Grand Poker Series Schedule is here...

[GNJohn]

All good points and the answers are:

1. The $125 are 1pm and 9pm everyday starting June 6th; when the series is over on July 5th I may keep those going in the poker room now that it is expanded. With 8k in chips, 30 minute blinds and a great structure these are popular events.

2. There are several reasons for the start date of the series. As you can guees there is no perfect set of dates to encompass everythig we need to do. There are a ton of poker evenst in May/June/July and I simply cannot run a series to match all of those dates and though I was very mindful of those dates when scheduling I still had to do what is viewed best for The Grand Poker Series.
I have the Grand Event Center for about 5 weeks for the GPS and we wanted very much to host the Lederer Charity event on July 1st and also run the series through July 4th weekend. So that means i have to back the dates up form there and with the time needed to set up the facility that pretty much gave us the start date of June 6th.



Thanks again for the interest, feed back and support; hope to see you in June,

GNJohn

[AlaskaGal]

Hi GNJohn,

I played the LIPS event yesterday. I met you last year at the same event. After the event I commented here that there were some bad dealers. Well, I was really disappointed that this was the case again this year.

I played for about 7 hours and I can honestly say that I only saw 2 dealers that were worth having on your payroll. I saw 2 dealers that counted all in chip stacks one by one. And this was late in the tournament when the stacks were quite large. I saw 2 different dealers make mistakes on when to call a misdeal. I saw dealers make mistakes on side pots. One guy looked as if he had never dealt a game of poker in his life!

I don't know if the LIPS tournament got the 2nd string of dealers or what, but most of them were really bad. After playing for 5 hours and putting up with some of the lengthy hands (due to the dealers) I decided I needed a beer. I shocked that I had to pay for it. Again, I don't know if this was just the LIPS tournament, but if that's not the case, there is enough competition out there that I can go elsewhere and not have to pay for a beer or instruct a dealer how to do his job.

This is just meant to be constructive because I really do like your property. And I like that you take the time to post here. I am willing to overlook the beer thing but bad dealers I have a low tolerance for. I thought you would want my opinion. I hope the dealer issue is corrected because I know many players will be put off by this. Having quality staff is essential to the success of your tournament series.

[RG_4XM]

It's a shame that GNjohn doesn't keep up with this thread. All of us tournament players would like to hear what he has to say in regards to your comments. I am not suprised though. Last year he posted much in anticipation of the 1st Grand Poker Series on another large poker forum and as soon as it started he disappeared and didn't answer any more... I'm sure he must be terribly busy with running this series, but it would be nice to hear him answer some of your concerns.

GNjohn if you are out there, we would like to hear from you!

RG

[Grind House]

I too would like to hear a response to AG's dealer concerns. I'll be in town next week and on Wednesday the 17th I have to choose between GN's HORSE or Binions' Omaha 8. I'd rather play HORSE, but I KNOW that Binions dealers will know what they're doing. Tough call.

[Yappy Dave]

The dealer's were absolutely HORRIBLE. I had an innumerable amount of dealers that not only could not run a game, but could not even add up chip denominations. Being a rainbow better, I actually had to STOP rainbow betting because of the amount of times the dealer couldn't count how many chips I bet and I had to come out of the tank to correct him/her. It was atrocious. There is just no excuse for a tournament series to have such pathetic employees.

Not just were the dealer's bad. The FLOORMEN were bad, too. A major flaw in this tournament is doing a color-up in the middle of levels where players are not on break. I decided to help (and God knows they need as much help as they can get) and I bought up all the greens on my table. It ended up being a full rack and more. So when the floorman (who used to work at Luxor and was just as horrific there, too) comes over with his box of yellows (1k chips) he points to each STACK of my greens and says, "That's, 2,4,6,8,10,12,14-Four" 14,400. That's right. He thought I had FOURTEEN THOUSAND in greens. How idiotic must you be? That's SIX racks of green. Part of me wanted to just get up from the table and come back to see an undeserved amount of chips in front of me. But I am WAY too conscience to do something like that and I corrected him. Then I realized that he might be making this same error at every other table. Perhaps I was now losing out on this color up. I swear I played dealer, floorman, tournament director, AND player today. This is just unacceptable John.

Below, we have a picture of an all-in player's stack. This was after the dealer had counted it twice. Is there ANY logical grouping to these chips? This was taken right after the yellows were separated in stacks of 3 and 4. I wish I was joking.



The IQ of the dealers MUST be an average of 80. I had instances where I'd bet and it'd be announced as a "raise."

One player was all in in the big blind and it actually folded around to the small blind who almost mucked her hand. Sure, she's not paying attention, but the dealer should have instantly said to turn the cards over since there was no more betting. Instead, he just sat there like there was more action to come. Two other players had to tell the small blind that she just had to flip her cards over, which then ignited a response from several other players arguing the one-player-per-hand rule. The dealer sat there like he didn't speak English.

There is a rule that one can not be on their phone or texting when the last card hits the button player. Our faithful button kept on texting away while the dealer did nothing. Two players complained, nothing was done. A floorman walks by while the guy is STILL texting and the players ask him if he can be texting. The floorman says "no." They then have to ask if the guy's hand is dead. Of course, we get the "not this time" response. I HATE this response. When you announce something at the beginning of the tournament, ENFORCE THE DAMN RULE!!!

Once again, the only thing that brings me back to these awfully run tournaments are the player fields that have absolutely no skill and the structure which is by far the most amazing in Vegas this summer. Couple those two together, and Yappy Dave will be around all month long (as a dealer, floorman, AND player, of course.)

[geoffc]

Hi Dave

Thanks for the detailed post. I fly over from England next week and had pencilled in a few of the omaha hilo comps to get acclimatised. I find this a little worrying hearing that the dealers are not up to scratch. Hope they get this sorted and fast.

geoff

[talon1964]

Well that just made my decision of what to play easier. Was debating between next Wednesday's HORSE at GN or the Omaha 8/B at Binions...Looks like Binions will see me.

[zzjitterzz]

Ouch. Guess it's a good thing I won't be able to make it downtown this trip. From AG and Yappy's accounts, I could deal better - and I've never dealt professionally. Offer me a job! Lol

[mauihaole]

The dealers they use for the series are mostly break-in dealers, so this problem isn't likely to be fixed. Also, if they have a hard time dealing NLHE, then imagine what it'll be like for them dealing HORSE Prepare to see flops in stud/razz and don't even bother with omaha8 as they will screw that up.

[Grind House]

The dealers they use for the series are mostly break-in dealers, so this problem isn't likely to be fixed. Also, if they have a hard time dealing NLHE, then imagine what it'll be like for them dealing HORSE Prepare to see flops in stud/razz and don't even bother with omaha8 as they will screw that up.

This was the problem last year. The Grand is a terrific idea, great game line-up, nice room, but June is the one time when demand for experienced dealers definitely outstrips supply. Maybe they should shift the series to a time when it's the only thing going as opposed to one of five major series -- or at the very least give dinner comps and don't charge for beer! Come on GN, you've got competition!

My favorite dealer story from last year was during the HORSE tournament -- besides the predictable flops during stud games etc. -- when we had one dealer who basically gave up trying to read Omaha 8 hands and just let us do it.

[compuease]

This does not sound good, I had planned on playing the PLO on the 18th and the Seniors on the 20th. Now I've got to reconsider..... The question has also come up on another website re what is the juice on these. Are the $230's 200+30 or 190+40 as some have suggested. Is the $225's 200+25 or something else....?
GNJohn where are you?

[DayTripping]

The comments on here and 2+2 have been pretty brutal in general. The dealers seem to be the biggest problem. Also, just like last year, GNJohn posts a lot leading up to the tournament but once it begins he is nowhere to be found to answer the criticism. I was planning on playing in the Series at some point but now it's looking like Binions is the better choice.

[RG_4XM]

This is all very disappointing. I really think they would have got their [censored] together from the mess it was last year. I was willing to hold my tongue on last year and give John and the GN a chance to redeem themselves, but it appears that they may not have learned much other than creating a better structure. Ignoring these threads after being active in the pre-event promotion only makes things worse. Now this thread will snowball into unanswered complaints and criticism and will turn into a GN bashing thread.

John you need to speak up here and answer some of these concerns or it will certainly not be good for your business. This is bad for all of us.

I was intending on playing the HORSE event on 6/26, but then again there is a 6 handed NLHE event just across the street starting at the same time.

RG

[MDC777]

I played in the first tourney and you are charged for all alcoholic bevarages. A rum and coke was 5 bucks.

While I like the tournament paying for drinks makes no sense.


On a side note 2 people were out of the tourny in the first 10 minutes. How does that happen?

[implantclinics.com]

I say if GNJohn doesnt want to post answers dont let him post at all