Before I get into this, let me say that I had a pretty good weekend there. Making the final table plus doing very well on their full-pay PickEm video poker will do that! I only mention this so that nobody thinks any of the Jeers sound like sour grapes - especially the last one, which is a whopper. And away we go......... CHEERS - for such a beautiful facility! I sure didn't expect that. Their St. Ignace operation is nice but this place is gorgeous! It's not over-the-top like some billion dollar Vegas Strip resort but is a quietly classy lookin' place, indeed. JEERS - for such lousy signage leading to the casino, then in the parking lots directing people to the proper areas for hotel, casino, etc. Signs are small and really easy to miss, especially on a rainy and gloomy late afternoon. As we drove around the parking lots trying to figure out where the hotel entrance was located, we stumbled across Monkeysystem doing the exact same thing, so it wasn't just us who couldn't figure it out. CHEERS - to Ina, the promotions contact person for the BJT players. When we arrived, we found that our room reservation had been incorrectly entered and we were stuck with something that we hadn't requested. We dropped our bags in the room and went to pick up our BJT packets, ran into Ina & explained what happened, and she hopped right on it immediately. It took her probably 15 minutes of begging and cajoling the hotel people on the phone but she got it fixed. Excellent customer service!!! CHEERS - for the BJT value with a little Jeer mixed in. Kewadin BJT's are a very good deal, not that expensive considering the prize fund and the meal coupons and cashback bonuses given to the tournament players. However, that's marked down considerably from the Outstanding rating of previous years because they've cheaped the value in small increments until it's not that great any more. I simply do not understand why they took away the inclusion of the Sunday night room in the package. Why on earth would a casino want to chase people away on Sunday afternoon when it's obvious that most of 'em are gamblers? I'm 100% positive that a bunch of rooms were vacant that Sunday night, so it would have cost them almost nothing to keep gamblers in the house who were already there. CHEERS - for not only having some decent video poker to play, but also for at least trying to have extra BJ dealers on hand for the mobs on Saturday night. Ignace should take note of this as their video poker selection mostly sucks (!!!) and they have shot themselves in the foot at every BJT I've attended there because they always have excuses instead of available BJ dealers on the big night. At Ignace, we spend a lot of time sitting in the bar nursing a beer because the VP is horrible and you have little chance of getting a BJ table seat. At the Sault, we were gambling! CHEERS - for making their first round tables 3-advance. Here's a tournament staff who knows that someone who makes it beyond the first round will feel some satisfaction and be a lot happier about their BJT experience. Too many casinos lately have gone to all 1-advance tables, probably with the misguided notion that getting gamblers out of the tournament and onto the casino floor is good business. The problem with that idea is that a huge majority of them are unhappy about their experience and likely won't be so anxious to return for another BJT. It's tough enough to get new players hooked on the game without the discouragement of being booted out of the tournament as quickly as possible. You can shear the sheep many, many times but you can only skin 'em once. JEERS - for the handling of the semifinal round. At that point there are 30 players left in the tournament and it was supposed to be 6 tables of 5 with one advancing to the Final Table, joined by top losing chip count player from that round. Unfortunately, somebody dropped the ball and they only had enough equipment to run 5 tables! So, they made it 6 per table, one advance, plus the top TWO losing players. BOOOOO! As Monkeysystem mentioned in the other "Sault" thread, both of the high losers came from the same table so your chances of getting that high-loser seat is dependent on little more than which table you drew. A much smarter way to handle this would be a drawing from all entrants for the wild card seat(s) because many of the players departed immediately after being eliminated - and therefore were not gambling! Most would have stuck around after elimination waiting to see if lightning would strike and they'd get the free pass to the Final Table. CHEERS - for the overall very, very smooth operation of the tournament. For a house which hasn't hosted a BJT in an awfully long time (if at all), things ran quite well. Other than the aforementioned screw-up with the semifinal tables, the bumps in the road were minor but that is going to happen in any competitive event of this size. Great job! JEERS - to the hotel staff, and here's where a generally great experience went straight to hell in a handbasket and is going to keep us from returning to the Sault ever again - unless they do the right thing, which hasn't happened yet despite a lengthy exchange of emails. Bruce and I got a room with a leaky, noisy commode. Internal leak, so it wasn't making a mess, but it would gurgle and drip and then refill itself every 45 seconds or so. ALL NIGHT LONG. We went to the hotel desk on each of the first two mornings to request that they send maintenance to fix it, but it didn't get fixed. At checkout after three nights of little sleep, we requested that they eat the piddling $40 on our bill but got stonewalled on that as well. Not even an apology. Believe me, it's not about the $40, it's about seeing some respectful treatment after such an experience. A hotel without a casino would fall all over themselves to make things right. If they do the right thing, it's highly likely we'll return. If they don't........................ Comments, good OR otherwise, are welcomed. Fire away!
JEERS - to the hotel staff, and here's where a generally great experience went straight to hell in a handbasket and is going to keep us from returning to the Sault ever again - unless they do the right thing, which hasn't happened yet despite a lengthy exchange of emails. Bruce and I got a room with a leaky, noisy commode. Internal leak, so it wasn't making a mess, but it would gurgle and drip and then refill itself every 45 seconds or so. ALL NIGHT LONG. We went to the hotel desk on each of the first two mornings to request that they send maintenance to fix it, but it didn't get fixed. At checkout after three nights of little sleep, we requested that they eat the piddling $40 on our bill but got stonewalled on that as well. Not even an apology. Believe me, it's not about the $40, it's about seeing some respectful treatment after such an experience. A hotel without a casino would fall all over themselves to make things right. If they do the right thing, it's highly likely we'll return. If they don't........................ Comments, good OR otherwise, are welcomed. Fire away! [/QUOTE] One thing for sure is that a good nights sleep is essential at these tournaments and we were robbed of that after nicely asking to have the problem resolved. It is not rocket science that comes into play when fixing a leaky toilet. They should have the staff on hand and the parts "IN F****** Stock" to fix these simple issues! It would have cost them less to correctly fix the problem than to eat the little hotel bill that we tried to get them to do. Maybe hiring some competent maintenance people would be a real good idea. Lets not forget that running water at a broken toilet waste a considerable amount of water, and according to them they are trying to conserve water by not washing towels and sheets only at the customers request! One thing that Lefty forgot to mention, which disturbed me severely was that when I went up to the room one afternoon the maid was there making our room up. She had the dirty coffee cups which we used in the sinks, and the hot water was running into them to rinse them out. This appears to be how she cleaned them. I looked in the hallway at her cart and did not see any dirty or clean cups on the cart. Next time I am bringing my own cup. This method she was using wasted even more water and in my opinion was gross to say the least! Is there a dish soap shortage that I am unaware of? DRSLYR :flame:
Jeers I have had very good experience with Kewadin, Ina and Diana both. As to the hotel room problems, this is managed by the tribe and they do not have a highly skilled workforce in these regions so you hope for the best. Managment has never been their strong point. But that being said I still like and respect them very much. I thought the Tourney went great, much to my surprise, as it was their first BJ. Tourney. Their great games and machines make up for any shortcomings. CP
Good Experience Overall it was a good experience for Sunstar888 and me. Like Lefty and Slayer, we had glitches with the hotel room, though ours were not as severe as theirs. It was a thoroughly great time! The BJT forum community had a great showing. This tourney is seasoned player-friendly and the BJT'ers' results reflected that. I especially liked the change to the three-advance format in the preliminary round. If they do away with the bad feature of putting two high count semifinal non-advancers into the finale this would be a truly first class tourney. This tournament bucks the trend we've seen of dumbing down the formats. Other casinos use rules like power chips, one-advance tables in every round, and no max bet limit to dumb down their tourneys. Casinos that dumb down their tourneys think that's what the local players want, and also they hope to discourage seasoned players from traveling to their tournaments and dominating them. However, the local players like the skill-friendly Kewadin format and their tourneys sell out. How many dumbed down tourneys have we seen sold out? Not many.
Just so that everyone is clear, I liked the BJT very much, and would have even without my good results there. Well run, good competitive rules, decent value. It was the hotel operation that set me off, not the tournament! :whip: Yes, she certainly is, and is obviously a highly patient, tolerant, and understanding woman. :laugh:
I was quite favorably impressed! The quality of this venue was almost shocking! A truly beautiful place with good games, very good entertainment options, nice hotel (if you drink enough you don't hear anything!) and a well ran GOOD VALUE event. The nice gal that was in charge during tourney play (Virginia, I think) did a fine job and was pleasant (as were the dealers I encountered). I didn't meet Ina but she obviously knows how to head up a quality event! All in all, I can't wait for their next one. The experience makes a long drive much more tolerable. Also, getting to see so many many nice people again is always rewarding along with meeting some more new ones adds to the enjoyment. Billy C
The future I just received an email from Ina stating that they would be running two tournaments next year----------no details (let's hope they're both the same size purse or bigger)!!!!! Billy C
Wait a Min.!! Billy C....... Hmm................ Ina sends you a private email,,,eh?????????????????????...Hm... Ina is a Canadian...........................a Canadian women..hmm,,,,,wonder if there is some connection here??????????????????????? Billy C ends up on the final table.....HMMMMMMMMMMMM-----COINCIDENCE......or maybe more?? I wonder if she has ever played VP at Ignace??? CP
Unfortunately, it IS just coincidence!!!!! By the way, thanks for your hospitality at the Soo. You are most kind. Billy C
Hate resurrecting old threads but need to update on our situation with the charges for that noisy room at the Soo. After a whole lot of emailing back and forth about it, they relented and credited us back for the charge. Finally.
Good!!!!! Glad you brought that up! It's just around the corner (September 11-12) and for some reason, none of my past backers are answering the phone! Billy C
