MESKWAKI - Cheers and Jeers

A review of the Meskwaki BJT experience follows. CHEERS for the good and JEERS for the bad - with a few RASPBERRIES thrown in for the really stinker stuff. If y'all like this sort of thing I'll try to do more of these after future BJT's at other venues. If not, that's OK and I won't spend the considerable time to make notes and type it up.

Feel free to fire away with your own opinions!

CHEERS - The tournament operation. Yet again, the considerable organizational work that had been done to insure a smooth running event was obvious. Sure, a couple of bumps in the road came up but that's going to happen when you've got over 200 people in any type of competition. Sara and her staff did a real bang-up job on it, with the exception of a few dealers who would occasionally forget that they are dealing tournament and not the regular table game. From my own experience, I know very well how difficult it is to run something of this size and make it work almost seamlessly. The folks who run these things deserve all the praise they can get.

JEERS - The insurance rule. They'll let you insure up to the full value of your bet, instead of the normal 1/2 value. This creates a situation where you can actually gain when the dealer has paint under the Ace. Almost nobody has a clue how to use this to any advantage, the vast majority don't understand it - and that includes the dealers! Plus, it gets even more absurd - I found out that the reason for this goofy rule (and for the idiotic 2:1 BJ) is that they don't have any chips smaller than the $25 minimum bet. NOTE TO STAFF - Get some $12.50 chips made up. Come on, it won't cost much and it's going to avoid a massive headache for you. Somebody sooner or later is going to get screwed out of a lot of prize money because of this silly rule, and it's most likely going to be one of your local players - who will proceed to tell everyone he knows how he got cheated. FIX IT!

RASPBERRY - The dealer tipping scandal. Please tell us that you didn't skim off over 10% of the advertised prize fund for tips without telling the players? No response as yet from BJT officials and this one thing could sink this tournament. Very few of us would be upset that the dealers were getting a fair share for their considerable efforts, but you should have told us you were doing that!!! This is bad - very bad - and continued silence from the officials is only fanning the flames.

CHEERS - The casino staff. All of them - bartenders, cleaning people, dealers, waitresses. The casino staff was friendly, helpful, and tried to show genuine gratitude to those of us who came to play the BJT. In fact, they did one thing that I have never, ever seen on a casino floor..... We had 6 folks in our group who wanted to play $5 BJ. No open tables with that many seats, except for one lone $10 table with nobody playing. When the floorman overheard our conversation with the dealer about what we were trying to find, he strolled right over and changed the sign to $5 - and thanked us for asking. Can you imagine that? In a casino? Customers asked for something and GOT IT? What a concept. They were rewarded by our entire group sitting there for 3 or 4 hours while there was always an empty seat at a $10 table elsewhere.

JEERS - Trashing the video poker. By removing the PickEm, they turned the Meskwaki Casino into a VP Wasteland. I know it cost them a ton of action because everyone I knew there played a lot less than in previous visits. One person I know didn't bet a single dime the whole time, and my "action" was down 80%-90% while most folks I know were similarly holding back. If you want side action while at a BJT, I'll oblige, but give me nothing but crap to play and I will stiff you. I sort of feel sorry for the Table Games folks who ran the BJT, because they are running this tournament to get gamblers in the house. Their numbers probably dropped a ton but it wasn't their fault - it was caused by the Slots people. Removing the Pickem was probably the brainchild of some MBA-toting Forrest Gump wannabe who doesn't understand gamblers at all. That's usually the case.

CHEERS - The complimentary dinner and breakfast spreads for the BJT players. YUM! Great stuff and lots of it. Although I missed those awesome shrimp from last time (replaced by butterflied & fried shrimp), that's just personal preference. They made us feel welcomed and valued. THANK YOU!

JEERS - The buffet. UGH. I think some of it had tire tracks on it, or still had whip marks from where the jockey was hitting it a month earlier. Some of the items we saw on the salad section were literally rotten. Did this stuff come out of the same kitchen as the excellent comp spreads they laid out for us? Hard to believe.

CHEERS - The Cafe style restaurant. Slow as hell but really good stuff!

CHEERS - The hotel rooms. Nothing fancy but they were clean, updated, and very comfortable. Even the climate control works without sounding like a jet plane taking off. THANK YOU!

RASPBERRY - The hotel operation. :flame: Somebody needs to be taken out to the woodshed for how they treated the players. I know of one couple who were paged (in the casino) to the front desk, where a supervisor snarled (?) at them that "since you couldn't be bothered to check out, you need to get your luggage out of the room right now." Problem was, their reservation wasn't over until the next day. Once this was straightened out, there were no apologies offered. Deb and I had our own problems and we weren't the only ones. If two BJT entrants shared a room, they received two coupons good for a free room night. We immediately used one of ours for the extra night (Sunday), but they still attempted to charge us for that night at checkout. Time wasted standing there while they fixed their own mistake. Many of the hotel staff seemed to view the BJT guests as a pain to be barely tolerated - a 180 degree turn from the casino staff attitude.

CHEERS - to the Host whose name we didn't get but took it in stride when we were waiting at her office when she arrived on Monday morning. Still polite, helpful, and professional despite the fact that she didn't even have a chance to set her purse down and guests were already waiting.

CHEERS - for the Comment Cards laid out for us to use. Not only were the cards there - the staff was actively urging players to use them!

And finally.......
CHEERS - to Deb, who made it all the way to the semi-finals! :cheers:

 

Good Job

You've missed your calling Lefty. You're really good at this critiqueing (sp?) thing!!!!!
And yes, this would be a good thing to have in the forum after all events. I think Sarah may visit this site and other directors probably do too.

Billy C

 

Thanks, Billy! I, too, would like to see more reviews of BJT's here (although maybe not to that level of chatterboxing :laugh.

 

great job left. have to agree with your comments. do not want to sound like a nit picker. we had a slight problem with the hotel sending a worker to the room wanting us out of the room at 11 am on sunday. went down to the front desk and got it worked out.

yes, the buffet sucked. the cafe was actually good. did have a run in with the buffet manager about using a coupon. she was really rude and loud. was instructed to write a comment about her at the players club. sounds like this person has had an attitude problem before.

the plus. still one of the best open tournaments in the land. yes, the toking of the dealers is a negative mark, in not telling us. i learned something after playing a 1000+ tournaments. and that is to ASK from now on.

sara jones made us feel welcome. there was a little trouble with the shuttle service on monday. five of us almost did not have the sevice to the airport. between her and a casino host, they got it worked out.

would i return, if able? sure!!! still, iowa has some the the nicest people i have ever met. it was great seeing you, deb, and monkey. here's hoping we can get a local tournament with a big enough prize pool, so that you and others can find your way to the seattle area.