According to their own Facebook post this morning, Meskwaki still has not sold out this weekend's BJT. :yikes: It did not say how many spots were still open.
Surprising? I'm surprised but maybe shouldn't be with the economy being what it is. I drove through Iowa about 3 weeks ago and the corn crop (big part of local economy) didn't look good. Billy C
If they had some playable VP machines they might draw a larger crowd. I'm not one to throw my money away on poor side action games. I am a firm believer in sensible side action for casinos that offer BJ tournaments. tgun
cannot say that they are trash. decent pen, decent rules, on both dd and six deck. no mid shoe entry, though. the one pai gow table game is bad. yet one can rack up table time with the slowness of the dealers. still a good tournament.
Could you elaborate on what makes the Pai Gow game "bad"? In all the casinos that I've played the game, the rules are the same except how and if a player becomes the "dealer" - and that can only gives the player a very small reduction in the overall house advantage.
1. they charge commission 2. banker button. normally the dealer gets the first hand, unless the player is banking. at this table, the first hand goes to the spot to the immediate left of the banker button, therefore banking does not change the placement of the hand. 3. dealers do not really like the game. it is slower than watching paint dry. as stated this is good if you are a local trying to get rated, not if you are actually trying to make a buck. 4. no pai gow insurance bet. 5. no super jackpot bonus bet. 6. main bet can only be made in multiples of five. 7. only one table 8. house way is unusual compared to washington house rules. 9. house just seems so worried about this one table. cannot touch your cards until the remaining four cards of the deck are racked. one cannot look into another players' hand unless their hand is set. you cannot muck your hand if you want to. 10. 25 max on fortune bonus. i guess washington players are kind of spoiled with the vast amount of no commission (even if you do not make the fortune bonus bet) pai gow play that we have avaiable. maybe if a player does not have the rules and fast play (getting out as many hands per hour as most casinos want), this game might seem normal to the casual pai gow player. the highlite is the game is good for the tournament player trying to rack up table time at little expense. hope this explains my comment in my above post.
Both right I would have to agree with both tgun and marichal. Their vp games suck. Two years ago they had Pick-Em video poker at 99.95% but it's long gone and there's nothing remotely close to that now. I've seen better BJ conditions but their's really aren't bad. As far as I know, they haven't refused any entrants because of side play (or lack of it). You may not have to give any being it didn't quite fill up this time. All in all, I'm not aware of a better tournament "value" than this one. The tourney staff is pleasant and can be reasoned with which are other positives. I don't know what everyone else has experienced but I certainly can't complain about much at Tama. Billy C
billy c; great seeing you again at tama. have to agree with your statement. as always the crew makes one feel welcome at their casino, and are very approachable. plus, the locals are very friendly. in all, a good tournament, and will come back as often as they let us.
OMG, is that ever right. I'm sure there are places with worse VP somewhere in this country but I haven't seen it. And I've seen one helluva lot of VP. Exactly what Deb and I did. Lots of hours at the CowPie Poker table, it's very slow and while the house advantage is more than I'd like, it goes so slow that the real $$$ expected loss is very low. Agreed. They're amazingly friendly and are still learning, but they are willing to listen to their players - to the point of actually initiating a conversation seeking feedback! I can't remember the last time a casino did that for a BJT. I was going to skip doing a "Cheers & Jeers" on this one, a lot of work to do those, but was quite surprised to have a number of players there at the Meskwaki BJT ask me to write one up. So, give me 2 or 3 days.
lefty; the masses demand the cheers and jeers!!! good seeing yourself and deb. just got home. long day in the car and plane.
Good to see you and the rest of the Seattle group, too. Happy that everyone seems to have made it home OK. We did watch a car spin out almost right in front of us on I-94 just barely east of Chicago, fortunately he went (backwards) into the weeds alongside the road or he would have caused a headline-making pileup that was 100% certain to include us.
I have an idea the "Seattle group" will always be welcome. I haven't met every one of your "posse" but I'm surely impressed by the ones I've talked with. You aren't outsiders. You are "regulars" that are always a pleasure to see there. I look forward to seeing all of you again in April. By the way, Sarah gave me the dates for both 2011 events. They are April 22-24 and October 7-9. Billy C
A jeer suggestion I thought that the tournament was a good value and the treatment of the players was exceptional. However--trying not to be too pessimistic--there is one jeer that I just can't get over: In the first session of round one (2 players advance per table), most tables had 6 players, but there was a table with 7 players, and a table with... 3 players!! (yet another table had 4 players). It would be very disturbing being on the 7-person table, having paid a $200 entry fee, looking across the pit at a 3-person table with top 2 advancing. I know some people didn't show up for their early round, but this just ain't right.
Table for four The lady that won the tournament was at a table of four the first round but got beat and had to rebuy. The table next to her had 3 people, none of which made it to the final. Just the same, I'm with you, I want one of those deals. The players simply did not show up. BTW...The winner was at the final for the third time. She took 2nd twice. She got there once by having her name drawn and the second and third times by playing her way through the mess. I got nowhere fast, still had fun and will likely return in April.
Yep, the first-round seating assignment disparity is on the list. So is the atrocious VP. So will be the many positives about this BJT and the staff. We had nine hours in the car to think of subjects & make notes. More to come.....
You are absolutely right about this. They should have evened up the tables as much as possible. I know that they give missing players 3 hands to show up before they are eliminated and that would throw the exact same starting time (for all tables) off a little, but so what? Everybody knows their assigned playing time so why even give them the 3 hand allowance? They're all adults and if they think they're smart enough to play, they should be smart enough to be there on time! I say they're "gone" if not there at assigned time, tables are evened up and all can start at the same time (if that is that important) Sara does listen to us (i.e. elimination of "all in bets" and random puck starting position) and this is the next thing we need to work on getting changed. Mine will be one of the first emails she gets regarding this situation if someone will provide her email address for me. Two more suggestions I will make are: 1. Completely eliminate the max bet increase for last 5 hands. 2. Make insurance bets be the typical up to half original bet rather than the "goofy" equal amount that is now allowed. Billy C
