Which Casino Should I Go To

[Karabiner]

A mixture. It really was awful. The Lunatics have taken over the asylum.

Banter on steroids ?

 

[Bongo]

Whats the "new dealer payment" rule?

Casino can no longer acknowledge any payment to dealers so the players at the final table have to sort it out themselves.

[tikay]

Thast's it, banter on steroids. But it was not banter, it was childish & petty arguments the whole night long. Thank goodness Kim Costa, a voice of reason & sanity, took control of the worst table & calmed things down.

Red Dog is right, who needs it?

I have well & truly nailed my colours to the Gala Notts mast, no getting away from that, but after a brief time away in the far friendlier & civilised environments of Luton, Walsall, Gutshot & Bergen, last night was like a slap in the face. I came home very down & depressed at how badly the situation had detoriated in Notts.

Why depressed? It's as easy as pi**ing to put it right, anyone could do it, but the hooligans & idiots were in full flow last night, & there were no admonishments for the offenders.

I wil continue to support Gala Notts as long as my conscience allows it - & no one man has supported them more in the media - but they need to get a grip.

Scenes we witnmessed last night would have resulted in immediate warnings or bans in Luton, Walsall & Blackpool, that's a given.

Even "de Dum-de-Doo-de-Dum-de-Doo I'll bet as much as it takes Sir" told them the answer. Take action against the troublemakers quickly, & the problem dissappears immediately!

Red-Dog openly says he dont regularly play there due to the arguments. 4 or 5 guys said last night they'd never return. How bad does it have to get before they take action ffs?

We were all given a warning before last night's comp - no shouting, no abusing players or dealers, perfect. And then it all went off.

Tough for poor Rob too, who was tearing his hair out last night, but he's the guy who's done so much to improve the place, so it must hurt him more than it hurts anyone.

Sort it, & everything will soon be cool again, & Gala Notts will return to being the place we were all so proud of.

Sorry Guys, but boils need bursting.

[Karabiner]

I suspect that the management would not support any bans due to anti-social behavour in the cardroom.

I mean other than GBH etc.

Hence the anarchy.

[Junior Senior]

IMO - if you don't care about my opinion then please don't read on.

I think Notts really need to look at what their strategy is for the way they approach poker in general. I know Rob wants to take it forward and have a fantastic card room that caters for card players and from my chats with the managers they really are taking on board feedback and looking and implementing improvements in the games on offer (and they do this proactively rather than me having to go to them - whcih is nice) but sadly what they have at the moment is a place for the action giving (roulette, blackjack etc) regulars to have a dabble at poker in a somewhat chaotic environment - and you will always get this with poker rooms located in casinos. We also need to remember that the casino is there to make money from those that enter through the doors and poker in a side room is not seen as a way to get money out of the punters pockets and into the casino coffers.

If the strategy was to focus more on poker and have a high qulaity poker room then they would already have:
1. House Dealers
2. No smoking
3. House dealt cash games at various levels of buy-in and format
4. Low tolerance of shouting regulars and tantrums (i.e imposed bans and deterrants)
5. Slower clocks
6. earlier starts
7. etc
8. etc

but because this is not the gutshot or a private 'cards only' poker room with a strict poker only focus; IT HASN'T - and we will have to make the most of it for now.

I for one thoroughly enjoy my games down at the gala and will continue to go as i appreciate there is a balance between what the moaning minnie poker player want and what the casino wants but I also do see the points of view being put forward and there is no doubt that improvements need to be made.... but you ask the tortoise "slow and steady wins the race" - you cant do it all at once! - slowly slowly catchy monkey!

i am sure given time things will improve and it will develop into more of a 'proper' card room rather than just an aside to the real action but it will be slow progress and it may be that gala decide that poker isn't top of the agenda and poker doesn't get top billing - so we will have to accept that business decision and find something that does suit our needs because as always it is the customers choice as to whether we want to attend or not. -

end of discourse. - thanks!

[snoopy1239]

Just a quick word on Rob.

I do have sympathy. He's got a really tricky job.

However, unlike some of his predecessors, he has taken pride in his role and appears eager to improve the Gala cardroom.

[tikay]

Nice post Junior, & I agree with most of it.

I am on board with softly softly catchee monkee, except for what someone described as the "anarchy".
We can wait & we will see them gradually take on board all the things we'd like to see, & they are doing agreat job in working their way through the list, we are, after all, apretty demanding lot.

But the anarchy is a different bag altogether, & it can't wait.

And yes, a big up to Rob for his efforts. he's a top, top bloke. Our comments are designed to HELP him, not criticise him.

[RED-DOG]

Just a quick word on Rob.

I do have sympathy. He's got a really tricky job.

However, unlike some of his predecessors, he has taken pride in his role and appears eager to improve the Gala cardroom.

Let me be the first to second that, when I played the 300 at Notts he was very busy but still found time to discuss the rules/structure/forthcoming events etc, he really is trying to move things forward

[TightEnd]

IMO - if you don't care about my opinion then please don't read on.


If the strategy was to focus more on poker and have a high qulaity poker room then they would already have:
1. House Dealers
2. No smoking
3. House dealt cash games at various levels of buy-in and format
4. Low tolerance of shouting regulars and tantrums (i.e imposed bans and deterrants)
5. Slower clocks
6. earlier starts
7. etc
8. etc

but because this is not the gutshot or a private 'cards only' poker room with a strict poker only focus; IT HASN'T - and we will have to make the most of it for now.

Every single Grosvenor I have been to offers this. Though very few of the Grosvenor card rooms make money for the parent, and they have their faults too

It doesn't have to be a private card club to produce it.

[Junior Senior]

well said tightend - although methinks grosvenor been at it (poker that is) longer than gala. - we'll see - sure all of my points in the list will one day happen at notts

[Nightfly]

I have been racking my brains for a couple of days now thinking how best to respond to this thread with regard to the situation on Monday night.
I am on my days off now and this feels like i am forced to think about work.

I Cannot agree with the description of a state of anarchy. Yes there was a difficult situation on one of the tables. Yes there was shouting. Yes, I didn't handle the situation correctly (Maybe there was no easy solution, maybe action was taken (it was), maybe nobody informed me why they felt that they could never return. maybe maybe maybe.....)

What is lacking here is context and perspective. So i shall try my best to fill you in.

I am often referred to as a 'card-room manager' yet i do not have management status. I am one of three inspectors who supervise the cardroom competitions. I work extremely hard to improve things in the cardroom and try to respond positively to feedback and ideas. I also take a lot of pride in what has been achieved so far. I regularly read feedback on this forum, think about it and then try to implement changes which i believe will achieve these various ends. This very often uses a lot of my private time away from work.

If the net effect of my efforts is to drive people away then maybe i am better off spending this time with my partner and beautiful 3 month old daughter.

I am not trying to be provocative or difficult here, i have just been quite upset by some of the comments in this thread.

It would be an understatement to say that there is a problem with the 'dealer' situation in Nottingham:

Some players suggest: "You should stop so-and-so from dealing, because they blah blah blah"
Anyone who plays at nottingham knows that there are insufficient dealers at the start of a competition, often leading to delays.
OK so we prevent someone who is willing to deal from dealing. What then...? Who will deal in their place?
A very capable and willing dealer, is intimidating to new players. Do we stop him from dealing or do we manage the intimidation part?

I opened the comp on monday with a reminder to players and dealers about proper table etiquette. When questioned about penalties, I drew a blank.
Yes we need penalties for certain types of negative player behaviour. But I am part of a team, and i cannot create arbitrary penalties in isolation. Consistency dictates that we must devise an effective and fair set of sanctions for different types of disruptive or unwelcome behaviour.
And so we will.

Ignoring the isolated incident on Table 3, there was an improvement from some of the main culprits. As such it was worth making the announcement.

The incident on table 3 was very little to do with this and also difficult to manage for a variety of reasons. The Primary reason is something I cannot comment upon or even acknowledge.

In order to improve the 'honesty' of the shuffle and deal, Players were informed on Sunday night that ther would be a full chemmy shuffle, at least 3 riffles and the player on the button cuts. It was my omission to make sure that everyone knew this on monday. I was concentrating on a different aspect of player responsibility. The dealer has been spoken to on a number of occasions about shouting etc.

It is the nature of a random draw that you will occasionally get a mix of people on one table who simply cannot speak to each other in a civil manner.


The situation with dealers has become difficult for us to manage as a result of a forced change in the middle of Thursdays comp. I have had to bear the brunt of this change and have not found it easy. By Monday Night and three competitions of it, i was struggling, to say the least.

I am relatively in-experienced at running card-room competitions (slightly less than a year) and i cannot always cope with everything.


Improvements take time... and things are improving. Regardless of the amount of feedback we recieve we cannot change everything with the wave of a magic wand. I am trying my best (for the moment)

A very disillusioned nightfly

[RED-DOG]

With the greatest respect Nightfly, the only comments I have seen on this forum about you and your efforts have been positive and encouraging

I don't see why you shoud feel disillusioned

[AdamM]

He probably feels disillusioned because dispite being recognised for his efforts it doesnt seem to make any differance
It's a shame that Rob feels that he's on the receiving end of crtisism here. I for one appreciate the efforts He's making and the gradual stready progress being made should be recognised.

Perhaps we could all make an effort to make our critisism more constructive from now on, it's clearly pissing off the wrong person Imo

[Ironside]

i have never been to the notts gala but from my time at blonde i have a good understanding of how well its liked and how much effort the staff are putting in. but this quoted from nightfly is proberly a huge reason why things are not improving rapidly

I am often referred to as a 'card-room manager' yet i do not have management status. I am one of three inspectors who supervise the cardroom competitions.

the notts gala doesnt think that the card room needs a manager IT DOES, one person in over all control overseeing the improvements and sitting in on management meetings. they need to promote one of the exisiiting 3 supervisors to management or hire in a new person over the heads of the supervisors.

a strong person that can fight the corner for the card room is needed


remember poker doesnt make the casino much money, but poker players filling a otherwise empty casino and leaking there money on the roulette and blackjack does.

[Junior Senior]

seconded - thirded, fourthed etc.
it is the minority idiots that go in the place and shout and scream that cause the majority of the problems - they need to be weeded out and de-testicalised.!