While dealing the $20-$40 Omaha 8 or Better Kill game, somehow in a conversation between Jay and Double A, that really had nothing to do with Wynn’s place opening, Jay asked me if I was going to the ‘new place’ when it opened.

I said, “NO! This will be my last dealing job.”

“Why?”

I answered that I’d opened three poker rooms and never planned to open another one. The conversation jumped to, “How many rooms did you open? “Why wouldn’t you go to the new place?”

I didn’t go into the details, just stood firm with my statement that I didn’t want to open another place. But I do want to go into the details. I’ve heard the words ripple across the table more than once in the last year, “When the new place opens…this place will be a ghost town…I’ll be there playing and never come back here…” and I’ve heard dealers state that they can’t wait to make the move.

Why? What makes anyone think the games and the action and the treatment of players/dealers, etc. will be better at the ‘new place’? Yes…Steve Wynn is an excellent employer and is totally in to customer service but what will he provide that no other poker room provides? Free rake? Free food for everyone? Get real!

My thoughts are this: When a new room opens, it’s filled with mass confusion for the first year or so due to player’s demands and their efforts to make sure the room starts out the way they want it to…coupled with management not being quite sure where their boundaries are on how to handle players that get out of line, high limit players and their ‘rules don’t apply to me’, comp policies, game limits, dealers trying to figure out what/where they stand on reporting a player for bad behavior and getting backing from their supervisors, dealers that have no idea what they’re doing and don’t give customer service, cocktail servers expecting the world to just hand them money because they’re cute and don’t think they should have to work for a living, and all the other people and ingredients it takes to make up a poker room.

The bottom line is that at Bellagio, we have a well oiled machine that runs quite well. We have cut Dealer Abuse down to about 25% and we wouldn’t have that if all the dealers did their job and reported the problems. The management knows what/how/when to say ‘no’ and take charge of all situations…they aren’t skating around trying to figure out whose butt to kiss. Our cocktail servers, most of them, give great customer service and smile while they’re doing it, our regular players are there to play poker and know the ins and outs of the room and they help the game play and watch out for the well being of the game.

I don’t think anything is ever going to be better than Bellagio. We are the original hosts of the WPT. We have the action, in all limits. We have a good team of players and staff. We will still be there, poker galore, even after the ‘new place’ opens.

See you there!

P.S. If you are playing at Bellagio and find a way to improve the game/limit/room, make it a point to talk to a Supervisor and if nothing happens from that, find players that share your wants/wishes and make an appointment to talk to our Poker Room Manager. Sitting at a table complaining won’t get it done.