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Rivers Casino & Resort (Schenectady, NY) (1 Viewer)

Forty4 said:
The crazy part is they are no longer listed in Bravo. I wonder if they closed it for good. Seems unlikely as it was usually very busy, but maybe @bentax1978 is right.
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I had heard rumors that they were closed for good, but I felt that was mostly just speculation on their part.

My concern is that while it was usually busy, poker still isn't hugely profitable for the casino. So at least while they're restricted and need to distance people at the slot machines, it seems like they would probably prefer to keep using that space for additional slots. :(
 
bentax1978 said:
I had heard rumors that they were closed for good, but I felt that was mostly just speculation on their part.

My concern is that while it was usually busy, poker still isn't hugely profitable for the casino. So at least while they're restricted and need to distance people at the slot machines, it seems like they would probably prefer to keep using that space for additional slots. :(
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I would think that removing themselves from Bravo is a solid indication that they are not interested in poker.
 
Forty4 said:
I would think that removing themselves from Bravo is a solid indication that they are not interested in poker.
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I tend to agree, at least in the short to medium term (I'm guessing at least the next 6 months).

Really sucks going from having a poker room less than 5 miles from my house to the next closest one being over 90 miles.
 
I also heard rumors that they may close for good. Small poker room but nice. Not the best dealers - definitely room for improvement but I still enjoyed playing there when I was in the area. + I loved the chips!
 
One of the former floor managers told me he didn’t think Rivers would ever reopen the poker room. But that was 6+ months ago, and he didn’t specify why he thought that.

Re.: Dealers: It was never the greatest, but they lost a ton of their better dealers to Encore when it opened in Boston. After that it was pretty bad with a couple exceptions.
 
PlayerADK said:
I also heard rumors that they may close for good. Small poker room but nice. Not the best dealers - definitely room for improvement but I still enjoyed playing there when I was in the area. + I loved the chips!
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Agreed. Dealers ranged from decent to pretty bad, but I liked the room itself. Plus it's hard to beat being able to go from watching TV on my couch to a taking a seat at the poker table in 10 minutes flat.
 
I am more like 55 minutes away, so I was not there more than maybe 2-3 times a month. But it was good to have available. Would especially miss the bigger tournaments.
 
It seemed to me that Rivers Schenectady valued its “social” dealers more than its skilled ones. There was one in particular who was popular with male players because she flirted non-stop, but she made as much as one mistake per orbit. Sometimes more. Then would bark at you if you pointed it out. Misdeals galore; also painful to watch her try to chop a pot.
 
Taghkanic said:
It seemed to me that Rivers Schenectady valued its “social” dealers more than its skilled ones. There was one in particular who was popular with male players because she flirted non-stop, but she made as much as one mistake per orbit.
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I'm 90% sure I know exactly who you're talking about lol
 
Forty4 said:
is that because you liked the attention?
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Ha! No, although it was entertaining watching players attempt to flirt back.

In terms of impact on my hourly rate, it was a mixed bag. Fewer hands per hours, lower hourly rate. More distracted players, higher hourly rate. Probably close to a wash in the end.
 
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The quality of dealers is likely to be rock-bottom when they first reopen. Rivers already lost a bunch of dealers to MGM Springfield and Encore pre-pandemic. I can only imagine the attrition in the past 18 months. Gonna be a ton of recent trainees with zero poker experience.

But I’ll go, LOL
 
I had to kill four hours yesterday in Schenectady, N.Y. (don’t ask), and did so by playing 2/5 at Rivers. First time for me since before the pandemic. Some notes:
  • Rivers is now spreading all poker tables 8 players max. Not sure why they did it, but it makes the tables far less crowded, and makes for better action. (It makes it a that much harder for a few players to fold all day long waiting for premiums. And Rivers tables typically have at least one guy like that.)
  • Their RHC chips have become shockingly worn, especially the 1s and 5s. But even the 25s and 100s are becoming bicycle tires, and the Top Hat molds are starting to disappear. If they ever rebrand, these would not make good material for a @TheChipRoom sale... (Sorry, no pics.) Too bad, because I actually like their colors and spots pretty well, kind of conventional but decently done. Their lineup was posted by @bentax1978 in the OP at https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/rivers-casino-resort-schenectady-ny.18224/
  • The 1/2 tables are all now 1/3 . I approve! But they did not increase the max buy-in, which is still $300. I disapprove!
  • The gaming felt on all poker tables has been replaced with a sort of dull royal blue, I guess to match their logo. Previously it was a kind of blah blue-green as I recall. Doesn’t do much for me, but probably the old stuff was becoming greasy.
  • I was the only one at my table wearing a mask, fwiw. A neighboring table had 2 of 8 players masked. No one gave me a hard time about my mask. People were much too busy trying to suss out whether the new waitress had an OnlyFans page. (She did. With very explicit pictures.)
  • I ended +$200 on a $1K buy-in. Not too shabby, but not a huge score... 10BB/hour.
 
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Taghkanic said:
I had to kill four hours yesterday in Schenectady, N.Y. (don’t ask), and did so by playing 2/5 at Rivers. First time for me since before the pandemic. Some notes:
  • Rivers is now spreading all poker tables 8 players max. Not sure why they did it, but it makes the tables far less crowded, and makes for better action. (It makes it a that much harder for a few players to fold all day long waiting for premiums. And Rivers tables typically have at least one guy like that.)
  • Their RHC chips have become shockingly worn, especially the 1s and 5s. But even the 25s and 100s are becoming bicycle tires, and the Top Hat molds are starting to disappear. If they ever rebrand, these would not make good material for a @TheChipRoom sale... (Sorry, no pics.) Too bad, because I actually like their colors and spots pretty well, kind of conventional but decently done. Their lineup was posted by @bentax1978 in the OP at https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/rivers-casino-resort-schenectady-ny.18224/
  • The 1/2 tables are all now 1/3 . I approve! But they did not increase the max buy-in, which is still $300. I disapprove!
  • The gaming felt on all poker tables has been replaced with a sort of dull royal blue, I guess to match their logo. Previously it was a kind of blah blue-green as I recall. Doesn’t do much for me, but probably the old stuff was becoming greasy.
  • I was the only one at my table wearing a mask, fwiw. A neighboring table had 2 of 8 players masked. No one gave me a hard time about my mask. People were much too busy trying to suss out whether the new waitress had an OnlyFans page. (She did. With very explicit pictures.)
  • I ended +$200 on a $1K buy-in. Not too shabby, but not a huge score... 10BB/hour.
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Very interesting that their chips have worn down - they probably tried some extreme cleaning methods that ate away at the mold!

Their old felts were the "Poker Night in America" ones, not super surprised they decided to replace them but I don't remember them being in bad shape either! Really loved their $5 chips, most of their lineup is great. The IHC $500 are my favorite!
 
PlayerADK said:
Very interesting that their chips have worn down - they probably tried some extreme cleaning methods that ate away at the mold!
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Normally I would agree, but the $1 and $5 chips are especially filthy. They don’t look like they have ever been cleaned.

Didn’t the PNIA felts come later, well after the launch? I thought that event was a couple years after Rivers opened.
 
Taghkanic said:
Normally I would agree, but the $1 and $5 chips are especially filthy. They don’t look like they have ever been cleaned.

Didn’t the PNIA felts come later, well after the launch? I thought that event was a couple years after Rivers opened.
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Might be! I just remember that is what they had the last time I was there. And that's interesting about the filth!
 
FWIW, I also played recently at MGM Springfield (Mass.) which opened about 1.5 years after Rivers Schenectady. Their RHCs are similarly worn and filthy. Maybe even worse than at Rivers.

I asked the floor manager jokingly if they had ever cleaned the chips. He just laughed. He said the poker room doesn’t make enough for them ever to allow them to rent a cleaning machine.
 

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