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Mandalay Bay, a poker room known for its long list of unique rules, has decided to stop raking its poker games in fifty cent pieces as of midnight tonight, January 3rd, 2010.
Mandalay Bay is one of the few properties that have continued to drop the rake in fifty cent increments. Only a small handful of properties, including Bill's, Imperial Palace, and Planet Hollywood, continue to drop the rake to the half dollar.
In the past year, Mandalay has taken many steps toward mondernizing their very archaic rules system. Steps taken include allowing players to chop the blinds, allowing cel phone use at the table (in between hands), and doing away with fifty cent pieces.
However there are many rules/procedures still in place at Mandalay that continue to be unique:
1. The rake and jackpot rake are still dropped even if there is no flop (all top tier and most mid tier properties did away with this practice years ago).
2. The room does not use Genesis Bravo tableside tracking to allocate comps to players and instead relies on an index card filing system.
3. Dealers are not permitted to unjam a stuck automatic shuffler (according to Kay White, the room manager, this is to protect game integrity and to follow gaming regulations).
4. Dealers are not permitted to call out open seats (this is to keep the extraneous noise level at a minimum in the room and prevent noise clutter).
5. Players cannot buy the button (this is due to the lack of understanding that many tourist and recreational players have of the option).
6. All verbal action out of turn is binding (to protect angle shooting and game integrity).
7. Any chips that cross the betting line constitues a bet (to protect game integrity and prevent angle shooting).
8. Rake reductions are handled in a very strict manner. No reduction in rake can keep the jackpot drop. Normally, properties will reduce the rake to $1+ $1 or $2 + $1, but at Mandalay, any rake reduction whatsoever requires that the jackpot drop be taken out.
We at AVP are happy to see that the rules at Mandalay are adapting to the modern norm in the city, but there is still significant room for improvement.
After a long conversation with Ms. White, AVP learned that the tableside Genesis Bravo system has been requested by her several times over the past few years, and she hopes that approval for the system will be received soon. At the moment, the room uses Genesis Bravo's software to manage the room and the tournaments, but at this time does not have the hardware for tableside tracking installed.
To discuss the Mandalay Bay rules changes or the room in general, please see the Mandalay Bay dedicated poker room discussion thread located: HERE
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