A (Not So) Grand Opening

I had already planned on going to Greektown on Monday. As it turns out, it's the same day they are having their Grand Opening for their new Poker Room. So, I get to Greektown just after 9am, and head to the old Poker Room expecting it to be closed. But it's still open with only 6 tables in the room, and one of them occupied. The Floor Person said they are opening the new Room at 6pm. That seems bizarre to me. Wouldn't it make more sense to close the old Room from Sunday at midnight, and open the new Room at noon the next day? But there are reasons that Greektown is one of the worst run Poker Rooms in the country.

9:20 $200 - Since the table has been open all night, I buy-in for the full amount. There aren't any monster stacks on the table. The largest is around $350.

10:00 $138 - Won a decent pot with AK, but I got my KK cracked. The player didn't have enough chips to make me fold. The table's rather active for a Monday morning with a few spots that are willing to put money into the pot rather light.

10:30 $205 - I called a few raises, but whiffed. I took four green chips out of my pocket to reload. Two old grinders come to the table.

11:00 $180 - I'm getting good starting hands, but lousy flops. AK on an 7-high board. 88 on a Broadway board. This has become a very social table, and it's starting to annoy me. The pace of the game has become slower than one of our home games.

11:30 $168 - I'm getting board, and that's a bad thing. I started making loose calls preflop, and that's a good way to burn through a short stack. There was a $700, four player trainwreck that didn't involve me. Jd Tc 8d  Ac  4d. 97 takes it down against a Set and two different Two Pairs.

12:00 $234 - Won a decent pot on the Button against a flush draw. Very next hand, I pop it to $7 preflop with T8o and won with a c-bet on a J high Flop. I'm starting to get my groove back. The Floor Person announced that the old Room will close at 4pm.

12:30 $289 - Did my first straddle for $5. A few players limp in. I look down at TT. I give a quiet thanks to the Poker Gods, and raise to $30. Only the SB calls, and he checks in the dark. So I bet $40 in the dark. The Flop comes J high. He think for a moment, and folds. I show my TT. Since I won about $50, that ended up being my only straddle of the day. It's better to quit while I'm ahead.

1:00 $284 - Nothing of interest happened. I'm heading to lunch at the Buffet.

1:30 $281 - I come back from lunch, posted my blinds, and folded to a raise. Three new faces came to the table.

2:00 $121 - Gambled with a Flush Draw against what turned out to be a Set. Ooops! I hit my Flush draw on the Turn, and he hit his Boat draw on the River.

2:30 $156 - Won a decent pot with KK in the BB.

3:00 $228 - Won a sweet pot on the Button with a semi-bluff.

3:30 $230 - Stabbed at a pot in the SB and took the little pot.

4:05 $247 - Cashout (-$53) due to Poker Room closing.

Since I had some time to kill, I headed in to the Pit to play some 3-Card Poker. I played for over an hour before losing my buy-in of $250. I was grinding it out for a while, but I just wasn't getting the cards this time.

5:20 - I head over towards the new Poker Room. There is a mob of 30 people waiting for the 6:00 opening. I grab a quick sandwich at a nearby cart, and wait for the opening.

5:40 - Security makes the now 50 person mob form a line towards the Buffet. I'm in the first half of the line.

5:45 - A "Suit" comes out and goes down the line telling everyone what the plan is for tonight. In honor of "Opening Night", Greektown is having a $100 + $0 tournament at 7pm. Yes, there is no juice for the house. They are expecting to be using all 13 tables for this tournament, so there will be no Cash games until a table breaks. Some of the players in line already knew about this, but it's all news to me.

This sucks for me. I have to work in the morning, and I can't stay until the tourney finishes at 2am. And since we probably won't see any Cash games until at least 8pm, there is no reason for me to be here. I decide to just wait, and check out the new room.

6:00 - Still standing in line. About 80-100 waiting patiently.

6:05 - The "Suits" come out, and the line starts moving. You have to go down some stairs to a level between the ground floor, and the upper floor where the old Poker Room and Buffet are located. You then go through a maze of four small rooms. Some of the rooms have couches and chairs. One of them is for the desk to sign up for a game. Another room is the cashier's cage and a little bar.

And then you finally get to the actual Poker Room. My very first impression was "Beautiful, but Small". It certainly looks better then the Dungeon that the old room was. There are new tables, or at least a new felt with a betting line. They also have snacks out (chips, cookies, fruit, and sandwich wraps), just like Motor City. I don't know if that is permanent, or just for Opening Night.

But it's not a big room. The tables seem to be a bit crammed together. With all these little rooms that you have to walk through to get to the Poker Room, couldn't they have knocked a wall down in order to made a bigger room. Or at least use two of the rooms, just like the original Poker Room.

So, after a quick look around, I left the Poker Room, went to my car, and headed home. Next time I'm in Detroit, I'll go back to Greektown to do a more detailed review of the new Poker Room.