I know I haven’t really been too visible lately. I haven’t made a post since August, for crying out loud. But Beck has been completely AWOL. (I joked once in an e-mail that he shared the same name as the gunslinging quarterback for BYU, and as he’s posted less and less, I’m beginning to believe he really IS that John Beck. If so, then hey: nice game-winning TD pass with no time left against Utah, man. You kick ass.)
Anyway, Jax has done yeowoman’s work putting up any new material at all. I think all three of us are still depressed about the online poker “ban.” So I resolved to do my part by going out and playing live over the holiday weekend. And, luckily for me, the casino closest to my home, the Blue Chip Casino/Hotel in Michigan City, Indiana, decided to bring back their poker room. They had one when the casino was built in the mid-’90s but scrapped it due to lack of interest. This was before Chris Moneymaker inaugurated the poker revolution that’s spread to virtually every TV channel, commercials for fast food, and the formerly baccarat-centric James Bond movies. So, by popular demand, they brought it back a few weeks ago, and I couldn’t wait to get there.
In retrospect, I probably could have waited.
In the Blue Chip’s defense, if you like a lot of variety for your gaming dollar, then you can’t beat the Blue Chip if you live in the Chicago/Northwest Indiana/Southwest Michigan areas. It really is a gorgeous casino. It’s all on one floor, with a high ceiling and an expansive feel. They also host concerts, have an award-winning steakhouse, and, oh yeah, they gave away a new car the day I went.
But I knew I was probably going to be a little disappointed with the poker room when I saw a promotional poster not far from the entrance that boasted of their 8 tables. I leaned closer to it to see if maybe one of the numbers faded out. Maybe 80 tables would be asking too much, but I’d take 28 or even 18. But nope — eight. Worse, the poker room was separated from the main floor by only a thin office-building-like fabric-covered cubicle wall. I’ve posted before about my dislike of playing cards within earshot of whooping slot machines, but since the entire casino is on one floor, there’s really no way to make the poker room soundproof without completely sealing it off. Even the high-stakes table game section is still connected to the rest of the floor.
Despite all this, I was willing to give Blue Chip a shot, if for no other reason than it is the closest poker room to me, which has the added bonus of being farthest away from Chicago’s traffic. The problem, though, is that being farthest from Chicago traffic means farthest from Chicago players — hence, they only had eight tables, and still couldn’t fill them all.
But this need not stop them from succeeding in a crowded market for poker players. It was popular demand that got them to reintroduce live poker to their casino, and if they better accommodate the players, they can have the best action in Northwest Indiana. But from what I can tell, they’re not in much of a hurry.
Here’s what I mean: while there’s no cashier cage inside the poker room, the nearest stable of cages had one exclusively devoted to poker room transactions. This is good. When I told the cashier that I liked to split my bankroll into two (one for my actual table money, and a smaller pile exclusively for tokes so I know how much I’ve actually won and lost in play), she offered to exchange my $10 in toke money for forty turquoise 25-cent chips. This is even better. But when I walked into the poker room, the floor boss immediately confiscated all my 25-cent toke chips, saying they “weren’t allowed” in the room. Whaaa? As far as I could see, they didn’t have any other chips the same color, so it’s not like I would confuse the dealers. But even that small accommodation wasn’t allowed to me.
Another annoyance: the poker room had several big flat-screen plasma HDTVs, and one of the benefits of a small area is that every seat has a decent view of them. This is good. But on a Sunday afternoon, they were showing bowling and rodeo. Whaaa? After several complaints to put on some #%@*?!! football, the floor confessed that the channels couldn’t be changed from inside the poker room — they were all controlled by central security. So we watched bowling and rodeo. Then they put on one football game but left ESPN on the other, so I got to watch Jamie Gold luckbox his way to the WSOP Main Event title for the umpteenth time. (You know what? It never gets any better.)
Finally — and I may sound a little greedy here, but I still find this completely inexplicable — the rake structure was exactly the same as everywhere else. If you want to draw players, you have to do something to get them in the door. I don’t consider myself an expert in casino promotions or management, but if you’re reopening your poker room and you want to get people in, you have to, you know, TRY. If logistics dictate that the room can’t be all that impressive-looking, and can’t be walled off from the rest of the floor, then offer a reduced rake structure. Even $4 + $1 for the bad beat jackpot would be better than the same $5 + $1 that’s the industry standard. Give away $100 for everyone who gets a royal flush. Tie the comp structure into great prizes, say a trip to Vegas for the player who spends the most time at the tables. Do something, for crying out loud. The hot rumor was that Blue Chip was going to try to introduce tournaments. Well, no offense, but good luck getting those off the ground when you only have eight tables.
Like I said, they don’t seem to be in much of a hurry to be a more player-centric poker room. They should be. The massive Four Winds Casino is opening in August 2007, and it will be about ten miles away, in New Buffalo, Michigan. It will have poker.
In the end, if you’re only looking for the best poker experience, the extra thirty miles west is worth the trip to get to Majestic Star II (formerly Trump Lake Michigan).
I think I understand why there wasn’t much interest in poker at Blue Chip in the first place.
One final note: if there was one shining bright spot, it was the dealers, who were by far the friendliest in all the casinos I’ve been to in Northwest Indiana. And I did have a good time despite my disappointments. For more on my day at the tables, I posted a recap at the 2+2 Message Boards.
