Why does Encore Boston hate poker? (5 Viewers)

upNdown

Royal Flush
Joined
Aug 8, 2016
Messages
21,285
Reaction score
36,127
Location
boston
When Encore Boston first opened, it had the most amazing poker room I'd ever seen - 75 tables, luxurious and comfortable. It started out as cash games only, but they started adding tournaments then more tournaments, then bigger tournaments. Everything seemed perfect, especially knowing that it was all being run by a Vegas outfit that knew exactly what they were doing. Then covid came, and the room shut down in the spring of 2020, just like everywhere else.
Then in 2020 and 2021, all the poker rooms everywhere else reopened. Except Encore.
Finally, on February 1, 2022, we'll get what we've all been waiting for: Encore will reopen its poker room - 12 tables, monday through thursday, 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM

What a joke. This is a world class casino, with 200,000 square feet of gaming space, open 24 hours per day, and they're gonna give us 12 tables for the worst 40 hours of each week.
Like I said, this place is being run by a vegas outfit that knows what it's doing. The poker room was slamming, in it's brief heyday, so why was it okay then, but not now?
And to answer my own question of why, it's most likely because of parking. They don't have enough parking spaces, so they don't want poker players taking up the spaces of idiots who will dump their money into slot machines. I just don't see why they didn't see this coming, when they originally built the place with a glorious, giant poker room.

https://www.encorebostonharbor.com/hotel-information/casino
 
When Encore Boston first opened, it had the most amazing poker room I'd ever seen - 75 tables, luxurious and comfortable. It started out as cash games only, but they started adding tournaments then more tournaments, then bigger tournaments. Everything seemed perfect, especially knowing that it was all being run by a Vegas outfit that knew exactly what they were doing. Then covid came, and the room shut down in the spring of 2020, just like everywhere else.
Then in 2020 and 2021, all the poker rooms everywhere else reopened. Except Encore.
Finally, on February 1, 2022, we'll get what we've all been waiting for: Encore will reopen its poker room - 12 tables, monday through thursday, 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM

What a joke. This is a world class casino, with 200,000 square feet of gaming space, open 24 hours per day, and they're gonna give us 12 tables for the worst 40 hours of each week.
Like I said, this place is being run by a vegas outfit that knows what it's doing. The poker room was slamming, in it's brief heyday, so why was it okay then, but not now?
And to answer my own question of why, it's most likely because of parking. They don't have enough parking spaces, so they don't want poker players taking up the spaces of idiots who will dump their money into slot machines. I just don't see why they didn't see this coming, when they originally built the place with a glorious, giant poker room.

https://www.encorebostonharbor.com/hotel-information/casino
I'm certain it also has to do with the profitability. Because of COVID, they were given an excuse to replace the poker room with slot machines or table games which are infinitely more profitable. I'm pretty sure the only reason they have poker at all is because you need to offer it in order to be a 5 star resort AND it was a condition of their contract with the city of Everett.

Their timeline to decide what to do long term with poker ended at the end of December, so they clearly milked the COVID cow for as long as possible. Now they're bringing it back just to satisfy their contractual obligations with the city (I'm almost certain the min # in the contract detailed 12 tables) and they're doing it a way that is beneficial to them from a staffing standpoint.

Hopefully it comes back with a bit more force after it proves successful? I don't think you you'll ever see that poker room get bigger than 30-40 tables again, though.
 
Wynn has gone corporate. Steve was very good to his guests. Sucks.
 
Revenue and parking limitations

This casino never should have been put where it was. It’s a 5 star property next to a factory with a huge smokestack and a car dealership. It looks completely random given the neighborhood, traffic is fucking horrible, and parking is non-existent ($26-40 if you don’t blast off at table games).

Per the agreement with MA, they don’t have any shows so good luck keeping the SO occupied while you play.

The food and drink options are unconscionably expensive. $68 for a lobster roll? Fuck yourself.

I hated everything about the property except the poker room and the 6/12 mixed limit game.

At this point, I hope that casino just closes for everyone’s sake and they can use the license somewhere else where it’ll make universally more sense.
 
Wynn has gone corporate. Steve was very good to his guests. Sucks.
Steve Wynn got pushed out due to some allegations of sexual misconduct. If I remember correctly, the state of MA demanded that he be separated from the company if they wanted to move forward with licensing Boston Encore (after 80% of the construction was already complete).

There were also allegations of favoritism towards Wynn from the MA gaming license committee, and I believe at least 1 person resigned because of it.

Also, Revere didn’t want the casino and fought it - so it ended up in Everett - 500 feet from the Revere border, where Revere still has the traffic and safety concerns but now zero of the revenue.

Just a disaster from start to finish.

The one redeeming quality of the property is that last call in MA is 1:30, but it’s 4am at the casino, so you see 20-somethings literally falling down and vomiting on themselves in the lobby at 3a. Epic.
 
Traffics horrible I agree but they were trying to get it as close to the airport as possible since one of the main profit groups they were hoping for tourism/international clientele. Whomp whomp
 
Traffics horrible I agree but they were trying to get it as close to the airport as possible since one of the main profit groups they were hoping for tourism/international clientele. Whomp whomp
Ha yeah, this is just dumb. Who in their right mind is flying to visit Everett?
 
Steve Wynn got pushed out due to some allegations of sexual misconduct. If I remember correctly, the state of MA demanded that he be separated from the company if they wanted to move forward with licensing Boston Encore (after 80% of the construction was already complete).

There were also allegations of favoritism towards Wynn from the MA gaming license committee, and I believe at least 1 person resigned because of it.

Also, Revere didn’t want the casino and fought it - so it ended up in Everett - 500 feet from the Revere border, where Revere still has the traffic and safety concerns but now zero of the revenue.

Just a disaster from start to finish.

The one redeeming quality of the property is that last call in MA is 1:30, but it’s 4am at the casino, so you see 20-somethings literally falling down and vomiting on themselves in the lobby at 3a. Epic.
Yeah Steve got pushed out right as this project started / finished. But the poker room had his fingerprints all over it. Now they got rid of it, corp will have no intention bringing it back to full force. Steve would have.
 
Now they're bringing it back just to satisfy their contractual obligations with the city
its almost like they dont want it to be successful.

It's just a royal screwing to poker players, that there is some contractual intent for the casino to offer poker - if there is a contract, the casino is operating in bad faith. And since the state has only allowed for a couple of casino licenses, it's this or drive 3 hours to springfield? It's ridiculous. The state should allow a charitable exemption (like they have in NH, but only for poker rooms here) where somebody could open a poker room and give a percentage to charity. Even if it were the opposite of luxurious and comfortable, it would fill up as big as you could build it, with all the MA players who drive to NH or CT.
 
I'm certain it also has to do with the profitability. Because of COVID, they were given an excuse to replace the poker room with slot machines or table games which are infinitely more profitable. I'm pretty sure the only reason they have poker at all is because you need to offer it in order to be a 5 star resort AND it was a condition of their contract with the city of Everett.

Their timeline to decide what to do long term with poker ended at the end of December, so they clearly milked the COVID cow for as long as possible. Now they're bringing it back just to satisfy their contractual obligations with the city (I'm almost certain the min # in the contract detailed 12 tables) and they're doing it a way that is beneficial to them from a staffing standpoint.

Hopefully it comes back with a bit more force after it proves successful? I don't think you you'll ever see that poker room get bigger than 30-40 tables again, though.
Cactus Pete's (I know, it's not a fair comparison, but still valid to your point) had a 6-7 table room in a nook. At least 2-3 tables were full every night.

They proceeded to shut down the room and turned it into a High Roller Slot area, which is nearly empty all the time. I've never seen more then 1-2 people in it. And they make more money with that then Poker. Saddd.
 
Washington State does it right (at least I think?). Poker rooms at bowling alleys and in the back of convenience stores. IF they ever make poker an actual legal hobby here in VA (probably not), I hope this is the way they go.
 
Consider yourself lucky...
In Poland we are forced to go underground...
Even my regular club in Warsaw was forced to get rid of tables (BOTH), even it was considered to be "immortal"...
 
Revenue and parking limitations

This casino never should have been put where it was. It’s a 5 star property next to a factory with a huge smokestack and a car dealership. It looks completely random given the neighborhood, traffic is fucking horrible, and parking is non-existent ($26-40 if you don’t blast off at table games).

Per the agreement with MA, they don’t have any shows so good luck keeping the SO occupied while you play.

The food and drink options are unconscionably expensive. $68 for a lobster roll? Fuck yourself.

I hated everything about the property except the poker room and the 6/12 mixed limit game.

At this point, I hope that casino just closes for everyone’s sake and they can use the license somewhere else where it’ll make universally more sense.
Kraft tried to help get it built in Foxborough but the town wouldn't have it.
 
Kraft tried to help get it built in Foxborough but the town wouldn't have it.

that would have been amazing. instead we have some shitty slot parlor next door in plainville that i've still never set foot in, despite living 10 minutes away.
 
Also I'm sure they laid off all their dealers and now are short dealers which is another reason for the limited hours.
That has nothing to do with it. They opened poker back up under a tremendous amount of pressure from players (I was in their Facebook group for a while). The Commonwealth demanded they offer poker so they’re doing the absolute contractual minimum. That room will never, ever go back to anything remotely resembling what it briefly was.
 
that would have been amazing. instead we have some shitty slot parlor next door in plainville that i've still never set foot in, despite living 10 minutes away.
You must be pretty close to Twin River. I'm reading rumors that they're going to open some bigger, better poker room - maybe 50 tables? I'll keep my fingers crossed for that. I never played much there before, because it was only cash games, and only NL. But I think I'm giving up any hope for Encore and switching my hopes to twin river.
 
To be fair, this is true for all of the greater Boston area, not just the Encore.
I looked into public transportation there briefly when I was still living in MA.

You can take a train and a bus (or drive) to a spot where the Encore bus will pick you up. It’s under a bridge and dimly lit in a meh neighborhood - exactly where I want to be with $3500 on me.

This place is a well appointed dumpster fire. If the whales dry up that property will get sold for a massive loss.
 
Sure, just not sure how many casinos charge $40 for parking for the privilege of taking your money at the tables. How is that even sustainable?!
I wondered that, when they were initially charging at the garage. Like, a guy loses all his money at the tables and can't even afford to get his car out of the garage? I feel like that could happen a lot.
But whenever I played there, parking was free. At least for poker?
 
I wondered that, when they were initially charging at the garage. Like, a guy loses all his money at the tables and can't even afford to get his car out of the garage? I feel like that could happen a lot.
But whenever I played there, parking was free. At least for poker?
Yeah at some point they decided if you played at least an hour they would validate you in the poker room. Then parking was just completely free when they couldn't get people in the door.
 
Yeah at some point they decided if you played at least an hour they would validate you in the poker room. Then parking was just completely free when they couldn't get people in the door.
Right, I think I worried about validation the first couple of times I went, but after that it was just drive in drive out, no worries. But I went there on off hours so maybe it was different than weekends.
 

Create an account or login to comment

You must be a member in order to leave a comment

Create account

Create an account and join our community. It's easy!

Log in

Already have an account? Log in here.

Back
Top Bottom