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Sarnia/Point Edwards Casino experience

I went to go play hold em on saturday night at the Point Edwards Casino. I called ahead and the hold em policy is you have to check in within 90 minutes. I live in London so I'm about an hour out from Sarnia, so I have to leave pretty shortly after calling to make it in time. Well my dad and I screw around too long and leave with about an hour left. Half way to the casino we realize we might be a bit late so I call the hold em pit and explain that we might be a couple minutes late and the guy I talk to says that should be fine. So we get there and I get fucking harrassed at the ID area and hustle my ass to the hold em pit and I'm 2 or 3 minutes late and the asshole pit boss at the list says 2 minutes is still too late and that he is going to scratch our names off the list. Naturaily I think he is joking because honestly who is that anal-retentive. So I say "you're joking right?" and the gives me the dirtiest look and says "No you are late, that is your fault" and he continues to give me a lecture on being on time and blah blah blah :banghead: . So he then proceeds to put our names at the bottom of the list behind 20 people, when our names were in the #1 and 2 slots when we arrived.

So my question is do you think I'm right in thinking these guys were being pricks or what? Like I know they have rules for a reason but 2 minutes late is pretty miniscule considering I make the trip from London. What do you guys think?

Comments

  • Obviously 2 minutes shouldn't justify being placed @ the bottom...do you know if it was the same guy that you spoke to from your car that said it would be alright?
  • You're expecting outstanding customer service at an Ontario poker room? Good luck.

    Seriously though, if you really are late by even a minute, the supervisor *is* doing his job to seat the next person on the list, and take your name(s) off the list. It's debatable what's to be done when you show up 2 minutes late. Good customer service (see the first paragraph) would dictate putting you back at the top of the list. Following the rules carefully (apparently) would put you to the bottom of the list.

    To be honest, it's almost impossible to judge the situation here, because the most important thing IMO is consistency in applying these kinds of rules. If they immediately roll *every* person who is late by as little as a minute, then they are treating you fairly in this case. If different supervisors apply this rule in different ways, this is a huge problem. The latter is hinted at by the original post, and sloth's reply.

    However, don't forget that the ability to phone in to be added to the waiting list is a *service* that Sarnia/Point Edward provides to their customers that the other (AFAIK) Ontario poker rooms do NOT. If they have frequent problems with customers showing up late and giving the supervisors a hard time about it, this service will be shut down faster than you can say, "Can you please put me on the list for 5-10?" :)

    On another note, you might also consider Brantford. It's probably just about as far from London... a larger room with quite a bit more action. :cool:

    ScottyZ
  • I think the supervisor f'd up. 2 minutes??? :banghead:

    If I were that supervisors boss, I'd ream him out for his poor customer service to the casino goers.
  • Hey, I know how you feel. This happened to me the second time I went there. I was late by 20 minutes and had to wait 4+ hour for a seat. It sucks but if they enfore it strictly and indiscriminately, I don't have a problem with it. It's always hard to draw the line. If somebody missed it by say 5 minutes and was still waiting there and saw the pitboss letting you sit then that would be trouble too.


    I also went this past sat night and was running late so I called again 30 minutes out from sarnia. They told me I could roll my name over as a backup precaution. I was 14 minutes this time but only had to wait 1.5 hour, not so bad. Anyways, when you spoke to them on the phone, if they knew it was gonna be tight, they should've offered or asked if you could be rolled over.

    Did you finally get to play on Sat, I was playing at the 5-10 table to the right of the entrance. Maybe I played you.
  • vinsanity wrote:
    Hey, I know how you feel. This happened to me the second time I went there. I was late by 20 minutes and had to wait 4+ hour for a seat. It sucks but if they enfore it strictly and indiscriminately, I don't have a problem with it. It's always hard to draw the line. If somebody missed it by say 5 minutes and was still waiting there and saw the pitboss letting you sit then that would be trouble too.


    I also went this past sat night and was running late so I called again 30 minutes out from sarnia. They told me I could roll my name over as a backup precaution. I was 14 minutes this time but only had to wait 1.5 hour, not so bad. Anyways, when you spoke to them on the phone, if they knew it was gonna be tight, they should've offered or asked if you could be rolled over.

    Did you finally get to play on Sat, I was playing at the 5-10 table to the right of the entrance. Maybe I played you.

    No I didnt play, I refused to wait for 20 guys which is about 2-3 hours in general in sarnia. I know they have to draw the line but honsetly I called and let them know my situation and was 2 minutes late. For the above person who asked if the pit boss was the same at the list as the one I talked to, he was not. So anyways I just walked out of there very steamed and my father and I have decided we will never play anything at sarnia except for hold em and we will never buy anything from them again, not that I needed much motivation for the latter though as beers cost 5 bucks plus tip there... shisters!

    Vinsanity, do you frequent sarnia often? What part of london are ya in? I get down to Sarnia once a week if I can, maybe we have played ;)
  • I've only been there 3 times, all on the weekends and within the last month or so. I live in the northeast end by Huron and Highbury. Where are you at? Maybe we can head down together sometime or get together a local game.
  • im in the north west, im right near oakridge high school. if you can drive there i would be more than willing to split some gas with ya. I cant drive for reasons i could explain later to ya, but if splitting gas is no problem. im actually going back tomorrow with my dad to play, im still kinda mad at them but we have other business in sarnia to take care of first. For the home game, none of my buddies play really, I got into poker while i was away at school and none of my buddies around here play, but we could try and get something going for sure. ttysinclair@hotmail.com is my email, throw me on your msn and we can figure something out!
  • I would be mad. Although there are rules, you still need to be civil about it. 2 minutes late especially if he phoned ahead.
  • The Pit Boss was 100% right, there are no degrees of late, like there are no degrees of being pregnant and so on. Customer Service is the cop-out used by folks with little or no consideration for others. Is it good customer service to leave the "a little late guy" at the top of the list at the expense of everyone else who got there on time and is waiting (some more patiently than others)...I don't think so...good customer service IMHO means treating everyone fairly and consistently and at the end of the day why have the rule if it can be bent in the name of Customer Service.
  • There is a huge difference if you're 2 minutes late after the follwing has occurred:
    Half way to the casino we realize we might be a bit late so I call the hold em pit and explain that we might be a couple minutes late and the guy I talk to says that should be fine.
    than if it had not.

    In this case, one of the two employees involved has made a mistake. Either being a little late "should be fine" (as the customer is told on the phone) or should not (as is the belief of the supervisor upon the customer's arrival). Not both.

    Good customer service demands making amends to any extent possible for a mistake caused by one of your employees to the detriment of a customer. Rolling the guys to the top of the list seems to be the only reasonable solution.
    pokerplyr wrote:
    The Pit Boss was 100% right, there are no degrees of late, like there are no degrees of being pregnant and so on. Customer Service is the cop-out used by folks with little or no consideration for others. Is it good customer service to leave the "a little late guy" at the top of the list at the expense of everyone else who got there on time and is waiting (some more patiently than others)...I don't think so...good customer service IMHO means treating everyone fairly and consistently and at the end of the day why have the rule if it can be bent in the name of Customer Service.
    When you say "The Pit Boss was 100% right", which pit boss are you talking about? I'd guess from the context that you mean the second pit boss, and therefore the customer does have a legitimate beef with the incorrect information he received from the first.

    ScottyZ
  • I just got back from a 14 day session. Last time I was there I played 5/10 for 10 days and made $4400. This time was different. I had the coldest cards every single night it seemed. And raises get no respect...AA you are always playing against 6plus players and they call you all the way down. I made $1450 in 14 days, which is far below my expected value.

    As far as the poker room...I don't like it, it's planted right beside slots, and the smoke is too much to handle.

    There are almost too many loose agressive players though...it makes for big swings.
  • Not directly related, but...

    How is the level of play at the Sarnia Casino?? I play alot on line, but have never played in a real B&M. I live in Sarnia, so I've gone over and watched over the rail a couple times, and the players didn't look that strong. I'm generally a winning player online (I'm up to about 20x my initial buyin with bonuses, etc), playing mostly SNG tourneys, and NL holdem.
    Will I get Chewed up and spit out, or will I be able to hold my own??
  • The 5-10 game is soft enough. One thing I would watch out for is that low-limit strategy is going to be *very* different than strategies used in SNG tournaments or NL cash games. So if you're used to primarily playing SNG's and NL, you'll have to make significant adjustments to your game to play well in a 5-10 limit game.

    If you can consistently beat a low-limit online limit game (something like the PartyPoker 2-4 or 3-6), you shouldn't have too much trouble with the 5-10 games in Ontario. Having said that, you must play *extremely* well yourself, even against poor players, to beat the insane 5-10 rake in the long run.

    ScottyZ
  • so basically, the only one that's going to make decent money is the casino? I hear this a lot from people who play online, that it's hard to actually make a profit with the session fees and the rakes in a B&M. Maybe I'll just keep playing online for now. Thanks for the info though...

    I'm sure I'll try it sometime, just for kicks.
  • The 5-10 is certainly beatable even with the rake, as long as you are a skilled and disciplined player. Average or worse players will get taken apart by the rake in the long run. If you prefer playing online, the rake is certainly much more favorable.

    Also, if you'd rather play 10-20 or 20-40, the session fees are *much* more reasonable at these games (for the stakes you are playing) than the 5-10 rake.

    ScottyZ
  • How is the rake so huge? The max rake is 5 bucks.... most pots are in the 80 dollar range. Can you explain to me this rake thing?


    Thanks
  • The way I like to think about the rake is how much in total is coming off the table per hour. I'd estimate that on average $150 comes off the table in rake per hour in a typical $5-$10 game. That's $15 per hour per player. Now consider the fact that a good limit poker player can typically expect to win about 1 big bet per hour in the long run, an outstanding player, perhaps 2 or 3. The rake turns a good player into a losing player, and typically takes away over half of the outstanding player's profits.

    Another thing with makes the Ontario rake rough is the 10% incerment. Although a fair number of pots in a typical game are over $50, you are paying (roughly) an incredible 10% rake on the pots under $50.

    The most convincing thing for me was when I set up the exact Ontario $5-$10 conditions and ran a 1 million hand simulation on Turbo Texas Hold'em. I put one good player up against 9 very bad players. After the million hands, the good player had pretty much broken even, and each of the bad players was down a few hundred grand. So, even in an ideal situation (being up against 9 fish) the rake still makes this a nearly impossible game to beat.

    Also note that the places in Ontario that offer $2-$5 use the same rake structure as the $5-$10. Good luck.

    ScottyZ
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