it's got. When are the management going to do something about it? Are they even bothered what happens to the card room?  I get the impression they aren't.

I feel sorry for the staff, I really do. They are a great bunch of people, who are good at what they do. Apart from the spanner that sits and grins, and shrugs their shoulders when things are complained about.

What's the plan for the league in march? And who's decision was that in the first place?  100 points for beating 70 runners on a Friday, and 100 points for beating 10 runners on a Wednesday? Genius. Even the comedy blonde league was run better by chompy, in fact, it was run better by drainy. And we all remember what a complete arse he made of that!

Sorry to rant on, but I'm sick of seeing the place the way it is, and no one seemingly cares, or wants to do anything about it. Get rid of the dregs and start rewarding the people that go there and want to see the card room doing well.

I was one of these. Ended up playing a self deal 1/1 cash game. By then the wait had lost some enthusiasm, spent an hour or so losing half my wedge and stood up having not enjoyed the experience. I not been since and have cancelled plans twice to come play the cash games,partly because of this.

[scotty77]

It has always surprised me that cash games aren't given more of a push there.

Jim McShane offered a great suggestion saying that there should be 1 dealer/table who is ready at a table with chips ready to sell to players so they can get started ASAP.  So many people can't be bothered/too tilted to wait around.

[luther101]

It has always surprised me that cash games aren't given more of a push there.

Jim McShane offered a great suggestion saying that there should be 1 dealer/table who is ready at a table with chips ready to sell to players so they can get started ASAP.  So many people can't be bothered/too tilted to wait around.

Precisely   ....

[Rockstar]

G casino`s have seen an increase in footfall,spend-per-head,food and drink revenue,Gaming machine takings, in what are clearly the most difficult of times currently

The only side of the business to have seen a decrease in revenue? You guessed it the "Card Room"

Card rooms generate by far the least ammount of revenue to Rank Leisure,Food and Drink takes nearly double the ammount the card room generates accross the board

If you look at the ammount of room a card room uses,theres a hell of a lot of dead space there doing nothing,with Luton`s G granted the licence to expand its Slot Machines and Gaming tables how long will it be before the card room is dramatically reduced in size to accommodate the new, larger Gaming areas?

Granted,it appears they dont take into consideration the "Chandra" effect of losing at poker and doing 4 k in 20 minutes on the tables,but people like him are few and far between nowadays

I dont think the number crunchers at Rank see poker as long term sustainable income for their business model,looking at tournament numbers in general, with or without guarantees they may have a point,they would probably sight the GUKPT`S decline as an example of why poker isnt currently top of their list for investment and growth

[77dave]

Tournaments for Show, Cash Games for Dough.

Tournament reg fees arent enough to pay the bills in any cardroom, im sure even DTD will testify to this, Vic doesnt really care for them, any normal comp they run they get over as quick as they can. So where does a poker room make its money from, well its the cash games obv. So why doesnt the G know this?

They dont have enough dealers because they cant afford dealers as the room doesnt make enough money.

Twice this week i have seen full table cash games closed down as the dealers have to go home as they cant be paid overtime. They can afford to have 8-10 dealers for hours on end losing money to run the tournament, but when it comes to the cash game which is now finally running after people waiting hours for the game to start and generating a profit for the room they decide to close the table down. It doesnt make any sense and as we always say, it wouldnt happen on blackjack or roulette so why does it happen in the poker room.

Its so easy for a room to lose its reputation both in cash games and tournaments and it is a very hard thing to get back. Personally i never understand why all the promotions run by a card room are done for the tournament players and nothing is done to promote the cash games, after all this is where the profit is made.

The cardroom has been turned into a social club by too many people recently and the room has done nothing to stop this. People spend the night in the room with no money in their pocket, just there to shelter from the rain and drink free cups of coffee. Staff spend their time looking after people who arent generating any money for the room, until the policy of the casino changes from looking after the correct people instead of just trying to get anyone in through the door.

When a room gets a rep for a hot action cash game word gets round quickly and the game can grow fast. Personally, if i was running the room id ban certain players who kill games as they refuse to play short handed, and are action killers in the game, the room should run the game not certain players that kill the action and play when it suits them.

Im sure that management are unaware of 99% of the problems in the cardroom and im sure they see the room as a burden. Id love it if on any given night a manager had to spend the whole night in the cardroom to see the issues 1st hand. To see them as they happen and not just have to deal another poker player moaning at them making complaints.

The room needs someone in it with the power and authority to run it on a daily basis, George gets crapped on from all angles in my opinion and doesnt get the support that he needs. Either give him his head and let him run the room as a manager or bring in an actual cardroom manager to run the room. Too often recently an issue has come up in the cardroom and as the staff running the room dont have the authority to answer the response is, if its an issue for you take it up with a manager.

[luther101]

Adey: Poker players eat, drink, and gamble on the house games      .....      Grosvenor Magagement seem blissfully unaware of this fact!

I went to the G last night (only for the Omaha) and - bar a fair turnout in the card room - the pit staff outnumbered the punters, and all those rows and rows of shiny, flashing, beeping, burping machines weren't earning a dime.

As for the GUKPT     .....     a classic example of downright Grosvenor gross negligence.

They had the Premiere Tour in the UK, and through sheer bloody incompetence allowed the opposition to surge past them!

    

[77dave]

Oh and when is that waste of time, space and money live stream table going to be removed?

[luther101]

Jim - I agree with much of what you say     ....      but you seem to 'overlook' it's the comps that bring the punters in, not the cash tables!

But the rest of it - yup spot on.

I've lost count the amount of times I've shrugged my shoulders and gone home, because there was no dealer 'available' (on one occasion we watched as two dealers went to 'lunch', and were told to wait till they came back - six cash players immediately left).

Further, I've lost count the amount of times 'there was no dealer available'    ....    but there were two 'runners' as well as a Card room Supervisor whose duties appeared to be gazing at the computer monitor on the desk.

I've regularly been in cash games that were shut down early      ....     only to walk past groups of pit staff - sans punters - standing about doing bugger all in the early hours.

They won't pay the staff overtime in the card-room - but they won't get the 'unemployed' pit wallahs to multi-task!

Sums it up really.

[77dave]

Jim - I agree with much of what you say     ....      but you seem to 'overlook' it's the comps that bring the punters in, not the cash tables!

But the rest of it - yup spot on.

I've lost count the amount of times I've shrugged my shoulders and gone home, because there was no dealer 'available' (on one occasion we watched as two dealers went to 'lunch', and were told to wait till they came back - six cash players immediately left).

Further, I've lost count the amount of times 'there was no dealer available'    ....    but there were two 'runners' as well as a Card room Supervisor whose duties appeared to be gazing at the computer monitor on the desk.

I've regularly been in cash games that were shut down early      ....     only to walk past groups of pit staff - sans punters - standing about doing bugger all in the early hours.

They won't pay the staff overtime in the card-room - but they won't get the 'unemployed' pit wallahs to multi-task!

Sums it up really.

i think that used to be the case but not any longer, in terms of the comps bringing in players to make the cash games. The comp buyins  are so small that players turn up with enough money in their pockets to cover the buyin and a sandwich. When the cash games do run these days its made up of a high % of players that have come just for the cash game, or maybe played the comp waiting for the cash game to start.