Why does Encore Boston hate poker? (1 Viewer)

[sheikh617]

It's a shame. That poker room was world class. I feel bad taking it for granted now lol.

 

[jpietrella]

Right, I think I worried about validation the first couple of times I went, but after that it was just drive in drive out, no worries. But I went there on off hours so maybe it was different than weekends.

Yes during the week I think it was free. Validation of 1 hour play on weekends.

 

[Schmendr1ck]

Sure, just not sure how many casinos charge $40 for parking for the privilege of taking your money at the tables. How is that even sustainable?!

Don't they give free parking for "elite" players club status, whatever Wynn/Encore calls it?

You can take a train and a bus (or drive) to a spot where the Encore bus will pick you up. It’s under a bridge and dimly lit in a meh neighborhood - exactly where I want to be with $3500 on me.

I did a Google search for an appropriate GIF but couldn't find one. Apparently "nervous rich guy" is not a thing.

 

[bergs]

Yes during the week I think it was free. Validation of 1 hour play on weekends.

That changed shortly after opening. You needed to have 1 loyalty point on your Wynn card (which is betting substantially more than the $40 charge for over 6 hours. I believe less than 6 hours was $12 or so).

The entire concept of having to charge casino patrons for parking is ridiculous when you think about it. If you play table games, you’re paying to park your car so you can risk money at a negative expected value at the casino.

Hey, I love action. I’m all for getting beat up or getting mugged, but getting mugged while getting beat up just seems punitive.

 

[bergs]

I wondered that, when they were initially charging at the garage. Like, a guy loses all his money at the tables and can't even afford to get his car out of the garage? I feel like that could happen a lot.
But whenever I played there, parking was free. At least for poker?

I’ve had this happen and they happily charged my credit card.

I’ve lost thousands at a meetup before, but that tilt pales in comparison with losing 4 buyins to strangers at the casino on bad beats and then having to pay $40 FUCKING dollars to get my car so I can angrily drive home.

 

[puglia82]

Consider yourself lucky...
In Poland we are forced to go underground...
Even my regular club in Warsaw was forced to get rid of tables (BOTH), even it was considered to be "immortal"...

Been in Warsaw last november, I saw a lot of empty poker tables at Hit Casino next to Bank Narodowy here

I looked into public transportation there briefly when I was still living in MA.

You can take a train and a bus (or drive) to a spot where the Encore bus will pick you up. It’s under a bridge and dimly lit in a meh neighborhood - exactly where I want to be with $3500 on me.

This place is a well appointed dumpster fire. If the whales dry up that property will get sold for a massive loss.

you can ride the boat

 

[surfik]

Been in Warsaw last november, I saw a lot of empty poker tables at Hit Casino next to Bank Narodowy here



you can ride the boat

You know why these tables are empty?
Because casino doesn't have dealers to cover them....

 

[raynmanas]

You must be pretty close to Twin River. I'm reading rumors that they're going to open some bigger, better poker room - maybe 50 tables? I'll keep my fingers crossed for that. I never played much there before, because it was only cash games, and only NL. But I think I'm giving up any hope for Encore and switching my hopes to twin river.

close enough, i used to make the trip fairly often. but i really enjoy tournaments the most, so a 50 table poker room would mean they would start running them. i'll cross my fingers too.

 

[arsenelupin3]

I looked into public transportation there briefly when I was still living in MA.

You can take a train and a bus (or drive) to a spot where the Encore bus will pick you up. It’s under a bridge and dimly lit in a meh neighborhood - exactly where I want to be with $3500 on me.

This place is a well appointed dumpster fire. If the whales dry up that property will get sold for a massive loss.

The one time I played there, I took the T to one of the stops and got on the bus but no one told me it was the employee bus. They took me to the entrance with a gate and a badge reader and I was VERY confused.

 

[buzzmonkey]

Well now.

https://www.pokernews.com/news/2022/02/encore-boston-poker-room-rake-40647.htm

 

[rjdev7]

oof

 

[upNdown]

Wow. I’d seen that rumor on 2+2, but it seemed to crazy to believe

 

[raynmanas]

oof

 

[upNdown]

Doubling the rake doesn’t affect me because the only time I’ll ever be at a NLHE cash table is before or in between tournaments.
But doubling the rake is insane. I hope it’s big news throughout the poker community in the next few days, just to further expose how disinterested this casino is in poker.

 

[jpietrella]

I had heard rumblings of this but didn't believe it. What a joke.

 

[AlbinoDragon]

Yikes!!! I stopped playing at the two local tribal casinos when they both went 10% $5 max +$2 jackpot. Seeing between $5 and $7 going down the hole every hand and at least one player adding on per orbit made the appeal to play there low. $10 down the hole at Encore makes it sound like they truly want nothing to do with anything poker related unless they are large games.

 

[Jeff]

Mrs Jeff was gone this weekend, and I got Covid in late December so I was feeling the double hall pass and drove down to The Horseshoe in Hammond, Indiana this weekend. Got there and the poker room was closed. Only opens during the day on weekdays. Closed on weekends. Big place…Caesars property. Very counterintuitive.

 

[bergs]

Poker is dying in the casino 100%. We can argue about how quickly and what the endgame is, but there are a bunch of poker room closing in otherwise healthy and frequently visited premium casinos. COVID forced them to look at profitability and they used it as an opportunity to get rid of something that they probably didn’t see a lot of direct profitability in anyway.

 

[Schmendr1ck]

Poker is dying in the casino 100%. We can argue about how quickly and what the endgame is, but there are a bunch of poker room closing in otherwise healthy and frequently visited premium casinos. COVID forced them to look at profitability and they used it as an opportunity to get rid of something that they probably didn’t see a lot of direct profitability in anyway.

And unfortunately, the rooms that are still around will probably go the way of Encore and keep bumping up the rake.

My local room (which is poker and race betting only) went up a buck to $6+2 per hand a couple months or so ago. I've been once. It was already marginal at 5+2, but I could justify paying it anyway as the weekend player pool was bad enough for me to still be slightly profitable at low stakes.

I might give it another go, but that increase (and the purchase of shiny new $6 chips to go along with it) left a bad taste in my mouth.

 

[upNdown]

Poker is dying in the casino 100%. We can argue about how quickly and what the endgame is, but there are a bunch of poker room closing in otherwise healthy and frequently visited premium casinos. COVID forced them to look at profitability and they used it as an opportunity to get rid of something that they probably didn’t see a lot of direct profitability in anyway.

And honestly, I don’t care about the casino part of it - to me, a casino is just a long walk to the poker room in the back. Dedicated poker rooms offer all I need. But the problem is, they’ll probably never be allowed here in the commonwealth. And that’s why the Encore should be held accountable (if indeed poker was specifically required in their contract, as people claim.)

 

[Mojo1312]

And honestly, I don’t care about the casino part of it - to me, a casino is just a long walk to the poker room in the back. Dedicated poker rooms offer all I need. But the problem is, they’ll probably never be allowed here in the commonwealth. And that’s why the Encore should be held accountable (if indeed poker was specifically required in their contract, as people claim.)

How would you compare poker at Foxwoods to poker at Encore? (Comps, rakes, dealers, comfort, dining, etc.)

 

[bergs]

How would you compare poker at Foxwoods to poker at Encore? (Comps, rakes, dealers, comfort, dining, etc.)

At this point,

Less rake at Foxwoods
More comps are Foxwoods
More dining options at Foxwoods
No $68 crab rolls at Foxwoods
Free and plentiful parking at Foxwoods

…and you can insert almost any casino in America for Foxwoods in that comparison.

There are 2 problems with Encore at this point:

1) it’s presence is stopping other casinos and card rooms from opening in MA, and;
2) they are normalizing $10 rake for the rest of the country

Encore fucking sucks for poker, and it’s not that great for poker players. It could’ve been. But they intentionally fucked it up because they have parking and space limitations and profitability targets and shouldn’t have opened a premium property in Everett, Massachusetts anyway.

The Encore in that location is like cutting hay during farming season with a Mercedes-Benz. Ok, it might be possible, but it’s not optimal at all, and ultimately it’s just fucking pointless and an exercise in vanity.

 

[doublebooyah85]

News: Wynn Resorts is selling Encore Boston Harbor to Realty Income, a REIT, for $1.7 billion. Wynn will continue to operate the property and pay annual rent of $100 million.
Wynn will retain a 13-acre site near the property that will developed as an expansion
@TheNVIndy

 

[ReallyGoodUsername]

News: Wynn Resorts is selling Encore Boston Harbor to Realty Income, a REIT, for $1.7 billion. Wynn will continue to operate the property and pay annual rent of $100 million.
Wynn will retain a 13-acre site near the property that will developed as an expansion
@TheNVIndy

Well that was quick smh

 

[bergs]

Saw this happening 2 years ago. Sell to an REIT, make some investments, sell the gaming license and residual property, get out clean with a little money and none of the horrendous overhead with running the world’s nicest slot parlor.

 

[Willpass]

With the Encore being a massive rake and a wait list that is in the triple digits, has anyone been to the MGM since it opened?

 

[upNdown]

With the Encore being a massive rake and a wait list that is in the triple digits, has anyone been to the MGM since it opened?

I just popped in to the MGM springfield today, since I was passing through. Got my yearly reminder why I don't play no limit cash in casinos - blew through one buy-in pretty quickly. Beautiful room, though not too many tables - maybe 12 or 14? And a pretty nice, tame crowd (though it was friday afternoon.) They have some strange straddle rule, where anybody can straddle from any position, so although it was $1/$2, there was a $5 straddle on in 80-90% of the hands. I believe they were raking $6 + $2. They were definitely raking $6 per hand (or 10% up to $6 - whatever) but I think they were raking $2 for promo money per hand too - the dealer kept sticking a couple of $1s in a circular thing in front of him, but they'd sit there for the next hand too? And then I kept forgetting to pay attention to whatever he was doing with them, so I'm not sure.
Also, I never got the ace of spades, so I couldn't tell what brand their setups were, but they were standard index, and the index seemed smaller than standard standard. First time I've ever used reading glasses to see my own hole cards. old.

 

[Willpass]

I just popped in to the MGM springfield today, since I was passing through. Got my yearly reminder why I don't play no limit cash in casinos - blew through one buy-in pretty quickly. Beautiful room, though not too many tables - maybe 12 or 14? And a pretty nice, tame crowd (though it was friday afternoon.) They have some strange straddle rule, where anybody can straddle from any position, so although it was $1/$2, there was a $5 straddle on in 80-90% of the hands. I believe they were raking $6 + $2. They were definitely raking $6 per hand (or 10% up to $6 - whatever) but I think they were raking $2 for promo money per hand too - the dealer kept sticking a couple of $1s in a circular thing in front of him, but they'd sit there for the next hand too? And then I kept forgetting to pay attention to whatever he was doing with them, so I'm not sure.
Also, I never got the ace of spades, so I couldn't tell what brand their setups were, but they were standard index, and the index seemed smaller than standard standard. First time I've ever used reading glasses to see my own hole cards. old.

Hmmm. They were playing with KEMs when I was there last. Was it only limit? The poker there was always pretty good.

 

[upNdown]

Hmmm. They were playing with KEMs when I was there last. Was it only limit? The poker there was always pretty good.

I suppose they could have been KEMs.
That was my first time playing live poker in more than 6 months, so I guess everything felt a little different

 

[SuckoutKing]

My guess 100% political! Too bad.