Anyone heard anything more about Rivers Schenectady poker? They don’t reply to queries.
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Rivers Casino & Resort (Schenectady, NY) (4 Viewers)
- Thread starter bentax1978
- Start date
OP
OP
I've been working on the assumption that they're not going to reopen the poker room, but that's mostly so that any other outcome will exceed my expectations.
Set the bar low
Forty4
Full House
The crazy part is they are no longer listed in Bravo. I wonder if they closed it for good. Seems unlikely as it was usually very busy, but maybe @bentax1978 is right.
OP
OP
I had heard rumors that they were closed for good, but I felt that was mostly just speculation on their part.
My concern is that while it was usually busy, poker still isn't hugely profitable for the casino. So at least while they're restricted and need to distance people at the slot machines, it seems like they would probably prefer to keep using that space for additional slots.
Forty4
Full House
I would think that removing themselves from Bravo is a solid indication that they are not interested in poker.I had heard rumors that they were closed for good, but I felt that was mostly just speculation on their part.
My concern is that while it was usually busy, poker still isn't hugely profitable for the casino. So at least while they're restricted and need to distance people at the slot machines, it seems like they would probably prefer to keep using that space for additional slots.
OP
OP
I tend to agree, at least in the short to medium term (I'm guessing at least the next 6 months).
Really sucks going from having a poker room less than 5 miles from my house to the next closest one being over 90 miles.
Possible that Bravo dropped them?
PlayerADK
Flush
I also heard rumors that they may close for good. Small poker room but nice. Not the best dealers - definitely room for improvement but I still enjoyed playing there when I was in the area. + I loved the chips!
One of the former floor managers told me he didn’t think Rivers would ever reopen the poker room. But that was 6+ months ago, and he didn’t specify why he thought that.
Re.: Dealers: It was never the greatest, but they lost a ton of their better dealers to Encore when it opened in Boston. After that it was pretty bad with a couple exceptions.
Re.: Dealers: It was never the greatest, but they lost a ton of their better dealers to Encore when it opened in Boston. After that it was pretty bad with a couple exceptions.
OP
OP
Agreed. Dealers ranged from decent to pretty bad, but I liked the room itself. Plus it's hard to beat being able to go from watching TV on my couch to a taking a seat at the poker table in 10 minutes flat.
I am more like 55 minutes away, so I was not there more than maybe 2-3 times a month. But it was good to have available. Would especially miss the bigger tournaments.
It seemed to me that Rivers Schenectady valued its “social” dealers more than its skilled ones. There was one in particular who was popular with male players because she flirted non-stop, but she made as much as one mistake per orbit. Sometimes more. Then would bark at you if you pointed it out. Misdeals galore; also painful to watch her try to chop a pot.
OP
OP
I'm 90% sure I know exactly who you're talking about lol
Forty4
Full House
is that because you liked the attention?
OP
OP
Ha! No, although it was entertaining watching players attempt to flirt back.
In terms of impact on my hourly rate, it was a mixed bag. Fewer hands per hours, lower hourly rate. More distracted players, higher hourly rate. Probably close to a wash in the end.
OP
OP
OP
OP
Forty4
Full House
Have you sent in your application?
OP
OP
Only downside is I assume I couldn’t play there too
But it would increase your poker hourly rate 400%
OP
OP
Somehow I doubt they’re paying out 500k salaries. Lol
Forty4
Full House
400x0=0. So you could say any percentage and it still wouldn’t make a difference.
The quality of dealers is likely to be rock-bottom when they first reopen. Rivers already lost a bunch of dealers to MGM Springfield and Encore pre-pandemic. I can only imagine the attrition in the past 18 months. Gonna be a ton of recent trainees with zero poker experience.
But I’ll go, LOL
But I’ll go, LOL
I had to kill four hours yesterday in Schenectady, N.Y. (don’t ask), and did so by playing 2/5 at Rivers. First time for me since before the pandemic. Some notes:
- Rivers is now spreading all poker tables 8 players max. Not sure why they did it, but it makes the tables far less crowded, and makes for better action. (It makes it a that much harder for a few players to fold all day long waiting for premiums. And Rivers tables typically have at least one guy like that.)
- Their RHC chips have become shockingly worn, especially the 1s and 5s. But even the 25s and 100s are becoming bicycle tires, and the Top Hat molds are starting to disappear. If they ever rebrand, these would not make good material for a @TheChipRoom sale... (Sorry, no pics.) Too bad, because I actually like their colors and spots pretty well, kind of conventional but decently done. Their lineup was posted by @bentax1978 in the OP at https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/rivers-casino-resort-schenectady-ny.18224/
- The 1/2 tables are all now 1/3 . I approve! But they did not increase the max buy-in, which is still $300. I disapprove!
- The gaming felt on all poker tables has been replaced with a sort of dull royal blue, I guess to match their logo. Previously it was a kind of blah blue-green as I recall. Doesn’t do much for me, but probably the old stuff was becoming greasy.
- I was the only one at my table wearing a mask, fwiw. A neighboring table had 2 of 8 players masked. No one gave me a hard time about my mask. People were much too busy trying to suss out whether the new waitress had an OnlyFans page. (She did. With very explicit pictures.)
- I ended +$200 on a $1K buy-in. Not too shabby, but not a huge score... 10BB/hour.
Last edited:
PlayerADK
Flush
Very interesting that their chips have worn down - they probably tried some extreme cleaning methods that ate away at the mold!
Their old felts were the "Poker Night in America" ones, not super surprised they decided to replace them but I don't remember them being in bad shape either! Really loved their $5 chips, most of their lineup is great. The IHC $500 are my favorite!
Normally I would agree, but the $1 and $5 chips are especially filthy. They don’t look like they have ever been cleaned.
Didn’t the PNIA felts come later, well after the launch? I thought that event was a couple years after Rivers opened.
LowerBama1714
Full House
I’ll take 3 racks of $1s when you get the chance….oh..,just saw how old this is. Never mind.
PlayerADK
Flush
Might be! I just remember that is what they had the last time I was there. And that's interesting about the filth!
FWIW, I also played recently at MGM Springfield (Mass.) which opened about 1.5 years after Rivers Schenectady. Their RHCs are similarly worn and filthy. Maybe even worse than at Rivers.
I asked the floor manager jokingly if they had ever cleaned the chips. He just laughed. He said the poker room doesn’t make enough for them ever to allow them to rent a cleaning machine.
I asked the floor manager jokingly if they had ever cleaned the chips. He just laughed. He said the poker room doesn’t make enough for them ever to allow them to rent a cleaning machine.
FWIW, Rivers has made some changes since the last time anyone posted here:
— No more 1/2, lowest stakes are 1/3
— Added a match-the-stack 2/3 game. When the table opens the max is $700
— Cash is spread 8-handed now, not 9
— The room managers are constantly tinkering with their high hand promotions and rake structures, so I’m not going to even bother describing the current scheme. These will change again in weeks or months.
As a result of this uncapped 2/3 thing, there are pretty much never any 2/5 tables going anymore. Verilli occasionally someone will try to organize a 5/10 game but it’s not anything you can count on.
Also it seems all the biggest rocks from the old 1/2 and 1/3 tables—the guys who get there at 10 am and play almost no hands—now squat in the 2/3 games. So at times it feels like you are playing in a shorthanded game, because 3-4 of the 8 seats are almost sitting out.
In general, I feel like this room is kind of dying a slow unrecognized death. The number of tables going on your average weeknight is small. Closes at 1-2 am, 3 am on Saturdays. You see the same regs over and over and over again. Anyone paying attention knows who the rocks and strong players and just avoids them. The only easy exploits are short-stackers/scared money, and even when you stack them its not for much… Very occasionally, some drunk table gamer, or one of the few visitors to the region stumbles in, but there is relatively little new blood.
The other open secret in the room is that there are tons of private games within 30 to 40 minutes of the casino. Some of these play very big, and have way more action than Rivers provides. I believe most of the dealers and the managers are well aware of these games, but if they initiated any sort of L.E. crackdown or banned anyone recruiting out of the casino, they would lose many of their regs and even some of their (moonlighting) dealers. The private game ecosystem is just yet another reason the room is stale.
Lastly, while they tried to run some much larger tournaments when the casino first opened, hosting these in their convention room, they have downsized the tourneys substantially; they occur in the poker room, and seldom attract more than 80-120 entries. When they do multiday tourneys, you can get as few as 40 entries per flight.
The broader problem is that the casino is pretty small, does not have very good food options, and is not really a destination for more than locals. Those seeking a bigger casino experience head to medium-sized places like Turning Stone, MGM Springfield, or Resorts World Catskills, or farther afield to Mohegan/Foxwoods or Borgata… Or just take a cheap flight to Vegas.
The state had a lot of misplaced hopes that rivers would help rejuvenate the city, which is pretty dismal except the small draw of Proctor’s Theatre. There is nothing to walk to from the casino… Few people who go to Rivers to gamble spend time in Schenectady, unless they already live there.
Overall, kind of sad. I go for tourneys occasionally, but if I want to play casino cash, the extra half hour to Springfield is a much better option.
— No more 1/2, lowest stakes are 1/3
— Added a match-the-stack 2/3 game. When the table opens the max is $700
— Cash is spread 8-handed now, not 9
— The room managers are constantly tinkering with their high hand promotions and rake structures, so I’m not going to even bother describing the current scheme. These will change again in weeks or months.
As a result of this uncapped 2/3 thing, there are pretty much never any 2/5 tables going anymore. Verilli occasionally someone will try to organize a 5/10 game but it’s not anything you can count on.
Also it seems all the biggest rocks from the old 1/2 and 1/3 tables—the guys who get there at 10 am and play almost no hands—now squat in the 2/3 games. So at times it feels like you are playing in a shorthanded game, because 3-4 of the 8 seats are almost sitting out.
In general, I feel like this room is kind of dying a slow unrecognized death. The number of tables going on your average weeknight is small. Closes at 1-2 am, 3 am on Saturdays. You see the same regs over and over and over again. Anyone paying attention knows who the rocks and strong players and just avoids them. The only easy exploits are short-stackers/scared money, and even when you stack them its not for much… Very occasionally, some drunk table gamer, or one of the few visitors to the region stumbles in, but there is relatively little new blood.
The other open secret in the room is that there are tons of private games within 30 to 40 minutes of the casino. Some of these play very big, and have way more action than Rivers provides. I believe most of the dealers and the managers are well aware of these games, but if they initiated any sort of L.E. crackdown or banned anyone recruiting out of the casino, they would lose many of their regs and even some of their (moonlighting) dealers. The private game ecosystem is just yet another reason the room is stale.
Lastly, while they tried to run some much larger tournaments when the casino first opened, hosting these in their convention room, they have downsized the tourneys substantially; they occur in the poker room, and seldom attract more than 80-120 entries. When they do multiday tourneys, you can get as few as 40 entries per flight.
The broader problem is that the casino is pretty small, does not have very good food options, and is not really a destination for more than locals. Those seeking a bigger casino experience head to medium-sized places like Turning Stone, MGM Springfield, or Resorts World Catskills, or farther afield to Mohegan/Foxwoods or Borgata… Or just take a cheap flight to Vegas.
The state had a lot of misplaced hopes that rivers would help rejuvenate the city, which is pretty dismal except the small draw of Proctor’s Theatre. There is nothing to walk to from the casino… Few people who go to Rivers to gamble spend time in Schenectady, unless they already live there.
Overall, kind of sad. I go for tourneys occasionally, but if I want to play casino cash, the extra half hour to Springfield is a much better option.
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