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I got hired as Director of Player Growth & Retention by Georgetown Poker (3 Viewers)

chippitydoodah said:
The 2nd one... looks like someone might get laid.
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YEAAAAAAAAHHHHH!

yeah.gif
 
Originally I thought the 2nd one with a clearer view of the ladies, but it might also look like we're only having one table of them attending, rather than FOUR tables of sorority girls.

Maybe we'll wind up using both flyers
 
Wound up updating both flyers to include our club logo so people who view it will know where it's taking place, then added "poker" into the title of "southwestern sorority showdown" since it wasn't exactly clear what this flyer was for.

Then we also threw in a scannable QR code so people can easily lock in to our live section of the youtube channel to watch

SORORITY_FLYER1.jpg
SORORITY_FLYER2.jpg
 
ThrowBack said:
How’s it going overall
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August was my first full month and we saw a 10% increase compared with Aug 2022, so feel pretty good about that.

Tuesdays have been light or non-existent so I tried to introduce a 5-card PLO tournament on Tuesday nights, the first night only 4 people showed up and after that it hasn't gained any traction. We already offer half-off hourly fees on Tuesdays so sometimes we'll get a cash game but not everytime.

It's a tough night because 15 minutes away is the behemoth that is The Lodge and they have this massive 15K Guaranteed "freeroll" with an initial buy-in of $30 (and then a variety of add-ons that will jack that price up), but it's a super popular and attended event that's difficult to compete with.

I also tried introducing a Sunday Survivor Series tournament where you pay $70 and then if you survive you win $350. I wanted to set it for 2pm to have people in the room in time for the 3pm games but was overruled as they felt we needed to get people in for noon or even 11am before those games or we wouldn't get anyone.

We added bonus chips for showing up on-time as well as bonus chips for wearing a team logo jersey, hat, etc. Once again the first time around we got 4 people to show up so we just played cash and then it hasn't drawn anyone since.

It was a $50+$20 breakdown ($10 to dealers, $10 to room, $50 to prize pool) with 1 in 7 cashing for $350. not sure if we did a $100+$20 if it would work better (1 in 5 cashes for $500), or if we should ditch the whole survivor aspect alltogether.

Recently we had our Sorority Showdown event where 23 ladies who were all brand new to poker showed up. They paid no entry fee and we put up a prize pool for the final table of 9 players, with $200 for first all the way down to $25 for 9th.

We also livestreamed it and the ladies had a lot of fun, but as you can imagine there was a TON of limping, checking HUGE hands, just calling with monsters, etc. Still feel like it was well-received and I was thinking it'd be cool in the future to do an event where we bring in female coaches (Pokerface Ash, Caitlin, Ashley Sleeth?) and they each get a team of 8-9 girls (each team is from a different sorority) and they coach the ladies and then we have a big event that's filmed with the ladies competing and points and prizes being involved, but would likely need to be something we'd get sponsors to help support if we were to go that route.

This Saturday we're hosting a dual-charity poker tournament called Chip-In For Children, supporting the Sun City branch of the Kiwanis as well as the American Legion, so looking forward to that.

We also implemented the Flush Frenzy idea, it's actually worked out pretty well in my opinion. Once someone has a couple of flushes on the board they're locked in trying to hit the last two to win the jackpot (we actually had it hit within the first week, and we've had a bunch of people show up with 3 of the flushes on the board, so some close calls).

The Monday 10/20 dealers choice mixed game I brought to the room back in late May is still running, but it's gotten stagnant, we're struggling to draw in fresh blood for it. Part of the problem is that many of the games are just really confusing for players newer to mixed games. Plus some of the players will make it play closer to a 30/60, which also scares off people.

We recently added a 5/10 ten-game mix on Wednesdays, some of the Monday players said they'd support it, one of them even suggested we run it on Wednesdays because that's the only other day he's available (we've held it the past two weeks, he's never shown up and he's a "maybe" for tonight). I'm trying to introduce new players to the base games like Badugi and 2-7 triple draw before they're tossed in to play Badaucey, Badacey, etc. Of course, some of the Monday players last week were pressuring the new players to add more complicated games to the mix, so it's been a bit of a pain with that.

I also added a Friday night 1/1 PLO game that's been running regularly and sees good action. If I could just avoid being 6-outed, 4-outed and 2-outed every stinking week my cats might eat again.

I'm trying to convince the owners to provide me some sort of marketing budget to work with. Part of the problem is that if people check Poker Atlas and we have no games running, they won't show up. If they happen to stop in and there's no game running, they won't stick around for 3 hours hoping something pops off.

So they need to be willing to devote some money to revitalizing the room, rather than worrying about getting their $10 daily membership fee because "we have expenses"

We have a real monster in The Lodge not far away to compete with, so we need to offer value and something different if we're going to compete. If we're charging the same or more in some aspects than a room that has games running 24/7 it's going to be a struggle to gain much traction.
 
Anthony Martino said:
We added bonus chips for showing up on-time
Click to expand...

(some?) Foxwoods tournaments have a high-hand bonus for the first hour. that really seems to help get people in their seats for the beginning of the tournament.
 
Rakrul said:
What kind of rake are these Texas rooms running anyways?
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We aren't allowed to take a "rake". We charge memberships to the "private social clubs" (ours are $10 for a daily, $25 for the month, etc.)

Then we take an hourly seat fee, most rooms in the area are at $11/hr. But many will offer special rates on certain nights (we have Tuesday nights for $6/hr, then the first Wed of each month is guys night so no time charges, the other three Wednesdays are ladies night so no time charges for them)

raynmanas said:
(some?) Foxwoods tournaments have a high-hand bonus for the first hour. that really seems to help get people in their seats for the beginning of the tournament.
Click to expand...

The problem is funding it. For our previous high hand promotion (where you had to hit a SPECIFIC high hand each day, so today it might be quad Jacks, tomorrow it could be a steel wheel), and for our current Flush Frenzy promo, we can't take a per-hand jackpot drop. So players pay $2 when they get their first buy-in at the cage which funds the promotion

To offer it for a tournament we'd likely have to build it into the buy-in somehow I believe.
 
Anthony Martino said:
It was a $50+$20 breakdown ($10 to dealers, $10 to room, $50 to prize pool)
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Honestly, I'm not setting foot in a room where the juice is roughly 30%. Do I also have to pay my $10 daily membership fee to play that tournament???
Anthony Martino said:
Part of the problem is that many of the games are just really confusing for players newer to mixed games. Plus some of the players will make it play closer to a 30/60, which also scares off people.
Click to expand...
Anthony Martino said:
I'm trying to introduce new players to the base games like Badugi and 2-7 triple draw before they're tossed in to play Badaucey, Badacey, etc. Of course, some of the Monday players last week were pressuring the new players to add more complicated games to the mix, so it's been a bit of a pain with that.
Click to expand...
Poker purists love playing mixed games. Joe Blow casual poker fan off the street loves playing Hold'em for low stakes. That's just the way it is, and a mixed game isn't going to get them off the couch.
Anthony Martino said:
I also added a Friday night 1/1 PLO game that's been running regularly and sees good action. If I could just avoid being 6-outed, 4-outed and 2-outed every stinking week my cats might eat again.
Click to expand...
You're probably on to something here. Low stakes, most people don't have to work the next day etc. Run this game well and let it be a bread and butter game for the room.

It will be hard to compete with a large room like the Lodge, but the bigger the outfit, the less nimble they can be. What are some things you can do quickly that they can't? A small room can probably offer very personalized service to their guests. Surprise and delight and all that stuff. Maybe if the list is long at the Lodge for a certain game you can fire up a list in your room on Poker Atlas. Are prop players legal in Texas?

Also, it sounds obvious but you need to develop players. Planting your flag as the spot to play 10-20 mix is great, but that's the finish line, not the starting gate. There's a reason why most rooms run a bunch of 1-2 NL. Everyone knows it and there is a low barrier to entry. Run some great low limit games that dovetail with what the Lodge offers, and isn't able to offer.

If my main sources of income are a membership fee and an hourly seat fee, you can sure as hell bet I'm not going to be pushing niche games at higher limits. Asses in seats is my only goal in that environment - don't care what they are playing.
 
timinater said:
Honestly, I'm not setting foot in a room where the juice is roughly 30%. Do I also have to pay my $10 daily membership fee to play that tournament???


Poker purists love playing mixed games. Joe Blow casual poker fan off the street loves playing Hold'em for low stakes. That's just the way it is, and a mixed game isn't going to get them off the couch.

You're probably on to something here. Low stakes, most people don't have to work the next day etc. Run this game well and let it be a bread and butter game for the room.

It will be hard to compete with a large room like the Lodge, but the bigger the outfit, the less nimble they can be. What are some things you can do quickly that they can't? A small room can probably offer very personalized service to their guests. Surprise and delight and all that stuff. Maybe if the list is long at the Lodge for a certain game you can fire up a list in your room on Poker Atlas. Are prop players legal in Texas?

Also, it sounds obvious but you need to develop players. Planting your flag as the spot to play 10-20 mix is great, but that's the finish line, not the starting gate. There's a reason why most rooms run a bunch of 1-2 NL. Everyone knows it and there is a low barrier to entry. Run some great low limit games that dovetail with what the Lodge offers, and isn't able to offer.

If my main sources of income are a membership fee and an hourly seat fee, you can sure as hell bet I'm not going to be pushing niche games at higher limits. Asses in seats is my only goal in that environment - don't care what they are playing.
Click to expand...


Yeah, with the 1/1 PLO was trying to offer something The Lodge wasn't. If you go there, the 1/2 with a $5 bring-in PLO is pretty much the only game that runs regularly. It's $200-1K buyins but then unlimited straddles and restraddles starting from UTG, and 100% match the stack.

So I've seen straddles up to $320, guys sitting with 20-30K in a 1/2/5 game, etc. It's just bonkers. The games are either super reg-infested and tight, or have a few guys with ultra-deep pockets who are making the game play like a shallow stacked 80/160 where you're flipping for 1K every single hand (that war is won by the deepest pockets who can withstand the variance)

I'm with you on developing more bread and butter low-limit games, the mixed stuff is a niche and not really my main focus, just kinda how I started with the room so working to keep that alive while also trying to figure out how we can run some tournaments that draw in players.

You can certainly use prop players here in Texas, I'm sure some of the rooms out there do that, or schills.

I agree with you my goal is to build sustainable games that don't break players that keep butts in seats as long as possible.
 
Can you adjust the seat charge based on the number of players?

So if there are 5 players you charge $11, 6 players $10, 5 players $9...etc.
 

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